December 11, 2019

You’ve probably never heard of Vilfredo Pareto, given that he was Italian economist living in the late 19th century. But he learned and shared an important truth about economic activity—for example, production in a dental practice—which today we call the Pareto Principle, or, more commonly, the 80/20 rule. This rule suggests that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results.

Why is this important? One way to apply the idea is to consider that, of the hundreds of procedures you could possibly perform in the chair, two out of ten will be the things you do frequently. To get the most out of these activities, you should optimize your workflows so that locating, selecting, and recording them becomes as efficient as possible.

Defining favorites is a great way to improve efficiency, and Dentrix Ascend encourages you to define your favorite imaging procedures.

How to:

1. Open a patient’s Imaging Procedures page (Patient > Imaging > Acquire Images). If someone in your location has already defined a favorite procedure, the page will automatically open in the Favorites tab. If no one has yet defined a favorite, the page will open in the Standard tab.

2. Scroll through the list of either standard or custom imaging procedures, and select to open an imaging procedure you frequently perform and know should be marked as a favorite.

3. Click the gray star next to the “Acquisition Options for [Procedure Name]” title at the top of the window. The star turns yellow, and this procedure is now a favorite.

4. From this time forward, when you open a patient’s Imaging Procedures page, your favorite procedures will be immediately available for quick and easy access.

Additional Information

• Anyone with image acquisition rights can select (or deselect) a favorite. The entire location shares the favorite selections—they are not user-specific.
• To remove an imaging procedure from the favorites list, follow the same steps except click the star to change it from yellow to gray.