DE’s Advisory Board member profile: Tarun Agarwal, DDS

Tell us about a product or technology that has recently changed your world.

It’s not so recent, but I have always said that an extraoral digital camera has been the absolute most important piece of technology in my office. It helps to educate patients, document cases for marketing, and create educational materials for team training.

We pretty much use our camera for every single patient. We have a camera for every single operatory and it is used by every team member. It is considered a “standard of care” in our practice. Without question, I wouldn’t be doing the dentistry I am doing (and have done through the years) without a digital extraoral camera.

More recently, 3-D CBCT imaging has made a dramatic impact in my practice. Any technology is simply a tool. The key is what that tool is capable of and to what degree you use that tool.

We initially purchased CBCT to gain more confidence in dental implants. What I have found through the years is that it has become a staple in our everyday general dentistry. From enhanced diagnostics to patient communication, from implant dentistry to endodontics, and even with sleep apnea therapy, CBCT has allowed our practice to expand our treatment choices for patients.

What’s a piece of advice you wish you knew five years ago?

I don’t know about five years ago, but I am now nearly 20 years out of dental school and my biggest regret is that I didn’t have a personal financial savings plan my first 10 years in practice. I was making money, but I was just spending it. I literally had no rainy day fund or retirement money after 10 years of practice.

The biggest advice I can give a dentist of any age is to make your personal financial savings an automated monthly bill. Whether you can afford to save a lot or just a little each month, the discipline and habit of doing it monthly will pay off in spades. The peace of mind, the financial security, and the financial flexibility that saving creates can’t be measured.