Clearing Up Misconceptions
The challenges of working with adolescent dental patients become clear when you’re designing a practice. Kids have misconceptions about the dentist; they hear things from their siblings or kids at school that sometimes make them afraid to go to the dentist’s office. Therefore, doctors’ personal preferences for things like delivery systems or paint colors on the walls have to be let go of in favor of what helps put children at ease.
Dr. Ayala Rubio, who practices mainly with patients who are 10 years old and younger, stresses the need to view the dentist from a kid’s perspective. “They have to trust you in order to open themselves…We’re ‘invading’ their system. But once you collect their trust, they’ll show you everything,” she says. In order to calm their fears, the doctors explain the procedures and welcome the young patients to touch the equipment before it’s used.
In every step of the KidSmiles building process, the doctors’ concern for their patients’ comfort was apparent. From the physical construction of the practice and the operatory equipment to the interior design elements, the doctors and the Patterson team put the patients first.
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Led by the Patterson team and A-dec Territory Manager Dale Sarjeant, the doctors visited A-dec’s Newburg, Ore., facility. There, Dr. Lamboy and Dr. Ayala Rubio learned how A-dec constructs its equipment as well as how much care and planning go into every chair or cabinet.
The quality of the equipment is what impressed Dr. Lamboy. “We didn’t take any shortcuts on equipment. Everything is top-of-the-line because we bought it as a long-term investment,” he says. “I appreciate A-dec’s commitment to quality and want that in my office.”
The doctors outfitted their operatories with A-dec cabinetry, chairs, lights, stools and units. “The chair and cabinet have played the biggest role in enhancing my dentistry,” Dr. Ayala Rubio says. “We work with this equipment all of the time. There’s very easy access, it’s so effortless.” And it eliminates the fear factor for the kids: “Patients don’t see the equipment – it’s hidden behind them,” she says.
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