A Look Inside a New-Generation Dental Practice

So much has changed since my last column in February 2014. At that time, I was a new dental school graduate working in a high-volume family practice. As an associate, I was able to do a great amount of dentistry and learn a lot about treatment planning and how to be highly efficient at managing my work day.

The practice was very successful but most of the equipment, procedures and dental theory used were dated—for instance, they used film radiographs and stored handwritten paper charts in huge file cabinets. And, like many established practices, the 60-year-old owner and his staff were very resistant to change and had no interest in adopting new technologies and techniques. To transform it into the type of modern practice I wanted to be involved in was going to be an expensive, uphill battle.

I decided to move on and, about a year ago, I joined Triple Crown Dentistry, the highly sophisticated practice my wife, Mary Kathryn Shields, opened in 2012. Since we know dentistry...