A New Year for Your Practice

It's that time again, when a fresh start to the year has many looking for a fresh start in their lives. Resolutions to end bad habits and undertake beneficial new ones abound. It's a good thing that you plan to finally start that daily exercise routine, but what about your practice?

As you reflect on yourself, it's also a good time to reflect on your practice. Does it have any "bad habits" that it needs to quit? What sorts of new "routines" could it benefit from? Many dentists spend time all year round thinking about what they could be doing differently, but the beginning of a new year is the perfect time to more actively engage in strategic planning.

Perhaps your current level of production requires a rethink of your staffing ratio or scheduling process to alleviate the stress on your team, or maybe your purchasing decisions have resulted in an out-of-control inventory that could benefit from better product selection.

In addition to fixing your practice's bad habits, this can be a great opportunity to pick up some new good ones. For example, you may have been thinking about adding a new service line or updating your protocols in a way that requires the acquisition of new technology. This is the perfect time to commit by creating a plan and timeline for its adoption and implementation.

To help you in your assessment of your practice, Inside Dentistry has compiled data from a variety of sources, including an extensive survey of our readership, that provide statistics and trends on aspects of dentistry such as clinical treatments, purchasing patterns, business models, and more. Check out this month's feature, "Trends in Dentistry," and benchmark your practice against those of your peers. It will certainly give you a better idea of where you stand in the profession, and hopefully, it will serve as a catalyst to inspire you to make some positive changes and take your practice to the next level.

Other articles in the January 2019 issue include a CE addressing the use of nonsurgical root canal therapy as part of a larger, multidisciplinary strategy to treat maxillary sinusitis of endodontic origin and an article discussing biomimetic tooth repair utilizing tissue-specific materials in a stratified approach.

Here at Inside Dentistry, we hope this will be a wonderful new year for your practice. And as your trusted resource, our resolution is to continue to bring you the latest and greatest content to support your ongoing efforts.

Robert C. Margeas, DDS
Editor-in-Chief, Inside Dentistry
Private Practice, Des Moines, Iowa
Adjunct Professor
Department of Operative Dentistry
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
rmargeas_eic@aegiscomm.com