Why launch a blog now?

5 min read

Many orthodontic practices have been building an online blog presence for a long time. We have been practicing in Naperville and Yorkville for over 40 years. Why have we only just recently started to do the same? The short answer: we are a one-patient-at-a-time, one doctor small private practice. Patient volume and financial growth is not one of our primary concerns.

For us, we have a core group of dentists and multi-generational families that we know on a personal basis that continue to support us over the years. We are thankful for each and every one of our patients as they are like family to us. As such, we have been very content with being out of the limelight and being more under the radar. That is until… orthodontic technology began to change.

Orthodontic technology has changed

Technology is always changing, but for us, we are particularly motivated to build our online blog presence because we have something of value to share that benefits a much larger audience than just our practice. Dr. Skarin and his son have been engineering a brand new way to move teeth that required multiple patents. The technology necessary to bring this engineering feat to fruition has only just recently become a reality. This is the primary reason we are starting this blog, now.

Internally, our patients know they can trust us. They trust Dr. Skarin’s experience and expertise, but the larger world does not know about Skarin Orthodontics, Dr. Skarin, nor how his technology benefits them. We have to earn your trust and we aim to use this platform to serve as the beginning of our conversation with those that are interested in our technology and what we have to offer at our practice.

Learning about orthodontics

To earn your trust, we aim to use this blog to feature substantive articles and conversations (our email is info@skarinortho.com) about how orthodontics works. We have come to realize straightening teeth is largely confusing to most people. Worse yet, there is a ton of marketing and massive financial interests that influence how orthodontics is presented to the general public. There are many reasons for why this is the case, and our solution is to focus on patient education about orthodontics.

We do not push any particular technology, not even our own for that matter. Our patients can attest to this. We push patients to learn more about how orthodontics works and how each technology can benefit them, warts and all. Many practices present straightening teeth as largely “cut and dry” and with very few options. Orthodontics is much more complicated than what is presented. As such, having fewer options usually benefits the doctor and the practice more than it does the patient.

Our goal for this blog is to be straight forward and up front about how orthodontics works and to present it in an understandable manner for as many people as possible. We know everyone is busy and has no plans to become an orthodontist, but we also know that once we talk to people more about the engineering and academics of how straightening teeth actually works, patients feel much more confident and empowered to make the best choices for their teeth. Sometimes this means patients choose our technology and other times it means they choose a different technology, but in both cases they know they are making an educated choice for themselves, which is ultimately what we care about most. We may be discussing our technology, but everything is ultimately about you.

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing

One of the other big reasons we started this blog is to bring more awareness to topics, articles, and discussions that need to be had in orthodontics. Back in the stone age (well, maybe not that long ago!) over 40 years ago, it used to be illegal for orthodontists, doctors, and other medical processionals to advertise.

In today’s day and age, the idea of doctors not being able to advertise may seem unbelievable, but the belief back then was that marketing was unbecoming for a doctor and that they should be solely focused on patient care. More importantly, those against public advertising for doctors, argued the profession would very quickly be influenced by interests other than the pursuit of the highest standard of patient care, completely independent of ancillary influences.

Right or wrong, dealing with various influences and interests is largely how our day and age functions. We would love to focus less on marketing and more on the academic excellence and studies to demonstrate the efficacy of our technologies and other technologies that we may discuss, but the truth of the matter is that most people simply do not respond to academic proof. Some of the most popular orthodontic technologies today that consumers still purchase have been deemed by the American Orthodontic Association as scientifically ineffective. Aligners came into existence focusing first on marketing and academic journals much later. There are many examples of the power of marketing.

While we will use this platform to speak about our technology, we will also talk about other technologies and all sorts of orthodontic topics. Any marketing we do is with the aim to be truthful and to earn your trust. Our hope is that by being truthful and thorough, we will punch well above our weight as a blog and a small independently owned private practice.

Thank you

We want to thank everyone that has supported us and that continue to support us. For all of you that just stumbled upon our website, welcome! We are excited that you are here and we hope that we can assist you in your healthcare decisions. Choosing braces, aligners, and any other orthodontic procedure can raise a lot of questions and uncertainty and we hope that we might be able to alleviate some of your concerns. As we build out this blog, we always welcome questions via email or by phone.