Hello Orthodontists!

This post is going to ask a few questions instead of just providing entertainment. As you can tell by my blog title, this website is about the web application that our dental lab (Aorta Dental Lab) has developed.

Questions:

1. Do orthodontists like providing more choices to their patients when it comes time for them to choose a retainer?
2. Do orthodontists prescribe traditional hawley retainers (wires and acrylic) or the invisible retainers more often.
3. Do orthodontists see allowing more design options as generally a benificial thing, or more of a hassle than anything else?
4. Do orthodontists think that patients want the option to design their own retainers (ie choose from many options), or does it not make a difference to the patient?
5. Do orthodontists see a value and think that their profits can be positively affected by offering numerous 'designer" options for dental retainers.
6. Do orthodontists feel that an online system that simplifies choosing a design (for the patient) and adding a prescription (for the dental pro) would be helpful and efficient?

I think that my main question to orthodontists is would you be willing to try out a system at your dental office that involved patients choosing their designs online, and someone from your office adding their presciptions and sending it to the lab over the internet?

What, if anything would keep you from implementing such a system?

What would entice you to try such a system?

Feel free to comment on any of these questions.

Good news today, 2 signups for the aortadesigner.com website (the full version, not the demo). This means that there is more interest out there from the Orthodontists. Maybe not the spectacular results I was hoping for, but maybe I was being a bit overly optimistic in this economy.

I personally think the website can help improve business for any of the orthodontists that register with us. Theses are the days where personalized service and custom made products are in high demand. People want choice - with everything! So offering a wide selection of custom retainer designs to patients can definately raise the satisfaction factor. If the patient is thrilled with how their retainer looks when they get it, chances are that they will be more engaged with their treatment, and take better care of it.

Kids like having the choice, and now i think that so many kids and teens are web savvy, that using the site to design their retainers will be second nature to them. I see a future where dental offices that do not offer an online design option will fall behind those that do. I say this because even though Orthodontists may have been slow to jump on board, patients have been contacting us about how they can get their retainers made!

We've gotten sign-ups with our demo site from all over the world, not just Canada & the US, but also Germany, Italy, and Austrailia. One such person emailed us to ask how she could get her dentist to get a retainer design from us because , and I quote:

"i really want a nice retainer that i will love forever"

And she loved the designs on our site. This is the type of thing that is common with teens and kids -if they think it's cool they want it and their not afraid to ask for it.

Kudos to them.