About DIO

Where It All Began

I began my career in the industry in 1978 at the age of 18 as an orthodontic assistant for a large orthodontic practice in Eastern KY. Always wanting to know more about my work, I learned the skill of being a lab tech making orthodontic appliances and continued to work, take classes and train in the field. At the same time I worked with an Oral Surgery group and saw the drastic changes in a person’s self esteem when they were able to have a jaw deformity repaired that had caused them to hide their smile for years. I was hooked then, on being a part of the transformation in a patient’s well being and boost to their self-esteem.

Working With Dental Professionals

After 20 years of working as a lab technician under the license of a dental professional. I decided to pursue my CDT license and in 2000 Designs In Ortho began operating as an orthodontic laboratory, fabricating appliances for various doctors in Kentucky. While I enjoy my work as lab owner/operator, I lost the sense of fulfillment that comes from hearing from the patient when something I was part of improved their lives. Now, with a desire to reach more people that may be suffering from headaches or jaw pain, or need protection from tooth injury, or those that want to improve their smile by whitening their teeth; we have created this part of our licensed laboratory where we can see a patient through from beginning to end and make the
experience a positive one.

Working For The Patient

So here we are in 2021 with all of this skill and knowledge and a desire to expand our business.  As we started to do our usual marketing to local doctors and dentists we realized how the digital retainer market had moved retainer fabrication from the lab to the dental office and it was not coming back. As we thought about how to accomplish our goals, we realized what we really wanted was to work for the patient anyway and we began our pivot in this direction by going online.

Pivoting In a New Direction

As we make this move, Birgit Price has joined our lab and brings with her a variety of skills as a licensed CDT in dentures and partials. We look forward to developing things such as party teeth for Halloween or beauty pageants and we will have options on our website in the near future.

At Designs in Ortho it is all about You and we will always strive for excellence in our product and welcome any feedback you may have. You can contact us by email:  [email protected] or text: 859.363.1419