Dental News - Eleven tips for success in your dental clinic Part II: CAPS & CLIMB

Eleven tips for success in your dental clinic Part II: CAPS & CLIMB

Dr Anna Maria Yiannikos

Tue. 14. February 2017

save

Today, I will share with you the knowledge I have gained within the past 25 years of managing and evolving my clinic so you can always be one step ahead and avoid mistakes I have made in the past. The third very important tip that I am going to share with you today in order to be and remain successful at your clinics is how to regain your power.

We learn a lot of things during our studies in the dental schools. We learn how to make the best fillings with great contours and biocompatible materials; how to treat a tooth that needs a root canal therapy, but do we really learn anything on how to find the best employee that will make our life and daily routine easier?

Firstly we should make a job analysis by listing the CAPS of the candidate. If we do not take the time to complete this process, we will not know from the beginning exactly what we are looking at and by this we will increase the risk of making the wrong choice.
If, for example, we go to the supermarket without our shopping list, what will we end up doing? We will most probably buy unnecessary things or even forget the things that we went in the beginning there for. My point here is that when we decide that we need to hire an employee we should know upfront what we are looking for, otherwise we might make mistakes that will cost us money and time!

Let’s have a look now what does CAPS stand for:
– Capacities: The mental and physical abilities required to do the job. How smart and how strong (physically capable) must the successful applicant be?
– Attitudes: such as customer service, orientation, team player, reliability, honesty, willingness to follow rules, problem-solving, loyalty, safety-consciousness, ability to follow through—Imagine having a receptionist who, although she is doing the job without a mistake, complains about everything all the time. Is that a person that you would love to have as part of your team?
– Personality: traits such as competitiveness, assertiveness, attention to detail and sociability—Also search whether the person will manage his or her personality to get the job done, since as social scientists declare about 60 per cent of our personality traits are inherited and most of them are set by age nine. In other words: personality can’t be taught and it doesn’t change much over time.
– Skills: Expertise required to do the job—Skills are the easiest job requirements to identify. We could do that by asking the candidate to perform certain tests. For example, if we are trying to find a receptionist we could ask her to translate an article, or through role playing to check how she responds in certain scenarios.

Have always in mind the quote ‘we hire them for the skills but we fire them for their attitudes’!

So finally we found our A-star employees and now what do we have to do in order to keep them?
The fourth very essential tip of today’s article that I would love to share with you is the different ways that we can use to retain our A-star employees.

Apply CLIMB to retain your team!

Now let’s explain a little what does exactly the acronym CLIMB stands for:
– Challenge: Studies have shown that the main reason that our employees resign is that they are dissatisfied with their tasks. That’s why we should give them challenging duties to accomplish. And what will the result be? They will feel useful and they will find it difficult to leave from a job that offers them different and unique experiences.
– Loyalty: Be human with your employees and do not be afraid that you will lose your power. Show interest in their problems and lay back in times that they cannot handle any more pressure.
– Investment: Invest time and money to them so they will feel appreciated. During my lectures I get regularly the question that we reward them by giving them bonus and still they are not motivated enough, what shall we do? My answer here is that you must renew your reward system regularly.

Sometimes you can give them cash (as bonuses) or maybe you can offer them other kind of incentives, like buying them a free trip for vacation on Christmas, for example. Research has proven that the more powerful and effective incentives are the ones that are specific, tangible and non-cash.

Also please remember to ‘Reward not the best in sales but the best’ A major mistake that we usually do is to only reward the ones that bring money to our clinics. Instead we should reward the best in our practices, the ones that are completing their tasks in excellence unconditionally to what this task is.
– Measurement: Conduct a fair performance appraisal every six months.
– Building: Demonstrate your commitment to them by showing them opportunities of career development.

During the next issue we will analyse two new tips that will reveal new opportunities and potential of our dental clinics. Till then, remember that not only are you the dentist in your clinic, but you are also the manager and the leader.

You can always send me your questions and request for more information and guidance at:
dba@yiannikosdental.com or via our Facebook account.

Looking forward to our next trip of business growth and educational development!

To post a reply please login or register

Eleven tips for success in your dental clinic—Part I: SWOT analysis and loyal patients

During this journey towards business growth and educational development with this new series on tips for success in your dental clinic, I am going to ...

Diagnostic tips for bone lesions with DTX Studio Clinic

Diagnostics is the ultimate key to success for any treatment, and it can be particularly challenging in clinical situations that require a great deal of ...

From chairside to cyberspace: AI is phishing you now— is your team ready?—Part 4

It is common to think of cyber-attacks as isolated incidents—one office, one victim, one mistake—but in reality, practices are connected. The systems ...

Lateral maxillary incisor implant—Key issues for esthetic success Part II

Having discussed in the previous article (see editorial note), all of the preprosthetic stages for the replacement of a lateral maxillary incisor and having...

Virtual reality in restorative dentistry: Global study maps research growth and gaps

DOHA, Qatar: Virtual reality (VR) is rapidly gaining ground in dental training, particularly for restorative dentistry. A new bibliometric study from a team...

Laser in endodontics (Part II)

After explaining the basic physics of the laser and its effects on both bacteria and dentinal surfaces, the second part of this article series will analyse ...

Exocad Insights 2022: Tips, tricks and deep learning for clinics and laboratories

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain: Exocad, an Align Technology company and a leading dental CAD/CAM software provider, successfully concluded Insights 2022, its ...

One in four Americans lacks dental insurance, ADA urges wider preventive coverage

CHICAGO, US: Despite growing recognition of the importance of oral health to overall health, access to dental care remains out of reach for millions of ...

Expert reports on COVID-19 situation in dental clinic in Wuhan

WUHAN, China: As dean of the School and Hospital of Stomatology of Wuhan University, Prof. Zhuan Bian has had first-hand experience of the working situation...

New dental clinic to open in Brooklyn in 2020

NEW YORK, U.S.: More access to dental care facilities can only be a positive step toward improving the general health of people and benefiting the ...

Education

Live webinar
Fri. 22 May 2026
10:00 am EST (New York)

Improving mechanical & esthetic outcomes in immediate/early full maxilla reconstruction on zygomatic implants

Dr. Paweł Aleksandrowicz PhD

1CE

Live webinar
Fri. 22 May 2026
11:00 am EST (New York)

Minimal aesthetic layering with CERABIEN MiLai ceramics and internal stains

Kostia Vyshamirski

1CE

Live webinar
Fri. 22 May 2026
12:00 pm EST (New York)

Dental prosthetics in the era of AI: The future of digital design

Prof. Dr. Ali Murat Kökat

1CE

Live webinar
Fri. 22 May 2026
1:00 pm EST (New York)

Why composite for crowns?

Mr. Tim Hark

1CE

Live webinar
Fri. 22 May 2026
2:00 pm EST (New York)

Fast-paced and predictable blocks in a fast-paced world

Dr. Ashton Prince DMD

1CE

Live webinar
Tue. 26 May 2026
12:00 pm EST (New York)

Benefits and indications for crosslinked xenografts in bone ridge augmentation and ridge preservation procedures

Prof. Anton Friedmann

1CE

Live webinar
Tue. 26 May 2026
2:00 pm EST (New York)

Vorteile und Indikationen für vernetzte Xenografts bei Kieferkammaugmentation und Alveolarkammerhaltungsverfahren

Prof. Anton Friedmann

Latest Unread Articles

Study links periodontal disease to autoimmune disease and all-cause mortality

LONDON, England: Periodontal disease may be associated with wider systemic inflammatory and immune-related health risks, according to a new ...

save

Kuraray Noritake Dental introduces KATANA AVENCIA Block 2

TOKYO, Japan: Kuraray Noritake Dental has announced the launch of KATANA AVENCIA Block 2, a second-generation performance composite block designed to ...

save

“What digital systems really do is reduce the amount of time needed to produce high-quality work”

This year, exocad Insights, held in Palma de Mallorca in Spain, celebrated dental professionals who are using digital workflows to support more ...

save

“What digital systems really do is reduce the amount of time needed to produce high-quality work”

At excoad Insights 2026, Caroline Kirkpatrick explored the pivotal changes within dentistry ushered in by the rise of digital workflows. (Image: exocad)

Fraser Macdonald, Dental Tribune International

Thu. 21. May 2026

save

This year, exocad Insights, held in Palma de Mallorca in Spain, celebrated dental professionals who are using digital workflows to support more collaborative and patient-focused care. Caroline Kirkpatrick, a clinical dental technician with more than 30 years of experience, gave a presentation on the digital evolution of removable prosthetics, why dental technicians should consider adding this to their services and how exocad software can support the process. In this interview with Dental Tribune International during the event, she expands on these ideas and reflects on the wider shift from analogue to digital dentistry.

Caroline Kirkpatrick, a dental technician with over 30 years of experience working at the intersection of digital and analogue dental technologies. (Image: Caroline Kirkpatrick)

Ms Kirkpatrick, over the past 30 years, you’ve worked through dentistry’s transition from analogue to digital. What do you think are the biggest benefits—and challenges—for laboratories adopting digital workflows today?
The biggest benefit is the transfer of information and how much more accurate it has become. That accuracy allows technicians to produce restorations much more efficiently and with far fewer inconsistencies throughout the process. Because I work both with patients and in the laboratory, I’ve been able to see the difference very clearly between the analogue workflows in the past and the way we work digitally today. The speed of the process is completely different. In the past, if there was an error, you had to retrace every step to figure out where it happened. Now, we can receive accurate information immediately, verify that it’s correct and move forward confidently knowing that the workflow is reliable and efficient.

As for the challenges, I think the biggest one is adapting to the change in mindset and learning new systems. I don’t think cost is the major barrier any more. Companies like exocad now offer subscription models, so laboratories don’t necessarily face a huge upfront investment. Once technicians and laboratories see how much time is saved, how much manual labour is reduced and how much material waste can be eliminated, the benefits become obvious. The biggest thing is simply being willing to invest time in learning the workflow properly.

In removable full-arch implant prosthetic workflows, what workflow adjustments make the biggest difference in achieving predictable clinical results and patient satisfaction?
One of the biggest improvements has been the implementation of smile design tools like Smile Creator within exocad software. We can now import photographs directly into the software and match the design to the patient’s actual facial features. That changes everything because you’re no longer relying only on information sent from the dentist and hoping that the final smile will suit the patient. Instead, you can design while looking directly at the patient’s face in the software, which makes the process much more accurate and predictable.

Another major advantage is that we can create the entire final design before treatment even begins. For example, if a patient is receiving implants and immediate prostheses, we can complete the design in advance and store everything in the patient’s digital case file. Once the implant positions have been added, the software connects everything together very quickly.

Using analogue workflows, treatments like this could take an entire day. Now, because so much preparation is completed beforehand, the process becomes dramatically faster. Manufacturing software and 3D-printing technologies can even produce provisional complete prostheses in around half an hour, which is an incredible transformation compared with traditional workflows.

You work directly with patients and also test materials and refine workflows in clinical settings. What practical advice would you give technicians and clinicians when choosing materials for digital removable prostheses?
Because my work spans both patient care and technical production, I probably have more freedom to experiment with materials and workflows than someone who is only sending work to a laboratory. My curiosity and willingness to test different approaches allows me to refine procedures directly in clinical situations.

The advice I would give both technicians and clinicians is to step back and evaluate the case carefully before deciding on the design or workflow. First, think about the type of prosthesis you want to provide for that specific patient. Then consider which materials and production methods will give you the best long-term function, aesthetics and durability.

“My curiosity and willingness to test different approaches allows me to refine procedures directly in clinical situations.”

Material selection should always be guided by the clinical situation rather than simply choosing what is most familiar. When you take the time to evaluate all the available options first, you can create a far better long-term result for the patient.

Many technicians specialising in crown and bridge work have been hesitant to move into removable prosthetic work. What would you say to those who may not yet recognise the potential of digital removable prostheses?
I really want to encourage technicians to look at the profession as a whole rather than focusing too narrowly on one specialty area. Of course, nobody can master every single discipline completely, but understanding different areas of prosthetic work helps us deliver more comprehensive treatment overall.

Digital tools have made removable prostheses far easier to fabricate than they were in the analogue era. The software simplifies many of the complicated manual processes that used to make removable prostheses feel intimidating. The workflow is now more streamlined, faster and far more efficient. There’s also still a huge demand for removable prostheses. Patients continue to need these solutions, and digital workflows have made them much more profitable because production time has been reduced so dramatically.

In my presentation, I showed a partial denture case that incorporated individual crowns. Cases like that still require strong skills in crowns and bridges, but they also demonstrate how digital removable prostheses can deliver highly aesthetic and natural-looking outcomes. I would tell technicians not to overlook this area of dental technology. The tools are already here, the materials are excellent, and digital removable prostheses can be every bit as sophisticated and rewarding as ceramic work.

At exocad Insights, what key message are you hoping attendees will take away from your session?
I hope that attendees will leave with the understanding that digital dentistry has removed much of the complexity from removable prosthetic workflows that were once considered extremely difficult. Digital workflows now allow clinics and laboratories to transfer information much more efficiently and accurately. At the same time, many of the trusted principles and techniques from analogue dentistry can still be carried over into digital workflows successfully.

What digital systems really do is reduce the amount of time needed to produce high-quality work. Digital workflows help clinicians and technicians move beyond merely reaching an acceptable standard by making it easier to deliver a higher level of quality, precision and predictability for patients.