Feasibility Report

In my writing class we were assigned to write up a mock feasibility report. I am pretty proud of it, if I do say so myself. :-) Here is the assignment in full :


          ____________________________________________________________________

**(Every paper should have a title page)**

FEASIBILITY REPORT

To Dr. John Smith D.D.S.

1234 First St.

Eugene, OR 97401

February 5, 2016

Crystal Smith

                         ____________________________________________________________

SCENARIO

I am a Dental Hygienist at Dr. John Smith’s office in Eugene, and my boss, Dr. Smith, is inquiring about switching from a gel fluoride application to another form. On the market, there are at least 50 different ways to professionally apply fluoride to a patient's teeth. He wants me to find the most effective way to provide this service to our patients while still being profitable. He is not as concerned about initial cost, rather the overall cost benefit it will provide.  He has asked me to compile a feasibility report to compare three different products, as well as which one I prefer out of those three. 

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 MEMORANDUM

Dr. John Smith D.D.S.

1234 First St.

Eugene, OR 97401

Dear Dr. Smith,   

Enclosed is the feasibility report you requested regarding the fluoride provided in the office. With the criteria set by you of finding the most effective, cost of application, and ease of application, I was able to narrow my search. I While speaking to the sales representatives from our office, I found three types of fluoride to be cost effective, yet I feel that ACCLEAN fluoride varnish not only met all three of those standards, but exceeded in expectations. 

Please feel free to contact me for any further questions.

Sincerely,

Crystal Smith

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Introduction

Fluoride is often called nature’s cavity fighter, and for a good reason. Fluoride, which is a naturally-occurring mineral, helps prevent cavities in children and adults. It does this by making the enamel, which is the outer surface of your teeth, more resistant to the acid attacks that cause tooth decay (Jahn).  When dental professionals, see a mouth that has worn down enamel, that has a difficult time fighting off decay, or that has recurrent decay, we will suggest fluoride.  Sources of fluoride include: added fluoride to city water, naturally occurring water fluoride in well water, fluoridated toothpastes, over-the-counter mouth rinses, prescription mouthwash, and professionally applied topical fluoride.

Currently our office provides fluoride in the form of gel, which is administered inside of a styrofoam tray that is left in the patient's mouth for 1-4 minutes. The patient then needs to spit the remnants out and is not supposed to eat or drink anything for up to an hour. The reality of it is, most offices do not have the patient keep the fluoride in their mouth for the full 4 minutes due to many factors. The two biggest factors being the patient being unable to keep the tray in their mouth for the full 4 minutes, and the hygienists need to start cleaning up and prepping for the next appointment.

Other than fluoride enriched water, mouthwash, and toothpaste there are three different types of fluoride available for dental professionals to use to prevent or reduce the caries (Kracher). The three that I will be researching are gel, varnish, and foam. Using the sources that are available to me, I will review the financial aspect of the products and provide a final recommendation on which fluoride I feel best suits the office’s needs.

OBJECTIVES

My objective is to determine the best form of fluoride that will not only provide a great coverage on the patient’s teeth, but also be cost effective for the dental practice. My criteria are:

• Most effective
• Ease of application,
• Cost effective (long term)

METHOD

The task of finding the best fluoride application is not only compare and contrast. It is going to require analysis of financial benefits in the long run, as well as the overhead cost. I will be researching the science, speaking with the dental sales representatives that provide the office with all of the products, and interviewing dental hygienists to get their experiences with each product. 

RECOMMENDATIONS

After doing my research, speaking to a dental sales representative, and other working hygienists, the three applications that I chose to analyze are NUPRO Fluoride foam, Topex Fluoride gel, and Acclean Fluoride Varnish. An additional foam tray will need to be purchased while using the gel and the foam fluoride, so the costs in the table below will indicate that.

	NUPRO Fluoride Foam & Tray	Topex 60 sec. Fluoride Gel & Tray	ACCLEAN Fluoride Varnish
Cost per application	$1.74 (.85/ foam + .89/ tray) (Mayor)	$1.89 ($1.00/gel + .89/ tray) (Mayor)	$1.34 (Mayor)
Total Time (start- cleanup)	1 min (to prep)+ 4 min (procedure time)+3-4 (min cleanup)= 8-9 min	1 min (to prep)+ 1 min (procedure time)+3-4 (min cleanup)= 5-6 min	0 min (to prep)+ 2-3 min (apply time)+0 min (cleanup)= 2-3 min
Patient Restrictions	No food or drink for at least 1 hour	No food or drink for at least 1 hour	No hot drinks or hard food for 30 min.
Effectiveness	60-70% (dependent on procedure time) (Morris)	65-80% (dependent on procedure time) (Morris)	75-95%  (Morris)
Pros	Second most cost effective option Many flavors to choose from Does not induce gagging as frequently	More effective than the foam Quicker procedure time than the foam Shorter time spent overall compared to foam	Most cost effective between the three Only one product Offers more storage space because of being only 1 product Total time is the shortest
Cons	Risk of being least effective Patient needs to wait to eat or drink in order for product to work Requires another product in order to work (trays)	Less effective than varnish Patient needs to wait to eat or drink in order for product to work Requires another product in order to work (trays)	Patients complain of “fuzzy” feeling on teeth after varnish is applied, but goes away after 30 min. Not as many flavors are offered

CONCLUSION

After an extensive amount of research, I have concluded that fluoride varnish is the way that this office should go. As you can see in the chart above, not only with the overall cost of the product, I took into consideration the cost of the overhead that it takes to administer the fluoride. A dental hygienist  makes anywhere between $32-42 an hour, and see on average 9 patients a day, on average, 5 of those patients get fluoride, and there are 5 hygienists working per day. Each hygiene appointment is blocked for 45 min. With that 45 minutes, hygienists are required to seat and greet the patient, update medical history, get reacquainted, perform the cleaning, apply fluoride, then turn the operatory around in order to do that all over again with the next patient. Switching to a varnish would eliminate at least 6 of those minutes, which in turn would help with the production of the office. It would help keep down the double booking, as well as potential overtime that is accrued because of that double booking. If for some reason, you choose that varnish is not the way you want to go, based on cost alone; my second choice would be the NUPRO foam and tray. Yes, it takes longer, but the different options of flavors offered, and the ease of application are two strong points as well. I hope that you find my research helpful as well as informative.

                                _______________________________________________

**(Be sure to include a works cited, I am grateful for easybib.com. They make it almost fool proof.)**

WORKS CITED

Jahn, Carol A., RDH, MS. "Fluoride Varnish: One Size Fits All." RDH Magazine. Dentristy Network, n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.

Kracher, Connie M., PhD, MSD. "Current Concepts in Preventive Dentistry." Dentalcare.com. Oral-B, n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.

Mayor, Richard. "Cost of Fluoride." Telephone interview. 2 Feb. 2016.

Morris, Donna Warren, RDH. "Making the Case for Fluoride Varnish." Dentaproductstreport.com. Modern Dental Network, 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.