Know Your Flow: Prophylaxis

You're listening to The Dr. Phil Klein Dental Podcast Welcome to the show. I'm Dr. Phil Klein. Today, we'll be discussing prophylactic treatments in the dental workflow. Our guest is Dr. Kelly Tanner, a visionary leader who helps dental teams achieve personal and career growth. Dr. Tanner has earned both an RDH and PhD. She lectures extensively and has impacted more than 100,000 people with her speaking engagements. Before we get started, I would like to thank our sponsor, Action Group. Action is a leader in the dental industry based on its technical innovations in x-ray and digital imaging, high-frequency ultrasonic technology, pharmaceuticals, and precision instruments. So thank you, Action, for your continued support with Viva Learning CE webinars and podcasts. Dr. Tanner, it's a pleasure to have you on Dental Talk. Thank you for having me back. So to begin, let's talk about prophylactic treatments. How have they basically changed in the last 10 years? Oh, my gosh. Well, one thing we know is job security will always be ours, right? And things have just changed over, I think, the last five years, much less the 10 years. And I've been in dentistry for, gosh, 30 years now. It's wild to think that. I think that what's been at the center of it is, of course, what's best for the patient. But what we have learned so much about is the oral microbiome, the role of biofilm. I don't know about you, but back when I was in school, we just called it plaque. For sure. And then we learned that all these communities of all these microbes like congregated and went off into other areas of the body, which I think that we all probably suspected even before they changed a lot of the protocols and knew that our diabetic patients were. that were more predisposed to delayed wound healing and that there was something that was going on between the mouth and their diabetes and vice versa. So just learning those connections and how to set that patient up for success and how we treat it. The patient's role in biofilm control. our role in biofilm control, how we're treating it, not just treating it, meaning removing it, but how we get ahead of it in our prevention strategy. So I think that all of those things have been at the forefront of what we're learning and what we continue to learn about how the body reacts to it. So you do a lot of speaking and you often use the term, know your flow. What do you actually mean by that? That's a great question. Think about your flow when you get up in the morning. We all have habits. You know, we get up. I know mine is I get up, I stumble into the kitchen and turn on my coffee pot. I make my advocate spark. I go in, I meditate. You know, we all have our own habits. So what are your habits that you have, good or bad, that you have in your day-to-day practice? And is that truly serving you and your patients? So when you think about your flow and your habits, because your habits form. your actions and your actions form your results based on the goals that you're setting. Are you truly doing what you think you're doing at the end of every day? So when you set those goals up and you say, okay, I'm going to give the best standard of care for my patient. I'm going to exceed all their expectations. What does that look like for you? So when you have a patient who is, I'm going to go behavioral for a second, a patient maybe who doesn't understand the context or something or a very complex treatment plan. How are you getting ahead of that? How are you giving them something they don't even know that they want yet? So knowing your flow and that you're exceeding patient expectations from a behavioral standpoint, communication, your team. as well and what are you choosing in your operatory that's going to wow them that's going to wow the patient keep them coming back that's going to eliminate patient turnover team turnover so it's the whole thing about knowing your flow but then you know going down in a more granular granular level of devices and knowing what it is that you're choosing that complements the next step in your habits not having to get up pull a drawer open that you know automatically that's a system that for this type of patient i always use this this is our protocol do you have your piezo do you have your gbt do you have your air and go do you have your isovac do you you know do you have everything you need And does everybody who supports you in that practice, do they know what you use? Because knowing the flow is also about the handoff that occurs in the practice. Is everyone speaking the same language? Because you all know that people need to hear things probably seven times, I think is what the research tells us. And when you start saying it differently to the patient, they have this amnesia that happens from. the operatory to the front desk, and then it translates into that they don't schedule the appointment, which is probably one of our biggest missed opportunities for that patient because you spent all this time educating. Now they don't understand you because we've told them different things that mean the same thing. And then they go up and they're so, there may not be sure of it all of a sudden because they've heard different things. And is that something that we did? You know, I always ask myself if it's something, if it's a thing that the patient didn't schedule, is it something I did? And what did I do to miss the point of communication? So it's not, knowing your float isn't. only from a technology standpoint. It does include technology, but how the whole team is truly interacting to give that patient the wow experience before they ever come in. And the term workflow is also used quite often in your speaking engagements. How does that work directly with Know Your Flow? Oh, sure. So workflow. so let's back up for a second and we talk about our handoffs in the practice i'll talk about it from a communication standpoint then i'll translate it into what i mean probably in a lot of the presentations i talk about from a technology standpoint that type of workflow so from a dental handoff standpoint As a hygienist, when doctor comes in, before doctor comes in, I have images up. I have a 3D scanner set up with my eye tarot. I have that set up. I have it zoomed in on something. I'll have probably something written down on the bracket tray, and I'll have a pamphlet that's set out for that patient. When doctor comes in, doctor knows that because of those three things that are sitting out right there, that he or she should probably talk about them. That's part of it. unsaid, unspoken handoff, like passing of the baton. We do this millions of times a day in our team. So that is like a nonverbal handoff workflow. How you translate that into an actual operatory workflow is, does one thing automatically lead into another? Is it right at your fingertips? Do you have it ready for you? So if you know that you disclose the patient, before you're doing a procedure, before you're using your Air & Go, before you're using your ultrasonic, do you have it right there? Is it the best product for you that's going to give you something? Because, for example. For example, if your office has a perio protocol that wants to truly call out and educate on the color of, and I'm making this scenario up, but I'm telling you it's in many offices, who want to illuminate and contrast the color of the tissue for gingivitis patients and periodontitis patients versus a healthy patient. There is, like for Action has a... an intraoral camera called the SoProCare that has two settings. It has a daylight setting and it has a perio setting. So on the perio setting, it's just like a little touch. And any inflammation in the mouth, it shows up, it jumps off the screen magenta because it's showing that extra blood flow that's going to that area. So whatever it is that you're honing in on in your practice, is your device helping you tell that story? Is your device helping you get to that end point of care to make the point, to make the value proposition to that patient? Because ultimately what you're wanting them to do is you're giving them autonomy to make the decisions that they need to make for themselves. So are you doing that in your workflow? Are you choosing the things that are seamless, that hand off one thing to the next by what you're using in those decisions? Yeah. And that silent communication between the hygienist and the dentist is so important because you don't really want to talk a lot in front of the patient. You certainly don't want to have any kind of like, are you sure? Or, you know, questionable statements where there's a loss of confidence in the patient's mind about what's going on and they're listening because there's nothing else for them to do. So this silent handoff is very professional, and it just makes the environment stress-free as the doctor comes in and sees the patient. I know you have a podcast program, right, called Dental Handoff? Is that the name of it? Yes, it's called the Dental Handoff, and you can find it on Google, Alexa, all the things. Probably my device is going to cut on now as I'm speaking, but you just say play the Dental Handoff, and it will. It's about communication, leadership, and people's stories about the gems and knowledge that they have learned how to empower their teams and their environment. What are the new trends that dental hygienists should be on the lookout for in their workflow? This is a great question. I think when we're looking at the patient holistically, because we know about that oral systemic connection, we've been talking about it for a long time now. How are we setting that patient up for the best healing, the best response, whether it be what we're doing before, like with probiotic treatment? What are we doing from a saliva? Are we testing saliva based on what it is that you want to do in your office? Can't do everything. So we have to pick and choose. Sometimes can't be the master of everything in your office for that one appointment. You could bring them back for other appointments, but. What are you eventually trying to get that patient to and through? How are you educating them about this? What do you want to measure for goals to understand that behavioral change that you're making? You're helping that patient. You're leading them through that journey to manage their response to that disease process. or to schedule because they have a filling that needs to be done or crown whatever it is to give them that autonomy so managing that patient response protecting the the clinician in every aspect from an infection control i think standpoint and then also ergonomics what's gonna what's gonna give you like when i talk about workflow it's like what do you have to not reach for as much because you're using it for every patient so all of these trends on patient management, that communication in their workflow. Are you saying what you think that you're saying? And is it relaying across to that patient? So they're getting it. So they're scheduling. So you've stressed that urgency of care. So they know that it's not just a little bit of bleeding. It's not just a little bit of recession. There's bleeding. There's gum disease. And what they know is the problem that you have found, the consequence for if they don't take action and what the solution is. I call it the PCS model. So what it is that you can help them understand through this and help them through to give them the best outcomes truly. It was interesting when you talked about know your flow about getting up in the morning. In the morning when I get up, I don't have much of a choice. I have to let my two cats out and I have to feed them. They must be fed first. And then the coffee starts. Because if I start with the coffee, they're looking at me like, are you kidding me? You have to feed me first. Yeah. So they control the household here. You've heard that before. Yes, I have. Why we have cats. I mean, they're great animals. I love them. But sometimes you got to question why we have cats. But anyway, thank you so much. I think you did a great job on this podcast and the other two that you did. And for those of you who don't know, Dr. Tanner did a great one on implant maintenance. You can watch that on VivaLearning.com or also Spotify, Google, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your podcasts. She also did another one with us called Know Your Flow Infection Control. This was the third episode of a three-part series. The one you're listening to now is Know Your Flow Prophylaxis. And again, if you could tell our audience, Dr. Tanner, where they could find more information about you and some of the things you're doing. Absolutely. Thank you. If you have more questions that's beyond this podcast, absolutely contact me, drkellytanner.com. And then also too on nextleveldentalhygiene.com. I have courses, online courses. We also offer live courses for dental hygienists and team members. We have a... Leadership, the five essential leadership courses on communication, overcoming conflict, knowing how to know where your true north is, how you know you're serving your why in the practice. So a lot of cool compilation of a lot of different products and topics. And if you have any questions that you've thought about, please reach out. Love to talk to you. Thank you again, Dr. Tanner. See you next time. Thank you. Take care. Thank you.