How to achieve comprehensive teamwork in your pediatric dental office through total quality management (TQM).

Teamwork is considered the key to success in any organization. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a systematic process that optimizes quality and copes with change. The process includes customer satisfaction, as the ultimate criterion of quality; worker empowerment; and reliance on statistical process, rather than inspection and continuous improvement. Managers not only adopt new techniques but also a new philosophy, rethinking their roles to become leaders and mentors instead of bosses. Fourteen points, developed during several decades, are considered the cornerstone of quality and teamwork, and they can apply to what we do in the pediatric dental office. Together, these principles should be viewed as an ongoing process that can take up to five years or more and should be managed with the same emphasis as other systems in your office. The dentist, or leader, implements and takes part in the process, which will improve morale by increasing team spirit.