Important things that dentists in Chiba prepare for dental checkups at health and welfare centers and schools
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
It’s gotten really cold and snowy in the north.
Time flies.
This year, I was on duty at the health and welfare center to check up on 1.5-year-olds and 3-year-olds, and at the school where I am the school dentist.
In fact, these checkups often last more than two hours without a break.
I’m grateful to the dental hygienists and school teachers who assist me.
In schools, the air conditioning is not as good as at health and welfare centers, and the teachers who assist are often busy, so we often don’t have a toilet break.
It would be more efficient to take a five-minute break in between work rather than working for two or three hours straight, but it’s difficult to get everyone to accept this way of thinking.
So starting this year, I’ve decided to make sure to wear something.
It’s a urine pad.
Fortunately, I have never had to urinate in it, but it is very comforting mentally.
The need to urinate is probably influenced by psychological factors as well.
Another time I wear pads is when I fly internationally.
The number of passengers has increased recently, and the airport itself is very crowded.
Even if the plane departs on time, it is normal to have to wait at the tarmac for more than 30 minutes.
Even after the plane has leveled off, Japanese airlines are particularly strict, and you are not allowed to get up to go to the toilet while the seat belt sign is on.
In this regard, American airlines are relatively lenient, and if you go to the toilet while the seat belt sign is on and the plane suddenly shakes and you get injured, it may be your own responsibility.
In fact, once the plane has leveled off, the crew prepares the meal service even if the seat belt sign is on.
As has already been reported, the problem of urinary incontinence is quite serious for those involved, and there have been cases of train drivers unable to hold it in in the cab and leaking large amounts, and trains being delayed because they stopped at the toilet at an intermediate station.
In fact, the pads seem to be selling quite well to men in their 30s as well.
Rugby players have been wearing disposable diapers for a long time, so urinary incontinence itself is nothing to be embarrassed about.
I hope that by writing about it here, many people will be able to wear pads as a countermeasure and go about their work and lives as normal.
Is visiting a dentist in Chiba multiple times just to earn points?
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
There is not much time left this year.
It was a year with many good things.
The Harada family avoids making their first visit to a shrine when there are many people at the beginning of the year,
so as usual, they visit a shrine near their home at the end of the year.
I recently found an interesting article.
It was on Yahoo news, and it was an article from December 11, 2024 titled “Is visiting a dentist multiple times to treat one tooth just to earn points for the dentist’s insurance?”
The article itself was interesting, but the comments were also numerous and well-written.
In reality, it is unthinkable that a patient would come to the clinic multiple times to earn points.
However, I thought it was important to know that some ordinary people think like this.
I immediately had all the staff at our clinic, including dentists, dental hygienists, treatment coordinators, receptionists, etc., read it.
Treatment and procedures at dental clinics are of course important, but I thought it was very important to always listen to what ordinary people think about dentistry.
公務員は英語で public servant と言いますが、もっとコスト意識と財務について関心を持ってほしいですね。
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Did you default on your medical bills at a dentist in Chiba?
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
I received some good news in early November.
The baseball team I was rooting for became Japan’s best team.
It’s been 26 years since 1998.
It’s great that they became Japan’s best team, but to be honest,
I was much happier in 1998.
That’s because they had batters and pitchers with a lot of personality, and absolute relievers and closers, and they came in first place in the regular season without question.
This time, the regular season was a series of disappointing games, so it doesn’t really feel right to say they became Japan’s best team.
I hope they win both the regular season and the postseason next year.
However, it was a season full of learnings throughout the year.
I was reminded that I must always remain humble.
☆ The other day, my friend’s father collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.
He told me the story in detail.
I thought it was very interesting, so I’d like to share it with you.
His father had chest pains and was unable to move, so he was rushed to the emergency center in the city.
Fortunately, when my friend rushed over, his condition had stabilized,
but the problem was when it came to paying the bill.
The center doesn’t do the billing on the spot, but rather sends you a bill later and you transfer the payment.
Because it’s an emergency, some people don’t have their health insurance card, so they may not be able to check their health insurance card on the spot.
In such cases, the rule for health insurance treatment is that you pay the full medical fee once, and then once they check your health insurance card, they refund the amount minus the patient’s copayment.
People who don’t have a health insurance card must verify their identity in some way.
Normally, you would verify their identity with a driver’s license or a photo ID such as a My Number card.
If the person is elderly or doesn’t have anything, wouldn’t it be normal to verify the identity of the person accompanying them?
However, at that center (run by Chiba prefecture), all identity verification is done by self-reporting.
In fact, when the father was brought in, he gave the wrong date of birth, but for a while he was registered as a patient with that wrong date.
Apparently he had his health insurance card, but when he tried to leave the center, he was not asked to show it, and was asked to send a copy of the card later.
No, no, using a copy to verify identity is also against the rules.
When an insurance card expires, it must be returned, but copies remain forever.
In this situation, for example, if a foreigner without a Japanese health insurance card is brought in by ambulance,
they can self-report any number of false addresses, and it is easy to not be able to recover medical expenses.
If it were a private hospital, they would probably think about the system more seriously, but perhaps because it is run by the prefecture and the staff working there do not have to pay for it themselves, it is a pretty lax system when you think about it.
The hospital’s facilities themselves are impressive, but this is not going to improve the prefecture’s finances.
Civil servants are called public servants in English, but I wish they would be more cost-conscious and concerned about finances.
Dentists in Chiba were prescribing too many antibiotics
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
There are only 10 days left in October, but the temperature continues to exceed 25 degrees.
We removed the air conditioner early from one room due to clinic renovation,
but we are managing to beat the heat with an electric fan.
About 20 years ago, many doctors prescribed antibiotics when you had a cold.
Some patients actually actively requested that they be prescribed antibiotics.
In fact, several doctors appeared on a TV program and said that it was meaningful to prescribe antibiotics when you had a cold.
The reason was to prevent pneumonia after catching a cold! ?
I saw their expressions, and I thought they were making a pretty lame excuse.
At the ENT clinic that I sometimes visit now, there is a sign in the waiting room that says, “We do not prescribe antibiotics for colds.”
Antibiotics are effective when you have an infection.
However, prescribing antibiotics unnecessarily is a problem because it can lead to resistance, meaning they no longer work when needed.
In fact, doctors aren’t the only ones prescribing antibiotics unnecessarily.
Dentists used to prescribe antibiotics quite unnecessarily as well.
It has been common practice to prescribe antibiotics even for a minor tooth extraction.
About 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by a famous dentist who studied abroad in Sweden.
He said that at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden (the world’s leading university for periodontology),
they do not prescribe antibiotics even for removing sideways wisdom teeth,
because it is much more important to thoroughly clean the inside of the mouth before surgery and disinfect the area around the mouth to reduce the number of bacteria.
This is a natural thing to do.
For example, if you eat with your bare hands after using the toilet, you would normally wash your hands after using the toilet.
You would not normally take an antibiotic with dirty hands to prevent stomach pain caused by infection and then stuff your cheeks with rice balls by hand.
However, it has been common practice for dentists to prescribe a set of antibiotics, painkillers, and stomach medicines after a tooth extraction.
With the recent medicine shortage, one pharmacy has in fact been receiving a large number of penicillin prescriptions from dentists,
and there are reports that some penicillin preparations have run out of stock.
If dentists do prescribe antibiotics, they will only do so to people with diabetes or other conditions that are vulnerable to infection.
Also, unlike painkillers, antibiotics cannot be taken only when you are in pain.
The correct way to take medicine is to finish it off as prescribed.
Are Chiba dentists introducing automatic reception to reduce staff?
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
On Friday, October 4th, the temperature exceeded 30 degrees, and I was surprised at what was going to happen, but it finally feels like autumn.
The clinic is currently being renovated, and construction is progressing every day with the aim of reopening in August 2025.
In fact, we are planning to install automatic reception.
Returning patients check in by holding their smartphone app over the machine, and the payment after treatment is also settled by credit card on their own smartphone app.
When I mentioned this to an American teacher in an English conversation lesson the other day, he asked me if the purpose was to reduce staff. I thought that it was a typical American perspective that focuses on money.
Recently, family restaurants such as Gusto and Saizeriya have been implementing automatic payment.
When paying, instead of a staff member, you hold a barcode over the machine and select your payment method from credit card, cash, QR payment, SUICA, etc.
At Gusto, orders are placed through a touch panel, the food is served by a robot, and customers place the food brought by the robot on their table themselves.
Ordering through a touch panel has become the norm even at conveyor-belt sushi restaurants.
I imagine restaurants are also struggling with a labor shortage.
The restaurant itself is busy with families and groups.
However, he lamented that Choshimaru near Chiba Station is different and more like a library.
Most of the customers are on business, or come alone.
They order on the touch panel in front of them, and when the food arrives, they eat in silence, pay, and leave.
Not a word is spoken during this time.
His ideal restaurant might be a typical American restaurant, where a waiter comes to take the order, asks about the food, and when the food arrives, the customer chats with his companions, sometimes with the customer at the next table, and jokes with the waiter when paying.
I’ve made a long introduction, but the reason our clinic has automated reception is not to reduce staff.
The purpose is to reduce the waiting time at reception and the waiting time after treatment to pay.
The idea is to have machines do things that don’t need to be handled by humans.
We use that freed time to explain things to patients and follow up with them.
Reception staff will assist first-time patients.
We use a variety of digital systems for treatment and regular management.
A digital scanner is used to take impressions for mouthpiece orthodontics,
and the Swiss company EMS’ Airflow, which cleans the inside of the mouth, is operated with a cordless foot pedal using Bluetooth, so there is less unnecessary wiring.
The reservation system is linked to electronic medical records, X-ray images, and intraoral photographs.
However, it is humans who perform the treatment and surgery, and it is humans, not robots, who explain things until the patient is satisfied.
This will never be replaced by robots.
In conclusion, we will introduce an automatic reception desk and increase the number of staff.
This will have benefits for both patients and employees.
The benefit for patients is that, as mentioned earlier, waiting times will be shortened.
In fact, on the day I am writing this, eight staff members are on paid leave, and one left early before noon due to a sudden illness in his child. Even so, the number of patients exceeds 120, and the clinic is operating normally.
This is something that would not be possible in a clinic with only 10 staff members.
A big benefit for working people is that you can take paid leave almost as often as you request, and even if you have to take time off suddenly for some reason you don’t have to cause any more trouble to other staff than necessary.
To get more specific, there’s also a rule that says you don’t have to buy souvenirs for staff if you use paid leave to go on a trip.
In fact, many staff members say that the thought of buying souvenirs for 40 people irritates them.
However, at our clinic, such consideration is absolutely unnecessary.
Our stance is that you should enjoy your own time on time off, and that there is no need to be overly considerate of others, so the office doesn’t end up overflowing with souvenirs from local areas.
Some staff members even avoid sugar, wheat, and vegetable oils.
This is how we enjoy providing medical care every day.
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Les dentistes de Chiba introduisent-ils une réception automatique pour réduire le personnel ?
Bonjour
Je suis Harada de la clinique dentaire Harada de la ville de Chiba.
Le vendredi 4 octobre, la température a dépassé les 30 degrés et j’ai été surpris de ce qui allait se passer, mais on a enfin l’impression que c’est l’automne.
La clinique est actuellement en cours de rénovation et les travaux progressent chaque jour dans le but de rouvrir en août 2025.
En fait, nous prévoyons d’installer une réception automatique.
Les patients qui reviennent s’enregistrent en tenant leur application pour smartphone au-dessus de la machine, et le paiement après le traitement est également réglé par carte de crédit sur leur propre application pour smartphone.
Lorsque j’en ai parlé à un professeur américain lors d’un cours de conversation en anglais l’autre jour, il m’a demandé si le but était de réduire le personnel. J’ai pensé que c’était une perspective américaine typique qui se concentre sur l’argent.
Récemment, des restaurants familiaux tels que Gusto et Saizeriya ont mis en place le paiement automatique.
Au moment de payer, au lieu d’un membre du personnel, vous tenez un code-barres au-dessus de la machine et sélectionnez votre mode de paiement parmi carte de crédit, espèces, paiement par QR code, SUICA, etc.
Chez Gusto, les commandes sont passées via un écran tactile, la nourriture est servie par un robot et les clients placent eux-mêmes la nourriture apportée par le robot sur leur table.
La commande via un écran tactile est devenue la norme, même dans les restaurants de sushis à tapis roulant.
J’imagine que les restaurants sont également aux prises avec une pénurie de main-d’œuvre.
Le restaurant lui-même est très fréquenté par les familles et les groupes.
Cependant, il a déploré que Choshimaru, près de la gare de Chiba, soit différent et ressemble davantage à une bibliothèque.
La plupart des clients sont en déplacement professionnel ou viennent seuls.
Ils commandent sur l’écran tactile devant eux et lorsque la nourriture arrive, ils mangent en silence, paient et partent.
Pas un mot n’est prononcé pendant ce temps.
Son restaurant idéal pourrait être un restaurant américain typique, où un serveur vient prendre la commande, pose des questions sur la nourriture et lorsque la nourriture arrive, le client discute avec ses compagnons, parfois avec le client de la table voisine, et plaisante avec le serveur au moment de payer.
J’ai fait une longue présentation, mais la raison pour laquelle notre clinique a automatisé la réception n’est pas de réduire le personnel.
Le but est de réduire le temps d’attente à la réception et le temps d’attente après le traitement pour payer.
L’idée est de faire en sorte que les machines fassent des choses qui n’ont pas besoin d’être effectuées par des humains.
Nous utilisons ce temps libéré pour expliquer les choses aux patients et assurer le suivi avec eux.
Le personnel de la réception aidera les nouveaux patients.
Nous utilisons différents systèmes numériques pour le traitement et la gestion courante.
Un scanner numérique est utilisé pour prendre les empreintes pour l’orthodontie buccale,
et le Airflow de la société suisse EMS, qui nettoie l’intérieur de la bouche, fonctionne avec une pédale sans fil via Bluetooth, ce qui réduit les câbles inutiles.
Le système de réservation est lié aux dossiers médicaux électroniques, aux images radiographiques et aux photographies intrabuccales.
Cependant, ce sont des humains qui effectuent le traitement et l’opération, et ce sont des humains, et non des robots, qui expliquent les choses jusqu’à ce que le patient soit satisfait.
Ce système ne sera jamais remplacé par des robots.
En conclusion, nous allons mettre en place un bureau d’accueil automatique et augmenter le nombre de personnel.
Cela aura des avantages pour les patients et les employés.
L’avantage pour les patients est que, comme mentionné précédemment, les temps d’attente seront réduits.
En fait, le jour où j’écris ces lignes, huit membres du personnel sont en congé payé et un est parti tôt avant midi en raison d’une maladie soudaine de son enfant. Malgré cela, le nombre de patients dépasse 120 et la clinique fonctionne normalement.
Ce serait impossible dans une clinique avec seulement 10 employés.
Un grand avantage pour les travailleurs est que vous pouvez prendre des congés payés presque aussi souvent que vous le souhaitez, et même si vous devez prendre un congé soudainement pour une raison quelconque, vous n’avez pas à causer plus de problèmes aux autres employés que nécessaire.
Pour être plus précis, il existe également une règle qui stipule que vous n’êtes pas obligé d’acheter des souvenirs pour le personnel si vous utilisez vos congés payés pour partir en voyage.
En fait, de nombreux membres du personnel disent que l’idée d’acheter des souvenirs pour 40 personnes les irrite.
Cependant, dans notre clinique, une telle considération est absolument inutile.
Nous pensons que vous devez profiter de votre temps libre et qu’il n’est pas nécessaire d’être trop prévenant envers les autres, afin que le bureau ne finisse pas par déborder de souvenirs des environs.
Certains membres du personnel évitent même le sucre, le blé et les huiles végétales.
C’est ainsi que nous aimons prodiguer des soins médicaux au quotidien.
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
It’s still hot in September, but I hope that it will cool down in the latter half of the month, as the saying goes, “The heat and cold will last until the equinox.”
There was a dentist who used to practice in Chiba City who used to go to clubs in Ginza.
It’s been almost 10 years since he quit dentistry, so I think it’s okay to write about it here, but
he also wrote about it in the dental association’s newsletter.
He said that he couldn’t stop going to Ginza clubs because he could get information that the general public couldn’t get.
It’s been more than 10 years ago, but at the time, it was 30,000 yen for a beer with a hostess sitting next to you.
Maybe there is information that can only be found there.
As for me, I have no interest in going to such places.
Other than this, perhaps there are other things I should experience as a business owner, such as meeting geisha or spending time in Kyoto with maiko and geisha, but I have never been there and don’t have any particular desire to go.
Of course, I don’t deny that there are people who like this kind of fun.
Everyone is free to do what they want.
I once read an article by someone in the entertainment industry who said that men should have a lot of fun in the nightlife where there are hostesses, but I personally don’t feel like going.
Of course, I like eating out with friends and family, but I get sleepy late at night, so I make sure I get enough sleep and take good care of my health.
In this respect, it’s great that Dodgers player Ohtani turns down invitations to drinking parties after games and gets about 10 hours of sleep.
A famous baseball player was photographed coming out of a drag queen bar in the past, but as I’ve said many times, people are different.
I will continue to take care of my health and time.
Just to be clear, I’m not writing this because I want to be invited to these kinds of places.
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City, which will be opening a new staff room building in October 2024.
We are currently considering various materials for the exterior walls of the building.
When we opened in 1987, we decided on the color of the exterior walls, but we didn’t think much about the material.
However, more than 30 years have passed since then, and when we renovated and even rebuilt, we found that there are many different types of exterior walls.
We are currently considering ceramic siding and galvalume steel sheets.
Each has its pros and cons.
We plan to use galvalume steel sheets for the roof.
As the name suggests, it is made of metal, but it has insulation inside.
When I think of metal roofs from the old Showa era, tin roofs immediately come to mind.
I remember that when it rained, the sound of it hitting the roof was terrible.
I’m sure it sometimes leaked.
That won’t happen with today’s galvalume steel roofs.
For the exterior walls, our director will choose from ceramic siding with or without joints,
selecting the type that best suits the image of the clinic.
Renovation of the office space has already begun,
but construction on the main clinic building will begin soon, so we’re excited every day as we make plans.
Is it “impossible” to offer paid leave or childcare leave at a dentist in Chiba?
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
In the summer, we have to be on our guard against typhoons and torrential rains.
It is essential to be prepared on a daily basis so that we can be prepared for any disasters that may occur.
The other day, a famous influencer said on YouTube that “it is impossible for small and medium-sized companies to give employees full paid leave or childcare leave these days.”
This person usually makes sharp comments about politics, so I thought, “Oh, that’s strange.”
In the first place, paid leave is an employee’s right, and if an employee applies for paid leave, the employer must approve it.
It is true that in a workplace with a small number of employees, for example a workplace with three employees, even if one person takes a day off, the number of employees will be reduced to two-thirds, or about 67%.
So, having three employees is not at all uncommon in a dental clinic, and if three employees are reduced to two, the clinic will be in a lot of trouble.
For example, after dealing with a patient at the reception desk, you might immediately assist the dentist inside, or if the phone rings, you might stop your assisting duties to answer it.
In this situation, it is difficult to take paid leave out of consideration for the other staff, so they don’t take it.
They only take paid leave together just before they leave.
It’s a difficult situation if even one person is absent, but the two staff members who come to work on the day the patient is absent have to do the work of three people between them, so they are exhausted by the time they finish work.
It is especially difficult not only physically but mentally when someone suddenly misses work on the day.
If this continues, it’s natural that some staff will leave early or some will badmouth the management during their lunch break, creating a negative spiral.
There is something important to note here.
It is the 80:20 rule.
This is a concept I learned at a seminar by Anthony Robbins, the world’s number one life coach.
The 80 in 80:20 is mindset, and the 20 is technical skills.
Improving technical skills is absolutely necessary in any job.
For example, in the job of a dentist, it is absolutely necessary to receive training to improve your skills, attend study groups to increase your knowledge, and read books.
However, focusing only on that does not mean that your dental clinic will be successful.
This is because 80% of work is influenced by psychological factors.
In other words, things like not being in an overly busy working environment, being able to take paid leave, and being able to take childcare leave without worrying are four times more important than improving technical skills.
In fact, even among the staff of our clinic, there are some who, even if they have a lot going on at work, feel refreshed when they go on a paid vacation and are able to work hard again.
Of course, there may be some people who can work 24 hours a day like the hard-working employees of the high economic growth era of the 1950s and 60s.
However, those were times when wages were rising steadily, and if you worked hard you could see a bright future, in other words, it was a time of spiritual fulfillment.
Even now, there may be people who can work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for their own mission, but that is less than 1% of the total.
I think that people who work normally choose workplaces where they can take regular holidays, have little overtime, and have a good work atmosphere.
The number of people who become managers (as opposed to self-employed) is probably less than one in ten.
Managers and employees are completely different people.
You should not force the behavioral patterns of managers on employees.
It usually doesn’t work if you do that.
Getting regular employees to participate in study sessions for managers usually doesn’t work well.
In fact, if you do that, some employees will quit.
You’ll end up wishing you hadn’t sent them to study sessions for managers.
I know a lot of examples like that.
I think there are few managers of dental clinics, and many others, who start their own businesses after learning how to run them.
So most people spend the first few years of their business learning about employment.
However, I think it’s normal for entrepreneurs to have trouble with their employees in the first few years, and this should not be repeated.
Let’s go back to the first influencer.
Before deciding that it’s impossible to give employees full paid leave or childcare leave, wouldn’t it be better to try to do so and run your company better?
That’s management effort.
If your business allows employees to take paid leave properly, your staff will work enthusiastically.
The reason is that, as I wrote earlier, 80% of work is about feeling, and the remaining 20% is technical skills.
Top athletes should not fix their teeth alignment.
A story about a dentist in Chiba being severely scolded by his tennis coach
I was scolded by my coach.
“That’s the way it was 30 years ago!”
When I played tennis as a student, I was taught to hit the ball solidly and flatly with my forehand.
In other words, make sure the contact time between the racket strings and the ball is long, and put power into the ball with a closed stance! That’s the way it’s done.
There were players like Sweden’s Borg who put extreme topspin on the ball, but it was by no means a standard way of hitting.
Borg, who won Wimbledon five times in a row, has an unconventional two-handed backhand, and holds the racket with just his right hand during the follow-through.
Even now, it’s rare to see anyone hitting like this.
Going back to the forehand, the material of the racket has changed significantly since those days, and now the mainstream way of hitting is to use a thick grip and pull the ball to put spin on it, like in soft tennis.
However, due to my old habits, I still tend to use a closed stance and get close to the ball when hitting the ball.
It’s true that I can’t hit a fast ball like this.
But I’m getting too close to the ball.
Besides, the fact that you can see two balls is proof enough that the ball speed is slow.
When I look at this photo in the past, I thought it was a good shot, but looking at it now I can see that it was an incorrect way of hitting the ball in the past.
Well, the Paris Olympics were very moving.
However, one thing that bothered me was that many Japanese athletes had crooked teeth.
It is often said that a good bite can improve the balance of the body and enable high performance in sports.
That is certainly true, but if you are a top athlete with crooked teeth, should you undergo orthodontic treatment?
From the perspective of a dentist, the answer depends on what level you are at now as a top athlete.
If you are at a level where you can aim for a gold medal at a world championship, you should undergo orthodontic treatment after you retire.
If you are not yet ranked 100th in the world and want to improve your performance, I definitely recommend undergoing orthodontic treatment.
This is because while some people improve their sports performance by correcting their teeth and bite, others’ performance may decline.
It is true that a good bite can improve the balance of the body and improve shoulder and back pain, but it can also make your body less mobile.
That’s how delicate the human body is.
In the past, it was said that professional golfers could increase their driving distance by wearing mouthguards during matches.
I think they were later banned from wearing mouthguards.
If it’s something that can be removed like this, you can stop using it if it doesn’t work.
However, once you’ve actually moved your teeth, it’s not easy to put them back if it doesn’t work.
So if you’re already a top 10 athlete in the world, or an athlete at the level of representing Japan in the Olympics, it’s safer to wait until after you retire to get your teeth straightened.
