Introducing Dr. Leung
Dr. Angela Leung is a long-time endodontist with a dual specialty in surgical and restorative implants. She’s been in practice in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years. Patients appreciate the friendly and supportive manner of Dr. Leung and her team and are impressed with her knowledge and skill – the same reasons dentists refer a steady stream of endodontic patients her way. Her real passion, though, is implants. Dr. Leung says, “Implant work is fun because we’re working up the case from start to finish; we get the patient from having no teeth to full mouth reconstruction. It’s very exciting, actually!”
Slow and (Un)steady Labs Do Not Win the Race
For years, Dr. Leung has been using mainly local labs to create her restorations, and she notes that there are benefits to doing so. In particular, for full mouth cases, she has found local labs’ willingness to come to the office helpful. Unfortunately, the negative aspects of working with these labs outweigh the positives.
“With local labs, I tend to expect redos and things that don’t work out, which basically causes a delay and affects my productivity. There are plenty of times where [the labs] say that the impression material is distorted and we have to redo impressions,” says Dr. Leung. “We have to get the patient back, which takes a lot of time, not to mention the cost of the materials.” On top of the hassle for her office and its patients – rescheduling, extra materials, more chair time – she says that disputes with the lab can arise as to who’s financially responsible for the redo. And if there’s one thing Dr. Leung and her team don’t have time for, it’s arguing over responsibility for redos.
With local labs, I tend to expect redos and things that don’t work out, which basically causes a delay and affects my productivity.
In Dr. Leung’s experience, local labs are also much too slow for patients today. “A common challenge is [labs are] always late in their cases,” she says. “If they say that the turnaround time is say two weeks, we’ll end up getting it in four. And it creates a lot of problems because patients nowadays want things immediately. Even if you have a one-day delay, they tend to complain a lot.”
Then once the lab finally delivers the restorations, “a lot of times they don’t fit right. So we spend a lot of chair time adjusting crowns and bridges and so forth. Chair time is really a commodity and adjustments just take too long. And by the time you finish the adjustment, sometimes it messes up the aesthetics of the case.”
And even though Dr. Leung invested in a scanner several years ago, she says: “The scanner that I had was just too slow. It doesn’t work right. So although I had the intention to move digital 100%, it went rather slowly.”
Enter Dandy.
Going Digital with Dandy to Increase Efficiency
In 2020, Dr. Leung spent her pandemic quiet(er) time doing extensive research into new scanners. She was just about to purchase a new scanner when Dandy hit her radar, with its unique path to taking her practice 100% digital.
Plug and Go
Pretty quickly after signing up, Dr. Leung received a box from Dandy with the 3shape scanner, a high-power laptop, and all the accessories – like a mobile cart for easy transportation from room to room – that go with it. “It’s pretty convenient. The scanner and the laptop are all preset. Anybody can set it up within minutes.” About a week later, a virtual assistant from Dandy stepped in to train Dr. Lueng and her staff. Within half a day, they were up and running.
24/7 Support for the Non-Digital Generations
“For dentists that are not the younger generation, the digital platform is not automatic for us. It’s good that Dandy has almost 24/7 support to help us through the transition,” explains Dr. Leung. “At first, we needed a little help to navigate through the platform. And we had a lot of questions when we started scanning.”
“We feel like there’s always a virtual assistant we can talk to, who can log in to our software remotely to help. That makes it a lot more comfortable.”
And once the team did a few cases, Dr. Leung says it was “pretty much automatic. Very smooth, very easy.”
Quick, High-Quality Lab Work
Dr. Leung constantly knows where things stand with cases sent to Dandy, unlike with local labs. The online portal is “well-organized” and enables her to look up every patient easily and track the case through submission, fabrication, and delivery. “It tells us exactly when we’ll get the case back, which helps a lot with communicating and scheduling with our patients. We don’t have to constantly call patients back and forth to reschedule,” explains Dr. Leung. “I never have to call the lab and ask when the cases are coming because whatever they say on your arrival date on the portal, it shows up every time.”
Whatever they say on your arrival date on the portal, it shows up every time. It builds a lot of trust and confidence. Instead of excuses, we just pretty much know it’s a done deal. That’s one of the best features with Dandy.
No More Blame Game
Back to those disputes Dr. Leung hates over who pays for redos… Though she hasn’t had any Dandy cases that didn’t fit, she knows there won’t be any hassle if she does. Dr. Leung shares, “There’s a written agreement that if for whatever reason your case does not work out, Dandy will replace the case at no additional cost. There’s no argument over who is at fault. To me, that’s worth its weight in gold.”
Increased Productivity and Patient Referrals
After starting with her “easy cases,” Dr. Leung is now confident in sending most of her cases to Dandy. “Dandy has earned my trust. I know when I send the case to Dandy, when I get my cases back, I don’t have to do any adjustments. It’s quick and fast and easy, and it fits.”
And Dr. Leung doesn’t have to take impressions herself for the prosthesis to turn out perfectly. “I’m impressed with the process because it’s easy. For me, it’s all about efficiency. I let my dental assistant do all the scanning. So while she is doing all my scans for me, it frees up my time to do additional procedures with other patients. It saves me a lot of chair time.”
Dandy frees up a lot of chair time because there aren’t adjustments in every case, and it frees up my time since my assistant can do the scanning. I can do more procedures and increase my productivity.
Dr. Leung also says digital dentistry impresses patients so much it leads to referrals. “[Patients are] used to the old-fashioned impression material. Nobody likes that stuff because it’s dirty and messy. But nowadays, when patients see the scanner, and they turn around and see the images almost instantaneously, in nice colors, every patient is impressed. It’s the ‘wow’ factor – and when they have the wow factor, they refer more patients to our practice.”
Add to that the time savings from not having to do redos, and practice efficiency has skyrocketed. “When I work with the local labs, I tend to expect redos and things that don’t work out, which basically causes a delay and affects my productivity. With Dandy, I don’t have those issues.
Fast, on-time delivery, restorations that fit, less chair time, and more patient referrals all led Dr. Leung to one conclusion: “I would recommend partnering with Dandy for any dentist.”
