Pedro Costa-Monteiro, dentist with exclusive practice in orthodontics, assumes that his life motto is “try to be a pioneer in some areas but live in the present”, even revealing that “the future is today”. The pioneering spirit he refers to is Dental Monitoring, a system for monitoring orthodontic treatment at distance.
“I was the first person in Portugal to use Dental Monitoring, a system for monitoring orthodontic treatment at a distance. Imagine that treatment starts today and the next time you come here is in four months. I will see you virtually, through a scanner that you will take home – it is a plastic box where you insert your smartphone and, through an application managed by artificial intelligence, we can evaluate the treatments every week or daily, if you want to. This is the future. In fact, for me it is already the present. It was a big bet from the clinic and, currently, we have all Invisalign patients monitored”.
Pedro Costa-Monteiro added that “the results are being surprising, because I have happy patients traveling less often to the clinic. And contrary to what one might think, this way patients have a closer monitoring, with a thorough monitoring of the entire orthodontic process, because the normal thing in an orthodontic consultation is to see the patient monthly or every two months. I see my patients weekly, although it is not in person. And, as time nowadays has an incalculable price, people are very grateful; they feel super accompanied, without having to go to the clinic. The future of orthodontics will be to consult when it is strictly necessary: place the attachments, perform IPR, etc… come to the clinic to find aligners or to know if the treatment is going well will no longer be necessary. Australia is the country where Dental Monitoring is most implemented and orthodontists see patients only twice: on the first and last day of treatment”.
Full interview in DentalPro 144.
