Orthotown October 2019 - 32

office visit

TOP PRODUCTS
1. Dental Monitoring. Using
artificial intelligence, this
device can identify multiple
oral conditions. I use it to
monitor my aligner patients,
who take weekly scans of their
teeth during treatment. DM
provides me with valuable
diagnostic information that
helps me identify when it's
time for aligner changes or
noncompliance. DM improves
patient engagement and leads
to better treatment results.
2. Medit i500 intraoral scanner.
The compact design of this
fast, video-based capture color
scanner makes it completely
portable, and plug-and-play
operability allows my team
to transport the handpiece
between chairs or from office
to office and simply plug it in.
It's extremely accurate and
has an affordable price.
3. Formlabs Form 2
3D printer. This high-resolution
stereolithography printer is
a workhorse and extremely
reliable. Formlabs offers a
variety of resins for many
different applications. The
models are accurate and
functional. Its affordable cost
allows you the option of having
several printers for redundancy,
which is crucial for our in-house
laboratory.
4. Spectralase 980 Ultra Pulse
laser. I use this soft-tissue
laser to expose canines and
teeth that are slow to erupt.
It's probably the most
important tool I use in my
practice. I'm real big on how
gum tissue frames out my
ortho cases, so I always take
the opportunity to sculpt the
tissue before removing the
braces. This always ensures
that "wow!" moment that my
patients and parents have been
waiting for!

32

OCTOBER 2019 // orthotown.com

This was a project where you opted
to end the effort early. What led
to that decision?
In 2015, while working with the large
DSO, we started experiencing operational
problems and management issues-patient
scheduling, staffing issues and collections.
Because orthodontics was a new business
model for the company, I offered my input,
but quickly realized that the provider's
business opinion wasn't really welcome.
After coming to the realization that in
major companies like this one, executives
make the decisions, not dentists, I decided
to leave after three years and regain focus
on my own private offices.
For your third location, you partnered
with a group of pediatric dentists.
During the time that I spent working
with DSOs, I learned valuable operational
knowledge, so when it came time for me to
search for my next venture, I believed I was
well prepared. I still wanted to maintain
and develop a relationship with a group
practice, so in 2015 I created my third
location and partnered with a pediatric

dental group-two pediatric dentists and
one GP who treated only teens. In this
relationship, I wanted to ensure that my
management team was in full control, so
we would be able to implement our own
standard operating procedures. We agreed
to sublease space from the pediatric group
and operate independently. In this way, our
ortho-trained staff takes care of everything
as we would do in our own office.
We created a call center to receive all
incoming calls and centralized our lab in
our main location. To ensure that the office
is run efficiently and productively, we're very
keen to the concept of space utilization. To
maximize chair profitability, we pay close
attention to the number of days that each
provider uses the space.
Although the ortho and pedo offices
operate as two separate entities, we share
limited number of staff and also share cost
on several things, including advertising and
community outreach efforts.
The pedo/ortho symbiotic relationship
has been very productive. Our model offers
our patients convenience, and all our patients'
needs are met in a unique way under one roof.
http://www.orthotown.com
Orthotown October 2019

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