I first met Dr. Scott Schwartz at an Inbrace dinner in New York. Inbrace is the latest and greatest in lingual braces, or as Dr. Schwartz refers to it, “inside braces”–because let’s be real, patients don’t know what lingual means. Some refer to it as the Tesla of braces, having raised over 170 million in capital within 4 years. 

I remember being in awe as I watched Dr. Schwartz present case after case using this new lingual system. After the presentation, he sat at our table and we continued talking. At the end of the night, he gave me his phone number and said, “if you need help with any case, let me know and I’ll help you.” Most people that say that don’t genuinely mean it. Most people will begrudgingly answer a text, not really expecting you to follow up. But Dr. Schwartz is invested in my success and the success of all orthodontists who view him as an Inbrace mentor.

Dr. Schwartz went to Columbia dental school and then Columbia for his orthodontic residency. He currently practices in Long Island. Dr. Schwartz originally entered the realm of lingual orthodontics because his patients demanded it. They wanted something aesthetic but also not clear aligner therapy because they knew they wouldn’t wear it. He first started out with the lingual system Incognito, doing around 90 cases. But, it was very technique-sensitive and expensive.

So how did you get into Inbrace?

One day I was on Facebook (about 8 years ago) and somebody mentioned this new company called Inbrace. And I tried to look it up, but it didn’t have a web page. There was a phone number to contact and I ended up speaking to Matt Wang. It took a few phone calls with him, and I decided to give it a try. 

The company was very young at the time, so I was giving them a lot of feedback and they were really listening to everything. I believe when I first started I was one of 20 doctors using the product.

Now 750 cases into Inbrace, it’s been a tremendous success and I’m now known in the area as the guy who does the inside braces.

And what is your role with the company now?

I’ve been working with the engineers to help them develop the indirect bonding tray that we use to place the brackets. I am also helping them develop some new Generation 2 wires called specialty wires to help level and align crowded cases where brackets cannot be bonded to the teeth initially.

How did you make the jump from provider to helping them develop products?

When they were very young, they didn’t really have a ton of providers. And I jumped in with both feet and just started doing a lot of cases. So I kept calling and saying, “Listen, could you look at this… to help improve this?” And so they asked me, “Can you continue to you help us?”. Of course I said yes. It turned out to be a great relationship where they just welcomed me to help, especially the founders of Inbrace Dr. Robert Lee, Dr. John Pham, Dr. Hongsheng Tong and Dr. Andre Weissheimer… all great guys. They really listened and wanted to improve the Inbrace experience. I have regular meetings with the internal team and I really enjoy helping to improve the product.

I also developed a plier that all the doctors are using to take the wire out, which has been a game changer from what people are telling me.

Talk to me about that process. What was it like designing a plier? 

When Gen 2 first came out, the brackets had a lot of force in order to hold in the wires. So you had to really put a lot of force on the wire to disengage it and to engage the wires. So I wanted to come up with something to aid in the removal of the wire. So, I took a curved Weingart plier and a diamond rotary instrument, and I shaped it so that it would fit in between the shoulders of the bracket. I had about 20 iterations. Then I called Allure, which is a plier company, to help develop and mass produce it. I did this all on my own. Inbrace did not ask me to do it. I just knew if we were having issues removing the wire, other offices were having the same problem. I wanted to create something to make my assistants and especially the patients’ lives easier in their Inbrace journey, and of course wanted to share it with everybody. It took about 3 months to bring it to market (part number T-SS4).

Traditionally, orthodontists have charged a lot more for lingual braces. Is that the same for Inbrace?

I only charge slightly more, I don’t want to price myself out of them using Inbrace because I know I will do less work, less appointments, and 95% of the work is done by my assistants. I’m seeing the patients maybe 7-10 times to finish a case, whereas with labial braces it could be way more. The wire change visits are only 15-20 minutes. The teeth are moving more efficiently and the wire is continuously working. You can easily space out visits 3-4 months if needed. Most patients love it, the ones that have a little difficulty stick it out due to the fact their teeth improve so quickly. Of course a lot of adults want this but the adolescents are now my fastest growing patients of Inbrace.