September 2017 | volume 4 | issue 5
articulate the bi-monthly e-newsletter of the dental technologists association
This issue contains 1 hour of CPD for DTA members
www.dta-uk.org PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW CONTACT DETAILS F13a Kestrel Court, Waterwells Drive Waterwells Business Park Gloucester GL2 2AT Telephone: 01452 886366 Email: sueadams@dta-uk.org Web: http://www.dta-uk.org
DTA Nominated Charity of the Year 2017
DTA members have selected Crisis as DTA’s nominated Charity of the Year for 2017. If you’d like to find out more about their work go to www.crisis.org.uk
Equipment and Materials: Let’s view Orthodontic Retainers REF: ● Standards for the Dental Team: 7.3 c) Equipment and Materials
Aims: ● To review orthodontic retainer types and use.
CPD Outcome(s): ● To better understand the use and forms of Orthodontic retainers.
T
here is a wide range of dental retainer designs used by clinicians towards the end of orthodontic treatment, from the well-known Hawley Retainer with its labial bow and cribs or ball clasps, or the clear vacuumed formed Essex Retainer through a range of new or novel appliances. The dentist may offer their patients either removable or fixed dental appliances to hold the natural teeth in place whilst the tissues stabilise; but do they know what range of appliances you as the dental technician could offer them? Marketing our products is therefore essential in a developing market as this could be a new long-term income stream. It is well documented that after orthodontic movement of the natural teeth they need to
be held in the new positions. Without such retainer support ‘relapse can occur as a result of forces from the periodontal fibres around the teeth which tend to pull the teeth back towards their pre-treatment positions, and also from deflecting occlusal contacts if the final occlusion is less than ideal’.1 The British Orthodontic Society (BOS) suggest that ‘almost every patient who has had orthodontic treatment needs to wear retainers. If you do not wear these retainers then your teeth will go crooked again, and the hard work in wearing the braces will be lost. You should only go ahead with orthodontic brace treatment if you are also happy to wear retainers to keep the result at the end’.2 It is also interesting to read a leaflet that the BOS has online3 in which there is basic guidance to patients undergoing orthodontic treatment regarding e.g. the effect on speech, how long the initial retainer might be required to be worn, oral hygiene guidance and that, ‘The only way to have permanently straight teeth is to wear a retainer on a parttime basis for life’4 The suggestion that the retainer might need to be worn for ‘life’ has we appreciate be seen as an opportunity to enter or re-enter the orthodontic appliance market. With this in mind a DTA member suggested that we might like to share this
web video link which shows a number of retainers offered by an American laboratory. Have a look at this 12-minute video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=2XQGu0FmCKQ where the owner of Ohlendorf Appliance Laboratory shares his product offer to help and widen his business opportunities. For those wanting to enhance their own business, there is guidance in, for example, Business Plans for Dummies5 where they suggest that ‘Many fledgling businesses succeed by jumping on new opportunities that arise through technological, social...’ and such opportunities. What we know in the arena of dental technology is that our knowledge, understanding and skills need to be applied often in new ways to maintain a viable income. Positively marketing a range of different orthodontic retention appliances to dentists could open up new and long-term income streams. 1 Retention in Orthodontics; British Dental Journal 218, 119 - 122 (2015) Published online: 16 February 2015 C. D. Johnston & S. J. Littlewood. Accessed 15th July 2017 2 British Orthodontic Society http://www.bos.org.uk/ Public-Patients/Orthodontics-for-Children-Teens/ Treatment-brace-types/Retainers . Accessed 15th July 2017 3 http://www.bos.org.uk/Portals/0/Public/docs/ PILs/retainersapril2013.pdf 4 Page 2 Bottom of column 2 of BOS leaflet on retainers. 5 Business Plans for Dummies, 2nd Edition by Paul Tiffany and Steven D. Peterson
Dental Technologists Association, F13a Kestrel Court, Waterwells Drive, Waterwells Business Park, Gloucester GL2 2AT. call: 01452 886 366 email: sueadams@dta-uk.org web: www.dta-uk.org