Australasian Dentist Magazine March April 2021

Category Australasian Dentist 97 built around the use of appliances that they produced and sold. A lot of those appliances really aren’t needed at all. Prior to setting up Smilefast as a short- term introductory course to orthodontics for GPs, I’ve already had several years of experience teaching orthodontists. Smilefast is a two-day course that gives general practitioners the ability to straighten teeth in 75% of adult orthodontic cases. The feedback was great and the dentists we trained were asking for more. This led us to develop a 9-module, 2-year Mini Master’s Program. It was designed to equip graduate GPs with the skills to treat 95% of all orthodontic patients – without having to refer them to specialists. The idea with Smilefast and the OrthoED Mini Master’s was to provide a total program of orthodontic education, based on sound principals and good mentorship, which was lacking in marketplace. Q You often talk about the need to rethink orthodontics and orthodontic training. Was there a turning point in your own understanding? A My turning point came when I met Dr Rohit Sachdeva about 10 years ago. I consider him the brightest and most intelligent orthodontist alive today. It was Dr Sachdeva who taught me a fundamental principal that completely changed my thinking: with proper planning and proper risk management, 99% of patients can undergo orthodontic therapy with no surprises. What I’ve learned from him, I would say not more than one per cent of orthodontists understand. I’ve since passed on a lot of this learning to all of my dental clients. Based on what I call risk management, these principles take your orthodontic knowledge to a whole new level that protects you from unwanted problems. What most orthodontists do, and that’s what we have been taught in universities, is that you put all your braces on and the teeth miraculously line up – but that’s only true in 70 per cent of cases. They can actually get worse in 30 per cent of the cases, and that has to do with what we call the bracket/wire geometry. We teach our course attendees about the difference between a consistent and inconsistent force system. In the latter inconsistent system, simply putting the brackets on the conventional way will result in teeth moving the wrong way. Our job is to identify which cases fall into which category and once we do, we have to identify the mechanics to change from the inconsistent force system to a consistent one. Once this knowledge is learnt, orthodontic tooth movement and treatment can be very easy and predictable. Part two of this interview will appear in the next edition of Australasian Dentist. Dr Geoffrey Hall, Specialist Orthodontist and director of the OrthoED Institute, geoff@orthoed.com.au, 1300 073 427 profile