StraightWay CDA closes the gap between aligner orthodontic training and implementation throughout the practice
The year 2001 brought great news for dentists: they were now permitted by the major manufacturers of orthodontic aligners to add the procedure to meet patient demand in an arena that had previously been the sole province of orthodontists. Since that time, 36,000 dentists have been trained and certified to deliver the procedure. But it hasn’t taken off as one might expect. Only 40% of the dentists certified have ever delivered a single case, and a mere 8 – 10% have actually incorporated aligner orthodontics into their practices and continued. What happened?
At the inception of the aligner orthodontics industry, only orthodontists could be certified to learn the procedure. However, when the procedure was made available to general practitioners, the promise of straightening teeth with clear, “invisible” trays and the opportunity of integrating a very profitable service (today’s average case grosses a dentist $5,300) into an existing practice was instantly appealing.
Since then, tens of thousands of dentists have been trained and certified by aligner orthodontic manufacturers. Although this training can be an effective method of learning the procedure, however, it fails to address a major missing piece of the aligner orthodontics puzzle: the certified dentist still has the responsibility for training and educating his entire staff on the procedure and its benefits so that the service can be promoted and sold throughout the practice to its patients. Without this piece, a majority of certified dentists attempt only a case or two before inertia stifles any existing momentum and they never reap the promised benefits and profits from the addition of the procedure.
Closing the Gap
Fortunately, one certified dentist has succeeded well beyond standard expectations. Since successfully incorporating aligner orthodontics into his cosmetic dental practice in 2001, Dr. Willis Pumphrey of Houston, Texas, has delivered over 1100 cases, outperforming every general practitioner on record. With a record high of 400-plus cases in one year, Dr. Pumphrey regularly trounces the annual 8-10 case average of other certified dentists.
Dr. Pumphrey is now exporting his success to the rest of the dental world through his company, StraightWay CDA (Cosmetic Dental Affiliates). He has taken his own best practices and broken them down into a precise step-by-step set of successful actions and operational systems on which an entire dental practice can be trained.
Dr. Pumphrey’s entry into aligner orthodontics training began almost by accident. While attending an industry event, he was approached by a dentist who wanted to know how he completed so many cases every year. “I told him that if he wanted to come to my practice, I would show him,” explains Dr. Pumphrey. Several others came along at the invitation, and it was during this training that he realized that many of the successful activities he was implementing throughout his practice to generate a steady flow of new aligner orthodontic cases were not known to certified general practitioners.
Shortly thereafter, Dr. Pumphrey began training dentists who had previously been certified. The result was an immediate and impressive 120% increase in delivery, and revenue, from aligner orthodontic cases among those first graduates. While that program was successful, Dr. Pumphrey realized that proper training from the ground up was also sorely needed for dentists new to the world of orthodontics. He envisioned a strong network of dentists consisting of both newly and formerly certified practitioners, successfully delivering aligner orthodontics in a range well above industry averages – and StraightWay CDA was born.
In analyzing the budding aligner orthodontic industry’s situation, the first problem Dr. Pumphrey spotted was the fact that the certification training itself was designed by an orthodontist and assumed experience that a general practitioner wouldn’t have. In designing his procedural training, Dr. Pumphrey took it from the viewpoint of a G.P. “We set up a step-by-step program developed by a general practitioner – me – who had done little to no orthodontics at all in the past,” he says. “I put in steps that were missing from the original training.”
Second, Dr. Pumphrey realized that many of the problems dentists were having getting rolling stemmed from the fact they were the only ones in their practices who knew how aligner orthodontics worked. In his own practice, he had trained his whole staff on the subject. “One of the keys to successfully implementing aligner orthodontics in my office has been my staff,” he says. “If the staff isn’t on board supporting the doctor, it’s not going to happen.”
The result of Dr. Pumphrey’s analysis was the launch of StraightWay CDA’s Full PowerHat™ program in which a team is sent to a dental office and trains not only dentists but also the entire staff, leaving a complete, functioning team in place. This program closes the gap between dentists themselves being trained on the procedure, and aligner orthodontics actually being implemented as a deliverable service within their practices.
With five years of experience behind him, Dr. Pumphrey also understands the pitfalls a dentist can encounter and has accounted for those in the StraightWay CDA program. “The program is implemented so a dentist can avoid pitfalls and problems,” he says. “Problems such as proper patient selection, a case that’s over a dentist’s head and the aligner orthodontic trays not accomplishing the results they’re supposed to achieve. We have systems in place that can catch problems early so they can be detected and solved.”
Dr. Pumphrey’s goal is to assist each member affiliate to work up to delivering forty-four cases per year. The goal is accomplished through delivery of an intensive 2 ½ to 3-day program, in which the dentist and his or her entire staff are run through each component step of the program so they completely understand and can implement it. The end result is 100% proficiency with aligner orthodontics.
A Trained Dentist Strong Out of the Gate
One dentist who recently completed training on StraightWay’s Full PowerHatTM is Dr. Winsome Henry-Ward of St. Louis, Missouri, who found the training extremely helpful. “They came and did a program for our office,” she says. “Our entire staff was there, and it was very well done. I’ve been to a lot of training seminars in which there are a lot of offices involved and you don’t get the direct attention that we did. I was able to get direct input into my specific interaction with patients, and everyone gets the same training at the same time, with no information left out for any one person.”
For Dr. Henry-Ward’s practice, the addition of aligner orthodontics came at an opportune time. The week they began implementation, a violent thunderstorm tore through the St. Louis, Missouri, area leaving over 400,000 people without electricity for four days. Dr. Henry-Ward’s office was also affected and lost a good deal of income, but the practice’s trained team made up for it by immediately starting three new aligner orthodontic cases once power was restored. Within four weeks of the training, Dr. Henry-Ward’s office started a total of ten new cases.
Dr. Henry-Ward’s patients appreciate the addition of aligner orthodontics to her practice too. “It’s great not to have to send patients somewhere else,” she says. “In the past, I would have to send orthodontic patients to an orthodontist. But patients much prefer to remain with a dentist they know and trust, so now they are happier, and it’s a great source of income as well.”
Support Beyond the Training
As part of the StraightWay CDA membership, affiliates are assisted with a remote diagnostic service called AlignerHelp.com created by Dr. Pumphrey and Dr. John Hackbarth. Through this proprietary web site, members need only submit digital photographs of a particular case, and AlignerHelp advises the dentist of viability and helps resolve diagnostic difficulties.
The end result of the StraightWay CDA program and support system is a new stable, profitable income source that is simple to implement, doesn’t add chair time, and pays for itself in fewer than 10 new aligner cases. After that it’s perfect smiles all around.
For more information, contact StraightWay CDA in Houston, TX, at 1-888-846-3509;