Murtuza Hasnaini explains why he invested in a virtual practice with Dental Monitoring and why he thinks it’s the future of dentistry.
Please introduce yourself.
My name is Murtuza Hasnaini and I graduated from Barts and The Royal London in 1997. I’ve been a specialist orthodontist since 2003.
Since 2004 I’ve been principal of a private orthodontic practice in the City of London. We offer 100% private treatment, more than 90% of our patients are adults and 80% of our treatments we do with Invisalign.
How long have you been seeing patients in your practice?
Since 2004 when we first opened as a squat practice.
What types of treatments do you offer there?
We are an orthodontic specialist practice, so offer the full range of orthodontic treatments. But our speciality is complex orthodontics with Invisalign, temporary anchorage devices and we treat a large number of multi-disciplinary cases.
How many patients do you start per year (average)?
In excess of 400.
What was your major concern before starting your virtual practice and what were you expecting from this solution?
My major concern was whether patients would object to the idea of no longer physically attending the practice for an appointment.
Don’t forget I started seeing patients virtually 2.5 years ago, so well before the pandemic!
Can you describe how you use Smilemate/Vision/Dental Monitoring?
I only use Dental Monitoring at present.
All my new patient starts go into Dental Monitoring, including braces and aligner cases. Of my caseload, over 90% are in Dental Monitoring.
We use Dental Monitoring to remotely monitor treatment and carry our virtual aligner changes and brace adjustments.
Would you say that this virtual practice has bridged a gap you wanted to close and how?
I didn’t start using Dental Monitoring due to the problems caused by the pandemic.
I started using it 2.5 years ago because I was looking to find a more efficient way to see my patients. Remote monitoring means less chairside time and that increases profitability.
But what I have found is that it improves patient compliance and treatment outcomes due to the close monitoring it offers.
What do you think the benefits of these solutions are for your patients?
Fewer appointments means less inconvenience to their routine.
During the lockdown, none of my patients treatments were affected. The treatment outcome has improved. Emergencies and problems are dealt with faster than ever before.
What do you think the world of oral health care will look like tomorrow?
Patients will still demand customer service. And we will still need clinicians to plan treatment.
But I do think as more clinicians adopt AI solutions, we will need fewer face-to-face interactions. While that will present threats, there are an equal number of opportunities.
What would you say to orthodontists who are still skeptical about Dental Monitoring AI technology?
It works.
It’s not that long ago we were sceptical about whether plastic (aligners) could move teeth. But the reality is that aligners are as good as, if not better than, brackets and wires.
It’s the same with anything new – unless you try it, you cant knock it.
If you had to describe the virtual practice by Dental Monitoring in three words, which ones would you choose?
Efficient, exciting and revolutionary.
For more information visit dental-monitoring.com.
