Swiss dentists on the road to digitalisation – Dr. Thuy-My Nguyen reports

In Switzerland, digital is on the move. But it’s not always where you’d expect it to be, and for good reason: digitalization isn’t just about fancy social networks and an intuitive website. Dr. Thuy-My Nguyen has understood this. If you are wondering why digital technology has become so important for dentists and why it is so popular in this sector, you can read on. Dr. Nguyen, shares the secrets of the digital transformation of her practice in this article.

Going digital for practical reasons

For Dr. Thuy-My Nguyen, digital technology was an obvious choice right from the start of her career. From her point of view, the primary motivation has always been practicality and efficiency.

Working in several practices at the same time, the first step for her was to digitise patient records. The idea behind this was to simplify her daily work. And with good reason: these digital patient dossiers can be accessed at any time by the dentist, even when she is working in another practice. This is all the more practical for her in case of an emergency, as she can easily give relevant instructions.

“There are so many practical sides to it that I keep asking myself why we wouldn’t do it.”

Going digital to maintain the doctor-patient relationship (even when the practice is not open)

Easy day-to-day work while optimising your digital visibility

From the very beginning, Dr. Thuy-My Nguyen opted for the OneDoc online agenda for its practicality and intuitivity. Selecting the time slot, entering the patient’s name, and moving the appointment were all easy to do.

The doctor also wanted to be able to access her appointments at any time and from any device. In addition, for even greater efficiency, she needed to be able to update her calendar instantly, and the same applied to backups. All this was, of course, possible with OneDoc!

“It was only afterwards that I realised that the Google referencing was excellent. You type in my name and OneDoc comes up first (…). Having taken over a dental practice, it was the easiest way for my patients to find me. As a young dentist, I needed optimum visibility to build up my patient base, but also to keep my current patients informed easily.”

Being accessible even when the practice is closed

For Dr. Thuy-My Nguyen, it’s a fact that patients often make appointments very late at night, at 11 p.m., for example. So it’s not just a question of simplifying the daily lives of dentists, but also of being able to maintain this digital doctor-patient link, even outside practice opening hours.

“OneDoc is therefore practical because dental problems don’t always happen during practice opening hours.”

Going digital for optimum communication between dentists and patients

We’re all becoming increasingly aware of this: our communication is becoming increasingly digital, be it for dentists or other professions. Emails, social medias and instant messages are an integral part of our daily lives. As far as Dr. Nguyen is concerned, it is above all on the patient’s side that she sees the benefits of digitalization.

“We share fun videos for the little patients.”

An increasingly complete digital transformation among dentists

What is the current state of digitalization in the Swiss dental sector? According to Dr. Nguyen, digitalization seems to have proceeded rapidly, but it goes beyond the simplistic view we might have of it and is not limited to online presence. In fact, it is taking place particularly (if not above all) in terms of equipment, from files that used to be paper-based to taking impressions with a camera without having to use plaster models.

The reason for this is very simple to understand, according to the doctor:

“I think the dentist is perceived as something so unpleasant that there is room for improvement in the patient experience thanks to digitalization.”

The aim of digital technology is, in this sense, to simplify the work of dentists while improving patient comfort.

In short, it is also these technological innovations that are helping to simplify the day-to-day practice of healthcare professionals, particularly in the dental field, making it easier and more efficient to carry out services that were originally more time-consuming and complex.