Seeking solutions, striking gold

Self-proclaimed dental course fanatic, Dr Simon Clavell-Bate, discovered DSD in his search for a solution to disjointed treatment planning for his comprehensive cases. Before DSD, he experienced significant challenges in integrating dental disciplines into cohesive treatment plans, which led to operational inefficiencies, increased costs due to redos, and stress due to the unpredictability of treatment outcomes.

Simon explains that he attended his first DSD course without any preconceptions and quickly realized that DSD offered solutions to his specific problems.

"It was a revelation to sit there and actually understand what it was...I knew then that I was going to be a DSD clinic. There was no question," he continues.

After his first DSD course, Simon took the following steps in his DSD journey

• DSD Aligners course

• DSD Team Consultancy in-clinic training

• DSD Mastership program to gain experience with comprehensive cases

• Certified DSD Clinic

Simon explains that his team dislikes it when he comes back from attending a course and wants to “change everything”, so he ensured they were thoroughly onboarded with the DSD Team Consultancy. Thanks to this two-day in-clinic training experience, they not only felt motivated about DSD but also had a clear understanding of how the DSD roles and workflows run like a smooth engine.

Enrolling in the DSD Mastership gave Simon the opportunity to perform a very special comprehensive case that he had aspired to do for many years. “I treated my stepfather. He'd lost a lot of his back teeth and then had worn down his front teeth and I just never really knew where to start,” he explains, describing the outcome with DSD’s interdisciplinary design, planning and guided dentistry as remarkable.

Being a well established clinic in the North of England, Simon took his time to carefully consider the commitment of the DSD Clinic contract. Becoming a certified DSD Clinic unlocked full access to the DSD Planning Center with additional benefits for him and his team. He has since transitioned to focusing entirely on delivering comprehensive cases with the support of his full time DSD coordinator.

“Every case that I do with DSD is the best case I have ever done, “ he says, adding “I enjoy my job miles more. It brings different stresses...but I love every day now. I never walk in and have 30 check-ups to sit through."

Game-changing impact

Simon describes how before DSD his comprehensive cases had an average of three remakes and were “a complete nightmare.” “It all comes back to cost,” he continues. “Every problem has a solution, but when you get a load of restorations that don’t fit or don't look right, then you have to dismantle everything, send it all back to the lab, pay for it to be replaced, book extra time, explain to the patient that there's been a problem, which is always an awkward conversation,” he elaborates.

This loss of time has a compound effect when this occurs more than once per case, equating to additional costs that go beyond the extra lab fees. “The whole team feels this pressure, right to the reception team who have to rebook the patient with my full diary,” he adds.

Fast forward to clinical life as a certified DSD Clinic and these scenarios are a thing of the past. With comprehensive cases designed and planned with 3D printed guides, an ideal fit the first time is guaranteed. The savings in time and costs are dramatic, in addition to the reduced stress.

Although Simon performed bisacryl mockups for veneers cases in the past, with DSD he has the benefit of the second appointment workflow to elevate his patient experience even further. “Everybody who has one walks out wowed,” he says.

“It's just a better way and then by doing everything guided you can actually deliver exactly what you're showing on your mock-up,” he adds.

Another area where DSD implementation had a dramatic impact on Simon’s clinic is with orthodontics. With a postgraduate diploma and background in fixed braces, he branched out into clear aligner therapy with Invisalign. “I did the two-day Invisalign course, which just isn't enough to learn how to use aligners. So I did a few minor cases and then I stopped because I didn't feel I had the experience to continue,” he explains.

He soon realized this was a limitation for the amount of restorative cases he could take on, as many needed ortho beforehand. “With fixed braces, you don't have as much control as you do over Invisalign. Nowadays, with DSD the quality of my final results is miles better because the foundations are miles better because I have all my Invisalign planning done with the restorative plan in mind,” he adds.

Another benefit Simon discovered in his DSD journey is the level of clinical support from the DSD Planning Center. “I work in a practice with younger dentists who haven't done as many courses and have less experience than me. If they run into a clinical challenge they can come to me to talk it through. But at the top of the pyramid in the practice, I didn't have anywhere to go,” he explains, adding that the interdisciplinary planning with DSD is like a comfort blanket.

"The biggest recommendation I can give is the clinical support that you get with DSD, because it's not something that’s widely available," he concludes.