Orthotown May 2020 - 26

office visit

OTHER PRODUCTS
Appliances
*	 RPE and Herbst appliances,
depending on the type, from
Specialty Appliances.
*	 Herbst appliances, depending on
the type, from AOA.
*	 Hawley retainers from AOA
(though we predominantly
use in-house Vacuform).
*	 Quadhelix from MediLab and
Crozats from Ortek, although
we predominantly use Invisalign
First. If no airway issue, we may
consider uLab.
Bonding agent
*	 Blugloo from Ormco for
clear brackets
*	 Transbond XT for metal brackets
and LR from Unitek for bonded
lingual retainers
*	 Monobond and Monobond Etch
and Prime from Ivoclar Vivadent
*	 Ortho Solo from Ormco
Brackets and wires
*	 Damon Clear from Ormco
(upper only, upon request)
*	 Pitts 21 from OC-Orthodontics
(metal)
Cements
Fuji Ortho LC from GC America
for bands
Patient finance
OrthoFi
Class II appliances
*	 Carriere Motion 3D appliance,
clear and metal, from Henry
Schein Orthodontics (usually in
conjunction with Invisalign)
*	 Herbst appliance from AOA or
Specialty Appliances (Invisalign
mandibular advancement feature
for less severe cases)
Class III appliances
Buccal shelf TADs
Practice management
Ortho2 Edge

26

What's it like working with two
other orthodontists? What's the
doctor-patient ratio, and how do
you divvy up your time?
It's extremely rare to have two or three
orthodontists working interchangeably on
patients, and at the same time! We have been
fortunate to have the financial flexibility to
allow for two doctors to work in the clinic
simultaneously and we enjoy live, real-time
sharing of cases.
That being said, all three doctors are
proficient with various forms of virtual
communication, and our experience with
COVID-19 has fine-tuned that even further.
We are now able to share ideas on patients
in real time and/or same day via text (using
Podium via front desk or personal cell), video
chat (using Zoom) or email (via Google)
to provide our patients with multiple-doctor input on their cases even when only
one dentist is present in the clinic. We're
the only office in our area offering clinic
Monday through Friday and we're able to
balance our work and personal/nonclinical
responsibilities well by sharing the assigned
clinic time. This is especially helpful in the
case of personal/business travel, allowing us
to remain open for our patients year-round
even in the holiday season and summer. In a
typical week, each of the three doctors will
work one to two days to provide coverage
for patients Monday through Friday.

Your practice is a certified Green
Business in a LEED Gold Status
building. Why did you decide you
wanted this distinction? How do
the certain standards translate into
your orthodontic work?
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design. We had already
been implementing "green" measures in our
previous practice location, as an extension
of our own personal philosophy: We want
our practice to reflect who we are. With
the move to the new office space, we were
completely gutting the space and starting

a fresh buildout from the ground up. This
allowed us the opportunity to incorporate
into the construction process all the required
features of LEED certification.
Our buildout was done under serious
time constraints, because it wasn't known
when they would begin demolition of our
old office space. As such, the entire total
time for demo and buildout, from signing
the contract to moving in, was less than three
months-and within the budget determined
by the bank loan! Although we did not believe
that we had either the time (estimated 90
additional days) or the budget (estimated
$60K) to pursue LEED certification of the
office space during the buildout, having it
built to LEED certification made it easy
to obtain our county's "Green Business"
certification, which is based on the same
parameters.
*	 LEED-certified office spaces cost less
to operate, reducing energy and water
bills by as much as 40%.
*	 Money saved can be reallocated
to attract and retain top employees,
expand operations and invest in
emerging technologies.
*	 An increasing number of patients
suffer from hypersensitivity reactions.
Ecologically conscious products
minimize the risk of an allergic
reaction being triggered by the office
environment. In recognition of this
trend to more sensitivity, we offer
orthodontic treatment with materials
with little to no reactivity: Invisalign
polyurethane aligners (rinsing before
wear usually enough; otherwise, a
hypoallergenic option is available);
sapphire and titanium brackets
with beta titanium wires are also
available to address a possible nickel
allergy (the most common allergen
in orthodontics, per the NIH). We
have also used latex-free, powder-free
gloves exclusively for many years and
stock vinyl gloves for the occasional
reported nitrile allergy.

MAY 2020 // orthotown.com

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Orthotown May 2020

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