“Make sure they know you will be there as a trusted dentist and partner in their children’s oral health, that they understand orthodontic benefits, and that they are given a visual picture of the transformation orthodontics can bring in their own or their child’s life.” restorative dentistry (like orthodon-tics) affects the entire muscular and skeletal structure of their face. And they most certainly won’t under-stand that just straightening their teeth might be the biggest or only smile transformation they need. This is where all those beautiful before-and-after photos come in. Many patients will only believe you can handle their smile transforma-tion if they see the evidence with their own eyes. Make sure you are taking them with a high-resolution camera. Use adequate natural lighting and make sure the patient is smiling in the after. Capture the whole face, not just the dentition. Potential patients usually have a hard time picturing a smile as part of the overall appear-ance of the patient. When you have beautiful high resolution before-and-after photos and the patient’s permission, use them in email campaigns, blog posts and social media. Case studies are wonderful pieces of content market-ing. Make sure you are utilizing them. Go one step further and conduct an interview, even a short one, with your patient. Ask them some ques-tions about how they felt about their smile before their orthodontic treatment and how they feel now. Ask if there is anything they look forward to doing with a new smile or if there was a special occasion or segment of life they were especially wanting to be ready for. Get their permission to use the interview in content marketing pieces. Extra credit if you get a profes-sional writer to turn the interview into a polished story or blog post containing the interview questions. Make sure your potential orthodontic patients, both in and out of your practice, know the value of orthodontic care to their overall health, feel comfortable discussing aspects of treatment with you, understand the return on invest-ment, and know that your practice is going to give them the best chances at compliance and reten-tion they could have. Make sure they know you will be there as a trusted dentist and part-ner in their children’s oral health, that they understand orthodontic benefits, and that they are given a visual picture of the transformation orthodontics can bring in their own or their child’s life. Finally, make sure they know your practice is the best place to get the treatment they need. By consistently creating authoritative and engaging content that reaches internal and external audiences, and by accurately presenting the successful cases you have treated, you’ll be able to increase case acceptance and reach more potential orthodontic patients. Archwires): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast.” Allied Market Research, February 2022, https://www.alliedmarketre-search.com/orthodontics-market. Accessed 14 June 2022. “US Orthodontic Market Size, Share, & COVID-19 Impact Analysis.” Fortune Business Insights, https://www.fortunebusinessin-sights.com/u-s-orthodontics-market-104039. Accessed 15 June 2022. AAOINFO. 2017 Orthodontic Work-force Report. April 2018, https://www.aaoinfo.org/sites/default /files/Orthodontic%20Workforce%20 Report_April%202018.pdf. “Dental Practice Research.” American Dental Association, 2021, https://www.ada.org/resources/researc h/health-policy-institute/dental-prac-tice-research. Accessed 15 June 2022. American Orthodontic Society. “How You Can Make Interceptive Orthodontic Care Easier for Parents.” orthodontics.com, The American Orthodontic Society, 14 April 2022, https://orthodontics.com/intercep-tive-orthodontic-care-easier-for-parents/. Accessed 15 June 2022. Han, PhD, Kyungdo, and Jun-Beom Park, DDS, MSD, PhD. “Association between oral health behavior and periodontal disease among Korean adults.” Medicine (Baltimore), 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ articles/PMC5319547/. American Orthodontic Society. “5 Common Problems Orthodontics Can Fix That Dentists Sometimes Miss.” orthodontics.com, The Ameri-can Orthodontic Society, 25 May 2022, https://orthodontics.com/5-common-problems-orthodontics-can-fix/. Accessed 15 June 2022. References Dash, Linu, et al. “Orthodontics Market by Age Group (Adults and Children), and Type (Brackets, Anchorage Appliances, Ligatures and www.orthodontics.com Summer 2022 37
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