Who is your patient?

Who is your patient, who are you treating every day? Seems like a simple question; however, if you stop reflecting on the way orthodontic patient care has changed in the past few years, we may be surprised at how much the patient has been taken out of the focal point.

I have been working with different orthodontists and dental practices for the past 20 years, with different cultures, treatment philosophies, and levels of experience. One mistake I see very often is how the focus on the digital dental model takes away some of the most important aspects of the orthodontic treatment planning services.

A common example is the midline alignment; countless hours are spent on developing treatment plans that reflect the alignment of the dental midlines, leaving the facial midline out of consideration.

Another example is the consistent focus on achieving perfect canine and molar relationships on the screen, while not considering the nasolabial angle or the retromolar space available for a distalization.

Are we correcting a deep bite, or are we treating Mr. Body, a 50-year-old man with small maxillary incisors and sleep apnea? Are we closing a diastema, or are we treating Janet, a college student with SNA of 76 and tooth size discrepancy?

In other words, are we treating teeth or are we treating people? Who is our patient, the teeth or the person? Coming back to my initial reflection, the orthodontic patient as a whole has been taken out of the picture and replaced by a central focus on the 3D model we see on the screen.

And as much as the digital model is key in a good treatment plan, it is not the most important record we have in the orthodontic practice; the skeletal and facial characteristics are even more important, along with the patient history, wishes, and limitations.

The internet is full of clear aligner treatment planning companies teaching doctors how to achieve better torque or how to plan for a more predictable distalization, but what happened with the decisions that come beforehand? What happened with the most important part of the orthodontic treatment plan, which is the digital orthodontic diagnosis?

A lot has to be developed in the coming years, and as much as orthodontic technology will continue to evolve, I would love to see dental companies placing the patient again in the focal point of this development and creating digital orthodontics services to help doctors make better decisions for their patients.

If you want to explore how Digital Orthodontics can support your practice with advanced outsourced orthodontic treatment planning, orthodontic treatment planning services, and clear aligner solutions while keeping the patient at the center, contact us today!