Teledentistry has changed the dental industry forever over the past few years. Virtual dental consultations are no longer just an option. Today, they’re essential for any dental practice that wants to grow. And that’s doubly true for orthodontists.
The explosion of demand for great teledentistry solutions has brought many solutions to choose from.
In this article, we’ll sort through the top teledentistry companies for orthodontists as we head into 2023.
Top 5 Teledentistry Solutions For Orthodontists In 2024
SmileSnap
SmileSnap calls itself “The Leading Virtual Dental Consultation Platform,” and it’s easy to see why. With their easy-to-implement customizable widget, they let dentists and orthodontists start virtual consultations directly from their website without needing to overhaul the site.
While SmileSnap supports live video conferencing, its core functionality for orthodontists is as an asynchronous teledentistry solution, meaning that the patients send through photos, and you can review and reply at a later time.
Asynchronous virtual consults are ideal for orthodontists because the patient can start their “consultation” immediately without you needing to be available at a specific place or time.
At HIP, we’ve implemented SmileSnap into the websites of many of our partner ortho practices. So we know that it’s a fast, effective, and easy-to-use solution that helps your practice filter out bad leads and build trust with the good ones. And it does all that without tying up space in your consult room.
You can get your first month free, and there’s no long-term commitment. So if you’re looking for a way to get started with virtual dental consultations immediately, check them out!
Pros:
- Easy-to-implement widget for virtual orthodontic consultations
- Convenient smartphone app
- Powerful 2-way communication tools
- The first month free
Rhinogram
If you’re looking for a way to improve your out-of-office communication with patients while staying HIPAA compliant, Rhinogram could be the perfect teledentistry company for you.
Rhinogram brands itself as a patient engagement platform, and they’ve helped doctors in dozens of specialties provide effective telehealth treatments for years.
The company is run by CEO Dr. Keith Dressler, a highly-successful orthodontist who knows precisely which tools dentists and orthodontists need to provide quality virtual care.
According to the Rhinogram website, up to 90% of orthodontic repairs can be handled with a simple photo and text communication. So Rhinogram can save you valuable hours every week addressing urgent issues without filling up your in-office schedule.
Patients can send text messages to your office phone number, which are automatically imported into the Rhinogram platform, allowing you to keep your phone lines open for new leads.
The Rhinogram platform is as robust as it is simple, supporting live video calls, HIPAA-compliant text messaging, a virtual waiting room, and even contactless payments.
If you’re looking for a teledentistry provider to help you provide better care in less time, check them out today.
Pros:
- Streamlined HIPAA-Compliant communication
- Receive text messages at your office landline number
- Reliably serve patients with no high-speed internet service
Cons:
- No widget for asynchronous virtual smile consults
Smile Virtual
The team at Smile Virtual wants to help you simplify virtual dental consultations. They claim that by helping you screen your patients and convert more of them, they can help you increase monthly production by up to 50%.
That’s a big claim; we’re not sure how accurate it is. But there’s no doubt that teledentistry consults can significantly impact your monthly revenue; we’ve seen it repeatedly with our orthodontic partners.
By helping your practice be more efficient, and your patients get convenient, on-demand service, they’ve hit on a business model that works for everyone. Their primary focus is asynchronous virtual consultations for cosmetic dentistry.
Their platform allows you to record a video of your virtual consult and send it to your patient, but they don’t appear to have any tools for live video calls or 2-way text messaging. So while the platform is simple and user-friendly, it’s not quite as robust as some teledentistry platforms.
Pros:
- Exclusive focus on virtual consults
- Custom consult widget
Cons:
- Focus on cosmetic dentistry
- More expensive (pricing starts at $399/mo)
LiveDentist
LiveDentist finds itself near the top of every list for the top teledentistry companies with their promise of 24/7 access to high-quality dental care, so we’d be remiss to leave them out of the discussion.
But LiveDentist is more of a patient-facing service than a tool you can use on your site to generate new patients.
A patient can register on LiveDentist.com and be matched with a best-fit dentist within minutes. Then they can talk with a dentist online and get much-needed prescriptions or a referral to a local specialist. LiveDentist even accepts many dental insurance plans.
While they offer a secure platform for video, phone calls, and text messages to interact with patients, there is no plug-and-play way to set up virtual consults on your own website.
Plus, their focus on on-demand services is better suited for general dentists than orthodontists. So, while they are one of the leaders in the teledentistry space, there are better fits for an orthodontist looking to add virtual consults to their practice than LiveDentist.
Pros:
- Well-known and respected service
- Find and work with more patients
- HIPAA-compliant communication and document storage
Cons:
- More a service than a tool for building your practice
- No embeddable tools for virtual smile consults
Denteractive
Denteractive has been one of the leaders in consumer-facing teledentistry since 2014. Their HIPAA-compliant teledentistry platform helps dentists streamline their processes to treat and educate their patients while saving valuable time.
More recently, they’ve developed a suite of “virtual triage tools” into dentists’ websites to help them convert website visitors into patients more effectively. Their solution lets you embed customized banners into your website that take clients into a teledentistry portal.
In that portal, they can start a live conversation, request an appointment, or even book a teledentistry appointment using your live availability. These are great tools for any dental office looking to offer teledentistry options for their clients.
Denteractive doesn’t have an orthodontic-specific option for asynchronous smile consultations, however. So the user experience for new patients won’t be as smooth as with solutions built specifically to help orthodontic leads start treatment remotely.
Pros:
- Nearly a decade of industry experience
- HIPAA-compliance
- Virtual triage tools
Cons:
- No asynchronous virtual consult option
Start More Patients With Teledentistry In 2023
If you’re still not sure which of the best teledentistry companies you should work within 2023, we can help.
HIP has helped implement virtual orthodontic consultations into the workflow of dozens of successful orthodontic practices. In addition, virtual consults play a crucial role in our proprietary Patient Acquisition and Retention Framework (PARF®) that we’ve used to add over $100M+ production for our orthodontic partners.
If you want to make teledentistry a revenue-generating activity for your practice, contact us today for a free consultation. We’ll ensure you make the right choice and set up the correct procedures to ensure you get the growth you desire.