‘Nothing personal, it’s just business'

I read with some sardonic amusement the recent guest editorial on ‘The “Uberization of orthodontics” – or how low can you go?’¹

Mention was made of both the growth of limited, so-called short-term orthodontics (STO), as well as the more recent development of do-it-yourself (DIY) orthodontics, namely one that requires patients to acquire their own smart-phone diagnostic dental photographs, take their own dental impressions, and subsequently self-administer a series of clear aligners that have been digitally fabricated to the prescription of a clinician who has never personally consulted with the patient.

In relation to STO, this approach is acknowledged as being an ethical treatment option, but only if it constitutes one of a range of those for a patient to choose from, together with an informed discussion of the various risks, benefits, limitations, anticipated outcomes, commitments and costs for each of them, as reported previously.^2,3,4