Five steps for reading a ClinCheck: a clinical prescription, not an animation

Five steps before the digital plan is approved

The Aligner Dental Academy has published a framework for reviewing the ClinCheck, the digital plan of tooth movement in Invisalign aligner therapy. Its starting point is a warning: that plan is not a finished animation to be waved through, but a clinical prescription for which the dentist who approves it is responsible.

The first step is to check the chosen product and what it can do; the framework gives GO Plus for widening the smile to the first molars as an example. The second is to compare the initial bite shown against the actual clinical records, checking the inclination of the occlusal plane, the midline and the completeness of the scan, and reading the technician's comments. The third step assesses the proposed final position against your own prescription, through a four-sentence template: the patient's complaint, the position of the upper anterior teeth, the position of the upper posterior teeth and the arch form, and the position of the lower incisors with overjet and overbite.

The fourth step calls for a review of the whole sequence of movement, not only the end result. You look for teeth travelling back and forth, too many simultaneous movements, loss of anchorage and an unfavourable order. This includes a review of interproximal reduction, for which the framework recommends roughly 0.3 mm per contact in the anterior region and no more than 0.5 mm on posterior contacts. The fifth step returns to informed consent: recession, black triangles, the interproximal reduction itself, the predictability of individual movements and the duration of treatment.

Context

The text was published on Dentistry.co.uk as sponsored content by the academy itself, which also offers a webinar on communicating with the technician with Dr Kavita Malkan. It is therefore useful as a clinical checklist, but it is not an independent assessment of the system.

For the practice

• Write the prescription before you open the plan: the four-sentence template keeps the animation from pulling you away from the original goal.
• Keep a record of planned interproximal reduction per tooth; the limits of 0.3 and 0.5 mm are a good starting point for an agreement within the team.
• The framework is not tied to British regulation and transfers to a Croatian practice, but the product names are specific to one manufacturer.