SPECTACULAR SMILES QUICKLY: Powerprox Six Month Braces ® By Richard J. DePaul, Jr., DDS ife is full of choices. As an AOS or AGpO member you have already made the choice to learn and provide stellar comprehensive orthodontic treatment to your patients. Over the last decade or so there has been a dramatic increase in the number of adults seeking orthodontic treatment. Many of these patients will opt for traditional compre-hensive orthodontic treatment but what treatment choices are available for those who: 1. Do not want to wear visible fixed braces for a long period of time? L patients are 1) long treatment time and 2) visibility of the braces. These objections are so strong the patient would rather suffer from poor self confidence and hide their smile than seek out orthodontic treatment. What if there was a way to overcome these patient objections while simultaneously improving their smiles and making your office more profitable at the same time? You can easily overcome these objections by using clear labial brackets and tooth colored archwires or invisible lingual braces when providing Powerprox Six Month Braces ® . 2. Are not candidates for, or do not want to wear, removable clear aligners? Overcoming Objection 1 --Long Treatment Time Cosmetic orthodontic procedures are geared more toward anterior cosmetic correction in adult patients than skeletal and occlusal change in young patients. Focusing on our goal of giving the patient a great smile quickly instead of performing time consuming changes to their existing stable posterior occlusion allows for a very predictable treatment that is highly profitable. It is also very fast. We have treated thousands of cases in the 17 years we have been providing orthodontic treat-ment to our patients and the average treatment time using the Powerprox technique is just six months. To help doctors visualize the goals of treatment we tell them to view Powerprox Six Month Braces ® as “orthodontic veneers” The goal of porcelain veneers is to give your patient a great smile. The goal of Power-prox Six Month Braces ® is the same only instead of preparing teeth and bonding porcelain we move the teeth to their most beautiful position. We have the same end goal in mind – a great smile – we just take two different roads to get there. (Figs. 1a&1b and 2a&2b) Our simplified treatment goals allow the Powerprox technique to be learned far more easily than compre-hensive orthodontic treatment geared toward growing children. The technique can be learned very quickly and it does not carry the high lab fee or “rule changes” of clear aligners. As previously mentioned Powerprox Six Month Braces ® is a great alternative option for those who have refused comprehensive orthodontics, are not candidates for aligner therapy, do not want their teeth prepared for porcelain veneers, or cannot afford porcelain veneers. 3. Are not candidates for, or do not want tooth preparation for, porcelain veneers? Well now you can have another tool in your cosmetic dentistry tool belt so you can give your patient’s spectac-ular smiles very quickly. The procedure used to reach this goal is called Powerprox Six Month Braces ® . INCREASE CASE ACCEPTANCE BY OVERCOMING PATIENT OBJECTIONS The two biggest patient objections that doctors must overcome when providing orthodontic treatment to their Fig. 1a Fig. 1b Fig. 2a Fig. 2b Figs. 1a & b and Figs. 2a & 2b: The goal of Powerprox Six Month Braces® is to give your patient a great smile quickly. 34 September/October 2011 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society September-October 2011: Page 34
