Scheduling: Dental assisting

Have you ever had an appointment with your healthcare provider and once you arrived, you just had to wait? You might feel like you’re wasting your time, or you may start to feel anxious or frustrated. You might even lose confidence in the quality of care you’ll receive. As a dental assistant, you know effective patient scheduling is essential to a successful dental practice. You’ll use principles of effective patient scheduling to reduce patient waiting times, improve patient satisfaction, and enhance the dental team’s efficiency and productivity.

Now, there are some general scheduling guidelines that help with scheduling and patient flow in your dental office. First, you’ll ensure the types of patients seen each day are balanced throughout the workday. This supports the dental team by helping them to complete the day’s work with satisfaction and without undue hurry or stress. It’s also a good practice to avoid scheduling complex patient cases close together, and to factor in time needed to clean and disinfect the treatment area between patients. You’ll also use your knowledge of how long a typical appointment takes, so you can book the appropriate amount of time.

Also remember to include efficient use of the dentist’s downtime which can happen while waiting for an anesthetic to take effect after injection. Awareness of downtime provides the opportunity for the dental team to accomplish productive work like checking on another patient, or returning phone calls, while the dental assistant remains with the patient for safety.
Lastly, remember to let your patients know the average time their appointment will take. This will help manage the patient’s expectations and increase satisfaction in the care they receive.

Finally, more information is better when it comes to patient scheduling, and this includes insurance information, and patient information such as medical and dental history, current prescriptions, and treatment needs. For new patients, your office may choose to send forms for the patient to fill out electronically before the visit or ask the patient to arrive 15 minutes early to complete the forms.

Now that we’ve talked about some general scheduling guidelines, let’s review the different types of dental appointments you’ll be scheduling. Common types include appointments for recall patients; patients needing restorative treatments like fillings, crowns, and implants; new patients; emergency visits; and pediatric patients.

Recall appointments are for established patients who are scheduled for recurring oral health maintenance appointments. These appointments are focused on preventative care including periodic X-rays; prophylactic treatment with the dental hygienist; periodontal assessment; examination by the dentist; review of oral hygiene principles; and an update of any changes in the patient’s medical or dental health. These appointments generally take 45 to 60 minutes, though more time is often needed for patients with more complex dental health needs.

The time you’ll book for patients needing restorative treatments will depend on the type of work needed. For example, a single tooth filling can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes; while a patient needing a crown, which is a tooth-shaped cap that covers a damaged tooth, will need to be scheduled for a series of appointments of varying length. It’s best practice to schedule these recurring appointments on the same day and time each week to help the patient remember.

When it comes to new patients, more information is better for scheduling, and this includes insurance information, and patient information such as medical and dental history, current prescriptions, and treatment needs. Your office may choose to send forms for the patient to fill out electronically before the visit or ask the patient to arrive 15 minutes early to complete the forms in the dental office. Appointments for new patients should be scheduled as soon as possible after they request an appointment. These appointments require additional time so the dentist and hygienist can review the new patient information and perform the initial exam.