hey it's dr amanda with street smile solutions street smile solutions.com and today we're going
to talk about something about breaking up with your orthodontist now i've done this
from the other direction some of my videos are doctor facing that means they're kind of more
meant for doctors although patients sometimes find them interesting so my videos are meant more for
the consumer or the patient so this one is going to be from the consumer or the patient standpoint
so i actually had a question on our facebook group yesterday someone said you know just not happy
with my daughter's treatment it's taking too long we're over two years now they posted some pictures
it just looked like it's being really slow and who knows i mean listen i'm gonna tell you from
the orthodontist standpoint we come we see you we take some x-rays we do a clinical evaluation
we give an estimate of how long we think a treatment will take you know so sometimes we're
right on something things go faster as long as things go slower it doesn't mean that we're wrong
necessarily but it's an estimate people some people's teeth move faster some people's teeth
move slower it really depends on so many different variables not only from root length to compliance
how often you show up if you do what we asked you to do did you wear the elastics correctly did you
miss some appointments with covet everything's taking longer right because we lost a lot for
people in braces we lost a lot of appointments just because of the rules that the states made
some dentists obliged you know listen to the rules and some didn't care and we're still seeing
their patients whatever we know now that that was probably fine you know but some orthodontists were
following the rules a little bit more than others so you know what you can't fault your orthodontist
for following the rules um what else sometimes your bone is more dense or ossified than other
people's bone and those treatments are going to take a little bit slower sometimes we can kind
of see in an x-ray but most likely not we don't really know until it happens right so there's a
lot of different variables that go into how long something's going to take you know of course
sometimes you know dentists are maybe i can tell you having worked in a lot of offices you know
and sometimes especially if the office isn't using a type of patient management software on their end
that alerts if something's gone over time so some software's especially the orthodontic facing ones
they'll be like a literally like a red light like blinking like your patience over time bing bing
bing you know hurry up sometimes we honestly i'm gonna tell you i mean i was always very
very aware like i always checked when did the case start how long did we say it was gonna be and if
something ran over i would tell my office managers i want to know let me put a giant sticker on here
at the beginning of the day when we do our morning huddle i want to know who on my list today has run
over time because i want to make them my vip i want to get them done i like to keep promises
it doesn't much you know at least do the best i can so somebody that's running overtime for me i'm
going to do whatever i can do to get them in to be you know convenient for them because you know
that's not fair i wouldn't want that to happen to me you know even if it's nobody's fault right
so i want to make sure you're getting the best appointments that maybe we're booking
appointments out in advance a few months every three four weeks to get this done you know so
in any case and sometimes it means you know we have to reevaluate the treatment plan why
isn't this going as predicted okay so as you get the idea so sometimes honestly the doctor
may have no idea that it happens and you know especially if you're paid up and your revenue's
in they might not even notice you know you're not necessarily behind or anything like that but
you know we want you to finish because we want you to be satisfied if you're satisfied you're
going to probably send us friends and family right so you know okay so you get the idea so
how do you handle it so first of all listen orthodontics is a long-term relationship
it's kind of like dating someone you know most medical procedures you come in you come out you're
done one or two visits you know a few weeks a few months whatever done orthodontics can go two years
even longer so it's a long-term relationship we know that sometimes we're going to break up with
patients our patients are going to break up with us more often you know maybe they have to move
maybe the location isn't convenient anymore maybe the times aren't convenient
maybe the personality is just on a good fit it happens so we're used to doc to patients
breaking up with us that's totally normal method happens pretty frequently you know obviously you
don't want it to be too frequently because it can get messy with giving refunds or partial refunds
how does that work insurances you know it's complicated we want you to be satisfied
but say it happens a couple of times a month in orthodontics office so they're ready for this
conversation it's just a matter that you need to initiate the conversation so it really depends on
what type of office this is so you know if this is a group practice or a dsl or a chain practice
i would just recommend that you want to talk to the office manager my suggestion the best
way to handle it is to give the office a call in advance of your appointment say hey i've got
an appointment on friday it's monday i want to let you know that we're really not that satisfied with
the progress of so-and-so's case we would like to have a meeting with the office manager and the
doctor just put it out there because it might mean that they need to switch your appointment around
when people would just kind of shanghai me with this especially at a three or four o'clock
appointment i'm not very happy and i'm pretty defensive you know as an orthodontist because
that is the busiest time of my day and if you want to have a meeting let me know ahead of time and
we'll definitely build that into the schedule but it may not be at three or four o'clock
usually these meetings for these kind of appointments take some sitting down some exam
we re-evaluate we take some progress x-rays it's gonna take me longer so it's gonna be a morning
appointment it's not gonna be a saturday it's not going to be an afternoon or evening so have
respect for the doctor and for the office if this is something you want to talk about and give them
the opportunity to move your appointment around to a time that is where they can invest the time into
giving you the care that they need to does that make sense so giving your doctor a couple weeks
notice on that would be great making sure that you've set up some time to talk to the doctor
you know and the office manager and that's usually the way it works once you do that the other thing
you're going to want to do is you're going to want to dig through your records and find
a copy of the contract that you signed so anytime anything you do you know there's a contract right
you buy a car there's a contract um you go to a school there's a contract so you start with
the treatment there's a contract so if you lost your contract then you'll want to ask the office
manager for a copy of the contract you sign if you didn't sign a contract and they can't provide one
well guess what the ball's in your court so that's a lucky thing for you so hopefully your doctor's
smart enough to have contracts because most do and then you it should have a section in there if what
happens if you want to leave treatment early if you want to discontinue if you want to transfer
there should be a section in that contract for that these contracts are already pre-built for
this knowing it's going to happen will you get a refund depends on what your contract says so
if the doctor claims that it's done then no you probably won't get a refund even if you're not
that satisfied because if it's done it's done that's your word against theirs you know sure
you can always file a complaint with the state dental board or with your insurance company or
both um of course i'm not advocating that you do that but those are your rights to do that
if you're still not satisfied if the doctor isn't meeting your needs but most doctors will go out of
their way to meet your needs if it is possible and to make you satisfied if it is possible now
let's get to what what happened so it all comes down to the doctor's notes
so if you weren't being compliant or your child is not being compliment you're missing appointments
cove it's a gray area so that's really nobody's fault but beyond that if you were missing
appliance you weren't wearing your elastics you were breaking brackets well most likely
it's going to end up costing you money to do this so you're probably not going to get a refund and
you're going to have to go find another doctor and you can go ahead and start interviewing other
doctors and going in for consults people do that all the time where i get a patient coming in they
already have braces on the doctor some guy uptown or down the street just not that satisfied i want
to get a second opinion we do those consults all the time obviously we don't want to be
throwing our you know our colleagues under the bus or just giving facts you know hey looks like
brackets are placed right looks like maybe you just need up some elastics for a few months you
know and sometimes you can take that information and go back to your original doctor and be like
look i went for a couple second opinion consults and they basically said that we need to do x x y
and z for the most part if you do that the doctors are going to be like you know oops okay i kind
of you know dropped the ball on this patient you know let me white glove you let me get you done so
you know or they might say you know maybe best that you do transfer and it might cost you money
to transfer it to another doctor sometimes when you transfer to other doctors if they don't use
the same type of brackets they're going to want to completely take your brackets off and put them
back on so like i said most likely you're going to lose money on this transfer so the best thing
for you to do if you can is to stick with the same doctor just try to improve communication
and i'd say nine times out of ten the doctor is going to do whatever they need
to do to accommodate you you know it helps to be friendly but firm in terms of what you want
so hopefully this was helpful and hopefully no doctors are upset that i mention this but i mean
patients need to know what their rights are so all right thanks so much