Pearls for Your Practice: Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro by Align Technology
The iTero fundamentally changed my entire practice. It obviously changed my workflow on my indirect restorations, but it also changed the way we do our comprehensive exam and new-patient experience. We scan every new patient who comes in with the iTero. This started back with my first iTero, the Element.
That has continued today with our iTero 5D Plus. With every iteration of the iTero, it seems like more and more workflows get added to provide a return on our investment. Even my first iTero had Invisalign Outcome Simulator. This has been a great tool for us in closing more Invisalign cases. Align has taken it to the next level with Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro!
More Pearls:
Invisalign Professional Whitening System
Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro is the latest offering to help you do more Invisalign cases. Just like the Invisalign Outcome Simulator, Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro gives you 3D-model renderings of your patient’s dentition before and after prospective Invisalign treatment. This allows you to show the patient what Invisalign can do for them. With the original, it was purely conceptual for the patient. They saw a computerized model of their teeth, but there is no context—just disembodied teeth! For us, that isn’t a huge problem. We are used to looking at models and visualizing a result. But most patients don’t have that skill—that’s where Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro comes in. It incorporates the Invisalign simulation with a full-face smile photo of the patient to show them what they’ll look like after treatment … right on the screen of your iTero 5D Plus!
The process starts by taking a full-face smile photo using the Invisalign Practice app on your smartphone. Once that photo is taken and uploaded, the patient is scanned with the iTero 5D Plus. Once that scan is sent, the Align servers will take over and run the simulation and marry it to the patient’s photo. After around five minutes, the Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro button will display a green check mark to show that it’s ready. Simply pull that up and show the patient. The first thing they will see is a before and after of their smiling face! From a visualization standpoint, this is a game changer for patients.
Currently, the scan must be done with the iTero 5D Plus scanner to work with Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro. If you have an older iTero, it might be time to think about an upgrade. Like any other facial simulation, the maxillary teeth are the most important here. Out of the 15 simulations we did in my practice, the most effective visually were patients with moderate spacing or crowding on the maxillary anterior teeth—these really popped. Cases with aligned upper anteriors and crowded lower anteriors had less of a dramatic simulation result.
Invisalign Outcome Simulator Pro gives you the ability to do basic digital smile design efficiently chairside without any lab cost. If this gets you even one or two more Invisalign cases a month, it is a huge winner for your practice.
Editor's note: This article appeared in the September 2022 print edition of Dental Economics magazine. Dentists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.
