Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
E46: How Dr. Richter Cuts Treatment Time By 40% with Custom Braces and Virtual Monitoring
Transforming smiles through technology – Dr. David Richter reveals how his practice is revolutionizing orthodontics by cutting treatment time nearly in half. After 30 years in the field, he's leveraging digital workflows and custom braces to achieve what traditional orthodontics can't: faster results with fewer appointments.
"The national average is 22 months," Dr. Richter explains, "but we're seeing about 40% shorter treatment time with custom braces." His approach replaces old-school impressions with digital scans, creating precise treatment plans tailored to each patient's unique dental anatomy. The result? Most patients finish treatment in just over a year with only 6-7 total office visits.
Perhaps most revolutionary is the virtual monitoring system that lets patients send weekly videos of their teeth from home. This constant oversight means Dr. Richter can catch and address issues immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled appointment. For patients with aligners, this prevents the common problem of treatment delays when aligners aren't tracking properly.
Beyond his clinical work, Dr. Richter holds three patents on dental products and maintains deep community connections through study groups, Chamber of Commerce involvement, and charitable initiatives. His journey through professional burnout to renewed purpose underscores his philosophy: "I am 100% committed to your care."
The stunning, state-of-the-art Richter Orthodontics facility in Greeley stands as physical proof of that commitment. Whether you're considering treatment for yourself or your child, Dr. Richter offers free consultations that include x-rays and photos. Discover how modern orthodontics can transform your smile while respecting your time – connect with Richter Orthodontics through their website or social media today.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a stunning, state-of-the-art dental office that wows just like the smiles they create? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Dr David Richter, with Richter Orthodontics. Dr David, how's it going?
Speaker 3:Great Having a great day. Nick, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:Excellent. We're excited to learn about you and your dental office, your orthodontist office. Tell us all about your practice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been practicing for gosh close to 30 years now. We just built a building really state-of-the-art four years ago in Greeley and we're using really two treatment modalities. We're using aligners and custom braces and they're both very unique. Yeah, but we can kind of go into that. I have a wonderful staff, the best technology available in the world literally today for treating patients.
Speaker 2:Go ahead and go into that with the specialties that you offer.
Speaker 3:Right. So in orthodontics now, most of the technology that's used about 95% of orthodontists still use a conventional bracket system, which is technologies from the 70s, and the challenge with that is it's kind of a one-size-fits-all and the challenge with that is that everybody's teeth are different shapes and sizes and so when we get to a certain point in treatment we have to bend the wires and reposition braces and it just adds a lot of time to a patient's treatment. A national average is like 22 months reposition braces and it just adds a lot of time to a patient's treatment. A national average is like 22 months and we're seeing, with the custom braces, about a 40% shorter treatment time. We're trying to get our office visits down to six or seven appointments total and treatment times typically are just a little over a year or more. And the difference is the big difference is that it's a digital workflow, and the difference is the big difference is that it's a digital workflow. And so with a digital, basically we don't take impressions or molds of teeth anymore, and then we take a scan, we create a digital setup of what the teeth will look like, exactly what we want them to, and then we build the braces around that. So once we're on our last set of wires, we're almost finished, and so we do have to bend the wires one or two appointments, but it's been a significant reduction in treatment time. So shorter appointments or sorry, shorter treatment time, fewer appointments and much, much better finishes.
Speaker 3:With traditional braces, the challenge, the biggest challenge we face, is really trying to finish our cases and with all this inaccuracy it just adds a lot of time. We also use aligners, we use Invisalign, and one thing we're using with our custom braces and Invisalign is we use a lot of virtual monitoring. So with aligners well, with custom braces, if there's any kind of compliance that needs to happen, like if we're trying, if we have to take teeth out, we're closing that space up. We can monitor that virtually and it basically is a thing they hook up to their phone, they take a video and they send it in every four weeks or so. We just don't have them come back in until they're ready.
Speaker 3:Traditionally orthodontists this is how I practiced. Most of my career was we'd see them every four to six weeks and change things, and now we just don't need to do that. So it's a big value to patients because their time is so important and we can really honor that more With aligners. Kind of historically and most orthodontists still do this they see them every 8 to 10, 12 weeks and the problem with that sometimes they come back in and they're not wearing well and things rise up. But it's sort of the problem compounds until the point they come in, and then we have to do what's called a refinement, we have to create more aligners and then you have to wait for those to come back and again, that's very inefficient and adds more treatment time.
Speaker 3:So with our virtual monitoring with our aligner patients, they'll take a video every week before they switch them and we can catch things that we wouldn't normally pick up on. So with virtual monitoring with aligners, we're really seeing our patients every week through virtual monitoring, but they just don't have to come in mostly until they're done with their aligners. We're seeing really seeing our patients every week through virtual monitoring, but they just don't have to come in mostly until they're done with their aligners. So it's a. It's a. It's just a awesome evolution of our technology is fine to come through through digital technology and we're able to pass that, that value, on to our patients.
Speaker 2:How did you get into the business?
Speaker 3:Well, to be honest with you, I wanted the autonomy I loved my dad was an entrepreneur. I loved being an entrepreneur. I wanted my own business. I was in business school and college and I decided I don't want to work for a corporation. So I looked at dentistry and I thought that was cool.
Speaker 3:I liked working with my hands and since then it's been more of a. It's been more of a like a community for me kind of an outreach, where we have something of such value and we want and we do a lot of charitable events with our community and I just wanted I want to have that impact on people's lives and be a part of that and it's really a life-changing event. I mean, as orthodontists, we want our patients' teeth to fit well and function well and that adds a lot of longevity to their teeth throughout their life. But, as we all know, in our culture, having a really beautiful smile and surveys show that the first thing people notice 50% of the time are your eyes and your teeth and so we just feel cool to see that transformation in adults and kids. But that was mostly why I got into it. But it's changed.
Speaker 2:I hear. The teeth in the eyes are a window into the health of the rest of the body, so it makes sense that we see that first. Who are your target customers?
Speaker 3:How do you attract them now? Most really, there are several sources. We work a lot with our referring dentists and that's always been great communication. Especially in a community this size. We have the ability to really interact with them. I have a study group that I lead with local dentists. Our patients refer a lot too. Our goal is for them. I'm 100% committed to their treatment, and so a lot of our referrals come from our patients. We do a lot of social media stuff too, and that's a big. Obviously the trend in marketing is that way, and so we connect that way. We, you know, we offer, we make offers and we do a lot of fun Instagram kind of things, and so we have that. We really try to do outreaches on all the points. So our dentists, our patients, patients and social media. We don't do a lot of print ads, things like that, but I'm a part of the chamber of commerce here in Greeley and so just trying to really connect with our population.
Speaker 2:Have you thought about doing your own podcast?
Speaker 3:No, I haven't, but you do a good job, nick. I'm I'm kind of thinking about that now. I have outside of work. What do you?
Speaker 2:do outside of work? What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:uh well, I'm a five boys. Um, I do have a six-year-old and my age range is significant, but um, love spending time with my family, biggest thing ever, um and ever. And one of my passions is really inventions, and so I have three patents on dental products that I'm working on scaling with large companies and just really trying to make this whole process more efficient. It's interesting how we as a profession still use technology that's very old and that and it hasn't really adapted well. So I love seeing things to help the process go smoother for my team, for my patients, and so I love doing that. I love to work out, love hiking. I do love to ski I haven't been in a while, but I mostly spending time with my family. That's the most important thing to me.
Speaker 2:Lately, that's been me too. Let's switch gears. Can you describe a hardship or life challenge that you've overcome and how it made you stronger? What comes to mind, you know?
Speaker 3:honestly, I felt about 10 years ago I was really burned out on the profession and um, and I think the biggest obstacle for me was me. I got kind of got my way I. I felt like I tried everything but I I really hadn't, and so I really um, I got a dental coach that worked with me and um, and then we we discovered a lot of the things that I was doing. I was, I was unaware of um and creating blocks with my team, asking them to do things. They didn't do it. I didn't really set them up for success, and so I have a totally different approach about that now. My faith has grown significantly over the last several years and that's been a big, big part of that, with my family and with my team as well. You know, I've had a blessed life, nick, I can't, there's not, I haven't. My dad's 98. He's still well, he shouldn't be driving, but he's does sometimes and my mom's 90 and she's still driving, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Um, but they're in good health.
Speaker 3:So've got a big 104-year-old goal kind of thing, and so I try to work out five times a week.
Speaker 2:And I just love life, I'm just the best person. Dr Richter. Please tell our listeners one thing that they should absolutely remember about Richter Orthodontics.
Speaker 3:I am 100% committed to your care and I have come to this point in my life where and my dad always told me just do the best you can. And the more I learn about the technologies and implementing those things, the more I know I can deliver that care the best that I can. And it's not just about getting your teeth to fit well in that, but it's also about your experience. If you come and see our offices, it's awesome, man, and it's really a testament to my commitment to that. I just want people to know that I'm not in it to, you know, start patients that don't need to be started. I want to address the concerns and really explain things in a way they understand.
Speaker 3:And mostly, I guess, nick, that I'm just really really committed to people's care and whatever that means. If they need to call me personally, whatever challenges they may have.
Speaker 2:I don't want that to be an obstacle at all.
Speaker 3:I want to give the best possible treatment I can to people.
Speaker 2:In a world where people live in their screens, what are the best ways that our listeners can learn about Richter orthodontics off the top of your head? Social media website.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we do Instagram. You can go to our website and see things. We do Promotionals we're doing free braces. So if I think, I don't remember the deadline but if people start within a certain period of time, they can we put them in a drawing for free braces. Again, social media would be Instagram. I know we have Facebook ads and things like that. Website's a good source. Our contests have landing pages.
Speaker 2:What's your website again.
Speaker 3:RichterOrthononicscom, that's easy.
Speaker 2:Well, Dr Richter, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Nick. It's been a pleasure. I hope to meet a bunch of people through this and just come in and see we don't charge for our exams. We're happy to take a look. We take x-rays and pictures. I'd just love to meet more people and share this awesome technology. We have to give them the best care possible. Thank you, Nick. I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollinscom. That's gnpfortcollinscom, or call 970-438-0825.