As an orthodontist, I work to determine the best care to provide and navigate the numerous appliances and treatment modalities available. In our practice, we strive for continual improvement and techniques to stay current and develop best practices and strategies. There are three main determinants on a method, tool, technology, or modality:
- Can we rely on it to deliver?
- Can we repeat the promised outcomes?
- Can we replicate the process and results across the team?
Rely on
The reliability of a treatment system is critical for success. We must rely on the appliance to deliver on what we expect. In addition, we rely on equipment to function when it is supposed to. We also rely on appliances to be durable and rely on their efficacy to deliver the outcomes we expect for patient care.
Repeat
Repeatability of results is key to orthodontic care. We can see outliers and case reports of cases that mesmerize, but a treatment technique should deliver as expected over and over again. Case reports and presentation cases are awesome to analyze and deconstruct. Yet our busy orthodontic office needs results to be repeatable. Therefore we focus on systemized techniques, repeatable processes, and data analytics to make sure our treatment leads to repeatable outcomes.
Replicate
The third factor we consider is if we can replicate the process across our organization. Sometimes we develop treatment techniques that are reliable and repeatable. However, only certain team members or only one doctor has the skill set to deliver on the outcome. If the process is not replicable, then it is extremely challenging to train and scale the process when the practice grows.
When we build a team and work to grow our practice, keep in mind technology and techniques will come along with many promises and lots of potential. As a result, it is easier to decide on these factors by making sure what we implement is something we can rely on, repeat, and replicate.
