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Meet Patients Where They Are by Dr. Andrew Trosien

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Meet Patients Where They Are 

Using communication software to increase goodwill and generate more starts

by Dr. Andrew Trosien

If there’s one word that most accurately describes customer service, it’s communication. In orthodontics, we’re in the business of first-time experiences, and heading off questions and criticisms before they occur can turn a regular patient experience into a fantastic one. Patient and referral communication is the best way to build goodwill and is key to gaining future dental and word-of-mouth referrals.


Make it accessible online
Communication comes in many forms, and “meeting patients where they are” means using their preferred method of getting information.
  • Having the doctor explain everything to patients and parents would certainly make them feel the most informed, but as the cool kids say, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
  • Having an assistant or front desk person act as a proxy has worked for orthodontists for decades, but the information is fleeting and most people forget.
  • Written communication is great and colorful diagrams can work really well, but it can be hard to trust a teenager to give it to their parents when they get home. And it can be hard to get someone to read it, because most people are going to stuff a pamphlet or single-page letter into their purse or pocket on the way back to their car.
  • But having a place online where they can refer back to that letter or document gives them the chance to review it later if they have a question. Or, filming a short video can increase the chance of someone learning the information, because that’s how many people prefer to get information now.

Features to look for
When I consider using software for communication—both internally with the team and externally with patients and doctors—I want simplicity, tracking and accountability. That means I want:
  • A true cloud solution, so the data lives offsite and is accessible from anywhere.
  • HIPAA compliance.
  • An ability for the team to see what was sent out and when.
  • The ability to assign specific communication tasks to a team member, and to track if things have been done.
  • Excellent support from the software company.
In thinking about what we might need to inform a patient about, we have patient-specific information about plans and instructions; generic instructions and explanations; information about timelines and appointments; progress reports; and patient-initiated treatment questions.


Make it feel personal (even if it’s not)
For communication about a specific patient’s treatment, I use the Cloudberry website. I can sit down for a few minutes and record a video that shows me rotating a CBCT image on screen or showing something else specific to them. I’ll often drop an animation by Edge Animations (from Ortho2) into the video and draw on it while it plays so the patient can see how an appliance works, where elastics will go, etc.

It’s not feasible to film a personal video for every piece of information we want to share, but what’s cool is that a generic video sent specifically to a patient carries some of the “personalness” anyway. If I start off saying something like, “Hi, it’s Dr. Trosien. I wanted to take a couple minutes to show you how your expander works,” it doesn’t come off as too impersonal because it’s sent directly to them. It seems to carry more weight than just referring a patient back to a YouTube video on my channel.

With a battery of these generic “what to expect at your X appointment” videos and summaries, I can set a schedule in Cloudberry to send the appropriate one to the patient a few days before their next appointment. Cloudberry has a video capture built in, which I’ll often use, or I’ll make a video with a third-party software like Loom, and drop that in.
Dr. Andrew Troisen - Palatal Expander



Get the message by texting, not talking
While phone calls still serve their role in the office, we all want to avoid the dreaded “If you’ve reached this message, we’re either out of the office or assisting another patient” experience. Moving patients toward text messaging can remove this traffic jam at the phones and allow the front desk team to deal with messages quickly, without having to put someone on hold.

We use the text messaging feature in Ortho2’s Edge software, and patients love it because it’s asynchronous yet quick. There is a constant flurry of activity all day long, and it’s easy to deal with a majority of patient needs over text. Because it all occurs within Edge, the front desk team has the text window as a part of their desktop widgets for constant monitoring. When the text comes in, Edge matches the number up with the relevant patient account and puts the patient name on it. Clicking on the name opens the patient chart.


Virtual visits and post-appointment recaps
Since the pandemic, a lot of parents have stopped coming into the office for routine appointments. Relaying to the parents what we did is super important, because kids aren’t the best messengers. I have my assistants use Cloudberry to send out a post-appointment summary to patients after the appointment. These are templated, so we only have to fill in a couple of things. Patients love this level of routine contact and communication. Even adult patients love getting these recaps of what happened at the appointment; they can refer back later if they can’t remember what the next steps are, whether they were to continue wearing elastics, etc.

Virtual appointments have also taken off since the pandemic. We don’t use them nearly as much as we did a few years ago, but they still have a place in our daily routine. I used Smile Snap and Ortho Screening Kit over the last few years, and had great success with them for retainer checks, instructions to patients and aligner fit problems. I’ve since winnowed my communication programs down to just Edge and Cloudberry. Edge has InVisit for virtual visits, which is fully integrated with the rest of Edge in that it saves the comments automatically into the patient’s chart and allows for one-button saving of the submitted photos. Cloudberry can do the virtual visits as well, and doesn’t require a patient to create a separate account to what they already have.


Segment your email messages
From a marketing perspective, email announcements about new technology in the office, promotions, milestones and the like can be an easy, virtually free way of staying in the minds of patients and potential patients.

I used to use Mailchimp when I wanted to send a notification to all of our patients; these days, I use Edge Broadcast to send messages to patient groups. We design an email using Canva or Microsoft Word, then configure it in Edge Broadcast and select which subgroups of patients we want to send it to. We’ve done things like announce an upcoming patient event, reminding people to use their HSA dollars before the end of the year, and telling patients about retainer insurance. Because Broadcast is a part of Edge, it’s easy to select which groups of patients you want the message to go to—say, Phase I only, parents only, retention only, all active patients, etc.
Meet Patients Where They Are
Meet Patients Where They Are


Track your team’s efforts
Outgoing messaging and communication is far easier to manage than incoming. When patients contact us with a question or problem, or need to be contacted to change something, the communication needs to be assigned and tracked so it doesn’t fall through the cracks. I’ve used multiple systems and software to manage these tasks and assignments, but always found that they were adding to the ever-growing list of things I need to manage. I’ve used Asana, Click Up, Google Sheets, written to-do lists and more.

In an effort to have everything in one place and be HIPAA-compliant, we now use Cloudberry for tasks. I can track the whole team from the top down and follow along with the communication tied to the tasks. For quick communication within the office, we use Edge’s Instant Messenger. That pops up immediately on a teammate’s computer, much in the way a text message would on a phone.

Collaborating with dentists and specialists has historically been difficult to do electronically. I get the same emails as everyone else, describing some dentist who received a massive fine from a HIPAA violation for sending patient information in an email. I want to be able to talk freely yet not have to worry about a HIPAA violation, so I’m using Cloudberry’s partner area to discuss cases with other offices. Orthotown’s online message boards are another great place for docs to set up an account, share images and documents and chat, in a threaded way, about a case.


Up next: Self-scheduling and AI assistance
Going forward, I find myself leaning more and more on the capabilities of software. Next up, I’m going to use Edge’s online scheduling to allow patients to directly schedule their own exams through my web page. This will be a seamless way to instantly convert prospective patients to exams and remove the office staff from the equation.

Also, Cloudberry has a new AI feature that will allow the orthodontic team to speak chairside to a patient and convert that conversation into written progress notes and assign tasks to the patient and office team.

Whatever the case, and whatever software each doctor wants to use, finding a good, full-featured software that’s designed specifically for orthodontics and well supported is key. It’s an easy way to build practice efficiency, tracking, goodwill and accountability.

Author Bio
Dr. Andrew Trosien Dr. Andrew Trosien graduated first in his class from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and was chief resident of the orthodontic residency program at the University of California San Francisco. He is currently an assistant professor at UCSF, teaching Phase I removable orthodontics. Trosien maintains a private practice in Tracy, California, and is a partner in Corus Orthodontists, an orthodontic service organization. A published author in TMJ research, Invisalign treatment and orthodontic technology, he has lectured in the U.S. and Europe.



Orthotown Magazine
September 2025
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