Australian orthodontists in general, and our Australian clients in particular, are having a rapid and serious conversation about implementing a policy of offering, for a one-time fee ranging from $880 to $1480, “lifetime” retainers.  The optional program would be offered, and paid for, when braces are removed although patients would be made aware of the availability of the product/service throughout the course of their active treatment.  Different doctors plan on implementing this in different ways but basically the fee would include normal retainer visits, as offered now, for the first year following appliance removal.  From then on, some practices will offer one retainer visit per year, some will offer two, and some will offer none except “as needed.”  There are all sorts of different ideas regarding the types of retainers included in the program but whatever retainer that is offered/required would be no additional fee. 

I am sending this out because I am very interested in your feedback on this idea.  Please email me with your thoughts on this idea in general, but also on issues such as legal liability once your practice is sold, any impact on practice value, or any pluses or minuses you can see to offering a service like what is described.  For instance, one “plus” that I can see would be that the program could formalize the fact that at the end of the “active retention” period (6-12 months for most orthodontic practices) there would be substantial additional fees for retainer visits and retainer replacements for those who chose not to purchase the program.  Another positive is that if 50% of patients chose to purchase the service, our average sized client would generate $180,000 to $210,000 each year in additional revenue (with almost no additional overhead).  A negative might be a somewhat more cluttered clinical schedule and another might be negative PR for those practices that have, unofficially, always offered lifetime retainers at little to no cost to their past patients.

Anyway, please do a bit of thinking and send me your feedback/ideas.  I’ll report the thoughts/comments received in this forum in a short while.

Please send your thoughts to my personal email at: paul@zuelke.com

— Paul Zuelke