I'm putting the final touches on a webinar I'm presenting tonight for Garrison Dental in the US, and it has brought back memories from when I owned my dental instrument company many years ago.

Between practising clinically across Ontario and BC, and seeing instruments arrive from thousands of dental offices for retipping, sharpening or replacement, I saw how much we struggle with getting and keeping good instruments in our hands.

Instruments that were dull. Misshapen. Sharpened down to little nubs. And dental hygienists trying their best to provide care with what they had.

These experiences helped shape the instrument management program I created.

Each practice started with a foundational setup of five cassettes with five instruments in each. Every few months, they would receive a shipment of maintained instruments, along with new instruments when needed. Once their shipment arrived, they would send their current instruments back to us for assessment, maintenance and replacement as needed. It gave practices an ongoing system for keeping good instruments in their hands.

Because having the right instruments is only part of the equation. We also need a plan to maintain them and recognize when it is time to replace them.

In 2023, LM Dental invited me to Finland along with 13 other dental professionals. During a workshop, we shared many of these same challenges. It became clear that this wasn't unique to Canada or the US. It was a global issue.

Why do we keep accepting this as part of our clinical day?

Imagine preparing for surgery and learning that the instruments your surgeon would be using were dull or worn beyond their useful life. Would you feel comfortable?

It is a question worth bringing back to our own operatories. When an instrument can no longer do what it was designed to do, we need to recognize that and take action.

Of course, the conversation often comes back to cost.

"We can't spend over $3,000 on instruments every 12 to 18 months."

I understand. That is a significant expense. But years ago, I started breaking that number down per patient, and it changed the conversation.

Let's look at a simple example.

Say you build five foundational cassettes with five instruments each, and three specialty cassettes with four instruments each. At $90 per instrument, that is an investment of $3,330 in instruments.

If one dental hygienist sees eight patients a day, four days a week, for 48 weeks, that is 1,536 patient visits a year.

That $3,330 investment spread across those visits works out to approximately $2.17 per patient visit.

If that same investment lasts 18 months, across the same schedule, it works out to approximately $1.45 per patient visit.

These are examples, of course. Your actual costs will depend on your schedule, the brand and instruments you choose, and your maintenance and replacement needs. This calculation covers the instruments themselves; cassettes, sharpening and other maintenance costs would need to be considered separately.

But it gives us a different starting point for the discussion.

And what are the hidden costs of continuing to work with instruments that need attention?

Think about the extra effort in your hands. The time spent trying to make an ineffective instrument work. The frustration of opening a cassette and finding that your favourite instrument is no longer usable.

And what about the patient in your chair? We need to consider how the condition of our instruments affects the thoroughness of our care and our patients' comfort.

The purchase price is visible. Some of the costs of working around worn instruments are easier to overlook.

This week, take a closer look at one of your cassettes.

Are the instruments ready to support the care you want to provide? Which need sharpening? Which need replacing? And do you have a plan or are you waiting until something becomes unusable?

You don't have to solve everything at once. Start by identifying what needs attention, then put some numbers beside it. A clear proposal is much easier to discuss than a general request for "new instruments."

If this sounds familiar, join me tonight for a complimentary webinar Instrument Strategy: Building a Smarter System for Selection, Management & Replacement, presented with Garrison Dental.

We'll explore how to assess your inventory, plan your cassettes and build a proactive approach to replacement and budgeting—so you can bring a practical plan back to your practice. Register Here!

Warmly,
Kathleen

Kathleen Bokrossy, RDH, BSc ~ President, rdhu

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