Your patient comes back to you. Every time.
Referring a patient should never feel like losing one. This page sets out, plainly, how Lonehill Orthodontics works with referring dentists: what you can expect on communication, on treatment philosophy, and on the firm rule that your patients remain yours.
Three commitments, in writing
Your patient is referred back to you, strictly
For a scale and polish, for restorative work, for anything dental, patients are sent back to their own dentist with a referral letter, during treatment and after it. Dr Essop describes this as drilled into his staff, and it is the founding rule of the practice’s referral relationships.
We do orthodontics. You remain your patient’s dentist.
You are never left in the dark
After the consultation and records, Dr Essop formulates the treatment plan and writes it up as a full report, which goes to you as well as to the patient, together with the records. You see what he sees: the diagnosis, the orthodontic plan, and anything needed from the dental side before or during treatment.
When treatment ends, your patient returns to you with the result documented.
Your patients are treated the way you would want
Respectfully, warmly and at fees that will not embarrass you for having referred. The practice works on the Discovery Health specialist tariff and publishes its fee ranges openly.
Which makes the cost conversation with your patient an easy one to have.
The extraction question, honestly handled
A young patient, a compromised first molar, and the question: extract or root treat?
His honest answer is that it is rarely answerable from a message and two intraoral radiographs. The right call depends on the occlusion, the crowding he anticipates, whether that space will be wanted for future orthodontics or whether the seven should be allowed to drift forward, and whether the wisdom teeth exist and are formed.
Sometimes the tooth is worth holding, even just temporarily, until orthodontics can use its space; sometimes early extraction is exactly right.
Send the patient for an evaluation and you will get a proper answer, with the reasoning, in writing.
And keep the WhatsApps coming regardless. Pan films and photos with a quick question are welcome, and if it can be answered responsibly from the image, it will be.
Send a pan on WhatsAppThis is a conservative practice. Far fewer extractions than the old recipes, modern anchorage (TADs) in place of extractions where the case allows, and borderline surgical cases frequently managed with distalisation instead.
The case that set the standard →What to refer, and when
The honest rule of thumb Dr Essop offers colleagues: if you are unsure whether you can manage the case, or whether you could manage its complications, that is the referral.
On timing, malocclusions differ: some reward early interception, some should wait for the adolescent growth spurt, and sending at the wrong moment costs the patient either money or options.
The referral timing guide
Which malocclusions to send at which ages. Dr Essop produced it for colleagues, and many local practices already use it beside the chair.
Download the guide (PDF) One page, A4. Free to print and keep beside the chair.Anterior crossbites, suspected canine impaction and developing Class III patterns deserve a look around age seven. Routine Class II crowding generally keeps until the permanent dentition.
When in doubt, a pan and a WhatsApp settles it.
No form, no barrier
Phone or WhatsApp the rooms, or hand your patient our details directly. A referral note from you is welcome but never a barrier; we will request records where needed and copy you on everything from the first report onwards.
The next uncertain case in your chair, send the pan
You will get a straight answer, and your patient back.