Ortho Tribune Middle East & Africa No.1, 2018

E5 ORTHO TRIBUNE Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition | 1/2018 Can we treat patients in fewer visits? By Dr Skander Ellouze, Tunisia “We live very far away, in the Congo, but we come to Tunis twice a year, in December and August. We would like you to be our children’s ortho- dontist, and sincerely hope that you will accept them as your patients.” After a review of the patient’s records and a brief period of reﬂ ection, I de- cided to begin treatment for T., aged 13. (The youngest sibling required no treatment at that time). The patient would be seen only twice a year, dur- ing his holidays in December and August. What was the total length of treatment? The treatment lasted 22 months and required 5 visits, including the bond- ing and debonding appointments. In modern orthodontics, we are continuously striving to adapt to a changing world and to respond to emerging needs (comfort, esthet- ics, hygiene, etc.). Minimizing time commitments during the treatment process (shorter treatment duration, fewer visits) is an important part of this development. Aligner treat- ments have already started to em- brace this trend, sometimes limiting patient visits to those required to be- gin and end treatment! Is it possible to monitor long-dis- tance patients undergoing multi- band treatments? The light, passive force of the Da- mon System brackets has helped to move the industry forward in this direction. In fact, with the Damon System, increasing the time between appointments is strongly recom- mended during the alignment/lev- elling phases. This enables the force system to act “gently” on the peri- odontal complex. This raises two key questions: Is it possible to take this concept even further? Imagine being able to provide treat- ment to patients in just a few ap- pointments, with the added beneﬁ t of: • enabling patients (children and adults) to reduce the number of vis- its to the ofﬁ ce to just 4 to 5 over the course of their treatment. • reducing wait times as well as the number of calls and reminders man- aged by ofﬁ ce staff. How do we keep this approach from having a negative impact on the quality of treatment? This article offers ideas and provides a starting point. It introduces the possibility of rethinking the appoint- ment schedule for orthodontic treat- ments, which—in addition to saving time—opens up new opportunities: • for patients, by more easily offering them a greater choice of practition- ers. (Patients would no longer have to choose a less favorable practition- er based simply on the proximity of his or her ofﬁ ce in order to make it to monthly appointments). • for practitioners, by enabling them to more conﬁ dently take on a grow- ing number of long-distance pa- tients. Codifying these new ﬁ xed appliance treatment modalities could establish an entirely new standard. My thoughts We now have the possibility of managing our ofﬁ ces based on this “spreadout” scheduling, with fewer CASE NO 1 T.F. was 13 years old at the time of his ﬁ rst visit Diagnosis Class I, incisal-canine crowding in both arches Class II long face syndrome, hyperdivergent Retrusive chin Presence of wisdom teeth buds Treatment Plan Non-extraction treatment Alignment - levelling Obtain a functional occlusion and accentuate the smile arc. DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI | UAEUAEUAEUAEUAEUAEUAEUAEUAEUAEUAEUAE SAVE THE DATE 6-8 DECEMBER visits to the chair. It can be imple- mented in the majority of cases, with a few minor exceptions such as those involving impacted teeth. Without this possibility, we would be forced to turn away patients, with whom a good relationship had already been established, and to make sometimes risky patient referrals. Such a treatment is typically com- pleted in 4 to 6 appointments spread over 6 to 12 months, without having a negative impact on the ﬁ nal out- come. In fact, these long breaks be- tween visits can even be beneﬁ cial in terms of tissue integrity. ÿPage E6

Ortho Tribune Middle East & Africa No.1, 2018

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