Dr. Allen Nazeri (DDS, MBA) explains why he supports tele-orthodontics and encourages dentists to view companies like Smile Direct Club as partners rather than threats. He states he consults for Smile Direct Club in Southeast Asia, then gives several arguments: tele-orthodontic companies increase public awareness of dental care through marketing; they serve patients who cannot afford traditional in-office fees and offer financing; they employ clinical safeguards (panels of licensed dentists, X-rays when required) and remote monitoring (patients sending photos about every 90 days); and dentists should learn from these business models and form strategic partnerships. He challenges common social-media criticisms and invites viewers to contact him for help integrating teledentistry.
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Hello, this is Dr. Allen. Welcome to my channel. If this is the first time you reach me, I help founders to develop, scale and exit from their businesses successfully. A common question that lately is coming to me is about tele orthodontics and why I have become a big proponent or promoter of tele orthodontics. Now some of you may know I am consulting with a Smile Direct Club. They're one of my clients in Southeast Asia and I would not consult with them if I did not think that they are a good company and they are about quality of care for patients. Now the problem is that most dentists are uninformed or they get their information from someone else and they quickly judge a business or a colleague without really understanding this. I've been in dentistry for 30 years and I have gone through this process so many times because people start judging me without understanding why I do a certain thing or how my practice is in a certain way and so forth. And so this is something that happens in dentistry. Often most dentists, they judge a company or business from the outside without understanding it. So I hope this video will help you understand this a little bit better. Number one.
The tele orthodontic companies such as the Spa DirectClub, yes, they reach out to consumers directly and they provide care for these patients through a professionally monitored remote program. Now there are number of advantages to this that dentists do not realize. Number one, companies such as Spondirect Club, that they spend great amount of money on marketing and on social media on various platforms and so forth, they typically increase the public awareness about dentistry. See dentistry, we do not have our own shows like Nip and Tuck or the gross anatomy on Hollywood and so forth. So dentistry needs that attention. And what they provide is only mild to moderate spacing and crowding in orthodontics. So there's all this huge areas of dentistry that are still available that these programs do not touch. And you can take advantage of it as a dentist because it will increase awareness. People will come and ask questions. In some cases you cannot do orthodontics. You end up doing veneers or cosmetic dentistry or other forms of dentistry. So to just judge a company and say, hey, you know what? They're there to.
Take my business away. It's not good because you do not understand that they're just a small part and they're really helping to increase the awareness. Number two, they're reaching to people that normally they cannot afford a typical dental office fee. And as you know, a dental office fee is compromised of the professional fee. But also running an office, and running an office is not cheap, it's expensive. You have equipments and you have rent and you have supplies and different things. So by having this model, the people who are not easily able to afford this type of dentistry, which can make a big difference in their lives, which I have seen it in my own life when, when I remember I hired a team member, this was maybe 15, 20 years ago, that she was very capable in terms of management skills and leadership skills, but her teeth just looked plain ugly. And by doing some free cosmetic dentistry, I was able to move this patient from someone who was making only $8 an hour to someone who made 60, $70,000 is in one year within 12 months. So there are a lot of people that their teeth are very important. They are embarrassed of smiling and so forth. They cannot hold a good job, they cannot have good relationships or whatever, self confidence and so forth that they can tap into this. So as dentists, we will be happy because we are increasing the access for care and somebody else is paying for the marketing and so forth. Okay? The other thing is that they have great programs in financing these patients that a dentist cannot do on their own, okay? So some of these patients, they can go in with little bit of down payment and make monthly payments. Okay? Now what the problem is that the dentist, like I was listening to a dentist on social media in Newport Beach, California on Instagram, she got on and she's talking about, oh, you know what, these places, they do not assess patients properly. I'm a dentist because I assess the patients properly, I monitor the cases properly and so forth. This is nothing more than BS Number one. What I have seen from the company is that they assess every patient very carefully. As a matter of fact, more careful than a single dentist's office because they have a panel of people, bunch of different eyes looking at the case, rather than a simple single dentist who just looks at one case and nobody else is there to judge them. Okay? So there's a panel of dentists involved. It is not true that they do not take X rays or there's no pre assessment done. X rays are all part of the process. If the patient has it, they're welcome to bring it in. If the dentist requires it, they'll tell the patient they need to have the X rays done. So again, please do not get on social media and misinform the patients. Now let's talk about monetary. You, the dentist who gets online and tell the patients, oh, there's no monitoring involved. Let me tell you What? Number one, this is bunch of BS because if you have been, if I come to your office or any orthodontist office, the patients are hardly ever seen, seen by the dentist or generally seen by the dental assistants who are changing the rubber bands, the wires and so forth. So this is pure lie that you're monitoring your own cases. In these situations, all the patients are monitored, except remotely, by sending their photos in every 90 days, some cases, maybe sooner, depending on each case. And they're being monitored by professional, licensed, registered dentists. So again, you are misrepresenting this information out there by saying that these cases are not being monitored. Now, some dentists, they say, well, why should I lose the revenue that I'm getting, let's say, from another aligner for $6,000 and small direct charges only, maybe $2,000? Well, let me tell you this, number one, you do not realize your numbers. You do not have any knowledge, business knowledge about your numbers. There's a cost involved in acquiring your patient. There's operational cost. Every time the patient comes and visits your office, there's operational cost involved, okay? That has to be taken into account, okay? And also the convenience of the patient at the end of the day. We are here to provide high level of quality care for patients and affordable fees. If technology is improving, we need to bring that technology to the patient. So as dentists, we need to learn how to work with these companies, how we can learn from them in the business models, okay? So we can improve our own operational process and offer better, faster, cheaper type of dentistry or whatever you're providing to patients, okay? So I hope this video helps you better understand the situation. If you want to understand how you can bring strategic partnerships and bring teledentistry platform into your business, please reach out to me. I'll be happy to help you out and explain this further as well. Again, My name is Dr. Allen. Thank you. And if you find value in this video, please hit the like and the share button and stop spreading rumors. Thank you.
