Australasian Dentist Magazine March April 2021

Category Australasian Dentist 113 columnists W e have never experienced a subsector within dentistry that has had such incredible growth, development, and popularity amongst patients, clinicians and large institutional money as the clear aligner sector. Since Align commercialised Invisalign™ at the start of the century, aligners have enjoyed substantial popularity with the general public. From a clinician perspective, the last four to six years has seen us rapidly move from the early adaptor to the early majority to now being in the cusp of entering the late majority. Coincidingwith this, themindboggling amount of investor and institutional money in aligners and aligner related companies has absolutely skyrocketed – along with major acquisitions and restructuring. The whole aligner industry is changing and restructuring rapidly. And this continual change and restructuring will absolutely continue! ACASwill use this column to continue to provide you with regular updates on what is happening in the aligner space! Stock market: We thought it would be interesting to look as some aligner based companies and how they have been doing over the last six months. Patient based news: u All major aligner companies are running social media ads and patient focussing social media accounts. u Smile Direct Club is running a patient focussed TV/Video campaign regarding daytime and night time aligners. u Invisalign is running a patient focussed TV/Video campaign. Clinical based news: u ClearCorrect has released their new user interface Clear Pilot u AngelAlign has released wings? u Invisalign has released their new G8 protocol, optimised for lower anterior intrusion and deep bite cases u Henry Schein has announced their new aligner system – Reveal ® Clear Aligners u Important update: Invisalign has recently changed their cancellation policy if you don’t accept more than 50% of your clinchecks uploaded with a scanner per quarter, you will be charged a fee for every case not approved in the next quarter. This has the potential to have major implications on your clinic, particularly if you offer free aligner consults/workups. If you are not fully aware of this change, spend time reading their updated official terms and conditions. Society news: Many ACAS members have contacted us explaining how throughout the most difficult time of the pandemic, their aligner workflow was robust and mostly unaffected. This adds yet another benefit for aligners and continues to show the freedom and impact aligner therapy has on the potential of your practice. Similarly, those members using technology such as Dental Monitoring to remotely monitor their patients ensured as minimal disruption as possible – again highlighting the importance of embracing technology in dentistry. We will still be holding our two-day physical conference in Melbourne in August, 2021 (so long as it is safe to do so!) but this virtual symposium continues to try and meet our members’ intense desire for high quality and impartial aligner education. I would also like to thank our world class speakers, who will bring an incredible wealth of knowledge, energy and expertise to the virtual symposium. We are honoured to have had such an eclectic mix of academics, international and local orthodontists who share the ACAS vision and ethos. I would like to thank our society sponsors, who have continued to support us in what is no doubt a very difficult year for them! Their commitment to support our organisation and their support for our impartial education is very much appreciated. Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank our members who supported us throughout the year. We hope you have benefitted from our society and we are excited to continue to develop to achieve more and achieve better. We would like to take the opportunity to remind all member that that our online members portal is live. It is an extremely valuable resource where members can find current and backdated copies of Journal of Aligner Orthodontics, all copies of Clear Idea magazine as well as ACAS webinars, podcasts and discounts for a wide range of upcoming aligner courses. Looking forward, our whole team is now working hard in the background to ensure that ACAS2021 in Melbourne is a complete success and an event that continues to uphold ACAS’ high standards. We ask for your continued support, feedback and participation in our events and publications. It is obvious that the dental community has accepted this society and want to see it flourish. For the more active members who would like to contribute further, please get in contact to see if we have a suitable role for you. We are always on the lookout for ways in which we can broaden our horizon and improve on our members’ service. Some exciting events and happenings to look forward to include: u Members online portal now live u Journal of Aligner Orthodontics Access (including all previous additions) for all members u ACAS Podcast (NEW!) u Courses and group bulk discounts u ACAS2021 in Melbourne, Australia (more than 165 tickets sold!) u Become an ACAS member and receive exclusive access to ClearIdea magazine, ClearSpeak Podcast and Journal of Aligner Orthodontics – visit www.acasociety.com ” ACAS Society News Align Technologies Dentsply