Reigniting the passion for dentistry

"My earliest memory of DSD goes back to a seminar in 2012. I was quite despondent with dentistry at that time, and looking for pathways out,” Angelo says. By chance, he attended a two-day seminar in Auckland to fulfill his continuing education points and it happened to be presented by Christian Coachman. “That was the first time I had ever heard about him or his concepts and it turned on a light inside me and reignited my passion for dentistry,” he recalls.

Instead of finding a pathway out, discovering Digital Smile Design took him on a journey further into comprehensive dentistry, starting by becoming an Invisalign provider. “Prior to this I was becoming quite dissatisfied with how much tooth structure I was removing in restorative cases,” he explains. One of the key concepts that resonated with him during Christian’s presentation was that of aligning teeth before the restorative phase of treatment.

While offering Invisalign treatment made it possible for Angelo to deliver less invasive treatment, he found the training and support to be rudimentary and insufficient for problem solving on challenging cases. He persevered and had good outcomes with some cases but in time began to feel despondent as the cons outweighed the pros. However, with the nearest orthodontist to Angelo being 200 miles away, demand for ortho treatment did not stop and it became evident that a solution was needed.

The turning point for Angelo came through another DSD course hosted by Andrea Shepperson a New-Zealand based dentist and trainer. Here he became aware of the synergy that DSD was developing in treatment planning that incorporated aligners. It was also at this time that he developed his vision of transitioning out of his associate dentist role and establish his own DSD clinic from the ground up.

The establishment of his own DSD-certified clinic not only marked a significant professional milestone but also demonstrated the practical benefits of DSD in real-world settings. "Building the clinic from scratch during the lockdown, immediately following my training, allowed us to implement DSD principles into every aspect of our operations," he adds.

He confirms that it was during this learning phase of his DSD Clinic onboarding that he realized he could not do dentistry any other way going forward. “The philosophies just really resonated with me. This is, it's not just cosmetic work, it's got to be functional first and foremost and conservative,” he says.

Achieving consistent success with Invisalign through DSD

For Angelo, one of the most valuable benefits of his collaboration with DSD as a certified clinic, was gaining access to clinical mentors at the DSD Planning Center, in particular to plan Invisalign cases. “I can't speak highly enough of Dr Daniel Ramos,” he says, describing him as “an amazing teacher and mentor”. Daniel Ramos is an orthodontist and clinical mentor in the DSD Planning Center leadership team. “What I've learned in the last three years working with Daniel, by far eclipses what I had learned in those first seven years of doing Invisalign on my own,” he continues.

He adds that the cases he has done in the past three years he would have never thought possible with clear aligners. “During the one-on-one calls that I had with Daniel he systematically went through the treatment plans and the teaching that he did in those sessions were incredible and I began to understand the logic” he adds.

“What was really exciting was the treatment plans were so different to anything that I'd done before,” he confirms. He believes that had he known five years before what he learned in his first six months with DSD he would have had a very different experience with Invisalign. “The patients were ecstatic with the outcomes,” he explains.

When comparing his clinic life before DSD to nowadays, Angelo notes dramatic positive differences. “It dramatically improved my confidence and competence. I now see a lot more that I just did not see before in cases,” he explains, crediting working with DSD’s collective intelligence to helping him with blind spots.

“Having multiple specialists with different points of view collaborating in your treatment planning rather than just being on your own as a ‘John Wayne’ makes all the difference,” he says.

He adds that since DSD his cases are far more predictable in outcome and he is branching out into treatment modalities like temporary anchorage devices and airway.

Another area in which Angelo has seen a significant positive impact in his clinic has come from implementing the DSD first and second appointment protocols. “I was just blown away by the patients' reactions,” he explains about the responses that smile test drives elicited. While the appointment is by no means a “hard sell” he points out that once patients see their end result smile they become much more inclined to ask ‘how do we make this happen?’.

“The appointments are much more comfortable both for myself as the clinician and for the patients as well. It's very relaxed and fun,” he adds. He credits the DSD case presentation methodology as the reason why he is able to show patients the value of doing orthodontic treatment before undergoing any restorative work. “The majority of patients come to me looking for a restorative solution and the smile test drive is a great way of communicating the benefit of moving their teeth to the correct position first,” he continues.

“I don’t have one moment of regret about becoming a DSD Clinic,” Angelo reflects, explaining how adopting DSD has fundamentally changed the way he approaches dentistry. “I now offer less invasive, more predictable treatments and the level of patient trust and satisfaction soared," he adds.

He concludes by shedding light on the non-dentistry benefits he has gained from taking this route. “I genuinely feel like part of a family, which is incredible because we're literally on opposite sides of the world. DSD is a company with a soul and the community is so welcoming. I'm just so happy and privileged to be part of this family,” he ends.