I have tried hundreds of different apps both on the iPhone and the iPad trying to find the best apps for dentistry. I thought I would share the 10 apps I use pretty much everyday.
1) Flashair. Used to transfer photos from my Flashair SD card so that I can show patients their photos within seconds of taking them. 2) Google photo. I use this to manage and sort my photos into patient specific albums. 3) Adobe Photoshop express google photo has some basic editing capabilities but it cannot reverse mirror shots so I use this free version of Photoshop for this. 4) Adobe fill and sign. This is how I get patients to sign consent forms onto the iPad where they get saved as a PDF in iBooks. 5) Dental patient education. Such a great app for helping to explain certain conditions or treatments to patients. It has hundreds of high quality animations. I really like the RCT one, the perio one and the various ones showing different problems with the TMJ. The full app is expensive but there is a free mini version you can try first. 6) Google keep. This has recently taken over the duties of my "To Do list". I will explain it in my detail in my upcoming book review of "the productivity ninja". 7) Audible. I have gained so much knowledge and inspiration from the audiobooks I have been listening to on my commute. 8) Podcasts. When I have finished an audiobook or just want to listen to something different I choose a podcast instead. 9) Facebook. So many dental forums and knowledge to be gained via them. 10) Weebly. This was how I created my website and the app is useful for creating blog posts, tracking comments and number of visitors. So there you have the 10 apps I use practically everyday. I have lots of others that I use between once a week and once a year. Three other apps worth a mention are: 1) Adobe spark post. Another free offer by Adobe that allows you to simply overlay text on images. 2) I watermark. This is how I add my watermark to photos being posted on the forums. 3) google drive. How I store and share documents such as my new pt packs and consent forms. A link to my google drive can be found here: http://www.drchrisharper.co.uk/useful-resources.html If you have any particular favourite apps I would love to hear about them. When my diary gets fully booked to everything apart from emergencies up till Christmas this for me is the trigger that I use to start reflecting upon how the year has gone. I like to write down a list of changes that I have implemented in the past 12 months and consider what I want to do over the next year. I call this my Annual Review.
I like to try to keep this process positive rather than dwelling on the things that have not gone well. It is easy for time to march on and you so easily forget how many improvements you make but can instead so easily recall the problems you encountered. I try to separate this into a few different categories such as new materials I am using, new techniques I am employing, administration/non-clinical changes, and personal life situation. I won’t list everything but here are a few examples of things in my 2016 review: New Materials Bioclear matrices. Still in the early learning stages but quite liking these. Unodent heavy non-latex Rubber dam. 12 months ago rubber dam use was a very rare thing for me. Now I will not do RCT without it and I am starting to use it for other work too. Ivoclar stump shade guide. My demo model. I had it made as an early Christmas present to myself 12 months ago. I use it every single day. New techniques Heated composite. An absolute revelation. Steam cleaner. So useful for cleaning grubby dentures and ensuring indirect restorations are clean after try-in. Heated blanket for photography mirrors so they are always ready to go. Just makes it so much quicker to take some good photos. Administration/non clinical changes I think the big changes for me over the past 12 months have been in this area. I changed my diary to 20 min slots rather than 15 back in January. This has really allowed for more thorough exams and more time for higher quality treatments. Slowly getting away from the 35 pt days. OHI postcards. These have had a huge influence on how I give my OHI and is really showing results. Written New pt packs. Complex treatment consultation packs. Written consent forms. I now much more regularly refer work out e.g. complex endo. I feel much more comfortable stating to the pt when something looks beyond my capabilities and then offering solutions and as a result it means that I am doing more of the treatment I want rather than failing at work beyond my capabilities. I have done my first bit of paid teaching of some FDs. I really enjoyed this and have begun looking at other opportunities to do more. I have been involved in a local dental study club and have found this has helped to create better bonds with other local dentists in similar situations. And another big change is starting these rambles. Something that I find is a great way to focus my mind and make better use of my wasted time at work when pts DNA etc. Personal life We moved house just over 12 months ago so a lot of work this year has gone into getting settled in our new home and kids in a new school etc. I am taking much better care of myself now than I have in previous years. I used to be dehydrated almost every work day and not eat well while at work. I now do basic Tai Chi exercises at least 2 times a week to help relax my body and stretch out the back and shoulders. I now do short jogs a few times a week whereas for the past few years I have done no exercise at all. As I said this list is not exhaustive and it isn’t meant to be bragging in any way rather just an example of how many aspects of my life have changed in the past year. I would be interested to hear how other people reflect on how this year has gone for them. The year ahead Now having reflected on this year it is a good opportunity to consider what you want to do next year. This can be with small changes like those mentioned previously or can be relating to hitting certainly financial targets etc. In January 2017 my diary is being zoned so that most of my treatments will be booked in the morning and most of my exams are done in the afternoon. I will also have more time dedicated to emergencies and time specifically set aside for new patient exams. I have been meaning to try this for years and am quite looking forward to see how it works when we get there. I am going to spend a fair bit of time researching different air-abrasion systems that I know a lot of people on these forums use as I feel they may benefit my work. And I am going to be a lot more pro-active in looking for new job opportunities. Either closer to home (getting bored of my 45 minute commute) or with different prospects such as buying in to a practice or learning a lot from a very experienced clinician as I have decided I want to be doing a restorative diploma/masters at some point soon. When I posted this on the forums last year I thought people might not be that interested in it. How wrong was I! This sparked such a big response. Easily the biggest of any of my blog posts. In the first 24 hours alone over 500 people liked or commented on it. The debate was long and extensive so to take in all of it I would probably recommend heading over to D4D and requesting to join that forum (there is a link in the useful resources page) and searching for "rambles" which is how I labelled all my blog posts there. There have been quite a few posts recently about people being sued and proper consent for different procedures. I too have been contemplating this topic and decided to try to standardise my consent process by creating some standard dental procedure consent forms. Up till now the only signed consent I have been obtaining has been for photos. And in the last few months I have moved to doing that digitally by getting it signed directly on the iPad and then saving it as a PDF which I do via the adobe fill and sign app (here: https://appsto.re/gb/V_vO4.i). I really like this process because it means no printing, scanning and shredding and I also found that by wording the consent form carefully it actually made it easier to get formal photo consent because everything is laid out in order. So I searched on google for dental consent forms and was surprised to find a pretty poor selection available with most being so text heavy that I just couldn't imagine them being useful. So I widened my search to medical consent forms and found a template style that seemed to make more sense to me. It is pretty much this: 1) Explanation of the procedure and its intended benefits. 2) Expected complications from this procedure that occur almost every time. 3) Common complications/risks. 4) Rare complications/risks. 5) A statement pointing out that this procedure doesn't work every time and therefore what might be needed in the future. 6) Alternative treatment options. 7) Pt to sign confirming they understand this procedure and have had time to ask questions and are happy to proceed. Now I know this type of consent can't stop a pt making a formal complaint against you all the time but it might hopefully have some weight in that scenario. However for me I will be trialling it predominantly as a way to standardise my consent process so that I can ensure important points are not missed. There are some procedures that I have not created forms for yet because I don't do them (eg implants) and I might end up doing things differently for some situations. For example I have heard in the past of people getting pts to sign a "consent to ignore professional advice" form when pts choose to not have a procedure that you strongly advise them to. I will have to think about that. And obviously it is likely that over time my wording my need tweaking if pts routinely don't comprehend certain parts etc. I am very happy to take any comments about any of the wording if you think there are points that need adding or changing especially if you are a specialist in any of the fields. I am very happy for you to use these if you think they will be useful to you. They can be downloaded from my google drive here: https://drive.google.com/open… Since the first time I posted this I have also created "information sheets" corresponding to each consent form which are basically the same form but simplified slightly which some its seem to prefer. They too can be found on my googledrive. |
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August 2020
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