Compliance?

How Could This Impact Predictability of Clear Aligner Treatment...

This week I listened to the Aligner Intelligence podcast:

https://lnkd.in/dZ4RAf3N an informative 12 minutes talking about the predictability of clear aligner treatments, it is well worth a listen and I won't go into all the details here but I did want to explore one particular idea that was raised...

It is known that poor compliance with aligner wear is detrimental to treatment outcomes, if certain movements are deemed to be less predictable than others then you would imagine poor compliance will have a negative impact on predictability. One study mentioned in the podcast, https://lnkd.in/da3vadDi Thirumoorthy and Gopal concluded that "Of a sample of 2,644 patients, only 36% of the patient sample were fully compliant and poor compliance was exhibited by 25%" The authors concluded that "non-compliant patients can be identified early, using their results as a guideline. This will help in timely intervention of addressing compliance issues during clear aligner orthodontic treatment."

It got me thinking of an insightful talk that Darsh Patel gave in which he said the real value of DentalMonitoring was in the ability to address non-compliant patients (ideally early) and to intervene to get them back on track. We know there will always be less compliant patients but our goal is to improve the compliance of these patients via education, the Hawthorne effect (big brother) and automated prompts. It also helps to motivate patients if they know that scanning when prompted will likely lead to treatment finishing without additional and frustrating delays.

So if aligner treatments can be aided by improved compliance then what would stop you from using tools to address this? Take the image shown as an example of 2 aligner patients - very quickly you can see the story of each patient:

One a very compliant patient who's scanning on time and showcasing good Oral Hygiene, you could bring this record up with your patient and congratulate them on their great work.

The other is clearly not as compliant, unseats are evident across their timeline - this patient is the one that will be harder to keep on track but wouldn't you rather know about it early and be proactive with your approach? If nothing else you have week by week evidence on what is happening with your treatment - real updates, not a simulated clincheck or a 'hope' that the patient is on track.

What methods do you use to address compliance with your Orthodontic patients?

#dentalmonitoring #orthodontics #aligners #ai