Month: January 2019
Time and Money-Saving Staff Training Solutions
Highly trained assistants are key to a successful orthodontic practice. Yet training can be a big expense of time and money that when not done right. Here are a few simple things to do to save time and money on training your orthodontic staff.
Commit to Training Staff – and Reduce Turnover
First, it’s important to make the commitment to maintaining a highly trained staff. Some practices cut staff training down to the minimum, not convinced that the time and money invested in training brings results.
But the latest technology and most cutting-edge products on the market only work their best when the people using them have the right skills. Since orthodontic assistants provide so much of the hands-on care in the practice, it’s important they have training to a high standard in order to give the patient a better outcome. Some practices settle for having their assistants shadow someone with a little experience, but this isn’t enough; they should be trained and certified by the Academy of Orthodontic Assisting, which is recognized by the American Association of Orthodontists).
So how does committing to spending time and money on staff training save you time and money on staff training? Easy – by cutting down on turnover. Each time an assistant or other member of your staff leaves, you need to spend time and resources to recruit, interview, hire, and train a new employee. Training and development opportunities are directly tied to employee engagement and employee satisfaction which are tied to lower turnover. By committing to training your staff thoroughly and continuously, you’re investing in the long-term success of your practice.
Look Online for Efficiency and Consistency
For a long time, orthodontic assistants got their training on the job, as there were no other options. As I started my practice, I found that on-the-job training was not a good use of time and didn’t produce the best results. I wanted something more standardized, efficient, and effective.
Nowadays we have many options at our fingertips, with the Internet offering up training that can be done anywhere and anytime. It’s easier to keep track of individual staff members’ progress and you know that when they’ve finished the course, they’ve all learned the same information to the same standard.
Choosing web-based training is an efficient and consistent way to train staff that saves time and money by reducing lost productivity and helping staff get up to speed faster. It can also cut down on travel time and expenses, if you sent staff out of town for training, or instructor costs, if you brought trainers in-house.
(Full disclosure: I am the founder and academic director of Trapezio, an online program for training and certification of orthodontic staff. I developed it in the mid 1990s because I was frustrated with the lack of training options available, and over the years it’s grown and is now endorsed by the American Association of Orthodontists. It’s what I use to train all my staff and needless to say I am a big proponent of it.)
Evaluate and Audit Your Training Periodically
The biggest waste of time and money occurs when the training you’ve invested in isn’t hitting the mark. That’s why you must know what your goals are for any training program before you put any staff member through it, and you must know how to evaluate how effective it is once they’ve completed it.
If you see that a training program you’re spending money on, whether online or in person, isn’t yielding the real-life results you were expecting, nix it and find an alternative that does bring the results you want. Even if it costs more upfront, it’s a better value than training that provides no tangible return.
Training Encompasses the Whole Practice
Most of this blog has been specifically about training orthodontic assistants to do their job, but this advice goes for the other training in your office, too. Training for the whole staff can improve the patient experience, making for a more successful practice, and a safer, more pleasant work environment for everyone. Making the commitment to train every member of staff to do what they do to the highest standards will take your practice to the next level, and by turning to the Internet and periodically evaluating your training programs, you will save time and money in the long run.
Why Braces Work
We know what braces do – they move and straighten teeth – but do we know how they work? Yes, braces put force on teeth over time, causing them to shift position, but there’s more to it than that. Today we’re going to talk about exactly how and why braces work as well as they do.
How Brackets and Wires Work Together
Braces are a “fixed appliance,” meaning they are attached to the teeth and can’t be taken out by the patient like a removable retainer.
With traditional kinds of braces (that is, not Invisalign or other aligners), individual brackets are bonded to the surface of the teeth. These brackets vary in shape and size depending on the width, curvature, and desired angulation of each tooth.
Each bracket has a slot for the arch-wire, which stretches across the brackets from one side of the mouth to the other. There are different ways of keeping the wire attached to the bracket. Some braces rely on elastic ligatures, which are little rubber bands that come in many colors. Twisted steel ligatures can be used instead of elastic ligatures, which do the same thing but keep the wire in place even tighter. Other types of braces, called self-ligating braces, have a door or gate that hold the wire secure.
The arch-wire is the crucial part of the braces that provide the force to the teeth, causing them to move over time. It’s first shaped like the arch of the patient’s mouth before it’s attached to the brackets. This shape provides a track the teeth can move along to get into position. When the wire is placed in the mouth and attached to the brackets, it naturally picks up the shape of the misaligned teeth at first. After a while, though, as the body warms the wire up, the wire “remembers” and returns to its original shape, moving the teeth along with it.
Beyond Brackets and Wires
The description above shows how braces work at the most basic level. There are other things that help the brackets and wires do their jobs, including elastics and coil springs.
Elastic chains look like a strip of colored elastic circles. Each circle goes around a bracket and the elastic is stretched across multiple braces. These can be used to help close spaces between certain teeth or to move several teeth together as a group.
Elastics and rubber bands of varying sizes and strengths can be used to apply force, too. They often stretch between the lower and upper jaw to correct an overbite, underbite, or cross-bite. Rubber bands may be used throughout treatment but are especially common towards the end of treatment to help shape the final movements in the mouth.
Coil springs look like tiny metal springs and may be placed on or near the arch-wire. They are used to create space between teeth when, for example, space needs to be reserved for a future implant, or a canine tooth is blocked and needs space to come in between the two adjacent teeth.
Osteoclasts and Osteoblasts
If teeth stopped right at the gum line, it wouldn’t take so long to move them with braces. But the changes aren’t happening on the surface, they’re happening down below the surface in the bones of the jaw.
The force of the wire against the crown of the tooth is distributed into the root, which itself is embedded in bone in a sling called the periodontal ligament. The force on the tooth causes specialized cells called osteoclasts to dissolve bone on the side where the tooth is moving too, creating space for it. What happens to the newly made gap on the other side of the tooth, where it’s moved from? Specialized cells called osteoblasts create new bone on that side at the same time.
This process is called “remodeling” and takes around four to six weeks to complete. In the meantime, the tooth has moved a small distance. Then the process is repeated again, and again. This is why it takes several months for braces to work.
The Human Element
Another component of effective treatment with braces is the patient. It’s important for them to be an active part of their treatment and help get the best outcomes by taking care of their braces, avoiding foods that can damage their braces, wearing elastics as directed, and going to orthodontist appointments as scheduled. With the patient’s involvement, the braces can work their magic to create a healthy, beautiful smile.
