Almost sounds like the start of a corny sci-fi joke with an unusual marketing twist. Except with our two Dentists and one Orthodontist actors, life out west, as traveling dental professionals, is no laughing matter. With sparse and scatter population, patients are few and far between. Which means these Oral Care professional’s wild west lifestyle, in southern Utah, plays out like a Louis L’Amour western novel.
Before we move forward with our story, we have a warning; there are more twists and turns in this unique, real-life story, then a dime-store western novel could spin. Without going into too many details, we will keep it brief. Now let’s meet our actors and learn how a Parallels universe saved these two businesses money and kept them cyber safe.
The Orthodontist and The Dentists
These rural oral care professionals in our story are seasoned, experienced, and well trained in their profession, and do not have the luxury city Dentists, and Orthodontists take for granted. For instance, in their rustic world, traveling from one location to another, sharing office space for patient appointments and trading available time slots, is regular and business as usual.
Not to mention, the dentistry’s unusual IT and Software arrangements. Their dental software must be individually programmed and tailored to accommodate their unique setup and work seamlessly from one rural office to another, even if they are hours apart. (But more about that later)
In case you do not know how each is different, both dental professions focus on specific areas of dentistry and oral hygiene. Let’s review a list of each practitioner’s focus.
Dentist focuses on:
- Teeth
- Gums
- Nerves
- Jaw
Orthodontist focuses on:
- Correcting bites
- Straightness of teeth
- Occlusion (positioning of the teeth when patient’s jaws are closed)
In some instances, you may find a rural orthodontist that is also a practicing dentist, but many country dentists are not nor, do they want to be a licensed orthodontist. But one thing is important to note about each; all Orthodontists and Dentists, across their industry, have one goal in mind, improve their patient’s overall oral healthcare, even if it means traveling hundreds of miles across a scenic sandstone landscape, to do so.
What’s The Difference Between The City and Rural Dentistry Practices?
In the city, a dentist or orthodontist relies heavily on the size of the population, referrals, and follow-up patient care. There is no travel time, and neither needs to share office space, software or time slots.
Rural dentistry practices have a sparse population; they must travel, share office space, check for available time slots, and in their offices, there is one desk with two computers. One is Mac-based, and the other is PC based.
The Rural Dentistry Office Integration Dilemma
It is said, “Truth is stranger than fiction” and when you review our actor’s complete setup below, you might scratch your head and wonder how these two utterly different dentistry businesses co-exist under one roof.
Here is their unique layout:
- Multiple rural dental offices located across southern Utah
- The one orthodontist and two dentists are two separate businesses
- Each business shares the same office and trades off access time to use the office
- Every office has one desk and two computers, a Mac, and the other is PC based
- The dental software they use runs on the Mac platform and is accessible at any rural office
- Everyone is running independent networks from the Windows and Mac computers
- Often some random oral professional needs to use the office for an unplanned appointment
If you are like most computer users, I’m sure red flags popped up as you were reading the above list and maybe you asked this question: “How in the world can they share office space, work together, use one program, on one platform, with two different types of computers, save money, and stay cyber safe?”
Here’s Were Parallels Alternate Universe For Windows and Mac Users Answers That Question
If you are not familiar with Parallels, it’s a tool for Mac users needing to run the Windows-based software. If you need Windows for work on your Mac platform, Parallels is the correct tool for the job. There are other alternatives tools, but each of those requires rebooting the computer. You can skip this step when using Parallels.
Now if you need to quickly switch between the Mac and Windows desktops as our dentists and orthodontist does, Parallels will run Windows within the macOS. They call this a Virtual Machine allowing you to combine the two desktops. You can now run Windows software right on your Mac desktop from your Mac’s dock.
The exciting thing about this tool, it is designed for Mac users, but you don’t have to restart the computer when you switch over and use Windows. This unique tool allows each dentistry business, to step into a Parallels universe where Mac and Window computers thrive as one.
The vast savings each rural office saves on hardware, computers, specialized software, licensing, networks, firewalls, all due in part to Parallels interface with Mac and Windows-based computers.
Speaking of Firewalls
SymTec, an outsourced IT department in St George, UT, Cedar City, UT, and Idaho Falls, ID, has assisted multiple county or rural dental locations as seen in our story. One of the areas they started focusing on is beefing up firewall protection from SonicWall.
Firewalls get old. They do not last. And it is too easy for any dental practice to believe, they are not at risk, because their business is rural. Symtec continues exploring more ideas on how agricultural dental and orthodontic practices can save more money using SonicWall.
You need a technology services company Utah Valley, Southern Utah, and Southern Idaho rural Dentists and Orthodontists rely on, SymTec is that technology services company. Call us now at (435) 817-9471 or email us at sales@symtec.com to get started