Embrace Progress: Can’t Cancel This by Dr. Daniel Grob

A look back at 2020 and the silver lining to be found at your fingertips

by Dr. Daniel Grob, DDS, MS, editorial director

If you had the foresight to preregister for the AAO winter conference in Palm Springs, California, you probably already know that the meeting has been reconfigured into a virtual event.

I’d also expect the AAO’s annual session to be offered in virtual format while the fate of the in-person portion is determined over the next several months. Many regional meetings as well as company-sponsored training and study events have been turned into webinars or virtual meetings.

It certainly is possible to reimagine all these events as virtual. However, there is something special about taking a few days out of the office and trekking to some distant location to hear the latest, review the past and meet old friends.

Thankfully, 2020 has come to a close—and yet we’re just beginning to come out of the doldrums from that awful year. What is a committed practitioner, consummate student and social animal to do?

Well, how interesting that you asked, because we have the answer.

Orthotown currently has a mailing and subscriber list of nearly 10,000 orthodontists who regularly read the magazine in print, log on to the website and contribute to the message boards. One must admit that there is some comfort to knowing that the leading educators, lecturers and authors find themselves between the pages of our magazine and throughout our website.

Just during the past year, the magazine has had a variety of topics certain to assist the formation, maintenance or even transition of a practice. For the reader’s ease of navigation, each issue has departments that they can count on to satiate their desire for knowledge and reference. For instance, in every issue almost without question are articles regarding the marketing, mechanics and management of a practice.

The past year included tips on marketing the practice to get the patients into the door, from authors including:

• Scheduling Institute founder and CEO Jay Geier, who addressed the relevancy of referrals.
• Dr. Courtney Schiefelbein, an independent practitioner in Manhattan, who documented her experience with lockdowns in her candid COVID journaling.
• Practice management consultant Leeann Peniche, who highlighted the importance of virtual consultations and maintaining a presence with patients.
• The Invisible Orthodontist’s Casey Bull, who laid out the what, why and how of bringing a virtual treatment coordinator into the office. (Look for another article from her in this month's issue!)
• Architect HanH H. Tran, who showed us how to ready the physical space of our practices for the pandemic (and beyond).

Mechanics articles highlight the latest and upcoming trends in clinic treatment as well as proven techniques doctors could add to their toolboxes:

• Dr. Jon Rucker addressed Class II treatment without expanders or extractions.
• Dr. Matthew Schofield showed us light-force mechanics via lingual orthodontics.
• Dr. Neal Kravitz refreshed us on the ins and outs of retention.
• Dr. Robert Gire highlighted the new age of aesthetics.
• Dr. Christopher Cetta demonstrated a new attachment, great for aligner therapy.
• Dr. Neil Warshawsky previewed accelerated treatment concepts.
• Paul Gange Jr. showed us how to balance aerosol reduction and bonding strength.
• Drs. Trevor Nichols and Stuart Frost highlighted how TADS could be utilized.
• Dr. Chad Foster brought “outside-in” dentofacial diagnosis into the conversation.
• Dr. Bill Dischinger paved a path to fewer patient appointments.
• Drs. Tom Pitts and Duncan Brown gave us insights on meeting patients’ expectations.

Management articles were plenty, with many of them in direct response to the pandemic, giving our readers timely and practical insights to getting their practices back on track:

• Practice management consultant Charlene White laid out how doctors could take back their time.
• CPAs and certified value analysts Timothy Lott and Mike Bark highlighted financial lessons the pandemic taught us.
• Tyler Entz discussed amplification techniques of combining marketing efforts.
• Dr. Tom Snyder described the pathways of selling a practice.
• Lease expert Jeff Howell shared key considerations for negotiating a lease.
• Consultant Dana Salisbury explained how to cure your micromanaging ways.
• Drs. Sophia Saeed and Edmund Khoo shared a CE course that outlined new PPE standards.
• Robert Brooks addressed PPP loans and what they meant for a practice owner.

Office Visits are a regular feature as well, giving readers the inside look into the facilities and features of your colleagues’ practices. From elaborate single practitioner abodes to multidoctor and specialist layouts, we give you exclusive and original looks into the daily practice lives of Townies.

Our monthly Townie Poll takes the pulse of members and readers on a variety of topics, including HR and staffing, early treatment, accelerated treatment, digital imaging and practicing during the pandemic. And last but not certainly not least, the Orthotown message boards are available 24/7 and have been an organized and nearly real-time solution for doctors who needed help, wanted to share a case or just were hoping to talk shop—whatever “shop” happened to be that day. We don’t know what 2021 will bring or how many events won’t make it to fruition, but take some solace in knowing that Orthotown will continue to bring you the kind of content you’d normally travel halfway across the country to get.

And of course, a shout-out and thank-you to all of the contributors and advertisers who made 2020 a virtual success—and a special thanks to Townies who make Orthotown magazine and Orthotown.com a resource for the profession.

If you missed any of the articles I mentioned, each and every one has been hyperlinked for easy finding and sharing.