In a dental office there is some content consumption, but primarily we are posting services or payments, entering clinical notes or treatment plans.  All content creation activities.  Even the tablet’s mobility advantage is somewhat diminished in a dental office setting. 

Many have computers at the front desk, back office and operatories.  You are likely no more than a couple of steps away from a desktop system.  

However, some dental office functions lend themselves to the strengths of a tablet computer.  Collecting demographic information from a new patient or confirming the information of an existing patient is typically done with a clipboard in the waiting room.  Replacing this with a tablet computer would eliminate transcribing a patient’s responses into your practice management system.  The natural user interface lends itself to this kind of casual use. 

Viewing a short video of a proposed treatment chair-side or the capture and consent to a financial arrangement would make good use of the strengths of a tablet.  Its mobility would allow this to be done chair-side, in a consultation room or the waiting room.  Again, the natural interface works here.

We, at DMC, are investigating the use of tablets for exactly these purposes.  We have begun selling a patient education package that can run on a tablet and have started down a path that will provide the ability for various waiting room functions to be performed on a mobile device. 

We think this is the right direction for us to head and a right click for dentistry.