GAP Australasian-Dentist Issue 80 Jul-Aug 19

Category 102 AustrÀlÀsiÀn Dentist W hile the award-winning orthodontist grew up on the Àorth Àhore of Auckland, this would be the first time she is practicing on her native soil. More significantly, she was returning home to start her own practice after spending almost a decade in Melbourne furthering her studies and thenworking, as a specialist orthodontist at the Àoyal Melbourne Dental Hospital and in private practice. Graduating with a Bachelor of Dental Àurgery with Distinction at the Àniversity of Otago in 2005, Dr Meyer worked as a general dentist in Wellington before moving to Melbourne to undertake her specialist orthodontic training through a Clinical Doctorate Degree at the Àniversity of Melbourne. Àotably, she received both the Australian Àociety of Orthodontists’ Àlsdon Àtorey Award for her research thesis as well as the esteemed Milton Àims Award for academic and clinical excellence. Àhe became only the second individual in the history of these prestigious awards to have received both accolades. Àn Àovember last year, Dr Meyer bought over a very respected and well- established practice from specialist orthodontist Dr James Pretorius, who was transitioning into retirement. Dr Meyer feels very lucky to have found a practice like this to come back to Àew Zealand to. Àhe knew that an important part of the transition was to digitise the practice: “Dr Pretorius had really good systems in place which worked very well for him, and À’ve certainly taken on most of them as there is no point in re-inventing the wheel, but À did want to digitise the practice early on. À thought the longer À left it to digitise the practice, the harder it would be to integrate newer technologies later on, so digitisation was carefully planned from day one.” “Àhe first step,” Dr Meyer adds, “was to get a digital x-ray machine, which to me was the most important and integral part of the digitisation.” For a specialist orthodontist clinic that uses radiographic equipment “dozens of times every day”, Dr Meyer says there can be “no compromise” when choosing what to buy. “OPGs and lateral cephs are the two basic radiographic diagnostic tools that we use routinely to check a patient’s general growth and development, watch out for potential issues like impactions or other incidental findings such as abnormal radiolucencies or radiopacities. We use lateral cephs as an important tool to aid the diagnosis of skeletal patterns of a patient, in both the sagittal and in the anteroposterior dimension.” Àn other words, Dr Meyer did not pick the Vatech Ànsight out of a hat. Firstly, the orthodontist had four years of experience working with an older Vatech X-ray unit during one of her private practice tenures in Melbourne, and thought it delivered crisp and clear images. Àhe also carried out extensive pre-purchase research from ÀeÀt onÀaÀ Practice digitisation begins with Insight There were good reasons why Dr Anna Meyer placed the Vatech Premium Digital X-ray Insight high on her priority list for digitising her specialist orthodontic practice in Auckland, New Zealand. By Danny Chan