Join Orthodontic Products Chief Editor Alison Werner and orthodontists Barry Benton, DMD, MSD, and Josh Adcox, DDS, as they discuss the Dental Monitoring effect and the future of orthodontics. Recorded live on the exhibit hall floor at the recent American Association of Orthodontists Annual Session in Miami Beach, the conversation takes a deep dive into how remote patient monitoring and virtual care are changing the game.
Benton, who attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham for dental school and completed his orthodontics training at the Louisiana State University, is a board-certified orthodontist, who has been practicing in Oxford, Ala since 2016. One of the youngest orthodontists in the country to be a diplomat of the American Board of Orthodontics, Benton’s office, Designer Smiles by Benton, has two locations.
Adcox received his dental degree from the University of Southern California School of Dentistry and his certificate in orthodontics from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He practices in Harker Heights, Tex.
The two share how the latest orthodontic technology, like remote monitoring, not only impacts clinical care but also the patient experience. Benton, who practices in a rural area, is always looking for technology to “lighten the load” on his patients—reducing the number of in-person visits while maintaining continuity and quality of care. Meanwhile, Adcox’s practice is located near Fort Hood, the largest army base in North America. With patients coming and going on deployment, Adcox, who is a Smile Doctors partner, welcomes technology that allows him to create efficiencies while treating.
As the two talk about what virtual care means in today’s orthodontic practice, they also breakdown why they chose Dental Monitoring for their practices. With an eye to the future of orthodontics, Benton and Adcox share how the platform’s AI, or artificial intelligence, was key to their choice. As Benton puts it, the AI allows him to process more images, more accurately than if he was doing it himself.
The two also talk about how Dental Monitoring’s company culture was another key factor in their choice. With many big technology purchases, once it’s in your office, it’s on you to figure out how to optimize it. Benton and Adcox share how they appreciate that the Dental Monitoring staff is there to help them succeed and to look for ways to ensure the platform works optimally for their practices.
From there, the two provide a breakdown of the efficiencies and increased value per visit Dental Monitoring brings to their practices, as well as how remote monitoring allows them to provide better care overall, whether treating aligner or braces patients. And to close out the conversation, Benton and Adcox offer tips on how to best implement the platform and what to know when going in. Key in all this is understanding the future is now and virtual care and remote monitoring are here to stay in orthodontics.
Podcast Transcript
Alison Werner:
Hello. My name is Alice Warner and I am the chief editor of Orthodontic Products. Thank you for joining me for today’s podcast. Today we are recording live in the dental monitoring booth on the exhibit hall floor of the American Association of Orthodontists’ annual session in Miami beach. I’m joined by Dr. Barry Benton and Josh Adcox to talk about the dental monitoring effect and the future of orthodontics.
Alison Werner:
So let’s get started with an introduction of my guest. My first guess is Dr. Benton. He is a board certified orthodontist based in Oxford, Alabama. In practice since 2016, his office, Designer Smiles by Benton, has two locations. He received his dental degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his Certificate in Orthodontics and Master of Science at Louisiana State University. Interesting fact, Dr. Benton is one of the youngest orthodontists in the country to be a diplomat of the American Board of Orthodontics.
Alison Werner:
My second guest is Dr. Josh Adcox. Dr. Adcox received his dental degree from the University of Southern California School of Dentistry and a Certificate of Orthodontics from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He practices in Harker Heights, Texas. Thank you both for joining me today.
Alison Werner:
I’d like to get started by asking you about your practices. What makes them unique and who are your patients? Dr. Benton, why don’t you go first?
Dr Barry Benton:
So for our practice, we’re in a more rural part of Alabama. So we don’t really have the city slickers, the urbanites coming in. It’s very much a rural, country, blue collar community, which I love. And these patients are so appreciative of everything that we’re able to give them. Additionally, in order to provide some of the best care, we have some interesting facts in our office, some interesting developments. We actually started bringing in a therapy dog for our patients to kind of have him interact with them and really show you that we care and that we’re here not only to fix teeth, but to take care of the person.
Alison Werner:
Right. That’s great. What about you, Dr. Adcox?
Dr Josh Adcox:
So in Harker Heights, it’s a military town. Largest army based in north America, Fort Hood. So what’s really unique about our area is we got people moving in and out all the time and/or deploying on assignment. And so it’s a unique perspective to constantly see a large demographic. It’s kind of a mixing pot, and treating a large population from that standpoint. And a lot of people who are moving in and out, it makes it complex to start and finish treatment and be efficient with it.
Alison Werner:
Okay. Well, when you guys think about the future of orthodontics, what excites you?
Dr Barry Benton:
Definitely the technology aspect and where it’s going from here, the digital age so to speak, and what that allows for our patients. Since we are more rural some of the patients have to travel long distances to come see us. So if there’s ways for us to lighten that load, where the kids get to stay in school more often, I’m excited about that. Because it’s not only again, taking care of their teeth, but we’re taking care of them as a person so that they’re able to fulfill their hopes and dreams and life because they’re not spending all their days in the orthodontic office.
Dr Josh Adcox:
Yeah. So as a partner of Smile Doctors, the reason I joined this organization was one of our main mottoes is the love on people first, straighten teeth second. Well technology allows us to focus on the most important thing in front of us, which is the patient, right? And when you couple artificial intelligence and the future of what we’re projecting and seeing, we’re just going to improve that experience more and more and more and automate the processes so we can focus on the vital few things in front of us, which are people. And that’s exciting to me.
Alison Werner:
Yeah. Okay. Do you guys think that your practices are ready for this future of orthodontics?
Dr Barry Benton:
So originally, no. I was nervous because again, since we’re rural, some of my patients don’t have an internet connection. They’re still on flip phones. So I was like, “Are my patients ready for this advanced technology? Are they ready to come with me into the technology age of orthodontics?” But then COVID happens. And all of a sudden everybody’s on Zoom, everybody’s trying to figure out webinars. And what that brings to the table, so that was almost like a primer for my patient population to get used to and accustomed to conducting business through technology instead of face to face.
Dr Josh Adcox:
COVID, you know, the quarantine just kind of was the gateway to just have it be more acceptable and more… People more willing to use technology in this way. And not only that, the direct to consumer market has kind of pushed people to seek a new experience. The difference with how we provide it, especially coupled with dental monitoring and the AI perspective and the platform to interact with patients, is you get an actual orthodontist on the other end who’s communicating, who’s a local person that can provide care when the care is actually needed. And that’s what patients want. Yeah. They want convenience, they want it affordable, and they want it in the way they want it. Right? And so there’s a lot of options. And so COVID initiated that change for us to digitize a workflow, to be ready for the future advantage that that technology’s allowing. And so it’ll be easier to pivot as it continues to go. And that accelerator was COVID for us.
Alison Werner:
Yeah, exactly. Well that’s definitely put the focus on this idea of virtual care, which it sounds like you’re already doing. What does virtual care mean in your practice, using that virtual component?
Dr Barry Benton:
So in our practice, it’s actually twofold. We have two different locations that are very different from each other. One of them is a very much established practice. It’s been there for over 30 years. People know us in that community. And then our satellite is a start up. We hung the shingle two years ago, new to the community, trying to build a reputation and a relationship with the community. So with our established practice it’s more going to where the patients are, providing that comfort and that flexibility with appointments through technology. At our satellite it’s the opposite problem. We are very limited on space because it was a new startup. So we’re actually using technology to extend our clinic boundaries to create a virtual clinic where people don’t have to come and see us to get the care, where we can take care of digitally since we don’t have the space [inaudible 00:06:35].
Alison Werner:
So both of you are using Dental Monitoring. So what made you opt for this platform?
Dr Josh Adcox:
Oh, Dental Monitoring. For us it was an obvious choice. One, the AI advancements. It just is way ahead of the game on where AI is compared to other groups. So that was a big one. The second one is the app platform on how we interact with patients is important as well for us. And the third is culture, culture is king. The partnership we have with Dental Monitoring and Smile Doctors is essential. You know what’s a great example is we ask for a certain feature and we ask, “Hey, could we modify the experience to be this way?” And they listen and they answer and provide it. And that’s super important to continue to improve the experience for the patient, and the team and the doctor, moving forward in the future. If not, it will just be one of those shiny tools that we use for now and that goes out of style. But it’s not, it’s a new way to communicate and it’s ever evolving and it’s exciting to be a part of it. So…
Alison Werner:
What about you?
Dr Barry Benton:
[inaudible 00:07:48] similar answer. First thing is definitely the artificial intelligence. It allows me to process more images, more accurately than having myself do it, or training a team member to look through those image sets. So the artificial intelligence definitely makes it feasible from a workflow perspective.
Dr Barry Benton:
And then the other side of it, like Josh, you mentioned, the culture of the company and what they’re able to achieve. As orthodontists we’ve all brought in new technologies. Imaging, 3D. And it seems like once you sign on the dotted line, that’s the last you hear. It’s up to you to figure out how to optimize it. Dental Monitoring as a company wants you to succeed. So once you buy in, start using a product, they’re sending staff from Dental Monitoring to your office that help you [inaudible 00:08:36]. They’re doing touchpoints and checkpoints with you to see, what are the roughs, what are the friction points? How can we make it better for your office? So Josh, it’s not just because you all Smile Doctors, and they’re this huge conglomerate and group of connected practices. They do the same treatment for the single doctor in the middle of Alabama. Just trying to make it work.
Dr Josh Adcox:
No, you’re right. I’ve been to even certain meetings, and the caliber of individuals that work for their organization is unmatched, that we’ve seen. And so it’s, like you said, it’s a great…
Dr Josh Adcox:
I want to go back to, “What is virtual care?” For me, we call it remote care. And for a couple reasons remote care, because I view this as we are remotely taking care of the patient and then we bring them back into the clinic or the office when care is needed. Right? So it’s just a remote transaction and people are kind of used to that, right? But for me, remote care is even more than just the AI. The AI is a huge component. I kind of consider it my virtual assistant. We’ve made the decisions, the AI helps assist us know when needed, to check on certain things as we go. Our DMC, Dental Monitoring Coordinator allows us to function a way…
Dr Josh Adcox:
But even more than that, remote care allows us to automate the process. Not only for the patient, but for the team. I can’t tell you how big of a load off of my team this has been. To paint a picture, we had a 15 chair clinic. We used to operate 10 to 12. Now we barely do seven to eight. So I have half of my chairs never being used. But we’ve grown 25% on less patients per day, on less days per month. And it’s all because of how we’ve implemented the processes with remote care, which obviously Dental Monitoring is a huge component of how that works.
Dr Barry Benton:
And using a sports analogy to kind of jump off from there. The orthodontist, we’re the general managers. We’re making the decisions on what players to trade, what contracts to offer. And then our staff, they’re the team that we’re putting on the field. Dental Monitoring is that on field manager, that its job is to optimize the performance of our team. So they’re supporting our team. It’s allowing them to perform at the best level possible.
Dr Josh Adcox:
Yeah. I had a doctor once ask me like, “Hey, well when is the AI going to replace the doctor?” And I heard somebody else actually say this, I can’t take credit for it. His name’s, Zelko Relic. He said, “Never. AI will never replace a doctor. But the doctors who use AI will replace the doctors who don’t.” So it’s kind of like that, Clayton Christensen story. He spoke on the theory of disruptors, he was at the Harvard Business School, a professor there. And his theory on disruptors is an innovation that kind of goes against the status quo of the industry leaders is disruptive. Right? Well Dental Monitoring or AI is that disruptor in the industry right now. So if you don’t get on board you’ll be that Netflix of the Blockbuster story. And it’s not going away. So it’s like, get on board, understand it, use it, get ahead of the game. Because it’s here and it’s here to stay and it’s just getting better. We’re just getting warmed up on what we’re able to do.
Alison Werner:
Okay. Well, a lot of the talk around remote monitoring is with aligner cases, but can you talk about how you’re using it with your braces cases?
Dr Barry Benton:
Absolutely. So you have to change your thinking a little bit to apply at the braces. So with aligners, the general thought process, we’re trying to eliminate in-office appointments. With brace patients we still need to physically touch them and apply treatment at various checkpoints. So we can’t eliminate those hands on moments, but what we can eliminate is the unnecessary appointments or the inefficient appointments. So what Dental Monitoring comes in is that it allows us to know ahead of time what’s going on in the patient’s mouth. And to decide, do we need to bring them back soon? Instead of just being in the dark for another five or six weeks. Or can this wait till their next appointment? And that way we can keep treatment moving efficiently, because braces work. They’re inherently an efficient tool. It’s only when the braces break, the glue fails, the wire becomes disengaged, that things start to happen outside of our control. So Dental Monitoring eliminates that unknown, that surprise visit so that braces can truly work to their potential.
Dr Josh Adcox:
What’s interesting, yeah, I was just going over a case with a group this morning actually. Class two, deep bite case. If you look at gauge with metrics, average orthodontist is going to take 16, 17 visits for that, which is too many visits. Well, we looked at this and one, if you have a plan, we call it a treatment plan and we’re going to follow it, that gives you a guideline to stay on time with the case and whatnot. But when you couple it with AI… I looked at this case and it was just a case I recently de bonded two weeks ago. And I took a look, she scanned all the way through and I noticed three important parts of this. We saw our normal increments, and our goal was to finish this in 11 visits. We got her done in 11 visits.
Dr Josh Adcox:
What I noticed is there were four entries into our chart from AI notifications. I wasn’t even involved in any of these. One of them was for a lower left seven and lower back molar bracket coming off. We notified the patient, said, “Not a problem. Here’s how we can solution it. You don’t need to come in, we’ll fix it at your next appointment.” All automated with the team. Again, that same bracket came off again. After we saw her the night we repaired it, again, it came off again, did the same thing.
Dr Josh Adcox:
Then we had a notification in there coaching the hygiene, because the hygiene started to get a little yucky. Right? And then again, we had another wire disengagement or something like that along the way. So we had three potential emergency visits that we normally probably would’ve seen. And then we coached the hygiene. And we were able to finish on time and keep it to 11 in office appointments. And then we’ve been monitoring the retention remotely.
Dr Josh Adcox:
And you look at that compared to 11… Let’s take a case that costs $5,000. Your value per visit on 11 visits is about 450. Right? Which is good. When you increase three more visits for that, emergencies, which that would normally have been the case here, that decreases you to 350 per visit, which is a significant difference in your value per visit. And that’s where the magic happens.
Dr Josh Adcox:
Now, okay. Now that’s just the tangibles, right? We’re not talking about the intangibles of time saved. The patient experience, got a notification right away when it happened. You understood what to do in real time on the app, didn’t have to make a phone call, wait on the phone, get an appointment, get the patient out of school, mom take off work, all the things, right? Add to our load, the doctor load, the team load. Those are all the things we often don’t even think about, that are huge in the experience of the process for everybody. And it just automates and optimizes the experience.
Alison Werner:
There is… Yeah, go ahead.
Dr Barry Benton:
The key to what Josh was saying, I think, is also the treatment plan at the beginning. Having that plan and trusting it and running it. In orthodontics a few years ago, the buzzword was Read and React. And there were systems built around how to optimize reading and reacting to what the patient was bringing in. But when it gets down to it, if you see a hundred patients a day you’re making at least a hundred decisions in the moment, at the snap of the fingers, if not more. And that gets tiring, and they get sloppy. So with Dental Monitoring you create the treatment plan, you let it run, and then Dental Monitoring takes all the reading and reacting out of it because you know it advance what’s going on. And you can make the decision to stay with the treatment plan along the way.
Dr Josh Adcox:
It’s your virtual assistant, right? It’s just keeping track and keeping things on course. And now we’re not even talking about scratching the surface of what the future’s going to come with this. Right? We’re kind of testing the waters on doing an idea of a just in time scheduling idea, where we put the wire in, we deliver the care when the care is needed. Right? We get the AI to tell us when the wire is passive and ready to come back. And it works. And it’s such an interesting concept. And with the advent of indirect bonding with these custom or semi custom indirect setups, eliminating maybe repo appointments and detail appointments, which is a lot of doctor time, you can start trimming those visits down to even under 10, you know, 7, 8, 9, which is amazing for braces.
Dr Josh Adcox:
And that’s, we’re about to enter is that whole realm of allowing that to be a possibility. And so that’s what this is doing. So if you’re not scanning with braces, you’re going to be behind on that too. You got to start dipping your toes in and getting comfortable with it, seeing what it actually does.
Dr Josh Adcox:
I’ll never forget. I was skeptical. I was. I was like, “All right, is this actually going to work?” I’ll never forget that first alert we got for an upper left seven, very back molar bracket had de bonded. And the power chain was on so I was holding the bracket on. I’m like, “It’s not off.” And so I zoom in really close on the photo. I’m like, “Oh yeah, sure enough. It’s not there.” I’m like, “How did it notice that?” The first time I saw a recession notification I’m like, “Maybe,” and I look close, I start comparing photos. I’m like, sure enough, maybe a half a millimeter, but it’s that accurate?
Alison Werner:
Okay. So the naked eye-
Dr Josh Adcox:
It is better than my eyes, absolutely. And consistent every time and just getting better.
Dr Barry Benton:
And before Dental Monitoring you’re having to remember exactly where that gingival margin was eight weeks prior.
Alison Werner:
Oh, that’s a good point.
Dr Barry Benton:
And then to be able to look at it eight weeks later when they’re here and say, “Oh yeah, that’s a half millimeter lower.” No doctor in the world that can do that.
Dr Josh Adcox:
We’re just delivering better care, period. [inaudible 00:18:46]
Dr Barry Benton:
To compare those scans back to back to back to back and get that precise measure of change.
Alison Werner:
Leads to more precision. Right. Okay. Some doctors worry that by using a remote monitor system they’re going to reduce those touch points and not have that connection with the patient. What do you say to them?
Dr Josh Adcox:
Well, I’m all about the patient experience. So let’s take on a liner case. Instead of giving a direct to consumer style, go, “Hey, here’s your liners, good luck.” And have them scanned. We like to connect with the patients. So one, it’s automated where if everything’s good, we do give feedback, right? But we have alerts at certain touchpoints. Let’s say they hit a landmark that I normally would have them in office for. We have that alert to connect with them, with our team personally. And so Dental Monitoring has this platform where you can send a video or a customized message, they have some quick replies. Ways to still make it customized and deliver that experience to the patient. So they know, “Hey, the orthodontist and their team is there every week, every step of the way.”
Dr Josh Adcox:
In my opinion you’re actually getting more communication, more touchpoints than ever before, because you’re getting it weekly and at certain landmarks, right? So it’s the same experience. It’s different, but I believe if you do it right… And that’s what Dental Monitoring is doing, is they’re providing the patient experience in a remote aspect, but doing it better than I even thought possible.
Dr Barry Benton:
And I agree, we are definitely having more communication than in the traditional setting with those weekly scans and the messaging platform. But also if you look at the broader culture and society, we are used to connecting through technology, the social media influencers. So dental monitoring is allowing doctors to step into that space and connect with our patients via technology to that same level.
Dr Josh Adcox:
Yeah. I’m going to… Sorry, I’m going on so long.
Alison Werner:
Yeah. Yeah. No, go ahead.
Dr Josh Adcox:
So I got five kids, right? And my wife is like, “You need to do whatever you can to make it easier on moms.” Right? And when you look at it, I look at her and I, and when we get a lot of things we need done, guess what time of day it is? When they go to bed. It’s like 8, 9, 10 o’clock at night. So what I love is, moms have even mentioned this to me, “Oh, I love that we can connect. I can send a question whenever.” Right? That could be in the evening. “Oh, what about this?” Because that’s when you have a question, you don’t have time to get on the phone, wait on hold, get the… Or come down to the office for that.
Dr Josh Adcox:
So just even that feature alone, and we customize it. I got patients all the time tell me that’s one of their favorite parts. And then the before/after. Oh, that’s a game changer. People love the motivation to see where they started, where they’re currently at. It motivates them to keep doing the thing, doing the little things to make sure the progress is going. ‘Cause the questions I used to get like, “Oh, I haven’t seen a difference, Doc.” And I’m like, “Are you kidding me?” And now we just don’t get those questions because they see it. It’s like, they went away.
Dr Barry Benton:
I had a patient who was struggling with their hygiene, sent some messages through the app. It’s 9:00 PM at night, the artificial intelligence is answering and showing and connecting with the patient on our behalf. You can see in the patient’s responses he’s getting it, the light bulb’s going off about how to take care of his teeth. And we’re not part of the conversation. We’re hanging out with our families.
Dr Josh Adcox:
I’m telling you, it’s just mind blowing that that’s what we’re already hearing. We’re just getting warmed up.
Alison Werner:
That’s great. Well, so what would your advice be to your colleagues who are considering this technology? What should they know going in?
Dr Josh Adcox:
Shoot. You got to do it. I mean, change is hard, right? So I’m the Clinical Director of Remote Care for Smile Doctors. We have over 330 locations. So about 175 doctors. And so to get that many doctors to change is very difficult. So here’s my advice, like we’ve already talked about. It’s coming, it’s here. It’s not going away. It’s not just a fad. It’s just not a new shiny bracket. It’s a new way to connect with your patients. Period.
Dr Josh Adcox:
Some people, I use this analogy, my daughter one day wanted to her tooth out. And she tied a string to her tooth, to the door. And she’s the personality that she’s just going to kick the door closed and it’s going to go. She kicked that door closed and that tort tooth came flying out. She barely flinched. She’s like, “Cool. All done.” She just did the thing. Right?
Dr Josh Adcox:
Then contrast the same night, my son Zach’s like, “I got to lose tooth. I want to do that.” I’m like, “Okay, cool.” So there’s a 30 minute buildup. He’s emotional. He’s scared. He’s almost about to hit that door and just can’t quite get it. In the background my daughter is… She’s getting impatient. It’s bedtime. She’s like, “Kick the door open, man. What are you waiting for?” And so finally, out of nowhere, she comes back from behind and Karate chops that door, and that tooth just comes flying out. My son immediately starts screaming like, “Oh my gosh, what happened?” And then all of a sudden he just stops and just like, “Oh, thanks Zoe.” No tears. Just like, “Oh, that was it?” And then she looks at me and like, “If I would’ve known he would’ve thanked me, I would’ve done that a half hour ago.”
Dr Josh Adcox:
And so aren’t we all like that? We have different personalities. Where some of us like… I’m the mentality like my daughter. I’m just going to dive right in. I’m going to kick that door in and just go for it. I’m going to rip the bandaid off. And then you have others like Zach who are really methodical, a little bit more skeptical, emotional, worried about what will happen. Like it will hurt, all the things. But then when you do it or somebody else kicks it in for you it’s like, “Oh, that wasn’t that bad. I wish I would’ve done that sooner.” Right? So my advice is be like Zoe, kick it in. Or hey, let me come kick it in for you and just take the plunge.
Dr Barry Benton:
And my advice along those same lines is you have to be open minded and you have to take the information that Dental Monitoring is giving you to improve your practice and improve the patient care. Yeah. So if you’re building a project, if you’re building a chair out of wood and you’ve been hammering and nailing for 30 years in your clinic, that’s how you build chairs. And all of a sudden someone says, “Hey, check out this screwdriver and screws.” You’re like, “Cool. I like the idea. I like what you’re saying, I’ll buy it.” But then you never actually pick it up and use it. What benefit is it getting? So be open minded, jump into the deep end.
Dr Josh Adcox:
It’s uncomfortable.
Dr Barry Benton:
Kick the door closed. And-
Dr Josh Adcox:
Growth only comes from getting uncomfortable. If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not growing. So that’s what happens with us in our organizations, in our offices. You just get comfortable, you do the same thing over and over and over. Some doctors will do it for decades. It works, though. But times are changing. And if you want to adapt you gotta change. You gotta kick that door open.
Alison Werner:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I’m curious, what is most important to you in your decision making process when assessing new solutions for your practice?
Dr Barry Benton:
For me it’s, does it work? And what’s the benefit? Because like Josh said, anything you change there’s going to be friction. There’s going to be uncomfortableness. So is the juice worth the squeeze? There are a lot of shiny objects that I can go out and start implementing and purchasing. But what benefit does it have to my patients? What benefit does it have to my staff? What benefit does it have to me? And what’s it going to take to get that up and running? So if those boxes get checked, let’s go for it. Let’s embrace that change, embrace that uncomfortableness together and push through, knowing that tomorrow’s going to be better.
Dr Josh Adcox:
Yeah. I love that, Barry. Basically you talked about the patient experience, right? If it doesn’t improve the patient experience it’s a no go. If it doesn’t improve the patient experience, which basically means how to automate and optimize our time and efforts so we can focus on the people in front of us, then why are we doing it? The third is, it does have to make sense on a KPI, Key Performance Indicator aspect of like, is it helping us be more productive? Is it helping us also increase in other aspects of the business? And so financially is it worth it as well? And this one by far, I mean, just for saving one emergency visit for braces or not having to bring a patient back for a check aligners, and then all the other intangibles of just the patient experience, the interaction. Oh, by far it’s worth its weight.
Dr Barry Benton:
When I ran the numbers for Dental Monitoring in my practice, if I could save one appointment I’m breaking even. So I’ve covered my cost. That’s just saving one appointment, that’s nothing to do with patient experience, all the actual benefits. If I could save two appointments them I’m more profitable with Dental Monitoring than without. And again, when you take that into consideration, plus all the patient benefits and the ease of convenience and communication with our practice, and taking them out of school less, it’s just a mountain of evidence in the favor of using it.
Dr Josh Adcox:
And you gotta, like you just mentioned, trust learning from others on how to do it, right? It’s like, why reinvent the wheel? And Dental Monitoring has tremendous resources to help you implement and understand how to do it. The thing is if you use it, but you’re only using it to check hygiene. that’s a terrible reason to have it. You’re under-utilizing it to full potential. And it won’t be a benefit. it’ll actually almost be a burden, actually. So if you’re not offloading unnecessary in-office appointments and making it easier for your patients, your team and yourself, then you’re using it wrong.
Alison Werner:
Definitely. Well, given that we are at the AAO and it’s the first in-person annual session since 2019, what are you looking forward to while you’re here?
Dr Josh Adcox:
I love catching up with all my colleagues. I love seeing all the new shiny tools too, and what’s coming out. I don’t know. I’m a tech guy, that’s obviously why I love Dental Monitoring as a organization. But people, I just love this profession. I love connecting with my colleagues, especially since it’s been so long since we’ve been together. Feels good to not wear a mask and to see people, see these smiles and be together.
Dr Barry Benton:
I agree, the camaraderie among our profession, it’s good to be back in the room together. And for me at these events, a lot of my personal growth comes from conversations I’m having with colleagues. Especially with the last three years being what they’ve been since we’ve had a meeting, it’s like, “Okay, how’d you get through this? What are you doing about that?” Having those organic conversations among colleagues so we can all grow together and further the profession [inaudible 00:29:50]
Alison Werner:
Right. Well, Dr. Benson, Dr. Adcox, it’s been a pleasure to talk with you today. Thank you so much for your time. And thank you to our listeners. Be sure to subscribe to the MEDQOR Podcast Network for the latest orthodontic product podcast episodes. And in the meantime, to keep up on the latest orthodontic industry news, visit orthodonticproductsonline.com. Until next time, take care.
Dr Barry Benton:
Thank you.
Dr Josh Adcox:
Thank you.
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