BUILDING OR REFRESHING YOUR DENTAL PRACTICE 5 The dental equipment consultant can then create, or help the architect create, a custom dental equipment specification sheet that becomes part of your construction documents. This custom dental equipment specification sheet gives essential directions to the architect’s engineers. While the engineers are working on their piece, the equipment consultant can aid the architect, with your input, on the design of your millwork (subcontractor-built) cabinetry. The consultant can also offer input into the design of your operatory ceiling grids as they relate to your ceiling-mounted dental lights, computer monitors, and microscopes. Once the architect sends construction documents to the city for permit, the dental equipment consultant can review the plumbing, electric, and mechanical pages (which the engineers have created) to ensure all equipment requirements are on paper. If items are missing after review, the equipment consultant can meet with the architect and create an addendum of these missing items to include in the bidding process to help eliminate contractor change orders. The dental equipment consultant must apply this level of diligence so that the dollar amount quoted to you by the contractors is as close as possible to the final billing. The construction documents and addendum can now be sent to the contractors for bid. Once the contractor is chosen, the tenant improvement stage begins. The dental equipment consultant can be present at the job site at all the critical stages, to help ensure that the contractor meets all your dental equipment requirements. Depending on the dental experience of the contractor, your consultant may need to make between 14 and 20-plus visits to the job site during construction. Every piece of equipment has unique requirements, so the dental equipment consultant must do the homework necessary to ensure a smooth and uneventful installation. Unfortunately, here is another inherent weakness in the dental industry that needs to be addressed. Not all “dental equipment consultants” in the United States have the experience and training to handle all the responsibilities described above, and some have no expertise in dental equipment or reading construction documents. Not all dental equipment salespersons are qualified to handle all the responsibilities of a dental equipment consultant. If you are considering working with a dental equipment consultant or a dental equipment salesperson, ask him or her some hard questions about their experience, training, and commitment. Work with a qualified attorney to make sure that any contract you sign with a consultant or salesperson clearly spells out his or her responsibilities and the timeframe for carrying them out. If you assume that a dental equipment consultant or salesperson will spend the time necessary to perform all the above-mentioned services, but he or she doesn’t, the resulting chaos will cost you significant time, money and headaches. The dental equipment consultant can create, or help the architect create, a custom dental equipment specification sheet that becomes part of your construction documents. This custom dental equipment specification sheet gives essential directions to the architect’s engineers.