Why Choose Us?

You want the best possible orthodontic service, and we believe that our services and results are unsurpassed.  Of course, most doctors rate themselves highly.  So how do you decide?  Please consider these facts.  You need results, not promises.

Before and After
The easiest way to compare our results to those of other doctors is to view our website section showing “Before and After” photos of patients Dr. Patterson has treated.  Then look at the “Before and After” section of the other orthodontist’s website.  Alas, in this day and age of deceptive advertising, you need to also determine whether the other orthodontist has simply bought his photos from someone else, perhaps because he does not want you to see his actual treatment results.  The store-bought photo series can be found on the following link: http://www.jaxbraces.com/beforeafter.asp                                                                                 
Your Dentist’s Referral
Ask your dentist where he would take his own child for orthodontic treatment.  Or better yet, where has he already taken his child, wife or himself for treatment?  We are proud to be the office of choice for the people who are in the best position to see treatment results - the caring dentists of our area.  For example, nineteen area dentists have chosen us to treat 32 immediate family members.
                                                                             
Education
There are only two doctors in our primary service area (Green, Lafayette, Stephenson and Jo Daviess counties) who have completed the extensive training necessary to be an orthodontist.    This involves three extra years of college beyond the eight years it takes to become a dentist.     To find a qualified orthodontist, look for the words “Specialist in Orthodontics”.  Among the orthodontists in our area, Dr. Patterson is the only board certified doctor.

Dr. Patterson graduated from the University of North Carolina, the world’s #1 orthodontic program, in 1981.  While there, he had the benefit of training directly under the authors of the textbook used in 70% of all orthodontic residency programs worldwide.  He was elected to membership in all three college and dental honor societies and was awarded a Pfeiffer Fellowship to the National Institutes of Health.

He subscribes to three orthodontic journals and attends more than 60 hours per year of continuing education courses to keep abreast of the latest techniques and procedures.  Not only is he educated in the latest cutting-edge materials and procedures, but he's gone one step further.  We have actually implemented these techniques into our practice to assure the best possible care for our patients.

Now in its eighth year, the Patterson Orthodontics Heritage Scholar program has provided financial assistance to 109 of his graduating orthodontic patients from 18 public and parochial high schools in the state line area to help them to attend universities, colleges and technical schools in pursuit of their academic interests.

                                   
A Caring Doctor and Staff
Way back in 1981 when Dr. Patterson took over an existing practice, he became one of the first orthodontists in the United States to sterilize all of the instruments between patients.  Even with AIDS spreading rapidly, most orthodontists didn’t bother sterilizing their pliers until the government ordered them to do it in the late 1980s. 

You know from your own experiences that there are two basic ways of doing things - fast and sloppy, or slow and careful.  This is no less true in orthodontics.  Quality takes time.  We take the time to care about each and every patient.  Every patient is an individual, with different treatment needs and different responses to treatment.  For those reasons, it’s impossible to always predict how much time will be needed for each patient's next visit.  This means that you will sometimes have to wait while our attention is devoted to the patient before you.  We won't just rush through one patient to get to the next paying customer.

Practice management experts tell us that the way to be successful is to always stay on time because parents don't like to wait.  Well, we frankly can't treat everyone.  We would rather devote our time to those families for whom quality care is more important than quick appointments.

We shy away from the highly profitable “assembly line” approach to orthodontic office management.  When properly done, orthodontics is a very individualized, time-consuming and detail-intensive specialty.  One size does not fit all.  Dr. Patterson willingly spends three to five times as much of his time on each patient as most orthodontists do, thereby achieving superior results in fewer months.  In this regard, it’s really true that slower is faster.  Since our fees are comparable to other orthodontists, this means that our practice income is one-third to one-fifth as high as many other offices charge per hour.  In general, we’ve found that the best treatments usually take more of the doctor’s time and are therefore less profitable.  This makes sense.  If it were not so, every doctor would choose to do things the best way and there would be no “second best” anymore.

Our treatments include early orthodontics, conventional treatment and adult therapy.  Dr. Patterson offers surgical, nonsurgical, single-phase and multiple-phase full treatment plans as well as  partial corrections when finances are limited.  He diligently coordinates treatment with your family dentist and physician and other dental and medical specialists.  We provide thumb guards and antihabit appliances, banded and bonded Herbst appliances, posterior intruders, quad helices and Superscrew expanders, a variety of active retainers, TMJ splints and removable appliances, steel, gold and sapphire clear braces, Saif springs, Jasper jumpers and Forsus springs, steel, nickel-titanium, titanium-molybdenum and chrome-cobalt wires, rotation wedges and  torquing auxiliaries, rubber bands in a variety of sizes, shapes and orientations, and six different kinds of headgear.

With such a broad range of treatments and auxiliaries available to him, you can imagine that Dr. Patterson takes a lot of time to carefully analyze the diagnostic casts, photos and x-ray pictures to develop a treatment program which is specifically tailored to each patient’s special needs.  And he wouldn’t do it any other way.
           
We’re always happy to meet new patients.  It gives us great satisfaction to know that our patients believe in our services enough to recommend us to their friends.  In contrast to some other offices, we haven’t found it necessary to bribe our young patients with prize tokens to send their friends here.

It’s always a pleasure to accept well-treated patients who come to us from orthodontists in other cities for the continuation of their orthodontic care.  Unfortunately, most transferring patients have not received the quality care that their orthodontists were capable of providing.  The doctors just take on more patients than they are able to care for!  Among the many problems we see in patients who come to us from other orthodontists, they most often have not been allowed to progress to the stage they should be at after so many months in treatment.  The old wires have been left in too long and rubber bands or other auxiliaries have not been started.  Decay has begun because the patient isn’t brushing enough and the doctor isn’t applying fluoride varnishes.  The doctor has not planned the treatment adequately in advance, and is taking the patient down a dead-end road involving a plan that can’t possibly work.  The treatment has gone on for as long as three years and some teeth still don’t have braces.  Extra teeth were not noticed on the x-rays and are still wedged between the roots of other teeth.  And on and on.  Dr. Patterson stays late almost every night to thoroughly plan treatment in advance, and to carefully monitor treatment in progress to achieve the best results possible. 

Cutting Edge Techniques
To make your experience as comfortable as possible, we use space-age heat-activated memory wires.  These copper NiTi wires are the gentlest and most effective wires available.  To temporarily soften them, you simply rinse with cold water.

We  use miniature braces on all of our patients.  These brackets not only look better, but they are more comfortable on your lips and are gentler in moving your teeth.  Some other orthodontic practices charge as much as $400 extra for these brackets.  We provide them at no additional cost because we care about our patients and want the best for them. 

We often use orthodontic bands on the back teeth.  These are the kind of braces which go around the tooth like a ring on a finger.  This is the area of the mouth where you do most of your chewing, and it's the area that's hardest to brush.  For these reasons, it's important to use braces which protect the teeth from decay and stay on better.  We take the extra two hours to do the job right.

The braces we use are all new.  Some surveys indicate that 60% of orthodontists have used recycled braces.  Of course, the patients aren't told.  So how do you know?  Simply ask the receptionist to show you copies of invoices for new brackets and bands purchased within the last year, in quantities sufficient to cover the number of patients treated.

When it’s appropriate, we provide orthodontic care before all of the permanent teeth have erupted.  This interceptive treatment can provide a better profile and a more permanent improvement, reduce treatment time with braces, improve the child’s self image and reduce the risk of decay.  Dr. Patterson is so sure of the advantages of early treatment that he deducts most of the fee from the cost of the full braces which follow interceptive treatment.  However, if you prefer to wait, there’s always an alternative treatment program available during the teen or adult years. 

Children and teenagers (and most adults) don’t always brush and floss their teeth perfectly. When braces are in the way, it’s even more difficult to prevent cavities and white, yellow and brown decalcifications.  To help our patients keep their teeth strong and white, we protect them with fluoride varnish – the most effective of all available fluoride treatments.

Dr. Patterson takes the extra care to do a thorough examination of the gum tissues on all adult patients, and refers them for periodontal treatment if necessary before orthodontic treatment begins.  To achieve the best gum health possible after the braces are removed, we thoroughly clean the teeth to remove all cements and tartar.  Numerous dental hygienists have commented that they can tell which orthodontic patients are ours by the  cleanliness of their teeth.

Rubber bands are an effective way to correct overbites, but can sometimes result in a “gummy” smile.  For those patients, we don’t just accept the bad side effects.  Instead, we choose to use Forsus springs instead.  At a list price of $300 a pair, they’re not cheap.  And they do take a few extra minutes to insert and remove.  Some doctors are reluctant to use Forsus springs and other advanced products for these reasons.  In contrast, we look at things from the parents’ and patient’s point of view: “Orthodontics isn’t cheap, either.”  We believe our patients are already paying for the best, most effective care available, and we spare no expense in our efforts to provide that care.

To make the orthodontic experience as enjoyable as possible, our patients can choose new colors for their braces at every visit, and can design their own retainers.  We bond inconspicuous wire retainers behind the lower front teeth to keep them straight.  If you’re a parent, you’ve undoubtably noticed that not all teenagers follow through on their good intentions.  That’s especially true when it comes to removable lower retainers, which take some getting used to.  The lower front teeth are the teeth which go crooked most often, so we take the extra time and effort to give you an “insurance policy” that works. 

Dr. Patterson creates beautiful smiles that last by being careful to line up the teeth within the supporting bone.  The fad among some orthodontists today is to straighten teeth the way that takes the least of the doctor’s time, so that he can see more patients per day.   The most common shortcut is to expand both the upper and lower arches to fit all of the teeth in, even when this results in a loss of bone support, with long-term consequences.  In contrast, Dr. Patterson spends hours analyzing each patient’s problems, and recommends extracting teeth when extractions are necessary to produce a stable result.  He cares for each patient as a unique individual, and is willing to take the extra time it takes to close all of the spaces and bring the teeth into beautiful balance.  Very simply, if  Dr. Patterson recommends extractions prior to full braces, treatment without tooth removal is a bad idea.

We don't "nickel and dime" our patients for every little expense.  Our comprehensive treatment fees cover all expenses, including the cost of gold braces, extra appointments, retainers and two retainer repairs and a lifetime of retainer checkups.  If your child doesn’t wear the retainers enough and the teeth go crooked, we’ll put a second set of braces on  and credit all previous charges against the current fee for all treatment to date.  No questions asked.
 

Dr. Patterson is the inventor of the adjustable posterior bite block, chairside sterilization setups, the molar intrusion arch, procedures for straightening upside-down teeth and transposed teeth, and improvements to the bonded Herbst appliance,  the lingual arch space maintainer, the disimpaction procedure and the protraction splint.  He is constantly looking for ways to improve the services he’s able to offer his patients. 

The Best in High Tech Equipment
We have invested in the most advanced X-ray equipment available to orthodontic practices.  Our Sirona digital cephalometric and panoramic X-ray system is the first of its kind between Eau Claire and Chicago.  It delivers razor sharp images with 50% to 70% less radiation exposure to the patient compared to other orthodontic X-ray machines, and an amazing reduction of over 90% compared to most medical X-ray machines.  Our advanced software program provides instant images, allowing us to detect problems right away and provide more effective treatment.

Digital dental models permit instant retrieval in both offices, on-screen measuring and manipulation, and effective communication with other dentists involved in your child’s care.
 
Your safety is important to us.  Because we care, Dr. Patterson has invested in the latest and best ultrasonic baths and five sterilizing ovens.  Each office includes a dry heat sterilizer for general use, and a pressurized steam sterilizer for fast sterilization.  Our ovens are evaluated every week by an independent laboratory to insure that they are 100% effective at all times.

To “sweat the details,” we have to be able to see them first!  Your family dentist cares about you, and has invested in dental lights which are specially designed to illuminate your mouth so that he or she can see what needs to be done to provide the excellent care you deserve.  Surprisingly, many orthodontists don’t see a need to see.  Instead, they rely on regular room lights, leaving the back teeth in shadows.  In contrast, you’ll find each chair in our offices equipped with real Pelton & Crane dental lights.

Copyright © 2001, Dr. Scott Patterson
Monroe Phone: (608) 328-8160
Freeport Phone: (815) 232-7223
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