There are few dental companies which can provide a full dental wellness and vitality continuum to ensure both better health and aesthetic outcomes for patients. Here is why Philips is able to provide the full workflow.
Now, the company is encouraging dental practices to adopt the complete health and vitality continuum. Philips can provide them with the education, training and support they need to achieve this.
Oral fitness
The first step in every patient treatment workflow is ensuring their oral fitness. Without this preventive or remedial phase, dental professionals are ill advised to provide them with the restorative or cosmetic treatments they desire.
According to Dr Ben Atkins, adopting a traffic light triaging system would however encourage and incentivise even the most recalcitrant patients to adopt an improved oral health regime before they are eligible for the aesthetic treatments they have requested.
By taking a staged approach, it is possible to make a virtue of, and monetise a preventive oral health pathway which motivates patients, improves their oral fitness and achieves the long-term objective of their improved periodontal status.
After undergoing in-practice hygiene sessions, Dr Atkins advocates prescribing the use of powered oral cleaning tools such as Sonicare sonic toothbrushes and Philips’ new powered interproximal cleaning device, the Power Flosser, to help patients reach a higher level of periodontal health.
The clinically proven range is able to effectively reduce plaque and symptoms of periodontal inflammation including bleeding and pocket depth, compared with the use of manual toothbrushes and floss while being entirely safe on the teeth and gingiva. In addition, some brushes in the Sonicare range are connected with apps.
These help re-educate and refine patients’ cleaning techniques, thanks to their tracking and monitoring tools which encourage patients to adopt and maintain an effective routine. Philips can provide providing a free experiential Sonicare and free in-mouth trial kits with power handles, trial brush heads, and protective sleeves for practices to use with their patients.
Oral vitality
Once a patient’s oral health has been established, Philips can also provide practices with the training and tools to provide an effective and profitable tooth whitening service for their patients. Again, the company has a wide and flexible suite of products which enables practitioners to offer in-practice and at home whitening, or the gold standard combination of the two.
The ideal scenario is to kick start the whitening journey in practice with an hour of in-chair treatment using the Philips Zoom lamp, which gives patients an improvement in their colour level of up to seven shades. While this is taking place, at-home trays can be produced in-house following impression taking (although Philips also has a lab service available) and patients can then continue the whitening for two weeks using daytime or night-time versions of its at-home kits.
Another stand out of the Philips Zoom whitening range is the unique inclusion of Amorphous Calcium Phosphate (ACP) in the whitening gels which minimises the risk of patients’ tooth sensitivity and improves the lustre of the teeth, as well as elevating their level of whiteness.
So effective is the desensitising ACP gel that Philips has started offering it as a stand-alone sensitivity relief product following numerous clinician requests.
By adopting this benchmark oral health and oral vitality continuum, practices can also ensure the long-term success of their restorative treatments; preventing perio-implant complications for example, as well as ensuring extrinsic stain prevention by advocating maintenance and at home protocols. In doing so they can turn patients into loyal and vocal long-term fans.
Education series launch
Philips has launched a series of free educational webinars to help practices and their patients maximise Philips technologies both in practice and at home. Each webinar, available by request from [email protected], is enhanced General Dental Council (GDC) verifiable in the Category C and awards viewers with a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) certificate.
For any questions or queries, customers are advised to contact the Philips customer care team on 0800 0567 22, option 1, or via [email protected].
For more information please visit: www.philips.co.uk/dentalprofessional.
