As cliche as it may sound, the world around us is changing at an unprecedented pace.

This also extends to the professional environment of the dental and orthodontic world.

As a result, whether you like it or not, our job is changing; and don´t think for a second that we have the power to stop such changes. The dental world is a small niche, within which orthodontics exists as a an even smaller sub-niche which possesses minimal lobbying power and political influence.

The AAO is one of the largest orthodontic associations, with approximately 19,000 registered members. Its annual registration fee of  $800 results in a yearly turnover of $15,2million. We will round it up to $20 million considering additional income incurred from events etc.  If the AAO was a company and not a non-profit organisation its market value would be roughly around $50 million. Not so bad, eh? Well, Align Technology has a capitalisation value of about $25 BILLIONS.  Who do you think has more lobbying power?

In such a changing world, there are those who adapt very quickly and are able to increase their fortune,  and there are (oh yes, there are) people who exploit the worry of those within this changing landscape for their own profit.

This is where this blog hopes to help.  We will look at finance, marketing, practice organisation, media management, orthodontic research, politics (in case you were very naïve, yes, there is an orthodontic political world) as well as the everyday clinic.  Everyday, not once-per-year, cherry-picked podium cases and clinical situations. 

I won´t be alone in this. There will be input from a fantastic group of colleagues from many different countries collaborating in this project. There will be external guests, interviews,  and we will provide you with a wide variaty of opinions and topics.

This is about a group, not an individual. 

I hope you will be with us on this journey because you may not know it yet, but you are going to take a journey, whether you are aware of it or not.