This is what DAN has done for dentists.
Our patient in her late 70s had a failing dentition. She was struggling to eat well with a partial denture and thought she might need to have upper and lower full dentures. She was worried about eating well with them, and was interested in implants, but normally uses her money to help other people. She was worried about spending so much on herself.
DAN helped her to listen back to the consultation again, this time with her trusted friend and accountant, who was then able to understand and support the patient in her decision-making. He was able to reassure her that the money could be found without detriment to her philanthropic projects, and the patient moved forward happily with her £30,000 case.
We had a very anxious patient whose feelings about being at the dentist made it more difficult for her to concentrate on the details of her options to make a good decision on the day.
Being able to listen back to the consultation with the support of her family around her, allowed her to make the right decision for herself and ultimately helped her to cope with an extraction for the first time without sedation, knowing it was the right decision for her.
Our days are already busy and then sometimes a few patients in a row need some extra help. Our team is stretched with all team and room resources in use, so I start with my next patient without a nurse as she continues to support another surgery.
I bring my next patient in on time and start the consultation session straight away. Using DAN, we can get straight into it knowing my record will be complete, accurate and contemporaneous because I have gained consent and started recording. My nurse is able to join us a few minutes into the session, and can pick up the written record from there. I can go back and confidently fill in the blanks at the start by listening back at 2x speed to make sure I have the detail, whilst still being time effective.
My patient is happy because they are seen on time.
My nurse is happy as she is able to complete her workflow before joining us in the consultation room.
Other patients are happy because we can calmly care for them, even if their appointment overruns.
The team is happy because we maintain our flow, even when a patient needs extra help.
We were in flow today. We had a few cases which needed X-rays and photographs and a few extra items of equipment from the stockroom.
The patient had consented to the audio recording at the beginning of the appointment. I was then able to share good quality information with the patients all the way through their visits, while taking the X-rays or while setting up for photos.
The patients asked good questions about their treatments and I was able to fill in the time with good information for them, secure in the knowledge that I was getting credit for all of the good work we were doing even when my nurse wasn’t in the room.
My nurse felt less stressed because she knew we had our record perfect, she just needed to fill in the standard written record requirements like normal.
My patients left happy and well informed about their dentistry, gave us a great review, and we felt as a team that we had really helped them and enjoyed our day too.
