If you’ve been researching orthodontic treatment lately, you’ve probably noticed that dental monitoring is everywhere. More and more practices offer some version of it — a smartphone app, a small scanning device, and the promise of fewer in-person visits. From the outside, it can look like a feature that practices either have or don’t.
But there’s a real difference between offering dental monitoring and building a treatment experience around it. Designer Smiles by Benton is recognized as a DentalMonitoring Center of Excellence, and orthodontists from across the country travel to our Oxford office to learn how we use it. Here’s what that means for your treatment and why it matters.
How DentalMonitoring Works
DentalMonitoring is a remote care system that lets your orthodontist check on your treatment between office visits. Here is the short version.
You use a small device called a ScanBox. It clips onto your smartphone and helps you take a quick, at-home teeth scan once a week. The dental monitoring app sends that scan to your orthodontist, who reviews it alongside an AI platform that looks at more than 130 things, including how your teeth are moving, how your braces or aligners are fitting, the health of your gums, and how clean your teeth are. If you want a closer look at how this works at our practice, our dental monitoring page walks through the steps.
A few years ago, a wave of phone apps came out that promised to track your smile from home. DentalMonitoring is something different. In May 2024, DentalMonitoring became the first remote orthodontic monitoring software to earn FDA De Novo clearance as a Software as a Medical Device. In plain terms, that means it met the FDA’s standards as a clinical tool, not a wellness app. You use it as part of your treatment with a licensed orthodontist, not on your own.
What “Center of Excellence” Means
A DentalMonitoring Center of Excellence is a practice that has earned the highest level of recognition the company gives out. It is not a sign-up status. Practices reach this level based on how deeply they have built remote monitoring into their care, the results they get for patients, and how well their team uses the system day to day. Out of the thousands of practices around the world that offer dental monitoring, only a small number qualify.
That distinction matters more than it might sound. Most practices that offer dental monitoring treat it as one more service on the list. A Center of Excellence builds the whole patient experience around it. The scanning routine, the visit schedule, the way the team reads each scan, and the way they reach out when something needs attention are all shaped by the platform from the start, not added on afterward.
For patients, that is a real upgrade to care.
Why Other Orthodontists Travel to Designer Smiles
Being a Center of Excellence comes with a second job. Once a practice reaches that level, other orthodontists tend to ask how they got there. Designer Smiles has become one of the places those visits land.
Dr. Barry Benton has spent years refining the way our team uses dental monitoring, and he has become a recognized voice in remote orthodontic monitoring. He has shared what he has learned on industry podcasts and at continuing education events, and other orthodontists regularly visit our Oxford office for hands-on training. This November, Designer Smiles is hosting a DentalMonitoring Center of Excellence training event, and Dr. Barry will be the keynote speaker at an upcoming dinner and lecture for other orthodontists.
A recent example is Dr. Kevin Bibona of Richmond Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics, who spent two days at our office learning how we run our remote monitoring program. His practice in Richmond, Virginia has since brought dental monitoring to families at four orthodontic offices across the area.
For Designer Smiles patients, the takeaway is simple. The same team that other orthodontists travel here to learn from is the team running your treatment.
What the Designer Smiles Workflow Adds to Your Treatment
Here is what that level of focus looks like in real life.
Every Scan Gets Reviewed
When you send in a scan, it does not just sit in a folder waiting for your next appointment. The AI platform runs through it first and flags anything worth a closer look, from tooth movement to the fit of your braces or aligners. Then, a trained member of our team checks the results before they make it to Dr. John or Dr. Barry. It is a real way to track orthodontic progress from home, with eyes on every scan you send in.
Small Problems Get Caught Early
A bracket comes loose. An aligner stops fitting the way it should. Your gums look a little irritated. With weekly scans, our team can spot these things in days instead of waiting weeks for your next visit. The earlier we see them, the easier they are to fix, and the less likely they are to slow your treatment down.
Office Visits Have a Real Purpose
When we already know how your treatment is going, in-office appointments stop being routine check-ins. They become focused visits, planned around what actually needs to happen next. For busy families, that often means fewer trips to our office and more done at each one.
You Can Reach Us Without Phone Tag
The dental monitoring app has a built-in messaging feature. If you have a question or something feels off, you can send a note to our team without calling and waiting for a callback. It is virtual orthodontic care that works around your schedule, not ours.
Treatment Travels With You
Plenty of our patients live outside of Oxford and Pell City. Some live outside of Alabama entirely. As long as you have your ScanBox and your phone, your treatment keeps moving forward from wherever you are.
Who Benefits Most From Remote Monitoring Braces and Aligners
Dental monitoring fits almost every patient we see, but it tends to be a game-changer for a few groups in particular. Busy parents who are juggling school, sports, and work schedules. Teen athletes whose practice and game calendars do not leave much room for routine check-ins. College students who are away at school and cannot easily get home for an appointment. Anyone whose treatment is going well but who would rather not spend the day driving to and from the office to confirm it.
It also works for both braces and clear aligners, including Invisalign. If any of those situations sound like yours, dental monitoring is worth asking about at your free consultation.
How to Get Started
If you are already in treatment with us, ask your treatment coordinator whether dental monitoring is a fit for the next phase of your care. We often add it for patients who are settled into their plan and ready for fewer routine visits.
If you have not started treatment yet, you can bring it up at your free consultation. We will talk through your goals, give you an honest answer on whether dental monitoring makes sense for the kind of treatment you are looking at, and walk you through what the day-to-day looks like before you commit to anything.