Clear aligners are a veritable miracle in the orthodontic business, as these orthodontic aids have made a real splash among dentists and patients alike. These are the invisible solutions made from transparent plastic films; the clear aligners work better and faster than the traditional metal braces to get the teeth to move into the desired place.
Since clear aligners are so well advertised today, we believe many of your customers already know and wonder about these, so it is the right time to start offering them in your dental practice. Here we’ll discuss all the particulars you should know about starting selling clear aligners in your dental practice. Before we start, we must mention that clear aligners are a great way to grow your dental practice revenue and be more competitive in today’s challenging dental industry.
Intraoral Scanner Is Essential to Measure for Clear Aligners
The creation of a clear aligner starts with taking a digital impression. The digital impression is essential for a well-fitting and effective clear aligner treatment plan, as it has many advantages over the traditional putty impression. Also, taking a digital impression with an intraoral scanner is practically effortless compared to the putty imprint, a process that patients prefer. If you haven’t used a digital scanner, you can try the Great intraoral scanner, and see how easy and comfortable it is, as you will get perfect, precise digital scans in minutes.
The intraoral scanner has many advantages, but here we’ll only emphasize the precision in scanning, as it utilizes 3D imaging technology that allows accurate teeth geometry. It is essential when measuring for clear aligners, as the precision scans allow the dental lab to create and execute a precise treatment plan.
Another advantage of the intraoral scanner is the improved result, which lets you have fewer remakes and gives your patients better results with less chair time. Thus, using an intraoral scanner to measure for clear aligners also helps maximize ROI, an essential aspect of running a profitable dental practice.
Create a Treatment Plan
After you take the digital impression image using your intraoral scanner, you need to send the scans to a lab that manufactures clear aligners, like the Great lab. The technicians in our lab clean up the scan and set up a treatment plan based on each individual scan.
The treatment plan creates a series of steps where the teeth gradually move toward the desired outcome. The treatment plan considers all the factors that play a role in straightening the patient’s teeth. For example, how much teeth movement is possible at each stage, whether tilting or rotation is necessary, etc. In some cases, the desired outcome can be reached with two or three sets, while more complex cases may require up to 50 steps.
It is where the magic happens: the lab uses advanced computer-aided design or CAD to finalize the creation of the clear aligner. The beauty of using Great is that we already have all the additional treatment planning software and the advanced machinery to produce clear aligners.
We created the Great treatment plan so you can review it, and it is appealing to show and explain it to your patients, as it includes a moving .gif of the patient’s teeth, the number of proposed aligners, and the recommended IPR. Also, you and your patients will know beforehand the expected outcome and whether the patient will need a revision and another scan.
3D Printing of the Treatment Plan
After the design of the clear aligner treatment plan is finalized and approved by you and your patient, the procedure goes into a digital file fed into a 3D printer. It is where the treatment plan takes physical shape based on the model created on the digital scans you’ve made with the intraoral scanner.
The 3D printer creates each treatment plan step as a physical model. Without this step, developing the consecutive clear aligners that the patient needs to use to get the teeth moving and achieve the desired outcome would be impossible.
Also, when combined with advanced CAD modeling, 3D printing provides incredible results in creating the molds that the treatment plan has envisioned. With today’s advanced technology, the only way for us to make accurate physical versions of CAD models is with advanced 3D printing.
Thermoforming Clear Aligners
Next, each 3D printed model gets fed into a thermoforming machine that uses durable, thin plastic sheets and forms the actual clear aligners. We make our Great clear aligners from Zendura FLX material, ensuring a great result.
The recommended time the patient needs to wear each Great clear aligner is two weeks, 22 hours per day. It gives the teeth enough time to get “forced” into their new position, helping the patient get the smile they’ve always desired.
It may sound like a complicated process, but once you start it, the entire workflow becomes optimized. You and your patients will appreciate the outcome the clear aligners bring to people’s smiles.
Prioritize Clear Aligners in Your Practice
Above, you’ve learned what you need to start offering clear aligners in your dental practice. It is time to start advertising the clear aligner service to your clients. You mustn’t sit back and wait for your patients to ask a fleeting question about getting a clear aligner from you.
Instead, it would be best if you were proactive in clarifying that you offer clear aligners in your practice. We have prepared an entire article where we discuss how you can get more clear aligner sales, which we hope you’ll find helpful as well.
The Bottom Line: Start Offering Clear Aligners Today!
Now that you’ve finished this article, you are probably wondering why you haven’t added clear aligners to your list of services until now. But don’t worry, as we at Great have you covered with all you need to start offering clear aligners in your business.
We provide you with a free digital intraoral scanner, comprehensive training, and full access to our platform and dental lab. We receive your scan, create your clear aligner order and ship your order to your practice. We are at your disposal, and you get access to our world-class customer service, where you will get answers to all your inquiries and follow the progress of your order.
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