Download Implementing Orthodontics In Your General Practice

orthodontics
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Implementing
Orthodontics In Your
General Practice
Learning to move teeth to improve smiles and create happy patients
can be easy. However, the integration of orthodontics into your general
dental practice can be overwhelming at first, if you do not have a plan
and a clear vision of what you would like to accomplish.
by Stephen Glass, DDS, FAGD
My journey
When I first looked into implementing orthodontics, at
that time it was common to place veneers on teeth to achieve “straightening.” The common theme taught by a few particular CE gurus was
to prepare teeth as aggressively as was needed to achieve the desired
esthetics with porcelain veneers, even if it meant doing intentional
root-canal therapy.
However, I wanted to add orthodontic treatment to my practice
so I could be a more conservative cosmetic dentist. I wanted a way to
straighten teeth prior to preparing them for veneers to save enamel and
to avoid root-canal treatments.
Times were a little different just 10 to 15 years ago in the dental
world. Orthodontic CE options for general dentists were very limited.
It was difficult to find information, and locate courses and reviews from
those who took them.
Thanks to Dentaltown, all that has changed now. Many years ago,
after learning more on Dentaltown, I happened to take the very first
course from Dr. DePaul about Powerprox Six Month Braces, a good
alternative to doing porcelain veneers on adult patients.
Invisalign also became available to general dentists, and this provided even more options to treat adult patients by using clear aligners.
After starting out treating only adults, I soon realized I really
enjoyed doing orthodontics. I started taking comprehensive orthodontic
curricula to learn how to treat children and adolescents, as well.
One course in particular that I really liked was Dr. Gerety’s Comprehensive Straightwire course. From taking various courses, I learned
that there are many paths to begin doing orthodontics, and they are
not for everyone. If you can decide what your plan is and create a clear
vision of how to accomplish it, then you can make your personal journey a much easier one.
What is your plan?
Ask yourself some questions:
• Do you want to treat children, adolescents and adults? Or do you
want to treat only adults?
• Do you want to focus on limited treatment, or comprehensive
treatment?
• Do you want to learn how to treat with clear aligners, or using
traditional brackets and wires? Or both?
• What is your commitment to learning?
• What are your patient demographics? Mostly kids or adults?
Many different orthodontic lecturers give various opinions on who
is easier to treat: children or adults. The fact is, both can be easy and
both can be hard. I think you should look at your current practice
demographics and decide which one allows you more opportunity to
perform treatment.
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orthodontics
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If your general practice currently consists of mostly adults, then learning how
to treat children by using comprehensive
orthodontics is not going to be very beneficial unless you have a way to bring more
children into your practice.
If your patient population from which
to selectively choose cases is limited,
then the total cases you can treat will be
decreased. You want a large patient pool
to be able to select appropriate case types
for starting treatment. The more cases
you can select to treat and start, the more
experience you will gain.
If you decide that you want to treat
children and adolescents, then I recommend you start with a comprehensive
orthodontic training program designed
for this type of treatment. These programs will teach you how to accurately
diagnose, how to use various appliances,
how to properly time your treatment,
and how to utilize the various techniques
needed for a good result. They will also
teach you about growth and development.
These programs typically are a year
long, and often allow you to return for a
second year. I recommend—and have completed—Gerety Orthodontic Seminars.
Some really great programs are available
and you can easily find them if you do a
search on the Dentaltown message boards.
I also strongly recommend that after you
complete your first comprehensive course,
you take more than one program.
Treating adults
If you decide that you’d like to treat
adults, then you might start by taking Dr.
DePaul’s Powerprox Six Month Braces
courses. I believe he has put together
the best overall adult-treatment courses
available. You will learn how to properly
diagnose and treat adult cases for the best
results. Most importantly, you will be
taught which cases to avoid treating during
your learning phase.
Again, do a search on the Dentaltown
message boards for adult orthodontic
courses and you will find that you have
many options.
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Orthodontics is one of the areas in which general
dentists have the least experience when graduating. You
will find that the more courses you take and the more
cases you treat, the more there is to know and learn.
Regarding clear-aligner treatment,
such as Invisalign, I believe that it’s wiser
to start with one of the above training
sessions before moving to clear aligners.
This may sound very backward in
today’s dental world, but all too often I
hear of colleagues going to an Invisaligntype course only to be very disappointed
because they return not really confident
in their knowledge of how to treat cases.
Then, when they attempt to use the clearaligner system and do not achieve the
desired results, they are disappointed and
blame the system. They do not realize that
the problem is their lack of ability to properly diagnose and treatment-plan the case.
Clear-aligner courses teach you one
main thing: how to use their system. They
are not focused on all the other aspects,
and to be fair, I don’t think that is necessarily their job. They are providing a tool
for moving the teeth to your desired goal.
They need to focus on instructing you how
to use their software and system to its fullest extent. It would be impossible to cover
all the necessary things you need to know
about orthodontics in one of their courses.
If you have already completed orthodontic
training programs and have experience
moving teeth traditionally, you can be
very successful in treating adolescents and
adults with clear-aligner treatment because
you have a solid base of knowledge. This
will also allow you to treat more case types
with auxiliary treatment in addition to
clear aligners.
I have not yet discussed the many clinical aspects of implementing orthodontics
into a general practice. Yes, it’s important
to have properly trained staff and all of the
necessary equipment, software, and items
needed for treatment. But if you do not
have the clinical know-how to properly
diagnose and treat cases, you will not be
efficient, no matter how well your systems
are in place.
Implementing orthodontics into your
practice requires a huge commitment to
continued learning. Orthodontics is one of
the areas in which general dentists have the
least experience upon graduation. You will
find that the more courses you take and
the more cases you treat, the more there is
to know and learn.
Also, the more you learn and complete cases, the more appreciation you will
have for your orthodontist. Find a local
orthodontist with whom you can work
and who is supportive of you learning
orthodontics. You both will find that your
referrals will actually increase, as you will
be able to identify more cases that could
benefit from treatment.
Moving forward
Create a clear vision of what type of
orthodontics you want to implement into
your practice, take the appropriate courses,
and most importantly, start treating some
cases. Once you do, you will realize how
enjoyable orthodontics can be.
Patients do not usually get very
excited if we restore to perfect form and
function a CAD/CAM crown on tooth
#3. However, it is very fun to see patients
happy with their new smiles, following
orthodontic treatment.
Notice I have not discussed any
financial aspects. Yes, orthodontics can
be financially rewarding in your general
practice, but it can also be the opposite.
I have heard of general dentists adding
orthodontics to their practices, only to
see the amount of their general dentistry
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decline. This can happen for a variety of
reasons, but I think the main problem is
inadequate training, which leads to longer
clinical chair time. You have to enjoy
doing orthodontics, and for this to happen
you have to be committed to learning as
much as you can to make it a successful
venture. You then also have to decide what
type of orthodontic treatment fits your
general practice.
For me, it’s very rewarding to be able to
diagnose, treatment plan, and treat a complex case requiring periodontal treatment,
orthodontics, implants and restorative dentistry. What will be rewarding for you? ■
Have you thought about implementing orthodontics in your practice? Comment on this article at Orthotown.com/magazine.aspx.
Author Bio
Dr. Stephen Glass owns a private practice in Spring, Texas. He is on the advisory boards for Dentaltown Magazine and Dentaltown CE, and is
a Dentaltown administrator. He is currently a Premier Provider for Invisalign and a member of the American Dental Association, Academy of
General Dentistry and American Orthodontic Society. Glass is also a fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry and the Institute for Advanced
Laser Dentistry, academy member of Cerecdoctors, and member of the Spear Educational Institute.
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