Bolster your dental office production and patient retention with orthodontics.

There is no secret that adding orthodontics is a lucrative treatment that can boost production and improve the financial situation of a dental practice. Aside from a financial perspective, adding orthodontics helps dentists form a strong bond with patients because treatment takes place over the course of several months and years. For dentists interested in offering orthodontics to their patients, the first step is to find orthodontic continuing education (CE) courses for general dentists to gain the knowledge and skills to treat challenging cases.

You will find that adding orthodontics has several advantages for the general dental practice. An orthodontic seminar from the American Orthodontic Society (AOS) like the Basic Straight Wire course is one of the top-rated orthodontic courses for general and pediatric dentists because it is designed from a general dental standpoint. The instructors understand the questions, concerns, and challenges that general and pediatric dentists face when learning and offering patients orthodontics so they are prepared to tackle any obstacle. 

Here are some of the top ways that your orthodontic seminars for general dentists will completely transform the way you practice dentistry. 

1. Orthodontics makes a drastic financial improvement.

Many dental practices are seeing an increase in supply prices and wages increasingly going up each year. With the price spike in offices and no increase in insurance reimbursements, dental offices need to be creative and open minded when it comes to improving production – and sometimes just staying afloat!

Orthodontics is one great way to really boost the production in your practice. Over 5 million Americans are in orthodontic treatment in the United States with an average of 80% of patients typically needing orthodontics. When you take a GP course in orthodontics, you don’t only gain credits and a new skill, you also gain income that can really transform your practice’s revenue stream.

Orthodontics has the potential to increase your gross production hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on how many cases you opt to do. The average orthodontic case fee is $5,000, which means even if you chose to do only five early intervention cases per month, your office could be generating an additional $300,000 per year. 

2. Orthodontics helps patients trust you for all treatment.

When you offer orthodontics, you do more than just straighten crooked teeth. You are developing a greater trust in your patient family that leads to a greater number of referrals and a higher chance of acceptance rate of other treatment if needed. 

Orthodontics is sometimes needed as part of challenging prosthodontics or cosmetic dentistry cases. If your patient is interested in dental veneers or a bridge, they may need orthodontics to help shift the teeth into the proper position prior to their cosmetic work. 

Orthodontic CE courses for general dentists helps dentists understand that aside from creating beautiful smiles, orthodontics also helps patients with pain from malocclusions, TMJ issues, and sleep apnea. When you can help improve the quality of life of a patient, you are increasing patient retention and seeing an improvement in your office retention.

3. Orthodontics leads to greater patient satisfaction.

Let’s face it. Patients love convenience when it comes to their medical and dental appointments. If you can offer specialized dental services like implant dentistry or orthodontics, it makes it easier for patients to make appointments and less likely to search elsewhere for an orthodontist or another dentist who does multi-speciality treatment. 

Offering orthodontics is a great tool to help patients feel good about themselves and make a positive cosmetic change to their smiles. When you take an orthodontics course with the AOS, you’ll learn about different ways to treat Class I and II malocclusions to give patients a healthy, more harmonious smile. Coursework is not just about didactics, but getting a hands-on feel to understand the correct way to band and bracket teeth, so when you are treating your own cases, you can create cosmetic masterpieces. 

4. Orthodontics helps you make better treatment decisions.

There are times you know your patient may need orthodontic treatment, but you don’t know how to help them. Patients who are unhappy with a gummy smile or crowded mandibular incisors may want to mask this defect by teeth whitening or veneers. However, you know the best way to correct these problems is by using straight wire orthodontics to give them a healthier smile to avoid periodontal disease and tooth decay. 

Orthodontics is a major component of nearly all areas of dentistry, including periodontics, oral surgery, and cosmetic dentistry. You may see patients with cases of relapse from orthodontics that need a slight improvement in the rotation of a tooth to give a greater esthetic appearance. If you can add orthodontics into your repertoire, you’ll be able to better provide comprehensive and high quality dental care.  

5. Energize your dental team with new treatment.

Dentistry has a habit of becoming redundant after many years of the same bread and butter dentistry. One of the perks of taking orthodontic seminars for general dentists is to gain new perspectives and understand the evolving field of dentistry. 

You have the option of getting your team trained by taking an Orthodontic Training and hands-on workshop for your assistants and hygienists. They will appreciate learning a new skill because it boosts their motivation in the office. As the practice generates more income, it is only fair they are also compensated with either a higher salary or bonuses. Orthodontic goals each month are a great way to boost team-working skills and a positive outlook for the dental practice. 

Learn more about orthodontics with the American Orthodontic Society.

If all these points have you asking yourself how you can get started with offering your patients the latest in orthodontic treatment, the American Orthodontic Society can help. We offer a range of courses for dentists of all levels of experience. You might want to start with our Basic Straightwire Orthodontics course, which aims to get general dentists started in the field of orthodontics. Visit us online and get started today!