Why ‘Good Enough’ Orthodontics Holds You Back

For centuries, people got around by horse and cart. It worked. Journeys were completed. Life went on. But the moment cars arrived, “good enough” transport suddenly looked slow, messy, and limiting. That’s exactly how scepticism about DentalMonitoring will age.

Many orthodontists I met last week were sceptical about DM. Fair enough, they already deliver great outcomes, patients are happy, and your systems work. But history shows us: what feels “good enough” today often looks outdated tomorrow. Here I will address some common pushbacks and why it is worth thinking about where monitoring fits into future practice within the orthodontic world.

🚧 Point 1: “We’ve been running successful practices for years without monitoring. Treatments finish well, patients are happy, and we get by just fine.”

Response: True. Just like we lived fine before mobile phones. Or travelled by horse and cart. But getting by isn’t the same as running at your best.

Cars didn’t make horses obsolete overnight. But once you experience speed, control, and convenience, you don’t want to go back.

DentalMonitoring doesn’t replace orthodontics. It changes how it’s delivered, same journey, but faster, smoother, and with more oversight, more control.

👉 Once practices see the gains from monitoring, the old way feels unthinkable.

💰 Point 2: “It’s expensive. I can’t justify the cost, especially when margins are tight.”

Response: Fair concern. But this frames DM as a cost when it’s really a capacity unlock.

• For example busy NHS sites using DM have freed 800+ appointments a year - hitting UOA targets with fewer staff and freeing up capacity to focus on private work.
• Private practices turn that reclaimed time into new starts, better patient care, and lower stress.

👉 It’s not an added bill. It’s a tool that pays back in time, patients, and revenue.

⏱️ Point 3: “It’ll be more work for my team. I don’t want extra admin or tech headaches.”

Response: Understandable. But the opposite usually happens.

Owning a horse meant daily feeding, mucking out, and constant care. Cars looked complex at first, then proved far simpler.

DM feels like “something extra” at setup. Then it removes the squeezing in emergencies, rescheduling, and firefighting that eat up team energy.

👉 The workload shifts from reactive chaos to proactive control.

🧪 Point 4: “I’m not convinced it really changes outcomes. Teeth still move at the same biological speed.”

Response: Correct - biology hasn’t changed. Management has.

DM lets clinicians spot slow progress or issues earlier. That means:

• Fewer wasted weeks between check-ins.
• Better compliance.
• More predictable outcomes.

Think of it like sat-nav. It won’t change the destination but it stops wrong turns, delays, and backtracking.

👉 Over time, those marginal gains add up to shorter treatments, fewer visits, and less variability.

🦷 Point 5: “With braces, we already see patients every 8 weeks. Outcomes are excellent. There’s no evidence DM adds enough to warrant it.”

Response: Eight-week cycles clearly work but they also hide inefficiencies.

• If a bracket breaks in week 2, you often don’t know until week 8. That’s six weeks lost. Some will say patients tell them (sometime they do, but we see that many things get picked up by our AI that the patient doesn't report back on)
• If elastics aren’t worn, you only discover it months later.

DM fills those blind spots. It doesn’t always replace appointments, it makes the ones you do have more productive.

Early issue detection, stronger compliance, and fewer wasted weeks compound into more consistent results across your whole patient base.

👉 The question isn’t “are outcomes good enough without DM?” It’s “why accept avoidable delays when you don’t have to?”

🚀 Closing Thought You don’t realise how limited the horse and cart is until you’ve driven a car. You don’t appreciate how indispensable a mobile phone is until you use one.

DentalMonitoring fits that same pattern. It’s not about fixing something broken. It’s about unlocking a better way.

👉 If you’re sceptical, reach out and book an observation day. We can look at how much time, stress, and effort it could save. Then decide if you’d go back.