Reach a decision on digital dental radiography (and calculate its bang for your buck)

One of my major decisions as a practice manager was helping my practice owner decide if a dedicated digital dental radiography unit was a good choice for us.

So, first things first-how did we know whether it made financial sense?

Take a look at these numbers, provided by Candice Hoerner, CVT, VTS (Dentistry), from Big Sky Veterinary Dentistry Education in Columbia Falls, Montana. It was part of a CVC talk titled "Getting Owners to Consent to Dentistry in Your Practice."

Run the numbers for your practice and see if it makes sense for you.

After discussing dental radiography with other Veterinary Hospital Managers Association members, distributors, our AAHA consultant and other practices, the practice owner and I decided we did want to bring dental radiology into our clinic.

The next decision was which company to use. After looking at several options, we chose the company with better customer support. After discussing the implementation of dental radiography with other clinics, I was convinced the biggest precursor to success with dental radiolograju would be excellent staff training.

After researching local CE opportunities, we decided to spend a little more and bring in Mary Berg, BS, RVT, RLATG, VTS (Dentistry), from Beyond the Crown and Gentle Care Animal Hospital in Lawrence, Kansas, to our clinic. She provided eight hours of training to technicians and assistants and three hours of training on nerve blocks and other dental techniques for our doctors.

Overall, our profit on dental procedures is up 20 percent over last year (over the same period in each respective year). We're treating more dental disease that would have gone undiagnosed without better dental imaging.

Editor's note: Think this service could be on the horizon for your practice? Check out the imaging products available on the dvm360 marketplace and the related links below for more information on why DR could be better for your patients, your clients and your bottom line.

dvm360, Firstline and Vetted will be publishing personal stories, in-the-trenches advice and bright practice management ideas in the coming months-all from entrants in the dvm360/VHMA Practice Manager of the Year contest. The finalists were announced at CVC Kansas City in August, and the Practice Manager of the Year will be announced at CVC San Diego in December.