Break the Cycle
Last night Bridget and I took the kids to one of our favorite spots for dinner. We didn’t make a reservation and the wait was significant (because Rocco’s Tacos rocks) but we lucked out and got a ...
If We Were Selling to Orthodontists…
We had another interesting thought experiment today. We imagined that we wanted to go into business selling a product (tangible good) to orthodontists and thought about what that would be. It was toug...
Market Penetration Will Outstrip Increasing Competition, for Some
I keep thinking about the generally agreed upon fact that roughly 3,000,000 people in the USA receive orthodontic treatment each year. That may sound like a lot but when you look at 3MM in the contex...
Imagine
Skeet and I had an interesting conversation this morning. We decided to imagine we were around during the heyday of Walmart’s explosion onto the market and that we were aware, at least to some d...
Calling It Like We See It: Two Questions
It’s highly possible that at some point in the next couple decades it will be legal for non-dentists to provide tooth straightening with clear aligners directly to the consumer. Outcome data from pa...
The Same Day Start: Instant Bracefication
Marc Ackerman Ben Burris It’s fun to watch things we’ve championed for years become mainstream. In spite of great resistance, the concept of putting braces on the same day as the new patient visit...
Couch to 5K
So it’s obvious that I need to lose weight and get back in shape. This is not the first time I’ve allowed my fitness to go by the wayside. Over the last 5 years I’ve been overly focused on busin...
What’s Your Practice Worth?
This is a burning question in the minds of orthodontists. We used to think that we knew the answer, depending on only a handful of variables. In the past all you really needed to know to value a prac...
Medically Necessary Orthodontic Treatment: A Serious Handicap to Orthodontics’ Bright Future
Marc Bernard Ackerman, DMD, MBA The American Association of Orthodontics Committee on Medically Necessary Orthodontic Care (MNOC) produced this statement in 2015 that is being promoted at the present ...
You Think SmileDirectClub Is Bad?
I know orthodontists generally hate SmileDirectClub but let me tell you what fully decentralized orthodontic treatment may look like in the future: Scenario #1 Imagine you want straighter teeth and so...