Orthotown October 2019 - 36

office visit

What logistics come into play
with video visits? What if patient
compliance becomes an issue?
We use video visits to monitor patients
who are wearing aligners and some
observation patients. Using a company
called NextPatient, patients make a video
appointment request, choosing from the
available times, and our office joins the
video chat through a secure website portal.
Using diagnostic information provided by
Dental Monitoring, our doctors can advise
aligner patients to go to their next aligner
or continue wearing the existing trays
until proper fit. These tools give our team
an advantage when it comes to managing
patient compliance.
We're always able to spot those patients
who may benefit from in-office visits, or
those who may be better served with a fixed
appliance because of noncompliance.
How has your marketing evolved
to reach this demographic?
As landscape in the dental market rapidly
changes, I believe the traditional days of
an orthodontist waiting for GP referrals

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OCTOBER 2019 // orthotown.com

are over. We are in the millennial age and
we need to be able to deliver for this new
demographic. Today, I primarily use social
media to reach new patients. Through
Facebook and Instagram, I work with a
company that uses geofencing, which targets
a desired location with an exact demographic
such as age and income. Using this method,
we can reach people who are interested in
clear aligners or braces and show them ads
that target their specific interests.
The 2005 opening of your Smyrna
practice was the beginning of one
seven-year plan; the second, in 2012,
involved giving DSOs a go. It's 2019
now, so what's the next plan about?
I dreamed of taking the concept of my
in-house aligner system a step further and

earlier this year launched Atlanta Clear, a
virtual clear-aligner company.
I'd noticed that more adults were seeking
orthodontic treatment while demanding
treatment options that afforded ease and
convenience without wearing a mouth full of
braces. Our clear aligner system addresses this
concern. Atlanta Clear leverages cutting-edge
materials and tech-savvy diagnostic tools to
save patients time and money.
With several scan centers located around
the city, patients come in for an initial
scan and meet in person with one of our
partnering doctors. If their case fits the
mild to moderate criteria, they're offered
our virtual clear-aligner treatment option.
To ensure that patients' virtual treatment
is going as planned, Atlanta Clear partnered
with Dental Monitoring. Patients take weekly
scans of their teeth using Dental Monitoring's
ScanBox and a cellphone, and the company
uses artificial intelligence to track tooth
movement and supplies the doctor with
precise clinical data. With this diagnostic
tool, our orthodontists are able to remotely
guide patient treatment. For complex cases
that may require IPR or elastics, a patient can
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Orthotown October 2019

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