Orthotown March 24 - 32

OFFICE VISIT
Give us an overview
of your practice.
For the past 11 years, I have owned
a dual orthodontic and pediatric
dental practice in Peoria, Arizona,
with my wife, Dr. Morghan Teeters, a
pediatric dentist. The practices have
different names but share a door and
records center.
We have a strong focus on early
intervention and aim to see every
child at age 7. However, we rarely treat
at this age unless it is aimed with
the focus of preventing issues that
could have a less favorable outcome
if treated later.
There's a growing trend of
orthodontic/pediatric partnerships.
What has your experience been?
I strongly believe there are numerous
benefits to forming an orthodontic
partnership with a pediatric dentist,
because the partnership ultimately
benefits the patient much more than
an isolated practice can.
Many orthodontic challenges-
especially severe crowding, crossbites,
impacted teeth and ectopic
eruption of permanent teeth-can
best be solved when they're addressed
early, and having a pediatric dentist
screen for these potential
concerns allows us to catch these
issues before it may be too late to
intervene effectively.
It's also helpful to make sure that
patients who are currently in active
treatment are regularly seeing their
pediatric dentist every three to six
months. Having a second eye on
potential tooth decay, periodontal
disease, oral hygiene challenges and
space maintenance considerations
on the orthodontic side helps ensure
that the patient's dental health is
always in check.
As a member of Orthotown and
the co-founder of Orthodontic
Pearls, you understand the power
of online communities, especially
in this profession. What's your
message to those who might be
hesitant to engage online?
Online communities in orthodontics
are one of the greatest things that
have emerged in the past decade,
and every orthodontist should take
advantage of them because we all can
benefit from a group of colleagues to
share with and learn from.
If the golden rule is to
treat others the way
you want to be treated,
then the platinum rule
is to treat others how
they want to be treated.
Online orthodontic communities
such as Orthotown and Orthodontic
Pearls are not only invaluable
resources for business and clinical
challenges you may face-they also
contain archives of cases, clinical
pearls and business advice from colleagues
worldwide. They're essentially
free Wikipedias of orthodontics that
are available in the palm of your hand.
You can post a case you're struggling
with and within minutes have dozens
of comments from colleagues and top
clinicians giving you personalized
advice about your case.
MARCH 2024 | 32 | ORTHOTOWN.COM
You also teach CE courses and
present on a variety of topics,
including the importance of
personality tests. How do you
implement the tests in the office?
It has been helpful to teach CE courses
at general and pediatric dental practices
on topics such as early intervention
and multidisciplinary care, but
I've had the best response and enjoyment
when teaching doctors about the
DISC assessment and administering it
during a lunch-and-learn CE session.
Although there are many different
personality tests out there, I believe
the DISC is the most applicable and
the easiest to implement. When it
comes to the consultation, the treatment
coordinator needs to get a sense
of the patient or parent's personality.
As a brief overview:
*
" D " personalities are direct, and
the goal is to present the information
as concisely and quickly
as possible.
*
" I " personalities are more social
types who want to become your
friend and usually are the types
you can share light-hearted
humor and stories with.
*
" S " personalities are steady and
want to know they can trust
you. It will be wise to smile often
with a pleasant tone of voice and
emphasize how you'll take great
care of them.
*
" C " personalities are conscientious,
often arriving at your practice
early with a notebook. They'll
be the ones who are interested in
how many millimeters of overjet
their child has.
So you can see how it wouldn't be
the best approach to, say, interact with
a direct personality by focusing on
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Orthotown March 24

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