Jan Weaver

	After implementing the Zirc Color Method, one clinician saw significant time savings in her practice.

Dr. Tanya Brown was already sold on Zirc’s colorful Mr. Thirsty isolation products and mouth mirrors when she decided to give the Zirc Color Method a try. As the name would suggest, the Color Method uses color to organize the procedural workflow in a dental practice. The system’s color-coding scheme groups instruments and materials by procedure for efficiency and to save time.
	
	The Color Method has now been in use for approximately 18 months at Dr. Brown’s Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry Practice in Chesapeake, Va. The practice has made full use of the system’s colorful anti-microbial resin trays, tubs, cassettes, and bur blocks, along with other identifiers, to streamline the daily work of their practice.
	To get started, Dr. Brown consulted with a Zirc efficiency expert who analyzed the organizational needs of her practice. Once their needs were identified, the practice was able to get up and running quickly with the Color Method. “It took us just a day to take things apart and reorganize everything into the Color Method cassettes and tubs,” she says.

	Even for a practice as well organized as Dr. Brown’s, the Color Method took its efficiency to the next level. “We were already pretty well organized, but [the Color Method] helped fill in the missing links. We now have a consolidated set-up. We don’t have to restock treatment rooms to be ready for the day,” Dr. Brown says, adding that set-up is done the night before.

	As the Color Method recommends, Dr. Brown’s practice utilizes its sterilization center as the bulk storage area for restocking procedure materials into the trays and tubs. All instruments and materials flow through this central hub for reprocessing and restocking. The next day’s procedure set-ups are grouped by color code and staged in racks in the sterilization center for easy retrieval.
	
	Prior to the Color Method, Dr. Brown’s biggest pain point was the time spent searching for materials and instruments during a procedure. “Now it’s rare that we have to leave during a procedure to look for something,” she said. The ability to stay chairside throughout a procedure has been the greatest benefit of the system, she said.
	
	Dr. Brown said the color-coded trays and tubs work like portable operatory drawers. Rather than stocking the drawers in the operatory cabinets with instruments and materials, these items are organized by procedure into the Color Method tubs, which can easily be carried between sterilization and treatment.

	
	Time savings by the practice since using the Color Method has been significant-a total of 30.4 hours per week, according to an independent time study conducted by Dr. Brown.
	
	

Dr. Brown’s staff compared the time taken before and after Color Method implementation in four different functional areas of the practice-the treatment room, central sterilization, at chairside, and inventory control.
	Dr. Brown’s staff calculated daily time savings per treatment room set-up was 22.8 minutes, and teardown was 34.8 minutes, totaling almost an hour.
	
	Between sterilization and ultrasonic cleaning, the practice saved 24.6 hours per week.
	
	Additional time savings were realized chairside. Instances of leaving the room mid-procedure were reduced by 80 percent (from 10 instances to two) for total time savings of 2 hours.

Articles

After implementing the Zirc Color Method, one clinician saw significant time savings in her practice.

Closer Look: Color-coding reduces interruptions chairside, increases efficiency

	For Dr. Zach Evans, there is no substitute for the integrated capabilities of Planmeca Romexis imaging software. Planmeca Romexis is a modular software program reportedly offering an “all-in-one workflow” for comprehensive digital dentistry. Romexis is designed to manage 2D and 3D imaging including Smile Design and other features for advanced diagnostics. It also manages the restorative design and milling for a complete CAD/CAM solution under one platform.
	Dr. Evans uses Romexis and associated Planmeca hardware at the Medical University of South Carolina, College of Dental Medicine, Department of Stomatology, where he teaches and sees patients.

	“We use Romexis all the way from restorative CAD/CAM dentistry to guided implant surgery. The beautiful thing is that [Planmeca] has created software that ties everything together,” he says, describing Romexis as a single-software interface that integrates a variety of workflows.
	For Dr. Evans, the benefits of integrated workflow go beyond mere efficiency. “It has the benefit of higher-quality clinical outcomes because we are not skipping steps,” he says. “For example, if I’m planning an implant case, I’m using the CAD/CAM module... I can take advantage of the power of that application and create a high-quality digital restorative design of the surgical case. That information is immediately available in the 3D imaging and implant planning module, allowing me to do virtual implant planning and implant guide design that’s completely restoratively driven.”
	According to Dr. Evans, the critical element is having a high-quality diagnostic digital wax-up of the surgical case. That wax-up must consider esthetics, function, and occlusion. Most other systems do not allow a full digital wax-up, he says. Romexis allows you to do it easily within one software system.	

“The magic happens when things get complicated,” says Dr. Evans, specifically referring to anterior esthetic implant and restorative cases. For these, his team uses the Romexis Smile Design module. The Smile Design module allows the dentist to create a 2D model of the patient’s future smile, which drives case acceptance.
	“More importantly, it gives the dentist a reference point for generating the diagnostic and restorative wax-ups needed to plan a difficult anterior esthetic case,” he says. Bringing the 2D Smile Design model into the CAD/CAM module for the 3D wax-up allows the dentist to determine how the shape, size, and position of the teeth will relate to the true facial esthetics, he explained.


Along with integration across the treatment planning process, cloud-based data sharing enhances real-time collaboration across specialties in different locations for complex cases.
	“When I’m doing an implant case, I’m communicating with my restorative dentist,” says Dr. Evans. “[The restorative dentist can access the software] and give me feedback on the virtual restorative design that I’ve created in the CAD/CAM module.”
	Its open system design and its utilization of the universal STL files format also fosters collaboration. “If I’m working with a dentist who’s referring from the outside, I can easily import or export scans and images to and from the restorative dentist, unlike some other systems,” says Dr. Evans.

For one clinician, Planmeca Romexis® imaging brings magic to difficult implant and restorative cases. 