The Convergence of Specialized Practices and What it Means for Patient Quality of Care
By Hunter Dawson, DMD, MSD
As a prosthodontist, one of my biggest goals is to change dentistry by improving the quality of patient care on a large scale. The best way to approach this goal is to not only focus on the care I provide to patients myself, but on how I can support others in improving the care they provide. My commitment to this resulted in leading up to five study clubs simultaneously, participating in multiple county dental societies, and giving more than 50+ hours of clinical lectures yearly to hundreds of dental professionals.
Over the first few years of my career, it became very clear: specialists can accomplish great things together to change dentistry.
For decades, the dental specialties have existed as the terminal point of care for dental patients following referrals from general dental offices, the gatekeepers of the patient. The realization that specialists can be the leaders in comprehensive care and become the first contact for many patients with the direct- to-consumer and a specialist to specialist approach is now the clear path forward. Patients seeking oral healthcare, whether necessary or elective, have turned to Google and other direct to consumer channels to seek out the best care.
The BEST care is clearly provided by a multidisciplinary team of specialists, working hand in hand with a general practitioner, who can collectively and comprehensively provide the patient with a treatment plan that will result in better, more predictable outcomes.
For the patient seeking dental implant therapy, a synergy exists in a Prosthodontic and Surgical multidisciplinary team that results in an exceptional patient experience and superior patient outcome. For decades, the referral model that existed between individual specialty offices resulted in poor communication, hours of wasted and inefficient referral conversations, reactive patient care, and a loss of a comprehensive patient-centered approach to oral health care. These are just a few of the reasons the system is broken. The ability to provide comprehensive surgical and prosthetic care to a patient is the missing link to the stand-alone surgical practice.
“As an oral surgeon, I’m sure you’re tired of fighting these battles—start exploring the multidisciplinary options.”
The result of years of fighting this battle is the emerging progressive model where the specialist led patient care in multidisciplinary settings. Specifically, you’re seeing the trend of Oral Surgeons, Periodontists, and Prosthodontists forming multidisciplinary, patient-centered teams across the nation. The confidence, convenience, and superior efficiency of care that this model creates for the patients in this environment is exceptional.
This is the type of team that I have been very fortunate to be involved in creating for our patients, where they can experience the highest level of multidisciplinary synergy combining the surgical and prosthodontic specialties. By our team being contained under one umbrella, we can use cutting-edge technology to provide care to patients that present with extremely complex dental implant treatment situations such as zygomatic implants, a complex dentoalveolar situation, congenital defects, and trauma. We strive to be the regional leaders for full arch rehabilitation for this patient population. Our ability to provide this type of treatment predictably and safely in our AAAHC accredited outpatient operating rooms is what we feel provides the superior level of experience to the patient.
As an oral surgeon, I’m sure you’re tired of fighting these battles— start exploring the multidisciplinary options. We hope to see specialists return to being the leaders in patient care and stop falling subject to the frustrating, exhausting, and uphill battle of the traditional referral models.
Let’s change dentistry together.
Hunter Dawson
DMD, MSD
Dr. Dawson is a nationally recognized prosthodontist with special interest in full mouth implant reconstruction, guided implant surgery, complex implant rehabilitation, and digital dental technology. He practices in Charlotte, North Carolina.