Videos

Dental practice coach Mike Massotto joins editorial director Noah Levine for 30 minutes of practice help and advice. In this episode, Mike and Noah discuss the impact of insurance in dental care. 

30 Minutes of Therapy - Episode 16 - Tackling the Insurance Elephant in the Room

Podcasts


On this episode of the ProdPod, I’m pleased to welcome Dr. Matthew Burton, founder of Burton Dental Innovations, with a practice in the greater Chicago area. Dr. Burton and I examine the state of matrix systems early in his career, why these systems caused frustration with his Class II restorations, and how these experiences lead him to design the VursaWedge. 

Episode 29: Matrices & the VursaWedge

has announced its launch of the ExactTaper

DC™, a new range of endodontic files. These files are said to offer flexibility while still maintaining the strength that is expected of an endodontic file. This range of files conserves dentin for a longer lasting restoration.

Because of the variety of sizes and lengths, practices will not have to change endodontic routine drastically, making the ease-of-use better and more efficient. ExactTaper

DC™ offers flexibility in its proprietary heat-treating process according to a press release from the company. Endodontic procedures can be done safely with minimal invasiveness for patients with this new file system.

SS White Dental's goal is to bring innovative endodontic dental products that conserve as much healthy tissue as possible to the market. The ExactTaper

DC™ is another step in delivering better patient outcomes and more innovation in the endodontic product space.

Articles

The ExactTaperHDC™ is a new endodontic file expansion that aims to offer flexibility, strength, and simplicity. 

SS White Dental Announces New Endodontic File Expansion ExactTaperHDC™

Kellie Nock is the assistant editor for Dental Products Report. She graduated from Kent State University in 2018 with a Bachelor's in Journalism. Kellie enjoys multimedia content creation with a focus on audio and video storytelling. 

Dentistry and science are intrinsically connected, so they benefit from the discoveries of one another. Scientific discoveries have made dentistry more advanced, not to mention a better experience for patients and clinicians. Here is a look at some of the scientific discoveries that may have, or have had, an impact on dentistry. 

Technologies

The future of dental technology is inherently entwined with the future of scientific discoveries. 

6 Technologies Where Scientific Discoveries and Dentistry Collide

Robert Elsenpeter is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Dental Products Report and Dental Lab Products. He is also the author of 18 technology books, including the award-winning Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line. As such, he’s particularly interested in the technological side of dentistry.

Pop quizzes are the bane of students. The fact that they are unannounced causes fear and anxiety for fear of being caught unaware. But it isn’t just teachers looking for opportunities to frighten students, there are good reasons to have those kinds of tests. Those periodic, surprise quizzes serve a constructive purpose. They show students where deficiencies may exist. The same strategy can help dental practices stay on top of their infection control efforts.

Jonathan Rudin, DDS, MS, MPH, is a safety and infection control consultant at San Diego Healthcare Compliance, and he observes that conducting spot checks can be useful from 2 points of view: They can both motivate and deter.

“Spot checks are a very good idea,” Dr Rudin says. “They are 2 forms of inspiration. One is as an incentive to create a safe environment to work in. And that is the actual intent of The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – to stay safe. OSHA does have an enforcement department that can impose fines and take legal action. However, OSHA’s overarching objective is toward the safety of employees. The other benefit of spot checks is to help avoid those fines and other legal action. This approach is like being a recruit in military boot camp with surprise spot checks. The recruits must always be ready by keeping everything up to par. So, I recommend creating a safe environment and maintaining it while avoiding OSHA and health department fines and other punitive actions.”

He adds that performing spot checks can provide the kickstart that some practices may need to begin complying with safety, including infection control policies and procedures.

“So many practices seem to be challenged with getting in shape in the first place,” Dr Rudin states. “I would liken it to beginning a physical fitness program where people start out in relatively poor shape. It can be difficult to motivate these practices to take that first step to implement all of the things to get in shape in the first place, much less have a maintenance program.”

An easy, effective tool as part of a spot check is simple record keeping. That is, maintain a checklist to eliminate the potential for forgetfulness and other errors.

“Keeping accurate records of adherence to safety protocols is an important way to maintain a consistently safe office.” Dr Rudin observes.

The CDC offers a free app for iOS and Android devices called DentalCheck. It allows the practice to create customized checklists that staff can use to ensure that they aren’t missing anything in the course of infection control efforts.

Checklists include the regular sorts of things that practices should do as a constant part of their infection control efforts. Even though some of those items are routine, they can be forgotten.

“Look through drawers and cabinets where sterilized instruments are stored to ensure that any torn or damaged pouches are removed and re-sterilized,” Mary Bartlett, President SafeLink Consulting advises. “Also, check the external and internal indicators on pouches to ensure that the color has changed to indicate sterilization.

“Spore culture monitoring is a weekly task,” she continues. “If the person who usually does that monitoring is out for more than a week, an alternate person should be designated. This is such an important part of ensuring that the sterilization process is effective. I recommend that a record of the date the monitoring was performed be documented on a log and the results received from the testing lab are matched with the internal records.”

A checklist that she recommends includes:

Observe staff cleaning and disinfecting treatment rooms to ensure that adequate steps are being taken to remove contamination.

Infection control training is required by OSHA upon hire, when job tasks change, and annually. New hires should be trained immediately and that training needs to be documented. Check training records to ensure that this training and any future training such as the annual training has been performed.

OSHA requires that the Exposure Control Plan be reviewed and updated, as needed, annually. Document that review.

Ensure that all employees who work with potentially infectious items have been offered the Hepatitis B vaccine. If a staff member accepts the vaccine, then make certain that the series has been completed and documented.

If an exposure incident occurs and the employee agrees to evaluation and follow-up, ensure that the timeframe established by the healthcare professional administering the evaluation is being followed. This can include additional testing for HIV, Hep B, and Hep C a number of months after the exposure.

A number of steps are involved in waterline safety for the lines in the treatment rooms. If bottled water is installed on the dental unit, then ensure that the water is being changed daily and a chemical is used in the water. Also, shocking of the lines leading from the water supply to the air/water syringe, handpieces, and Cavitron should be performed at a minimum monthly. The actual testing of the waterlines is typically recommended to be performed quarterly.

Sharps containers show a “fill” line so check to see that they are not being over-filled.

In some states, biohazard waste must not remain in the practice beyond a certain period of time, so someone should check to ensure that it is being picked up or disposed of on a timely basis.

Anesthetic carpules and needles contain an expiration date. Check drawers where these are usually stored to ensure that they are not beyond expiration.

Dates for changing the solution in the ultrasonic equipment should be noted and adhered to.

Autoclave maintenance must be performed on a regular basis. Keeping logs to ensure that this maintenance has been performed will help to document that it is being performed.

It’s not often that a cold sterilant is used, but if it is, it usually has a time period between changes. Mark a date on the container and ensure that the solution is being changed according to that date.

Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) have gotten better, however, a good inventory needs to be maintained so establish a minimum inventory and check it to ensure there’s adequate inventory at all times.

Observe the donning and doffing of PPE to ensure it is correct to prevent cross-contamination.

Ensure that employees are wearing the PPE that has been determined the best protection by the dentist and are wearing it correctly.

Observe recapping techniques to ensure that the method and/or mechanical device is being used correctly to prevent needle sticks.

For protection from COVID-19, practices should continue to perform employee, patient, and visitor screening. Ensure that this screening is taking place.

Ensure that single-use devices are discarded after one use and are not used on more than one patient.

“In 2016, the CDC published the Summary of Prevention Practices in Dental Settings as a guide of basic infection prevention recommendations,” Bartlett says. “A recommendation was the assignment of at least 1 individual trained in infection prevention to be responsible for coordinating the program.Monthly monitoring helps recognize where improvements are needed rather than waiting for a year between reviews.The Infection Prevention Checklist provided with this Summary as Appendix A is an excellent tool to use to develop a checklist for the spot checks.”

Spot checks can identify a broad spectrum of safety issues. Dr Rudin is rarely surprised by the things that he observes when he performs his own inspections.

“For example, if a practice has more than one autoclave, they should indicate on each sterilization pouch two critical bits of information: the autoclave it was processed in and the date of processing,” Dr Rudin says. “I often see pouches that do not indicate what date they were processed on and in which autoclave. The reason that identifying both the autoclave and date of processing is important is so that a failed spore test -- the gold standard for testing autoclave function -- will enable the practice to pull all instruments out of circulation that had been processed in the failed autoclave.”

Spot checks don’t supplant implementation of safety protocols and infection control efforts. Their use should is part of the process.

“It may be difficult to limit your spot check to just a few aspects of your safety practices. To cope with a large number of areas to check, consider breaking down the overall task by region and do a 20-minute check on just that area. Then the next day you would spend 20 minutes on another area.”

Spot checks need not be long, laborious procedures. Something that’s both achievable and consistent is best.

“I think the important thing is to do safety spot checks on both a consistent and sustainable basis,” Dr Rudin observes. “If it’s small bites at the apple, so to speak, that’s sustainable. It’s not a huge burden. A busy practice doesn’t want to close down while somebody is going through for an hour to do a comprehensive inspection. Spending 20 minutes a day, going region by region when time permits would help keep people on their toes.”

Spot checks aren’t ‘Gotcha!’ opportunities. Rather, they can help the practice improve its safety measures and lesson its chances for sanctions when inspectors come through.

Safety checks and pop quizzes can help a practice stay updated and informed on proper infection control protocol. 

Ensuring Safety and Compliance Through Dental Practice Spot Checks

A single look down a residential street on trash day can reveal just how finicky waste disposal can be. One might think, “Well, it’s all trash. Just put it all in one can”. But that’s rarely the case. Regular trash goes in 1 can, recycling in another, and yard waste in a third. And it gets even more complex in municipalities that require recycling to be sorted by plastics, glass, and paper. Even then, you can’t recycle all paper. In some places, pizza boxes, for instance, can’t be recycled. Those go in the regular trash. Most of us seem to have learned those rules (more or less), but it becomes a more complex issue when waste from medical facilities gets involved – and, unfortunately, those specifics may be confusing.

Regulated waste is the type of waste that The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is concerned with and dictates how it should be handled. Unfortunately, sometimes the difference is misunderstood.

“What I’m noticing is that I don’t think people understand totally know what regulated waste is,” Lisa Kane, DMD, Dental Consultant at Dental Office Compliance of New England says. “Regulated waste is waste that is a risk of causing an infection to someone who handles it. That is, anything that if you squeezed, blood or saliva would leak out, and obviously, all sharps. Lately, I’ve also seen a lot of people putting more things in the regulated waste container than need to go there.

“Things that are not blood soaked and oozing, A drop of blood on a piece of paper is not regulated waste,” Dr Kane continues. “That’s just regular trash. Things that just have a dab of something on it are not regulated waste.

Why would disposing of everything as if it were regulated waste be an issue? There are several reasons that it’s not a good idea.

“The biggest thing that I see is because people are always complaining about how much money it costs to get rid of their medical waste,” Dr Kane says. “It costs a lot of money to remove your medical waste. If your containers are filled with things that are not medical waste, you are paying more than necessary.”

Regulated waste guidelines are included in OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogen Standard. The standard explains how practices should manage contaminated material (including needles) to avoid worker exposure.

“Part of that exposure control plan is a section called ‘Housekeeping’, and the housekeeping refers to regulated medical waste and the types of containers that need to be used,” Karen Daw, 'The OSHA Lady,' speaker and consultant, observes. “OSHA’s language says that it has to be closable, constructed to contain all the contents and prevent leakage, labeled appropriately, color coded, and then closed prior to removal to prevent spillage of the contents during handling. So, this is taken to mean something that is solid and rigid on the side, raised, and has a lid on it, and it’s going to be labeled with the biohazard symbol on it.”

But those containers aren’t just applicable to sharps.

“Your standard dental office sharps container meets that criteria,” she continues. “What I don’t think a lot of people think about, though for example, is what about the personal protective equipment (PPE) that’s laundered on site? Are we placing it into a standard hamper that we have at home that has holes in it, or are we placing that in a solid rigid container with the lid and then is color coded or labeled appropriately? So, I tell offices that a tall kitchen waste can is solid and rigid. It has a lid and a little foot pedal, so you don’t have to touch it. You slap a biohazard sticker on it, and it meets the definition of the appropriate OSHA container for potentially biohazardous PPE like those scrub jackets that might be considered biohazardous if it meets the criteria. And let’s not forget our instrument transport containers. I hear often that the instrument cassette is used to transport the contaminated sharps (instruments) and I have to explain those cassettes need to be placed into a container that meets the requirements.”

And while the rules apply across-the-board for every practice, each practice must have its own plan in place to dispose of regulated waste.

“With OSHA, under the Bloodborne Pathogen Standard, regulated waste disposal, as part of their exposure control plan, is specific and unique to that location,” Daw says. “So, if they bought one of those ready-made OSHA manuals and then just stuck it on a shelf somewhere – maybe they didn’t even bother to remove the shrink wrap – they’re technically in noncompliance, because the exposure control plan portion of their OSHA manual needs to be reviewed annually, or whenever there’s been an update, and the entire team needs to be familiar with it.”

Like the recycling example earlier, the practice’s waste has to be sorted and handled appropriately. That is, the paper trash from the front office is handled in a separate area than amalgam and chemicals from the clinical areas are handled. Manufacturers can explain how those items are disposed.

“You have to look at the safety data sheets (SDS),” Dr Kane says. “Every hazardous chemical in your office has an SDS. You should refer to that when trying to decide how to dispose of something. You have a separate amalgam waste container, and it’s not considered the same as regulated waste. So, if you had a tooth with amalgam in it, or you had a pile of amalgam, that’s not the same biohazard waste as your sharps container. That would go into the amalgam waste container.”

“When you introduce a chemical into the workplace, you must review the contents of the SDS with the team,” Daw adds. “And if offices were doing that, they would know that on the SDS, there is a section pertaining to hazardous waste disposal and its appropriate disposal. One of the common things that they ask me is. ‘How do I properly dispose of this fluoride varnish?’ Or, ‘How do I appropriately dispose of acid etch?’ I always have to refer them back to SDS. If the SDS didn’t state it, they should contact the manufacturer. The manufacturer would clarify it for them. If you’re ever concerned about how to appropriately dispose of something, go straight to the manufacturer.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and OSHA have standards for handling dental waste. However, states, counties, and municipalities have their own rules and requirements to which practices must adhere.

“OSHA’s bloodborne pathogen standard gives us the federal standards for regulating medical waste, but we also have to look at your local township,” Daw observes. “For example, in the state of Ohio, small waste generators are allowed to dispose of regulated medical waste in the solid waste stream if they follow all the criteria. If you’re a small waste generator and you’re not generating more than 50 pounds of biological waste in any given month, they can technically put it in their trash. But, I do know of some offices that practice in specific cities and townships where that is not acceptable. So, for any business, it would behoove them to comply with not just what those federal and state rules are, but also what does their city say about disposing of certain types of waste so that they don’t get in trouble?”

Practices might not look forward to dealing with multiple levels of regulatory bodies, but not to worry: Although it is a requirement, it is not overly taxing.

“It’s not super cumbersome,” Dr Kane observes. “It’s not some crazy rule that you have to do all these things in order to be in compliance. These are common-sense safety rules. If you take care of your sharps and your medical waste correctly, then the risk is immensely reduced. If you’re putting sharps appropriately in sharps containers and transporting them safely into the big red biohazard box, the risk is reduced. All of the OSHA Regulations are there to protect you, and you should follow them to reduce your risk and your fellow team members.”

There are certain rules and regulations for the type of waste disposal that your practice will have to adhere to. 

Best Practices for Waste Disposal in a Dental Practice

Cellerant Consulting Group, which has offered the “Cellerant Best of Class Technology Awards” since 2009, has announced the launch of the “Cellerant Best of Class Hygiene Award.” CEO of Cellerant and the founder of the Best of Class Technology Awards Lou Shuman, DMD, said in a press release that this award was introduced as a way to recognize the importance of the hygiene community.

“Since first adding a hygiene division to Cellerant Consulting two years ago, the interest in dental hygiene products, services and brands has exploded, with much growth anticipated in the future,” Dr Shuman said in the press release. “We’re proud to have brought together an expert selection panel of dental hygienists recognized as industry leaders from across the country.”

The “Cellerant Best of Class Hygiene Award” panel with consist of 9 leaders and educators in the hygiene field. Together, this panel will do research on technologies that can change and launch practices forward into the future. After deliberation, the panel will choose the finalists on a non-profit basis.

National Mobile & Teledentistry Conference

Pamela Maragliano-Munez, RDH, DMD, FACP-

Tufts University School of Dental Medicine

American Mobile & Teledentistry Alliance

Proctor & Gamble’s Excellence in Patient Communication Award; 

Massachusetts Dental Society Hygienist of the Year; 

Middlesex Community College Member of the Year

Panelists will not vote in any category in which they have consulting relationships. The winners of the “Cellerant Best of Class Hygiene Award” will be announced in December later this year.

This award was made to recognize the importance of the hygiene community in dentistry. 

Cellerant to Introduce Best of Class Hygiene Award 

Dental practice coach Mike Massotto joins editorial director Noah Levine for 30 minutes of practice help and advice. In this episode, Mike and Noah continue their discussion from last week about how to sell patients on the care they need. 

30 Minutes of Therapy - Episode 15 - How to Get a Patient to Commit to the Care They Need

The employer-based dental care leader Onsite Dental has acquired HENRY the Dentist, or HENRY for short. HENRY is a venture-backed mobile dental firm that has complementary delivery models, marketing and branding experience, and clientele. HENRY will also offer an east coast presence for Onsite Dental.

This acquisition was done in an effort to make oral health care more accessible to people, according to a press release from Onsite Dental. Onsite health services can be offered to a variety of different organizations, employers, universities, and more.

Ern Blackwelder is the CEO of Onsite Dental. He said it’s all about accessibility for as many people as they can reach.

"At its core, the Onsite Dental experience is about making the highest quality dental care and patient experience more readily accessible," Blackwelder said in a press release. "We are very excited about adding HENRY's outstanding team and their many capabilities that will enable us to expand and improve our services more rapidly for our clients nationwide."

Between Onsite’s technology and patient portal and HENRY’s expertise, this acquisition is said to be able to help a wide range of patients across the United States who are looking for high quality oral health care.

This acquisition will deliver high quality oral health care to patients all across North America. 

Onsite Dental Acquires HENRY The Dentist

Technology solutions company Simplifeye has expanded its technology suite or healthcare practices. The company’s new Invite technology is an artificial technology (AI) powered tool that is designed to create customized and automated outreach to fill practices’ schedules with ideal patients with open treatment plans.

Simplifeye Invite offers ample appointments resulting from its ability to match patients with incomplete treatments to openings in a practice schedule, filling unexpected gaps due to cancellations. It also can segment by procedure, insurance coverage, last treatment date, and more options to help identify priority patients.

Text-to-schedule and email appointment invites right to patients, providing a direct link for patients to schedule then and there. It’s designed to increase conversion of planned treatments to scheduled appointments and simplify scheduling and reactivation of patients combined with increased case acceptance and revenue.

The Invite platform streamlines patient scheduling and reactiviation.

Simplifeye Expands Technology Suite With Invite Platform

Vivos Therapeutics, Inc., has announced the opening of “The Vivos Institute” training center in Denver, Colorado. The facility will offer education programs to dentists, dental teams, and healthcare providers who have already graduated.

Vivos Therapeutic’s mission is to focus on new diagnostic technology and treatment modalities for patients who have to deal with sleep-disordered breathing. Kirk Huntsman is the Chairman and CEO.

“Part of our mission is to spread the word about obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) among healthcare professionals who can help treat it. This new facility can accommodate 300 to 400 healthcare professionals a day, which not only significantly increase our clinical training capacity but also enables us to leverage the technology that we’ve built into the center to provide the highest quality training for dentists all over the country and the world,” Huntsman said in a press release.

Independents dentists can receive training necessary to bolster their knowledge of OSA so as to better serve patients and deliver the best outcomes. The facility was able to open because of donations from various dental and medical supply companies

This Institute will supplement dental post-grads who wish to aid their patients with sleep-disordered breathing. 

Vivos Therapeutics Opens International Training Center in Denver

Planmeca USA has launched its partnership with The Modern Optimized Dentistry (MOD) Institute. This partnership was created as a mean to offer clinicians evidence-based education.

The MOD Institute is a relatively new organization and was founded by Wally Renne, DMD. Dr Renne founded the Institute to create a space where learning about digital dentistry and CAD/CAM was not intimidating, according to a press release from the companies. Attendees at the MOD Institute can utilize courses that will now use the CAD/CAM and imaging technology that Planmeca USA is known for.

Jody Rodney is the Vice President of Marketing and Education at Planmeca USA said in a press release that partnering up with The MOD Institute was a no-brainer.

"Partnering with the MOD Institute makes so much sense from our perspective," Rodney said in the press release. "We provide initial training and education for our customers on both of our imaging and CAD/CAM products. Then, when the clinician is ready, they can advance their skills through courses held at the MOD Institute. It reinforces our mission to deliver better care through innovation, and the MOD Institute becomes an extension of the Planmeca experience."

Classes will begin in November of this year.

This partnership will allow clinicians to supplement their CAD/CAM and digital imaging education with non-intimidating, user-friendly courses. 

Planmeca USA Teams Up with The MOD Institute to Offer Education

Designed for the ultrafast production of additively manufactured thermoformed dental models, dental removable dies, and other dental model applications, Nexa3D’s new xMODEL 2505 rigid beige color material powered by BASF Forward AM is now commercially available.

xMODEL 2505 printed on Nexa3D’s NXD 200 3D printer is said to deliver higher print accuracy that brings the total cost per model down for dental prosthetics manufacturers by reducing their printing, post-processing, and fitting time. This new dental model material requires no finishing detergents, as the printed models can simply be washed with water.

The collaboration between Nexa3D—the maker of ultrafast polymer 3D printers—and BASF Forward AM leverages their combined capabilities to deliver faster additively manufactured dental solutions for dental labs leveraging the 20X productivity advantage of its ultrafast NXD 200 dental 3D printer. No other manufacturing process offers as many possibilities for faster dental lab model fulfillment, according to the manufacturer.

Combining Nexa3D’s productivity with Forward AM’s tailor-made materials makes it possible for dental labs to optimize their dental model production, taking advantage of a material that delivers robust processing and optimal model accuracy and detail.

“Our extended partnership with Nexa3D enables us to develop a broad range of photopolymers for the most lucrative and fastest-growing segment in digital dentistry,” explains Francois Minec, managing director, BASF 3D Printing Solutions. “Together, we plan to deliver an expanded materials library across Nexa3D’s rapidly growing portfolio of photoplastics (SLA) and thermoplastics (QLS) for the benefit of our customers around the globe.”

“For dental labs and prosthetics manufacturers that are competing for higher share, based on service levels, fast just got faster thanks to BASF’s new generation of dental materials,” says Kevin McAlea, COO of Nexa3D.

Both companies are committed to democratizing access to additively manufactured dental, industrial and consumer products at scale. With NXD 200 dental printers’ 20X productivity gains, and up to 85 percent lower total cost of ownership, dental labs can now access higher productivity, better functionality, and exceptional cost effectiveness, McAlea adds.

BASF 3D Printing Solutions GmbH is headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, and focuses on establishing and expanding the business under the Forward AM brand with advanced materials, system solutions, components, and services in the field of 3D printing. Nexa3D’s photoplastic printers are powered by its proprietary Lubricant Sublayer Photo-curing (LSPc) and its thermoplastic printers are powered by Quantum Laser Sintering(QLS).

xMODEL 2505 rigid beige color material makes it possible for dental labs to optimize their dental model production by taking advantage of a material that delivers robust processing and optimal model accuracy and detail.

New Nexa3D Material for Dental Prosthetics Is Powered by BASF Forward AM

Minneapolis-based software company SRS Web Solutions, Inc, has launched Insurance Verification as part of its cloud-based mConsent suite. mConsent is a technology platform that includes digital patient intake forms, patient scheduling, 2-way text appointment reminders, video consults, secure digital billing, and payments. It now also includes insurance verification, allowing practices to verify insurance independent of server-based software from any location. This is particularly useful to multi-office dental practices.

Manual insurance verification can be inefficient, time-consuming, and costly. When not automated, it can create a burden for administrative teams in the dental practice. mConsent Insurance Verification is designed to streamline this process by providing comprehensive verification details on demand that optimize practice efficiency, productivity, and revenue.

Simple errors in insurance information can cause delays. Every component of mConsent is designed to minimize these errors while increasing practice efficiency. The platform is currently integrated with more than 178 insurance payers, including major PPO and Medicare providers while continuously adding new payers. In addition, mConsent is said to easily integrate with Dentrix, Dentrix Enterprise, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, athenahealth, and other practice management software.

Patients are able to complete insurance forms ahead of their appointment from anywhere with mConsent’s web-based platform. This is said to decrease the time a patient is in the waiting room completing paper forms.

The company's mConsent platform now has the ability to streamline insurance verification from any location. 

SRS Web Solutions, Inc Introduces Digital Insurance Verification Platform

The ADA Dental Experience and Research Exchange is an oral health clinic data warehouse launched by the ADA. It is now available for practices that use the Open Dental 19.3 and up practice management software.

Practices that have Open Dental practice management software will be able to utilize reports that aggregate practice data from one another, according to a press release from the ADA. This data can then be used to deliver better patient outcomes across practices. Randall Markarian, DMD, is the chair of the ADA Council on Dental Benefit Programs.

“We are excited about launching this new program because we think it will connect participating dentists across the country to deliver data that can help make a difference to dental practices and patients,” Dr Markarian said in the press release.

Open Dental was the first practice management software company to participate in the clinical data warehouse, but the ADA is hoping to integrate more software systems down the line. The hope is to speed up data communications and to advance clinical evidence bases.

With more time and more software added, the ADA Dental Experience and Research Exchange is an initiative that hopes to create a fully fleshed-out database that can be used by clinicians to deliver the best treatment patterns and outcomes.

The ADA Dental Experience and Research Exchange aims to create a database where clinicians can enrich their knowledge of treatment patterns and ultimately lead to better patient outcomes. 

Vivos Therapeutics Opens International Training Center in Denver

Planmeca USA Teams Up with The MOD Institute to Offer Education

New Nexa3D Material for Dental Prosthetics Is Powered by BASF Forward AM

SRS Web Solutions, Inc Introduces Digital Insurance Verification Platform

ADA Launches the ADA Dental Experience and Research Exchange Clinical Data Warehouse