Dental Sleep Medicine Insider December 2015 | Page 18

Who’s HO W Dr. Erin Elliott Dr. Erin E. Elliott is a practicing general dentist in Post Falls, ID where she has successfully integrated Dental Sleep Medicine into her practice. She lectures extensively and is an active member of both her local and state American Dental Association components, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. She is the president and diplomate of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Brandie: Why do so many dentists have issues successfully implementing dental sleep medicine? Dr. Elliott: It’s twofold. This isn’t dentistry. We are practicing medicine. We have to collaborate with physicians and deal with medical insurance. A paradigm shift is required. Secondly, the team has to be trained. When the team answers the phone, they have to be able to instill confidence in the patient. That comes from education and experience. Brandie: How do you create and maintain team engagement? Dr. Elliott: Don’t we get resistance almost any time we try to introduce anything new? Follow the path of least resistance. Don’t try to make everyone a sleep apnea guru at once. Identify one team member and make them the sleep ambassador. Tell the rest of the team they will be screening and show them how to do it properly. This got us up and running. Eventually, I scheduled a full day in-service and provided a fairly comprehensive overview of DSM. We focused on what OSA is, why it should matter to the team and our patients, dental signs and symptoms, and my favorite devices such as the SomnoDent Herbst Advance. We even tried on CPAP masks. “Identify one team member and make them the sleep ambassador.” Then we treated a couple of the hygienists’ husbands which created a personal story for them. It did a lot to increase their buy-in. Now they look at patients through different lenses. You could say they put down the handpiece and picked up the stethoscope. The office manager began to see that sleep could be very profitable which won her support. I kept this in front of them with regular discussions about sleep during team meetings. We didn’t give up and really created a culture around DSM in our practice. “They put down the hand piece and picked up the stethescope.” Brandie: Are you going to transition to practicing dental sleep medicine full-time? Dr. Elliott: This doesn’t have to be full-time job. One device per week can be nice and extremely profitable. It’s a nice add-on to your practice. It’s also added new active patients that need other general dentistry and implants because they didn’t have a dental home. I also get referrals from other DDS that don’t want to treat sleep. Brandie: What are must haves for a successful dental sleep medicine practice? Dr. Elliott: In order to successfully bill medical insurance, you have to have a DSM software. At first, we