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Safety and Security in the Dental Field through CRM

Situations in the dental office are somewhat similar to whatever’s happening in an aviation industry. Challenging moments arise and making mistakes or errors should at all cost be evaded. It matters to be precise and got good judgement as people’s lives can be put at risk with simple inconsistencies and missteps.

Different organizations or industries experience different challenges and specific field of expertise but they have things in common than expected. Dental facilities and airlines have a certain degree of similarity as they try to operate on the daily where the consequences of mistakes are potentially life threatening. Outcomes or results should always be in accordance to plan; thus, gets done or completed with few to no mistakes at all.

Try to imagine what it would be like to get a dental procedure done to you and a machine would fail or the dentist would pull out the wrong tooth. It can cause damage and adverse effects on you emotionally and physically. Same thing goes for airlines in the aviation industry. Treatment errors in the dental field is usually caused by system failures and not of human performances. Legal actions gets done to dental treatments that have gone wrong which encourage the dental community to tap the airline industries. This is why dentists arrived for the crew resource management or CRM. The method limits and diminishes incidents that lead to bad outcomes.

The pilots and dentists have a shared responsibility in their respective fields which is the safety and well-being of the passengers and their patients. Making sure that a flight or dental procedure goes smoothly is not a one man show. The expertise and skill-set needed in flying or doing medical procedures is needed to improve their team’s effort. The success of any organization lies on team effort. Cabin crew and other members of the airlines work together to make sure that each flight is safe, and the same goes for dental team in the dental facility.

Here are few points of how CRM help the dental field in making sure that personnel or the dental team work together. This is just like how airline industries operate to avoid human errors and adverse effects.

Team Training. This would minimize any potential mistakes as pre-treatment briefings would open concerns as team members would feel comfortable speaking about citing potential risks or problems.

Cross-Checking. Team members or personnel should notify other members or the dentist of their mistakes and offer assistance in a non-judgemental fashion. This avoids complacency and poor communication that can result to a poor description of possible complications on treatments or medical procedures.

Checklists and Guidelines. Dental facilities can create and follow a checklist that makes sure all the necessary steps gets done before and after any procedure or treatment.

Dentists, just like any other professional, can commit mistakes and it can result to a great expense. Encouraging and training the dental team to be more communicative and open lessens human error and help keep the patients safe.

Piercings and Oral Health Care

Many accessories have been used to adorn our bodies for aesthetic, cultural, and artistic purposes which dates back from many centuries. It has taken many forms and different historical practices often associate as means to self-expression, birth right, and a person’s transition to adulthood. The early forms of body modifications are piercings and tattoos.

Body piercings have been around for a very long time and is still gaining popularity especially on teenagers. It signified courage, purification, royalty, and many more. Today, piercings have become very common and is mostly done on the ears, tongue, belly button, and other parts of the body.

The pain, duration of healing, and the type of complications vary and depend onto where the piercing exists and other health factors. Piercings inside and around the mouth trigger several dental and oral consequences that dentists and hygienists would like you to take to consideration. Patients should act responsible because piercings might wreak havoc to the oral health. Here are some of the things to put into consideration or the obligations of people with piercings.

Keeping piercings clean. Cleaning your rings and piercings is considered one of the vital points when you get piercings. Saline solutions are effective cleansing agents that are available over the counter. You can warm the saline solution and swish or dab it in the pierced area for a few seconds twice or thrice every day. Mouthwash can also be used but the non-alcohol based is much preferable for smokers. Just be sure not to over use products. There is such a thing as over cleaning especially for people with new piercings. Cleaning the piercing site is one of the most important step in the healing process so as not to develop biofilm build-up on the tongue.

Piercings and dental hygiene appointment. Dentists and dental hygienist will be of great help in examining dental health status upon having the piercing. You need to regularly go on appointments and decrease the risk of having complications. Only professionals can give proper assessment and diagnosis of infections and other problems that can ensue after being pierced.

Daily Activities to Avoid. Infections can happen in your mouth especially when the piercing site is still healing. Bacteria can be introduced into the mouth by some of your regular habits, activities, and job every day. Patients with new piercings most likely skip some of their usual activities like swimming, applying make-up, and tanning. Harsh chemicals from pools, make-up, and tanning can irritate and cause infections on piercing sites.

Individuals who are contemplating on having their tongue, lips or cheeks pierced should research and weigh out the risks and the gains before having them. People with piercings require a lot of dental care routines to cover to prevent and avoid infections and other diseases from developing. Always talk to your dentists about symptoms and signs of irritation or inflammation if you are experiencing any to have it treated immediately.