Dentaltown

**Case Profile: Fastbraces**

A 16-year-old with Class I crowding, moderate open bite tendency, and a treatment timeline that raised eyebrows: 71 days from bonding to bracket removal.

Drs. Evangelia Dartzalopoulou and Anthony Viazis walk through the case using only Fastbraces brackets and a single archwire, with interarch vertical elastics throughout. Panoramic radiographs at debond showed corrected root parallelism of the canines within that timeframe, and fixed retainers were placed immediately on removal.

👉 To read the full case and share your thoughts, see the link in the comments below 👇

**Are DSOs Taking Over Dentistry, or Are Young Dentists Just Delaying Ownership?**

The DSO debate tends to produce two camps: one convinced corporate dentistry has already won, the other insisting nothing has changed. This Hot Topics piece cuts through both and lands somewhere more useful.

The actual signal in the data: early-career ownership has dropped significantly, but by 15 to 20 years out, ownership rates across generations start to converge. Dentistry didn't flip. The timeline stretched. DSOs are frequently the on-ramp, not the destination.

It's a candid, well-reasoned read that respects both sides without flinching from the real tradeoffs.

👉 To read the full article and share your thoughts, see the link in the comments below 👇

💬 What matters more to you: where a dentist starts their career, or where they end up?

**The $2,500 Phone Call Most Practices Miss**

Most dentists assume their new patient problem is a marketing problem. Flint Geier of Scheduling Institute says it usually isn't. The average practice misses more than 30% of inbound calls, and when a potential new patient doesn't get an answer, they don't leave a voicemail. They call the next dentist on Google.

Each one of those unanswered calls represents roughly $2,500 in lost collections. The fix isn't a bigger ad budget. It's a better-trained front desk and a system that actually gets the phone answered.

👉 To read the full article and share your thoughts, see the link in the comments below 👇

💬 What's your current system for making sure new patient calls don't go unanswered?