i'm dr amanda i'm an orthodontist and ceo of straight smile solutions we help dentists
understand orthodontics better this video will share an excerpt from a webinar hosted by clue
dental marketing and dr lanez of modern essence dentistry any patient photos are the property of
modern essence dentistry if you have questions please reach out at www.cluedentalmarketing.com
if you have questions about orthodontics please visit straight smile solutions
at www www.straightsmilesolutions.com
enjoy the video okay so let's go ahead and get started let's talk about the general
classification of comprehensive versus sto or short-term orthodontics and i really want to go
over this because i feel like this is the whole reason i really got into the whole coaching thing
i didn't like go to orthodontic residency to teach general dentists how to do ortho if you told me
that before i would think you were nuts um i got into it you know partially because my friends and
my husband and other people were like hey i could use help on this case you know can you help me
um so maybe i'm not very good at saying no but then i realized i kind of enjoyed teaching
and i don't have an orthodontic residency anywhere in my state so um or even dental school for that
matter so it was something that i just started doing as a side hustle and it just turned into
a full-time thing with a lot more flexibility for raising kids but also what really really bothered
me when i first got started is i started attending some of the gp ortho classes and i'm not going
to name them out there but you know who they are that are targeted towards gps be it braces be it
appliances airway appliances functional appliances as well as aligners and they're just wrong what
they're teaching is wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong it's totally wrong it's just slick fast and easy
but it's not right it's not good ortho and it honestly it made me sick sometimes you know it
was like these dentists think this is the right way to do things and this is they don't understand
the long-term damage they're causing potentially doing this especially on kids and teens
and it's really not that hard to do comprehensive it doesn't take that much longer and remember
it also can be borderline insurance fraud and i'm just going to throw that out there and if you want
to know more about that and i hate to use the f word but um if you're billing comprehensive which
for ortho which is your d80 the 87 d80 80 d80 90 and you're not providing comprehensive ortho it
can come back to bite you and i i literally had this happen yesterday not to me but a friend of
mine who was actually a physician her kids had had phase one was not done right it was
actually done by an orthodontist but she went in and she contacted the insurance and she was like
they did not do what they promised you know and she was like goodness i am not helping you with
this but it can come back to bite you if you're building the wrong thing you're making promises
or remember if you're not giving ideal or perfect treatment that's okay but the benefits have to
outweigh the wrist and too often general dentists feel like they're pushed into a corner i only want
upper treatment or i only want my front teeth done but unless you can explain to the patient
the benefits and the risks and the benefits can outweigh the risks you know and long term not
just short term like your bite okay you're going to have overjet but you need to explain what is
this overdrive going to do to you in the long term 10 20 30 40 years airway you know tongue position
occlusion abstractions bite wear attrition you need to be able to understand tmj what
what is this going to do if you cannot explain the risk of taking shortcuts you have no business
doing the shortcuts because it's going to come back to bite you later they really really were
i know a lot of you are probably freaking out right now and if you've worked with me before
in a case i know i have some of my clients in here you know i'll give lectures because i want
to protect you you know i don't want something to happen to you and i also want your patients
to have the best possible treatment so if you're not comfortable providing comprehensive i mean
it's really not that much harder and it's not even always sometimes it's easier then don't
take the case you know if you can't explain the options then send the patient to an orthodontist
because it's the right thing to do and if you only are providing sto in your practice that's okay
but you need to tell the patient look i only apply provide this type of stuff here's the risk if you
want perfect go to an orthodontist that's all i really want you to do so we're going to talk about
it a little bit more between comprehensive and sto um again comprehensive means fixing
everything you know overjet over bike cross fight transverse sagittal um ap um you're gonna actually
get torque on the teeth you're gonna upgrade the roots you know you're going to give a nice healthy
balanced bite occlusion on all the teeth that have opposings etc right we want this bite to be
stable for a lifetime we want this patient to keep their teeth forever you know if possible i like to
say my 92 year old grandma she when she passed away she had every single dude i mean not her
wisdom teeth but every single tooth you know she never had any teeth pulled she never had dentures
or anything like that you know she was pretty darn proud of it and it is definitely possible
for people to live a long healthy life with all their teeth but not if they have mild occlusion
you know whereas sto like i said it's okay and there's a lot of direct to consumer companies
which are basically doing seo so i'm not going to even go into that because they're very litigious
but you know same thing you got to explain the risks you have to explain the benefits
so if you're finishing your cases in round wires it's not stable it's not healthy it's not torqued
um if you're not fixing over jets um if you're not fixing negative over jets it's not healthy
but if that's really what the patient wants and you feel that the benefits outweigh the
risk then explain it to the patient document it in writing and have them sign that's all i recommend