Orthotown January/February 2021 - 57

We don't want you to feel rushed at all,
because this is a big decision. We want
you to be confident and feel comfortable
with the orthodontist that you choose. We
strive to give the best quality care to all of
our patients and in order to be fair to all of
our patients, we aren't able to match prices
or negotiate overall fees. "

Setting up the system
Before you set up a virtual new-patient
consultation plan in your office, brainstorm
with your entire team to determine the true
order of operation. There will always be
trial and error. The first few weeks of doing
virtual new-patient consultations will feel
odd, but the more comfortable you get with
it, the more tweaking you do each week to
make the next one even better.
Always have the treatment coordinator
make a reminder to check in and follow up
with the parent or patient within a few days
after the virtual consultation. With this
mindset, it will just get better and better.
Because of the virtual consultations,
we've been able to see more crucial appointments in the office and spend more needed
time with them because we aren't having to
tackle the doctor to hurry up and get into
the new-patient room.
Take note that the actual virtual appointments never last more than 10-15 minutes, so
we can squeeze in last-minute consultations
pretty much any time throughout the day
where there are openings. (The treatment
coordinator's work in the lead up to the
appointment and follow-up afterward takes
additional time but is well worth it.)

Some bonuses to virtual
new-patient scheduling
Because photographs are sent to us a
few days before the virtual appointment,
patients don't have to be present if they can't
miss school. Moms love this! Many times,
parents join the virtual appointments from
their office, in their car, from home, and so
on. It honestly has been a game-changer,
but only because we have tweaked and
fine-tuned the overall process so much that
it has become a thing of the past to bring

patients and parents into the office building
for every single new-patient consultation.
This virtual new-patient consultation
has also allowed our treatment coordinator
to have more office time to follow up with
colleagues and parents, so she's also able to
help cover phones and schedule.
Before COVID, we were considering
hiring someone else just to make follow-up
calls, cover phones and help with more " office
work, " but now we have learned to become
so much more efficient: Our administrative
team has more time to get caught up because
there aren't as many people inside the
building waiting to be seen.

Adjunct ideas and time-savers
Even before COVID, our practice used
detailed " report cards " to send home with
patients, which have been valuable since
the COVID shutdown and our subsequent
reopening. It's an easy checklist for the
assistant to simply check off how hygiene
was today, what might have been broken
and was fixed at the appointment, what was
done today, what the patient might need
to work on, if they're wearing elastics and
when, and when their next appointment is.
(We do the latter chairside now, so admins
don't see any patients face-to-face.)
We also have lots of procedure codes that
autopost emails to parents about elastics,
hygiene and retainer wear with patient
pics and office videos. No more retainer
checks at all in our office! We even have a
video for expansion patients, which includes
instructions on how to turn the device and
reminds them to send photos to us after
three weeks so we can determine if they're
turning correctly or whether more expansion
is needed-without them ever having to
come to the office to do so.
We used to have patients with poor
oral hygiene come back in two to three
weeks to have us check on it. Now we send
a letter to the parents with a picture of how
the patient looked today and ask them to
encourage the patient each day to follow
our instructions-yes, we have a video for
that too!-and take a follow-up photo in
two weeks so we can see progress.

The same goes for recalls who are ready
to start but brushing is not up to par: The
email instructs them to take a picture in three
weeks to show us improvement before we'll
book any appointment for the braces. One
patient with subpar hygiene slowly improved
over time and sent a series of pictures to us
over several months. Now, her hygiene is
finally up to our standards for braces. We
are proud of her and now feel confident that
the treatment will be not only an orthodontic
but a dental hygiene success. 

Treatment acceptance
is now virtual too
We no longer do in-office consultations
for signing paperwork, either. Explaining and
deciding upon financial contracts, procedures
and policies is all done on the phone and
acceptance is given via RightSignature. When
the new patient comes into the office for the
first time, paperwork has already been signed
and down payment taken care of, so we're
not waiting on a consult that took way too
long or payments that haven't been made.
We allocate one hour total for this first
in-office experience to take records, have the
doctor verify the original treatment plan,
and place the upper braces. Many times, the
patient has already watched our " what to
expect/oral hygiene " video at home; if not,
we allow them to watch it on their phone
or our tablet in our office while we clean/
treat other patients, so that saves a step as
well. (We do have a private room for younger,
special needs, immunocompromised and
elderly patients that, if required or parents
request to come in, must be reserved on a
special block on our schedule in advance.)
I believe that we've made a name for
ourselves in the community as a familyfriendly atmosphere with a much more
conservative approach compared with
most orthodontic offices, yet everyone also
knows we are progressive with the latest
technology. n

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Orthotown January/February 2021

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