Alison Werner (00:04)
Hello, and welcome to the Orthodontic Products podcast. I’m your host, Alison Werner. On this episode sponsored by OrthoFX, I’m gonna talk to the company’s president and co-founder, Ren Menon, about OrthoFX product line and service expansion in recent years. We’ll talk about its latest aligner innovations and what doctors can expect from the company’s full service model that integrates remote monitoring, financing, and marketing to make it more than just an aligner company.

Ren, thanks for joining me.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (00:30)
Alison, thank you so much for having me. It’s my pleasure and honor to be here. Thank you.

Alison Werner (00:34)
Great,

great. So let’s talk about how OrthoFX’s product portfolio has expanded rapidly over the last few years. How are you balancing kind of that innovation with the need for clinical consistency across different aligner options? Because you do offer three now that I know of.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (00:53)
Yeah, actually, that’s our fourth. ⁓ You know, that’s a great question. And it’s something that we think about a lot. Our portfolio definitely has grown quickly. But we’ve been very deliberate in how we go about doing it. For us, clinical consistency isn’t something that holds back innovation. It’s actually the very foundation of what makes it possible.

Alison Werner (00:55)
Okay.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (01:17)
Everything that we are creating is built around helping orthodontists deliver the outcomes that they really can count on treatment after treatment. We started, if you think back to 2020, we started with the traditional 22-hour wear system. We call it FXClear. To make sure we had a strong clinical foundation, we had a base set of cases that way we had a good understanding on what is tracking, how’s the…

Alison Werner (01:33)
Right.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (01:44)
the polymer working with us, a treatment planning software, how the interplay of that is so important. Once that was in place and performing the way we wanted, we launched AirFlex, which has been a real game changer. I’m not sure you know, Alison, if you take a look at our website, this is the first FDA cleared aligner system for nine to 12 hours of wear a day with no increase in treatment duration. It’s about half the time of standard aligners. Here’s the best part.

Alison Werner (02:08)
All right.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (02:15)
89.4 % of our cases, and this is across thousands of finished cases, they finish with one or no refinements. That means fewer surprise visits for patients and doctors and more confidence in the original treatment plan. So as we kept listening to doctors and patients during this journey, it became clear to us that the industry model of a one size fits all is not what they’re looking for.

Alison Werner (02:23)
you

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (02:44)
This is why we have a lineup of products and options. They’re designed for different lifestyles and different preferences. So let me just give you just a quick headline on the three polymers that we have. So FXClear is our, we used to call it Tetra. ⁓ FXClear is a rebrand. It’s our ultra transparent strain resistant option, stain resistant option. ⁓ It’s got a smooth scalloped edge. It’s great for patients who want something discreet.

And they’re okay with the 20 hour wear. It is great for orthodontists also because we offer this at a price parity or in many cases at a competitive price versus what they’re getting their leading brand for today. FXBright, the problem with orthodontics always has been the delayed gratification. And today, as you know, we are living in the world of Instagram, Instacart, Insta everything. ⁓ FXBright gives you that instant

Alison Werner (03:27)
Okay.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (03:41)
lift from orthodontics. It’s an aligner that is built in with natural whitening. It mimics the enamel of your teeth. So it makes your teeth look whiter right from the start. No gels are needed. This one also follows the $20 wear schedule and of course AirFlex. It’s perfect for patients who need more flexibility in their daily routine. So yeah, you’re right. The portfolio has grown, but the goal really hasn’t changed, you know.

Alison Werner (03:51)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (04:10)
We want to give doctors more tools to work with and patients more choices without ever compromising the baseline of our innovation, the foundation bedrock of our innovation, which is clinical consistency and predictability.

Alison Werner (04:24)
Yeah. Well, speaking of giving doctors more tools, you’ve built OrthoFX around this concept of a full service model that kind of goes beyond that manufacturing of aligners that I talked about in my intro. What led you to develop that system that kind of includes everything from remote monitoring to the financing to the marketing that you now have?

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (04:35)
Right.

Yeah, yeah. So if you spend time in an orthodontic practice or a dental practice, you will see that they’re juggling so much beyond just clinical care. We set out and we told ourselves from the ground up that we want orthodontists to be orthodontists, which means that we want them to be focused. We want them to focus on the one thing that they went to school for and the one thing that they love doing, which is providing awesome care to their patients, providing quality clinical care and

reliable outcomes to their patients. But then they’re not able to do that today because they’re juggling these things. They have to do case management. They have to finance patients. They have to communicate to patients to bring them back. They have to file for insurance claims. It all adds up and it creates friction. So today they have to log into eight different systems, make eight different payments, eight different providers are providing it.

And this is a situation that we wanted to avoid. So right from the beginning, we knew that we did not want to be just another liner company. So we asked ourselves, asked to what could we do to take some of that weight off their shoulders that way they can focus on providing clinical care. So that’s really the thought or the idea behind the full service model. Like you said, we integrate things like remote monitoring, financing tools, and even marketing support.

We’re not just handing a box of aligners. We are helping doctors grow their practice and help them deliver a more seamless experience to their patients, focusing their entire time on patient care. ⁓ With OrthoFX, you can see, like if you log into our portal from a single login and from a single patient list, they can access all these services at no additional cost. We wanted to make sure that we were clear on that too. We wanted to make sure that ⁓ we are a true partner.

to the doctor or I would say their best preferred partner and not just another vendor who’s just out there to sell like gadgets or widgets. So this was the foundation and that’s essentially what you are seeing being manifested as a full service solution as our platform.

Alison Werner (06:58)
Talk to me about patient expectations around aligner treatment have kind of shifted significantly. What trends are you seeing in terms of how patients choose providers and how is OrthoFX helping practices meet those expectations?

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (07:16)
That’s a really good question, Alison.

Yeah, think there are a couple of ways that we can think about that I can answer that question. So patient expectations have definitely evolved as, know, it’s just today’s patients, they’re looking for convenience, they’re looking for flexibility. It’s not like, you know, just they don’t want to be boxed into one, a certain model and that only, and they really are looking for results that match what they were promised and without a lot of hassle. So, and if they have like, you know, in this world of

people connected by, I would say, three degrees of separation. ⁓ If they have a great experience, that makes them more likely to refer other patients, which is at the very foundation of practice growth. So that’s where we really focus at OrthoFX, ⁓ helping practices not just meet those expectations, but exceed them by a mile. So like, for example, let’s take AirFlex. This is a most advanced aligner system.

So if you look at AirFlex, it is the only aligner that is designed with a multi-shell construction. So ⁓ you have an inner shell and an outer shell, and the aligner is bonded just at the edges with a pocket of air in between. It’s called, the construction itself is called AirShell. It’s a patented technology that we invented. ⁓ It makes the aligner hyper-elastic, which means that we are able to deliver consistent, optimal forces irrespective of the strain on the aligner.

which creates a very efficient optimal tooth moment, which means that treatments are going to finish on time. So results, 89.4% of our cases finish with zero to one refinement. If you look at that number and 60% of cases finish with no refinements. If you look at that same number for the leading brand, and you can look at this from Dr. Neal Kravitz’s article, only about 6% of cases with the leading brand finish with no refinements. Ours is 60%. So…

Alison Werner (09:04)
Okay.

Okay.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (09:18)
Talk of 10x improvement, that’s like right there. So the other ⁓ aspect that I want to highlight is about tools that we’ve built to make treatments easier and more convenient while they’re going through the treatment. So our remote monitoring solution, we call it FXonTrack ⁓ This is where that comes into the picture. So it lets patients check in from their home while keeping the doctor fully in the loop.

Alison Werner (09:20)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (09:45)
It helps patients engage, keeps patients engaged and also it saves time and they love having to not go in unless they have to. you know, so the beauty of FXOnTrack, unlike other solutions in the market, is that it is the only closed loop system. So FXOnTrack is not just detecting a problem. Say a treatment is going off track. We have, you talked about three polymers, there’s a fourth.

option we have, it’s called a rescue aligner. That’s where rescue aligner comes in. So instead of waiting weeks to figure things out, we can get patients back on track quickly without having to reset the whole treatment plan using this one aligner, which has the ability to correct up to six to eight weeks of deviation from plan, which we ship to the patient’s home upon doctor’s request. So that’s the second pillar that I want to highlight. And the last thing I want to highlight is of course, ⁓

Alison Werner (10:14)
okay.

Okay.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (10:41)
know, affordability is a key concern, especially in the way the economic environment is. Always has been, it continues to be. This is why FXPay, our financing program, is also built into it to provide patients affordability and more access to care with a very low down payment and in many cases, no fee to the doctor or a low fee compared to other financing solutions. So…

Alison Werner (11:03)
Mm.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (11:06)
To bring it all together, Alison, it’s all about helping practices deliver what they promised ⁓ on time, without all these reboots and refinements, call it whatever, and with a lot less friction. And ⁓ finally give doctors and patients an aligner experience that they’re truly excited about, not something that they are tolerating because they don’t have another option or like, this is the only thing, only game in town.

Alison Werner (11:11)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (11:32)
We want people to be excited about their treatment and that’s what we are trying to deliver with our solution.

Alison Werner (11:37)
Okay, so I’m kind of curious about where a lot of companies are talking about AI these days. And I’m kind of curious about how AI is integrated across your workflow. Now know it’s kind of there from the treatment planning to that follow up. In your view, where is AI making that kind of that biggest difference for private practice orthodontist right now?

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (11:47)
⁓ huh.

Yeah, That’s a great question, very time relevant. So AI is becoming, it’s definitely becoming a very powerful tool for private practice orthodontists. And we are fortunate to build OrthoFX in the 2020s where we could build the platform right from the ground up with an AI mindset as opposed to other brands having to rewire their

data infrastructure to fit within the AI world. So we built the platform right from the ground up with AI as a backbone and as a horizontal across all the services and all the products that we offer. one of the, you know, I’ll double click on a couple of areas to answer your question. So like you correctly pointed out, one of the biggest areas that we are seeing impact is in treatment planning. Our AI helps predict movements as they are in planning.

informing the orthodontist and the treatment planning orthodontist that a certain movement is how likely is a certain movement able to achieve ⁓ a given outcome. And based on that, they are given patterns, they’re given options, and the best recommendation is made in terms of how a certain treatment should be planned. this design, it’s built right from the planning phase, which then in the delivery phase, it cuts down on

Alison Werner (13:23)
WAP

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (13:23)
refinements.

Alison Werner (13:24)
WAP WAP

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (13:25)
This means again, you know, for the patient, they’re likely to finish on time and with fewer surprises. Like I was sharing before, remote monitoring is another aspect where we are helping, we are using AI to manage cases remotely. We track progress in real time doing 2D to 3D overlay and to see how much our treatment is on track or off track. What is the driving reason behind it? And how deep, how much is it?

off from the plan. And if it is within the parameters of the rescue aligner, is ⁓ the AI flags the case for a rescue, ⁓ which again, helps save ⁓ practices time in unplanned appointments and patients just in convenience in terms of these visits that they were never planning to do. that’s the second aspect. And this last thing I really want to also talk about, which is

Alison Werner (14:16)
Yeah.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (14:19)
A lot of times orthodontists and orthodontics is viewed as a one and done. It’s viewed as a one time procedure as opposed to a lifetime procedure. This is where we really want to break the paradigm. So even after the treatment wraps up, we use AI to track compliance and suggest retention strategies to keep the outcome stable because, you know, teeth can relapse. ⁓

Alison Werner (14:25)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. huh.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (14:46)
I don’t know if you’ve been to an aligner treatment, high majority of people relapse, you you just, you forget to wear the retainers. So it’s our AI helps prevent you from doing that. just to bring it all together, AI helps us deliver a smarter, smoother treatment experience for both the doctor and the patient. And you know, this is really where the magic is happening.

Alison Werner (14:50)
Yes, I know that. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, looking ahead, what role do you see for see OrthoFX playing and kind of reshaping the business model for for orthodontic practices? Are we moving toward a fundamentally different way of delivering care then?

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (15:24)
I love that question because it’s my passion and my natural state to think about how things will be and it’s like that ⁓ blue sky thinking as in like how exciting a future would be is something that I spend a lot of time on especially as it relates to orthodontics. ⁓

My belief is that the future of orthodontics won’t be defined by more aligner products. ⁓ Instead, it will be defined by smarter systems that does ⁓ a few things. One, it should expand access to care ⁓ because even today, an high majority, 192 million people in the US could benefit from an orthodontic treatment and only a small fraction, a very small fraction.

seeking treatment. So expanding access is a very important, it’s an important imperative for the industry as you think about it forward. Outcomes need to improve and outcomes need to improve with as they had planned as opposed to you know here is a reboot, here’s a surprise. It needs to be a seamless outcome like you are driving a car from point A to point B. You’re never worrying about the car breaking down.

Alison Werner (16:20)
right.

Yeah.

Mm.

Right.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (16:45)
as

supposed to the aligner journey where you know you’re programming your mind to say, okay, it’s supposed to break down three times. And if it only breaks down two times, that’s victory. No, no, no, that’s not the paradigm. That’s the, you know, that’s the, you have some PTSD or abuse by the existing paradigm in the industry. And we want to change that. And we want to give doctors more control and flexibility in how they practice. So at OrthoFX, are building that system.

Alison Werner (17:06)
⁓ huh, okay.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (17:15)
You know, our vision is to really build the next generation orthodontic platform that connects innovative materials. This is like, you know, at the very core of our innovation pipeline is it starts with a polymer because that’s a force-delivering mechanism. Remote monitoring because treatments happen in patients’ homes. We want to offer flexible care models and collaborative workflow. So if I could get a little more time, I could want to double-click on a couple of those points there.

it

like, know, let me start with the polymer. It starts with a technology like AirFlex. This is our FDA-cleared polymer that delivers predictable results in nine to 12, with 50% less wear time. That shorter achievable wear time dramatically improves compliance for patients. know, suddenly people are more likely to wear the aligner and get to the outcome that they wanted at the date that they wanted to be done with.

and with a high quality result. So that’s the polymer itself. Then there’s FXonTrack This is where we are helping the patient ⁓ stay on track with AI powered monitoring, ⁓ which helps them ⁓ on track, being on track between visits. And if they’re going off track, of course, as we talked about, there’s rescue aligners. You don’t need to reset the plan. We make these aligners, we ship it to the patient.

You can just use this technology and then go onto the very next aligner that you have on your shelf as opposed to the paradigm today, which involves multiple visits, eight plus weeks of wasted time and almost 20% more aligners. So this is all kind of like the treatment journey. And then we talked about like the post-treatment journey also with our support for retention strategies. One of the things that we have been working on is a platform called FXCollab

where we are really expanding this vision further. This platform enables orthodontists to partner more closely with general dentists through a shared platform. the platform is designed to, it breaks down the barriers in the traditional referral model, but there’s a lot of friction and there’s a lot of patient loss as that process is entirely analog. So this platform allows GPs and orthodontists to co-manage cases.

Alison Werner (19:11)
Okay.

Right.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (19:39)
share treatment responsibilities and keep patients in network. So it’s a win-win if you think about it, Alison. ⁓ Orthodontists are expanding their reach without adding overhead. Patients are getting access to specialist-driven care without the friction. So yes, we are indeed moving towards a fundamentally different way of delivering care. I want to say it’s one that is connected.

Alison Werner (19:41)
Mm-hmm. Mm.

Yeah. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

All right.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (20:04)
patient-centric and practice-powered. We are not just building an aligner system. We are not just in that business. Yes, we do that. We are here to shape ⁓ an entirely new infrastructure for modern orthodontics. And my sincere wish is that more practitioners join us on this journey because this is the way of the future. Way of the future is collaboration and… ⁓

Alison Werner (20:12)
Yeah.

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (20:31)
where the future is expanding access to care, where the future is leveraging more technology to essentially make the practice of orthodontics more accessible to a lot more people than it is available to today.

Alison Werner (20:45)
Right, well, Ren, thank you so much for speaking with me. If someone wants to learn more about what OrthoFX kind of has going on and what’s in the pipeline, where should they reach out?

Ren Menon | OrthoFX (20:58)
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me, Alison. I really enjoyed the chat and for the thoughtful questions. ⁓ are on the, are our, the best way to reach us is through our website, www.OrthoFX.com. And if you’re a provider, there’s an option to say, become a provider. Just click that link and we would love to talk to you and share what we’ve built.

Alison Werner (21:28)
Thank you again, Ren. It’s been great.