The common expression goes, ‘practice makes perfect’, and it certainly rings true in dentistry. As your clinical experience accumulates, you find better, enhanced ways to deliver patient care, learning from the mistakes you make along the way.
Establishing a routine workflow can be challenging as dentistry evolves – patient demands have become more complex, treatment options have broadened and the dental market is bustling with new products, materials and concepts. To deliver outstanding outcomes and reduce the risk of complications, professionals need to determine ways to improve their clinical protocols, finding a workflow that suits their capabilities to ensure it can be repeated with minimal challenges, and achieve favourable results every time.
Repetition is a form of learning, and is simply the act of doing something over and over, to commit to memory whatever it is that you are repeating. It is believed that repetition learning can enhance and maintain memory performance over time. A form of repetition, called ‘spaced repetition’ (meaning there are intervals present between training/learning sessions), has been found to support more robust memory formation, compared to massed repetition (no intervals between training/learning sessions). Within dentistry, the repetition of dental procedures is necessary to develop and enhance clinical ability and competency. Regarding restorative dentistry, there are many complexities within treatment whereby clinicians depend upon their theoretical knowledge and fine motor skills to deliver safe and successful outcomes for patients. Among the factors found to enable adequate motor skill development, repetition was noted alongside experience level and the type of task at hand.
Through mindful repetition, both skill and confidence can flourish as your abilities improve and become an inherent part of your competency. However, as you know, dentistry is not so simple as to allow professionals to easily develop a resolute way of working, that remains with them throughout their career. It is a complex vocation that continues to shift and change, with challenges arising with each new advancement. Patient care is always under scrutiny, in the same way that dental materials and solutions are always being tested and augmented. In light of this, how can clinicians establish a defined way of working, for improved predictability and success?
There are many aspects of dentistry where adaption is key – for example, the dawn of social media means the population is more informed now than ever before. With approximately 64 million people using the internet in the UK in 2022 alone, it is unsurprising that an increasing number of clinicians are having to tackle unrealistic or demanding patient expectations. Digitalised systems, new concepts and techniques and various societal shifts are also disrupting the profession, forcing the dental team to acclimatise themselves to unique challenges. As such, establishing a routine workflow is not straightforward, but it is important to do so to help reduce treatment complications and favour more predictable outcomes.
An optimised product selection can help to improve and streamline your workflow, giving you a dependable and repeatable foundation on which to deliver treatment. Once you have established a suitable arrangement of products and techniques, it will be easier to develop your own particular way of working. A simplified portfolio grants you peace of mind, as you are familiar with the solutions and confident in using them. You will know what is and is not achievable, facilitating improved patient communication and treatment planning. Material selection, a fundamental stage of your restorative workflow, should focus on products that offer you flexibility, high quality and ease of use. While there are many variables across the treatment pathway, a solid selection of products is controllable and can be tailored to your requirements.
Clinicians trust in 3M Oral Care for dental products that are easy to use and that always support predictable clinical outcomes. Their ethos is to support modern dental professionals with high-performance solutions that do not complicate their clinical processes, helping them make informed decisions with versatile products that are backed by science. The 3M Oral Care portfolio includes award-winning solutions like the RelyX Universal Resin Cement from 3M and Scotchbond Universal Plus Adhesive from 3M, in addition to a range of other products to support direct, indirect and preventative workflows.
Through repetition, clinicians can develop their abilities and make successful treatment more predictable. While dentistry is a challenging field, skills that become second nature will help clinicians continue to deliver exceptional patient care throughout their career.
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This article was first published by Stanley H. Kaplan in “The Probe”, May 2023 issue, page 30.
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