Dr. Jeff Answers Your Retainer Questions!

Throughout my career as an orthodontist, I have heard countless questions about retainers. After wearing braces for a few years, my patients tend to have a good deal of questions about their new retainers, and with good reason, too. They have invested time and money in the endeavor of obtaining a straight, amazing smile; they want to make sure they do the right thing.

Many of the questions I receive about retainers revolve around the duration of the retainers. “How long do I need to wear these?” and “Do I have to wear these?” are typical questions I receive.

Well, I am here to answer all of your questions! In fact, I have a video just for you that might explain a few things concerning retainers. Go ahead and check it out below for all of your answers including how long you need to wear braces and much more!

If I haven’t answered a burning question you have been dying to ask or if you want more information, please feel free to give us a call at (618) 288-0600 in Glen Carbon or (618) 622-3377 in Swansea. You can also visit us online at www.amazingsmiles.com for more information or to make an appointment!

The Mastroianni Team - Storming Las Vegas to Better Serve You!

When you think of Las Vegas, do you tend to think of bright lights and casinos? Well, we at Mastroianni Orthodontics think of just one thing when the words “Las Vegas” come to mind – furthering our education to better serve you!

Recently, six people from Mastroianni Orthodontics attended topFest 2013, which was held from January 31 to February 2 at the Green Valley Ranch in Las Vegas. The courses that we participated in offered something for everyone in our practice from hands-on workshops, lectures from guest speakers, doctor-only sessions, roundtable discussions, and much more.

Here are the courses we as a team attended during the 3-day conference and a brief synopsis about what they are and how they will allow us to better serve you!

*Clinic Know-How: We learned in this course about treatment notes and treatment planning, lists, and reports, which should all help us in our daily activities and help us become more effective and efficient on the job.

*Letters Workshop: We created more detailed letters in this conference. We all found out how to use placeholders, add images, and use other faucets in tops. We also learned how to customize statements and receipts and how to add additional information that you, our patient, might request.

*Insurance and E-Claims: In this course, we learned what information we will need to obtain from patients, policyholders, and insurance companies in order to file insurance claims.

*Clinical Training = Clinical Excellence: Lack of training can set a new employee up to fail. In this course, we learned how to develop new employees and retain high quality of employees and, of course, how to help them succeed through training.

*Managing Your Claims and Statements List: Here we gained a better understanding of e-filing insurance claims!

*Contracts Workshop: This course showed us how to create a contract with discounts, single insurance, dual insurance, and splitting initial fees.

*Blending Clinical and Front Desk: We learned how to make things operate more smoothly with the flow of patients, including knowing what list we need to generate for information that will be needed for the day.

*Check and Balances End-of-the-Day Duties: In this course, we learned how to create elastic set ups, remove teeth, change brackets in order to help assist our patients while they are in the chair, which will help patients be even more compliant.

*Mac Course: Yes, we learned about technology, too! Here we worked with different tools and applications on the Mac. This will be used to help our day flow more smoothly and be more efficient at our job.

*Procedures and Schedule Templates Workshop – Increasing Your Daily Production: This course showed us the ins and outs of creating new procedures and groups and placing them on the template where we need them. We also learned about doctor time and the best way to plan out Dr. Jeff’s schedule.

*Financial Arranging Strategies to Maintain the House Advantage: We learned how to measure the relationship between production and financial arranging to making policy decisions, examine alternative arrangements to offer our patients, which helps us become more flexible. We also learned the advantages and disadvantages of soft credit checks!

*Understanding Clinical Reports – The Key to Clinical Excellence: Here we were shown different ways of handling clinical reports to better serve our patients and use our time wisely and efficiently.

*The Schedule is the Driving Force of the Practice: Here we learned different ways for evaluating, updating, and facilitating an efficient and effective orthodontic schedule!

*Patients Are Watching! Instrument Reprocessing and Sterilization: In this course, we learned basic compliance with CDC guidelines and how to implement changes into the practice. This course made us aware that the patients and parents observe every move we make, and it will help us improve our patients’ awareness and assure them that every step is in place to protect their health.

*Photography Workshop: Finally, in this workshop, we were shown the different methods on cropping our photos that we take of new and existing patients to make them even more beautiful.

Attending these courses is just another way that we at Mastroianni Orthodontics are innovative and invest in our staff to better serve you, our loyal patients, with utmost care and the most leading technology. If you are interested in scheduling an appointment or have any questions, feel free to call us at (618) 288-0600 in Glen Carbon or (618) 622-3377 in Swansea. You can also see all that we can do for you when you visit us online at www.amazingsmiles.com.

Orthodontics - All the cool kids do it!

Braces today are cool and—many would say—even fun! These were among the findings of a 2010 nationwide survey of moms whose children are going through or have had orthodontic treatment. New technologies such as In-Ovation, advanced computer software, color options, and even popular celebrities—Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Danny Glover, Serena Williams—sporting stylish braces are making orthodontic treatment more comfortable, fashionable and exciting for today’s teens.

The study, conducted on behalf of our friends at the American Association of Orthodontists for February’s National Children’s Dental Health Month, found 86 percent of moms reporting that braces are better today than when they were children. Sixty-nine percent of moms also said wearing braces makes their children feel cool, and 81 percent reported their children’s experience with orthodontic treatment as either positive or extremely positive.

Different color options and the ability to change colors at each visit, for example, provide exciting ways for young patients to customize appearances. That enthusiasm helps them to feel good about their orthodontic treatment with Mastroianni Orthodontics and may contribute to the success of treatment.

Has your child or teen visited Mastroianni Orthodontics for a consultation? If not, please give us a call and let us help your child begin the journey to an amazing smile!

Invisalign Teen at Mastroianni Orthodontics

Invisalign Teen has become a popular treatment here at Mastroianni Orthodontics because it provides an option for younger patients to have straight, healthy teeth, without anyone noticing! Unlike traditional braces, teens using the Invisalign Teen system can remove their aligners, allowing them to eat just about anything without worrying about damaging or breaking their braces. This also makes teeth easier to clean compared to traditional braces. There are many advantages to using this new system, and we would love to have an opportunity to discuss it further with you. As you probably know, our consultations are always complimentary and we would be able to assess your teen's eligibility for treatment with Invisalign Teen at that time.

Dr. Mastroianni is a Premier Provider of Invisalign, meaning that he is in the top 5% of orthodontists in the entire COUNTRY using the Invisalign and Invisalign Teen systems. Call us today at 618-288-0600 to set up your complimentary consultation with our office.

New Office Video at Mastroianni Orthodontics

We believe that there are two main reasons people choose to seek care at Mastroianni Orthodontics. The first being the great customer service that we offer. We strive to be on par with any great restaurant you’ve been to, a vacation you’ve taken, or any other memorable experience in your life. We want you to have a comfortable, enjoyable experience at our office. Our modern clinics in Glen Carbon and Swansea are fun and feature lots of high tech equipment.

The second reason is the level of clinical care that we deliver, and the excellent results we are able to achieve for our patients. Part of this is reached by the continuing education that both the doctor and the team participate in each year. For example, Dr. Mastroianni recently returned from the 2010 AAO Annual Session, one of the largest orthodontic events in the world, with the latest information, technology, and treatment techniques in the field of orthodontics. We ensure that we are current in all the latest technologies to help deliver superior care to our patients.

Patients at Mastroianni Orthodontics are treated like a members of our own families, and we strive to build strong relationships with each new patient at our office. We also consider involvement in our community as a critical part of Mastroianni Orthodontics. Each year, we donate several free orthodontic treatments to school auctions and fundraisers, and even sponsor local sports teams each year in many Metro East communities. You can learn more about our practice on our web site, or give us a call to schedule a complimentary consultation!