Question on ortho

[hafido]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I have been checking out DentalTown.com and have noticed there are many dentists (GP's) that are attempting to develop an ortho practice for whatever reason, but they are not going back to school for it. Rather they are taking general workshop courses. Some state they have developed successful practices from no formal specialty training/schooling. What are your opinions on this? I personally believe that it is an okay route if you live in a rural area and/or want to be a one stop clinic for cases not to demanding, but if you want to do ortho full-time, the specailty is the way to go. My second question is pointed to dental students. If it's the case that you can perfom some ortho on a patient via training in workshops, how much more in depth does specializing go (aside from the obvious working on patients from the start to end of treatment)?

 

[comatose]

After graduating from an ortho program, you can advertise yourself as an orthodontist. I think this is a biggie if you want to practice ortho.

 

[Supernumerary]

Well for one thing, these GPs are not just learning ortho in a weekend courses and then implementing it in their practices. There is a tremendous amount of reading and study done before starting to offer ortho.

The rest of this post is total surmise on my part, so take it with a grain of salt. But I would guess that most GPs who offer ortho start with simple rotations on a single tooth, then after a year or so start working on fairly simple full mouth cases like crowding in a class I or something and only over a period of years work up to the complicated cases. I'm also pretty sure that a good portion of ortho school is spent studying appliances other than simple braces - moving an underdeveloped maxilla, working with cleft palate, etc... These other things (although interesting) just aren't necessary for the GP to treat the vast majority of patients.

 

[larryt]

Originally posted by Supernumerary

I'm also pretty sure that a good portion of ortho school is spent studying appliances other than simple braces - moving an underdeveloped maxilla, working with cleft palate, etc... These other things (although interesting) just aren't necessary for the GP to treat the vast majority of patients.

You're right on it.

The weekend ortho program offering in Houston is for 2 yrs every other Sat and isn't cheap ($20k total). Trainee does practice on real patients. They primarily focus on braces and some simple appliances. In general practies, We ain't see many patients with cleft palate and other complicated defective cases anyway. Past 2 yrs, we had couple treated cases of unilateral cleft lip and 1 mild cleft uvula. I guess most severe cases are already booked by dental and medical schools. The orthodontist next door of us has seen just very few of defective cases in the past 2 yrs also. I have lunch with him and our dentists almost everyday anyway

 

[UBTom]

Bottom line on GP's doing ortho:

If you are a general dentist, you are ALLOWED to do orthodontics. There are two catches though:

1) Your work will be held to the same exact standards as a formally-trained orthodontist. If something goes wrong and you got sued for malpractice, "But I'm not an ortho specialist!" is NOT a valid defense.

2) You are NOT allowed to advertise yourself as an orthodontist. Without formal training, if you call yourself an orthodontist you are committing an act of misrepresentation.

The general dentist should use his own good judgment-- If an ortho case looks very complex and will require delicate management and coordination with other specialists (such as oral surgeons and pediatric dentists for correcting severe cleft lip/palates), best refer it out rather than risk mismanaging the case and incur a malpractice suit.

 

[johndental]

If a gp can do a general ortho case that isnt very difficult then I think its great. However, how much they charge is important to the patient. I mean its almost statusy to go to orthodontists. They have had such marketing success over the years that people take pride in their kids going to see the "orthodontist" etc.

So, if its not a complex case and there are cost savings for the patient then I think its great but if I were a consumer and I didnt save any money by having my general dentist do the work then I would choose a specialist because orthodontists certainly have the experience edge.

Most orthodontists outside dental schools dont deal with cleft palate that much I would think. Most of this is left to ortho faculty in conjunction with OMS faculty at a dental school to the best of my knowledge.