Invisalign Alignment

There has been a lot of chatter this week about Align Technology’s new requirements for Invisalign providers of a minimum of 10 cases a year and 10- hours of CE. I made some comments on the Crown Council Forum about this topic this week, but I would like to add a few things here about your practice and about Align.

How should you react? This is clearly a moment to take an objective look at your practice. If you have a procedure that you are doing less than once a month, are you really serious about it? It probably is not worth it to you or your practice to do Invisalign anyway if you are not going to do it that often. So just bag it and refer your cases to…the orthodontist.

Then on the other hand, maybe this is an opportunity to get serious about doing more Invisalign cases. Rethink your attitude about it and your approach. Like most everything, it is a matter of focus. If Invisalign treatment is part of your philosophy of care, then get serious about promoting it and do more of it.

Re-examine where you stand and make a decision. Whichever way you go, it will be a good move for your practice. You will ether do more Invisalign treatment which will be good for your patients and good for your practice, or you will not do any at all, which will free you up to get more focused on the things about which you are really passionate. Just make a decision.

Now about the company…Align Technology.

If you want a great example of how NOT to deal with your customers, you’re seeing it with the example of this company. Let’s put things in perspective. Imagine sending a form letter out to your entire patient base (including those you had just seen recently face-to-face) to let them know that they are no longer welcome in your practice unless they come every 6 months without fail and complete at least 80% of their outstanding treatment. You would never do something like – ever, unless you were so arrogant and out of touch with reality that you routinely made it a point to upset your patients and run people off.

If you wanted to raise the standards, any rational person would start by talking face-to-face with its best customers to explain what was coming, give them an action plan to be successful with the new standards, and then give them some lead to time get up to speed. They would also set up a different class or provider…”beginners” and “select.” The beginners would be provided with special services to help them get above the 10 cases a year mark and would be given a goal time to do that. The select providers would be given VIP services because they are doing more than 10 cases a year. In other words, they would do everything they could to help their clients be successful and communicate it in such a way that the client felt supported, appreciated, and encouraged to do better. Unfortunately, that is not the case here. But from what most people tell me, it is very “aligned” with the actions of the past with this organization.

There is also a great opportunity here for completing technology to rush into the market with the competitive advantage of great customer service and philosophy of “partnering” with their clients for success. With the right ingredients, a company like this would take the industry by storm and practitioners would flock to it. It is only a matter time before it happens. A market will only put up with an arrogant provider for so long before it responds with a better option. That is the beauty of a competitive market-based economy.

So, start making some decisions about the direction of your practice. The time is right. Thanks to Align Technologies, they are giving you a great opportunity to do that. Let’s thank them for that. In the meantime, if you have an idea for a competitive product, get some good customer service behind it and go for it! There are going to be plenty of angry dentists out there who will jump on board just for spite!