hey it's dr amanda with straight smile solutions street smile solutions.com
and today we're going to talk a little bit more about a system that i don't talk about very often
it's called healthy start by orthotame but i'm very very very familiar with the product why
it's way back when when i was first starting out on my consultancy company less busy i was open
to doing something called kol or key opinion leader which is where you're like a lecturer
and a very knowledgeable person about a certain product and a company will hire you to lecture
and teach and things like that and help you know develop the product as a clinical advisor anyways
so i was with this company for a couple of years um and some things happened at the end
and it is what it is so we're not really on the friendliest terms i'm just gonna leave it at that
and for that reason i never really felt that comfortable making content about this
appliances because i feel like people are always judging what i'm saying and then i might get
myself in trouble if i say something wrong if you get the idea so it's like not worth the stress but
y'all are specifically asking about using habit correctors or key appliances you're asking me
quite a lot and i feel pretty comfortable i've seen and done i mean tons hundreds of cases at
least i've seen from start to finish some went well some didn't go well i think it is
a my opinion is very different than the opinion of the owners so i mean i'll tell you my true opinion
you come to me you know as a patient or as you know another doctor i'm gonna tell you what i
think i say yeah i think it's a product it has its place but the place that i think it has is very
different than the place that they're teaching you the way it works i've seen a lot of cases
finish really nicely and a lot don't and i would use it in a slightly different direction with
slightly different advice basically in different clinical applications than what they're using it
now i would do it completely different if someone handed over this company to me i'd be like we
could do this so much better and make a product that orthodontists and dentists would actually
they could integrate easily into their practice not some type of weird vague situation where
you know is this a six-year thing an eight-year thing a 10-year thing
you know what if what if they don't wear it what are we gonna do now what am i responsible for do i
need to pay for braces what do i build insurance and my billing insurance you know all that
different stuff is just so it's so messy the whole process it really really is just doesn't fit into
our standard us insurance billing syndra you know system it's also very long term and it's really
hard to keep a patient in one place for three four five six years you know they might move around
so it's just it's a huge commitment i mean to this patient they have to be super compliant
there's not much you can do which is fine i think you start really really really early
you know and you pick a really good patient and a really good parent it's gonna turn out great
it really really is but it's a long time just talk about starting it two three four five you know and
then continuing all the way up till age 12 in a series of different appliances which is fine but
eight nine years of this i'd be over it as a parent i don't know about that
you know it's it's a major marathon it's not a sprint it's not for everyone but it is an option
you know and i can honestly say i've seen some and i really really these are my two favorite
if you ask me my two favorite products are for this company these are my two favorite products
number one of course i love the habit corrector the habit corrector is the first stage
they come in toddler ones little kids ones etc but i love it because it really really can get
things up and moving a little bit before you even get into the next stage whether you're
doing braces aligners or something else but you can see a little bite problem you know a
little bit of a narrow jaw a little bit of an open bite you know a little bit of a small little job
as early as three or four so now you can go ahead and deliver something that they can just wear at
night like a pillow which will actually help to improve their jaw on their airway very very
slow very slowly even before you could even start phase one treatments now we're we're intervening
at two three and four and not necessarily seven eight nine ten eleven twelve which makes things
healthier you know much less invasive and very comfortable and of course a lot cheaper the lab
fee on i believe a hc is somewhere around 100 ish maybe it's less it's not that much more
you know it's realistic you're not going to be building phase one for that but you can deliver it
just build cap you know cash you know habit appliance or something like that you know
bill for that because that's basically what it is you're not gonna get a lot of money a hundred two
hundred dollars you may not make much profit off this maybe you charge the parents a little bit
more but you know all in all there you can test out this appliance on this kid for a year year
and a half while they're really young and if they turn out they love it and they're really compliant
well that tells me that's a great patient for me to keep in my practice for phase one you know
and phase one might be expanders it might be something else maybe it's a two by four maybe
it's some phase one aligners but maybe they want to use the g appliance for phase one so i
would use it specifically as a phase one entity now sometimes for me in order for me to get a
good outcome with this product i needed to do an expander first like a lot of times i found that
it had to be done or i've worked with a lot of doctors who are in midway through healthy start
cases and they're like this is not working i'm like go do the expander
and let's come back to it and it always works fine it works out great
so there's always definite workarounds on things like that you know but for the most
part it's it's a pretty cool appliance so just wanted to let you guys know all right thanks