Lincoln Orthodontics

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Lincoln Orthodontics's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Lincoln Orthodontics is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.lincolnorthodontics.co.uk

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

34 | LINCOLN ORTHODONTICS

Matthew Clare, lead clinician

Lincoln Orthodontics

Lincoln Orthodontics is a well-established orthodontic

practice providing treatment to patients throughout

Lincolnshire and the East Midlands. Recognising that

nearly half of the British population is unhappy with their

smile, and that having a “good smile” – justified or not –

confers social and professional benefits, they have decided

to offer the most sophisticated, patient-friendly means of

bringing about a more aesthetic smile. Their focus is on

ensuring that the client is both fully appraised and entirely

comfortable at every stage, from start to finish. The details of

this approach are explained in the following article by their

lead clinician, Matthew Clare.

Patient benefits

Everyone wants to see into the future – and now you can. Lincoln Orthodontics is a

multi-award-winning centre that uses the latest technology to allow patients to see

simulations of their smile correction, whereby 36 months of orthodontic treatment

can be played out in just 30 seconds.

At Lincoln Orthodontics, instead of concentrating on just one or several teeth, we

improve the entire smile, optimising the patient’s bite to create a comprehensive

improvement for our patients. We create individualised healthcare treatment that

not only improves smiles, but makes teeth easier to clean.

FACTS ABOUT

LINCOLN ORTHODONTICS

»Lead clinician: Dr Matthew

Clare

»Established in 2005

»Based in Lincoln

»Services: Multiskilled practice

using extended duties nurses,

treatment co-ordinators and

orthodontic therapists to

deliver tailored orthodontic

healthcare plans

»No. of employees: 20

»Aesthetic Dentistry Award

winner 2016

»www.lincolnorthodontics.co.uk

Lincoln Orthodontics

35LINCOLN ORTHODONTICS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

Although this optimisation takes

longer to achieve, it is a more

conservative approach compared with

removing the surface of teeth and

replacing them with artificial coverings

such as veneers, crowns and bridges.

However, one of the challenges is that

a person’s new smile initially exists only

in the mind of the orthodontist who is

considering treatment for them.

Being able to actually visualise the

final treatment that is hiding in your

orthodontist’s imagination is greatly

appreciated by our patients. Better still,

patients can also discuss this image

with the orthodontist, allowing them

to tweak and change the result to suit

individual ideas of what constitutes

perfection. Using this approach, we

interact with our patients in a virtual

world where treatment options can

be played out in a reversible, non-

invasivemanner.

Our mouth scanners borrow software

from flight simulators, allowing us to

produce an extremely accurate digital

3D model of our patients’ teeth and

smile in just under two minutes. Using

digital simulation software, patients

can see the progression of a two-year

treatment plan take place in just over

30 seconds. Once the benefit can

be properly visualised, the decision

can be more accurately weighed as

to whether to go ahead. Acceptance

is over 90 per cent. This is the best

possible type of informed consent;

asimulation cannot be misunderstood

and is innately understandable to both

children and adults alike.

The benefits are not just for the

patient though. Using digital models

and simulators, clinicians can share

their expertise with contemporaries

across the globe. Thanks to digital

technology, like-minded orthodontists

are now interconnected across a

multinational web of professional

networks channelling information,

with experience now able to flow to

areas of need.

The future

Within the NHS there is a desperate

need for more hospital-based

orthodontic consultants. Digital

professional networks could be very

helpful in increasing patient access

to high-quality care in rural and

community-based facilities. The old-

fashioned hub-and-spoke arrangement

could now be replaced by a more

organic network that makes the

geographical distance between the

“hub” and the end of the “spoke”

irrelevant. If properly applied and

funded, this would seem the most

natural evolution for telemedicine

within the NHS in the field of

orthodontics.

Can artificial intelligence be

applied to orthodontics?

Companies now exist, such as the

Dental Monitoring company, that use

the ubiquitous smartphone camera to

assess and compare the movements of

a patient’s teeth against the predicted

movements of the orthodontist’s

treatment plan. The advantage of

this is that patients can be alerted

to the fact that their orthodontic

treatment might need intervention

before anything serious occurs.

There is an

artistic

element to

orthodontic

treatment

“

Digital scanning and

simulations

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

36 | LINCOLN ORTHODONTICS

Onthe other side of the coin, patients

might only need to attend in person

when it is necessary to come in, as

their progress is being monitored

in a digital manner. Beneficiaries of

this include those patients from rural

communities who are forced to travel

a long way to their orthodontist or

patients who struggle to get time off

from work. Children would have to

take less time off from school and it

could also save millions of pounds

in NHS appointments that are often

unattended.

However, this advance in technology

needs to be appraised with a critical

eye. Some companies are attempting

to sell treatment to patients along with

an automated treatment plan that is

a clinician entirely. Tooth movements

are prescribed without the patient

ever having undergone a clinical

examination.

The obvious benefit for companies

is that they can market directly to

the patient. I believe, however, what

is misunderstood is that there is

more to the creation of healthcare

treatment plans than just lining up

teeth in a straight line. Many biometric

parameters are unable to be captured

in a digital scan of teeth, such as the

health of the teeth, the angles between

the jaw bones and the health and

thickness of the gum. There is also a

human artistic element in orthodontic

treatment whereby the smile needs to

fit harmoniously within the patient’s

face. Although the scanner’s lens is

more accurate than a human eye, there

are many other factors that need to be

taken into account beyond the physical

size and position of the teeth.

In short, can programs be produced to

predict the movement of teeth and to

improve a smile? Yes, definitely. Are

the automated programs designed

with a patient-centred approach? No,

absolutely not. They are designed,

above all, to increase the share price

and dividends of a company. In my

view, if we haven’t automated the

relatively simple service of hairdressers

and barbers, we should not have any

confidence in replacing experienced

clinicians with computer programs

designed to deliver irreversible

healthcare and decide where in your

jaw bone one’s teeth should sit.

The way I see orthodontics evolving

is more like the evolution of how a

pilot interacts with a plane. In the old

days, pilots would control their plane

with wires and levers and navigation

would be done on a 2D map. Now,

airline pilots fly totally electronically,

but still with the human pilot being at

the centre of the technology, applying

the appropriate care and delivering

safe travel for all. In today’s modern

clinic, the clinician should still be

central to the process, utilising modern

technology but delivering healthcare

developed by humans, for humans.

Clinicians can

share their

expertise with

contemporaries

across the

globe

“

Orthodontic correction

(before and after)

www.lincolnorthodontics.co.uk

This article was sponsored by Lincoln Orthodontics. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from The Rt Hon Theresa May MP.

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

This foreword from the then Prime Minister appeared in the 2018/19 Parliamentary Review.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review. For Her Majesty’s Government, our task in the year ahead is clear: to achieve the best Brexit deal for Britain and to carry on our work to build a more prosperous and united country – one that truly works for everyone.

The right Brexit deal will not be sufficient on its own to secure a more prosperous future for Britain. We also need to ensure that our economy is ready for what tomorrow will bring. Our Modern Industrial Strategy is our plan to do that. It means Government stepping up to secure the foundations of our productivity: providing an education system that delivers the skills our economy needs, improving school standards and transforming technical education; delivering infrastructure for growth; ensuring people have the homes they need in the places they want to live. It is all about taking action for the long-term that will pay dividends in the future.

But it also goes beyond that. Government, the private sector and academia working together as strategic partners achieve far more than we could separately. That is why we have set an ambitious goal of lifting UK public and private research and development investment to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027. It is why we are developing four Grand Challenges, the big drivers of social and economic change in the world today: harnessing artificial intelligence and the data revolution; leading in changes to the future of mobility; meeting the challenges of our ageing society; and driving ahead the revolution in clean growth. By focusing our efforts on making the most of these areas of enormous potential, we can develop new exports, grow new industries and create more good jobs in every part of our country.

Years of hard work and sacrifice from the British people have got our deficit down by over three quarters. We are building on this success by taking a balanced approach to public spending. We are continuing to deal with our debts, so that our economy can remain strong and we can protect people’s jobs, and at the same time we are investing in vital public services, like our NHS. We have set out plans to increase NHS funding annually by an average by 3.4 percent in real terms: that is £394 million a week more. In return, the NHS will produce a ten-year plan, led by doctors and nurses, to eliminate waste and improve patient care.

I believe that Britain can look to the future with confidence. We are leaving the EU and setting a new course for prosperity as a global trading nation. We have a Modern Industrial Strategy that is strengthening the foundations of our economy and helping us to seize the opportunities of the future. We are investing in the public services we all rely on and helping them to grow and improve. Building on our country’s great strengths – our world-class universities and researchers, our excellent services sector, our cutting edge manufacturers, our vibrant creative industries, our dedicated public servants – we can look towards a new decade that is ripe with possibility. The government I lead is doing all it can to make that brighter future a reality for everyone in our country.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Prime Minister