LESS TIME WASTED, MORE TIME FOR THE PATIENT
Dr. Walter Rao’s dental practice in Pavia, consists in over 700 square meters, with two welcoming rooms, ten operating chairs and a teaching hall, all set up with the most advanced equipment and clinical instruments. Technology spreads everywhere, for example the doors, provided with contactless sensors, don’t need hand contact in order to be opened. There is also an internal messaging system that notifies the patients when the doctor is ready to receive them.
“In our dental practice, we focus on quality and efficiency,” says Dr. Rao. “We prefer having few patients per day, but providing them the best care, rather than having too many patients at once and being always in a rush. We have a sterilization room with the best equipment and three different lights, red, white and blue, which symbolize the right workflow of the process.”
The ergonomics, the environmental control and the infection prevention are essential in this clinic. Starting from the air filtration and purification system and from the hospital booties, compulsory for those who access the clinic, there are also rigorous standardized protocols that doctors and assistants follow without any unexpectable mistakes. In addition, the use of paper, such as the sterilization wrap, is almost eliminated in favour of the Hu-Friedy IMS Containers: the clinic is constantly working to be environmentally friendly.
“Having an efficient sterilization room with standardized procedures allows us to save precious time we can use for the patients,” adds Dr. Rao. “Our job is to maintain the natural teeth, trying to cure the damage we’ve been able to diagnose in time, but most of all we teach our patients to keep their health with accurate cleaning techniques, constantly underlining how significant the prevention is.”
The most important peculiarity of Studio Rao is the attention given to anxious and phobic patients, especially those with special needs, who fear the moment they are approached by the dentist for the treatment. In the studio, the staff is trained to prevent and control this kind of fear: everything begins with non-pharmacologic techniques, such as the breathing exercises. “A proper breathing is the first thing to keep in mind, especially when it comes to the phobic patients,” he says.
“I’m a certified free-diver and I train my staff to teach patients how to breath correctly. It’s really important that both adults and children trust us, and there’s always time for this. They are sweat, their hearts beat a lot, but with our work we are able to calm them down and to let them feel comfortable with us.”
People with disabilities are welcomed to Studio Rao, where they even have a relaxing room in which stressed patients can take a moment until they don’t feel overwhelmed anymore and they learn to be cooperative.
“We try to approach them as we do with everyone else, not just by sedating them. We have an emergency kit defibrillation and medicines, but we try to avoid this. Obviously, all our methods require more time than a quick intravenous anesthesia and sedation, but time is never wasted with a patient.”
Photo credits: Dr. Walter Rao
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