Virtual Appointments With Dental Monitoring

Hi everyone!  This blog is a short blurb from our Instagram Live video that we hosted last week. We talked about what dental monitoring is and how it is beneficial for our patients during this time while Covid-9 is spreading. In addition, at-home monitoring is a great way to streamline your treatment after Covid-19.

We started doing Instagram Lives with Dr. Cooper so that anyone can have access to her expertise – especially during this time where in-person appointments are not available. We want to make sure that no one feels like they are in the dark during this uncertain time and Dr. Cooper wants to be a resource for anyone who may need help! She has also opened up the opportunity to have virtual consults over zoom to ask any dental or orthodontic questions you might have while all other offices are closed. If you want to sign up to have a virtual appointment with her give our office a call and we can get that set up for you! 

Although we are not able to physically see patients in our clinic right now, we are working hard to keep our phone lines open and our office open to keep creating trays for those who are doing aligner treatment with our in-house trays. The best way we are walking our patients through their treatment even though they can’t come in is through Dental Monitoring. All dental monitoring requires is downloading an app on your phone and having the cheek retractor kit. The app walks you through each step to take clinical pictures of your teeth so that they can be sent over to Dr. Cooper to examine. 

Now, if you just use your phone without the dental monitoring scanning kit you will definitely need someone else to take your pictures while you use spoons to pull your cheeks back. But if you get our kit you can do it all on your own and it takes pictures that are 10x more accurate so Dr. Cooper can see everything she needs to see (the cheek retractors make a huge difference!) 

This virtual twist actually isn’t new to our office since it has actually been around for about a year now! And yes, we do have patients already using the app and the kit and that is how most of their treatment has been monitored. So far, we have heard nothing but positive feedback from these patients about how easy and convenient it is to use! We hope to keep spreading the word about it because not only do we want everyone to stay safe but we also don’t want to push any orthodontic productivity back! We feel like this is the future of Orthodontics and can’t wait to spread the word.

Since this blog is based on our Instagram Live we did have a few live questions roll in that we wanted to share here. 

Question: How does dental monitoring works on our side and how does the clinic & or Dr. Cooper interact with the patients through this app? 

Answer: Everything you send in pops up on our side with a notification saying you have sent in an updated scan and it is ready for review. There is AI built in and she will review what she programmed in as preferences from the beginning  and send a message to the patient directly through the app about what she sees and what the next steps are. Easy as that! 

Question : Is Dental Monitoring for specific treatments or all treatment types? 

Answer: We use it on all treatment types! Keeping track of clear tray and braces progress is pretty easy but the one complicated aspect is the lingual braces (the braces behind the teeth). 

Question: How often does someone need to scan in? 

Answer: First of all, it starts off with Dr. Cooper evaluating your beginning point and then she chooses how often you need to check in. Some can be scanning in every 4 days, every 7 days, 3-4 weeks it just depends what protocol Dr. Cooper chooses for you! Thankfully, the app does alert you when it is time to scan so you don’t have to keep up with it and you won’t get behind.

Question: If I sign up for virtual treatment now will all of my future appointments be virtual? Or can I switch to regular appointments if I chose? 

Answer: Dr. Cooper replied that we would love to keep anyone who decides to go virtual to stay virtual because it is so convenient but if it doesn’t work for you then you can absolutely switch. We definitely want to work with you and help you get a system down that works most efficiently with your schedule. Dr. Cooper did want to add that anyone can join our Dental Monitoring as long as you are a current patient. As it is protocol, we are not able to see or treat other orthodontist’s patients. 

Question: Can you be monitored from overseas?

Answer: Yes! And that is because the way we monitor is just through an app so as long as you can get wifi we can see any pictures that you send us. 

That question wrapped up our Q&A session with Dr. Cooper but we look forward to continuing the Instagram Live sessions to help inform and educate during this crazy time. Be sure to tune in every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:45 on our instagram page to stay up to date and to have the opportunity to ask Dr. Cooper any questions you might have!