95% of your practice has it. Why aren't you offering the fix?
You see it on most of your patients. They squint at the mirror after their prophy appointment and point at the jumbled bottom row of teeth that just got a bunch of tartar scraped off of them. Many of them have already had braces, but tossed their retainers out at soon as they moved away from home. None of them want braces again, but most would like to return to their perfect post-ortho state.
In your practice, what options can you give them? Refer to another office? What are the chances they make it before changing their mind? Besides, I hope the referring office remembers to take you out to lunch every once in a while to thank you for sending them revenue you could have kept for your own practice.
An easy solution for all of this has been in front of us for years now. Invisalign allows you to treat these cases, satisfy your patients, and expand the services your practice provides. This is not complex orthodontics. Most of us did not get the best undergrad ortho education anyway. Invisalign has a complete certification process that teaches you all-things-ortho from the ground up. Further, they offer regular continuing education classes to keep you on top of the latest trends and innovations.
 |
To get started in your office, all you need are some PVS full arch impressions, a full arch bite registration, and some pre-treatment photos. For X-rays, you can choose either a panoramic x-ray or FMX. Case submission forms can all be filled out online, and you mail a pre-paid box with the impressions to Align. After a few weeks, you can then download a 3-dimenstional digital model of your patient to check on exactly how the teeth will undergo movement. For a patient, seeing their teeth on the screen spinning in 3-D is one of the more fascinating dental visits they have ever had (see the video below).
Keep in mind for these more straightforward cases, Invisalign offers an express treatment protocol that also comes with a reduced lab fee. This allows you to more competitively price your own fees to make it easier for patients to accept the treatment recommendation.
Keep in mind that Invisalign has recently changed some requirements for Invisalign doctors. In order to maintain clinical skills and ensure good treatment outcomes, they have placed a requirement for a minimum number of continuing education credits you need to complete annually. There is also a minimum number of cases you need to complete annually as well.
So step in. Challenge yourself. Complement your clinical skills by adding a predictable addition to your practice that expands what you can offer to your patients. By educating yourself in another specialty, you will find that you are better at considering a patients' needs and creating better, more comprehensive treatment plans than ever before.