5 tips for practice productivity; amalgam use; do you have a detailed operating budget?

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

Have you thought about how your supply and exam rooms are organized? Is your practice wasting time looking for supplies? By keeping supply and exam rooms neatly organized, your staff will be more efficient. This is just one of five tips that Allen Crow of Easy Dental outlines that can help eliminate stress and help your practice become more productive.

As the CEO of your practice, you need to have a clear picture of its financial status and performance. You should also exercise fiscal discipline to ensure that your expenditures are cost-effective and that as much production as possible is converted into income. In other words, you need to create a comprehensive, detailed operating budget -- and abide by it, according to Dr. Roger P. Levin.

In a final opinion on dental amalgam, a European Commission scientific committee has concluded that alternative materials to dental amalgam should be the first choice for certain restorations, such as those in pregnant patients and primary teeth. Read more here.

Dr. Micah Weisenberg graduated from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry on May 14, but unlike many of his colleagues, he will not just be practicing right after school. Instead, the newly minted Dr. Weisenberg will also focus on creating a device that could modernize how dentures are made. Read Assistant Editor Theresa Pablos' article here.

I'd like to thank everyone at the American Association of Orthodontists and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry for helping us last week at those annual sessions.