COVID-19 has presented practices with an array of challenges. But some doctors are also using the current moment as an opportunity to finally clear out crowded, cluttered and confusing inventory that takes up space and sucks up time.
“One of my buddies up in Seattle, Kevin Brown, he said that he calculated that he threw away more than $6,000 worth of expired composites and cements.” says Dr. Greg Gillespie, owner of Gillespie Dentistry in Vancouver, Wash. “Now I’m sure I threw away a lot too, but I didn’t have the heart to calculate how much it probably was.”
There’s a reason practices are purging their closets. Managing inventory, reordering part numbers, weeding out expired products — all these activities take precious time and resources that otherwise could be spent on caring for patients. With all the added sanitization and patient-safety tasks to complete during COVID-19, practices are even more pressed for time.
“There have been a lot of manufacturers who recognize this problem and they’ve been trying to simplify their product lines as well.”
So where to start streamlining inventory? For many practices, there is opportunity to declutter their restoration cabinet, specifically: bonding agents, composites and cements. To meet their patients’ varying restoration needs and accommodate their preferred restoration techniques, doctors often rely on a wide assortment of solutions that contribute to complicated, time-consuming inventory requirements.
For Dr. Gillespie and a growing number of his colleagues, Kerr’s Simplicity line has proven to be the ideal solution to their restoration inventory headaches. Just as the name suggests, Simplicity significantly simplifies the number of brands needed to perform virtually any type of restoration to just three: SimpliShade Universal Composite, OptiBond Universal Bond Agent, and Maxcem Elite/Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal Resin Cement. Together, these three brands do the work of a closet full of products. Let’s take a closer look at how.
Simplify with three shades
Ask yourself this: How many composite shades do you currently have in your inventory? Chances are, boxes and boxes of them. With Simplicity’s SimpliShade, doctors can reduce the number of composite products rattling around in those boxes. That’s because SimpliShade uses just three shades (Light, Medium and Dark) to match all 16 VITA classical shades.
“Kerr has done this with SimpliShade, right, they took all the shades that are in the VITA shade guide, and they simplified it down to three shades, Light, Medium and Dark,” says Dr. Gillespie, noting that when it comes to composites “I would love to have one that has three simple shades for essentially everything that I do.”
Dr. Scott Coleman, DDS, MAGD, agrees. “A practitioner has no way of knowing what to expect when a patient calls with a ‘broken tooth,’” he explains. “It is extremely helpful to have a simplistic way to restore the tooth immediately. Having a simple, quick process to restore the tooth either permanently or provisionally is essential.”
While providing a quick and cost-effective way to complete restorations, SimpliShade is also an effective way to reduce inventory requirements. With just three shades to meet most restoration needs, doctors will spend less time — and money — reordering parts, tossing expired products and managing inventory.
One adhesive, many procedures
Bonding agents are another key component for restorations — and a key source of inventory clutter. Depending on the type of restoration being performed and the technique being used, doctors may need multiple kinds of bonding agents to get the job done. Many bonding agents also require a slew of accessories which add to inventory requirements.
Not so with OptiBond Universal. Featuring a built-in GPDM monomer, OptiBond Universal offers excellent bond strength to all surfaces and substrates for indirect restorations. Whether using a self-etch, selective-etch, or total-etch bonding technique, OptiBond eliminates steps and reduces inventory requirements with a streamlined One Bottle System and one-coat application. What’s more, doctors can use OptiBond Universal to perform indirect procedures without the need for separate ceramic, saline or metal primers that add to inventory woes.
The only cement you’ll need
How many practices wish they could declutter their cement drawers? Rooting around for the right cement that works with the right bonding agent takes time and attention away from your patients. Simplicity solves this challenge as well, with a universal resin cement that can be used with any bonding agent.
Maxcem Elite and Maxcem Elite Chroma simplify inventory requirements while giving doctors the freedom and flexibility to stick with their preferred cementation technique. A self-adhesive resin cement, Maxcem Elite and Maxcem Elite Chroma can be also be used with any universal bonding agent. Which means doctors can reduce the number of cements they have rattling around in their drawers and rely on one solution to work with their bonding agent of choice — or with no bonding agent at all.
Simplified inventory requirement is among the most attractive benefits of a solution like Simplicity. But reducing inventory goes beyond simply decluttering a space, as Dr. Gillespie points out. “I love this idea of reducing your inventory to really just three simple products, your bonding agent, your composite, your cement,” he explains. “and then hopefully we can reduce the effects it has on our budget, the effect it has on our team’s confusion and the effect it has on us as clinicians trying to decide what to use.” To learn more about Simplicity’s inventory-reducing and workflow-streamlining features, visit go.kerrdental.com/simplicity.
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