Rappaport joins McKenna OrthodonticsDate: 8/20/2015 LONGMEADOW – Dr. Robert Rappaport, an orthodontist who has maintained a practice in the Longmeadow Shops since 1983, has joined McKenna Orthodontics.
McKenna Orthodontics completely renovated Rappaport’s office at 666 Bliss Road to include cutting edge technology in the field of orthodontics, Dr. Stephen McKenna told Reminder Publications.
“We gutted the whole place,” he added. “It’s all brand new. We’re bringing the latest technology there that is out there. We have digital x-rays. We have inter-oral scanning, the whole nine yards.”
A soft opening of McKenna’s Longmeadow office, which joins two others – one in Chicopee at 9 Trilby Ave. and another at 1285 Springfield St. in Feeding Hills – took place on Aug. 10, he added. A grand opening is anticipated for sometime this September.
McKenna said he and Rappaport will divide their time between the three offices and adding Rappaport’s office to McKenna Orthodontics list of locations will likely prove beneficial due to high volumes of traffic that is anticipated by the MGM casino building in Springfield as well as the Interstate 91 viaduct construction – both of which is planned to come online in the near future.
“A lot of patients [are from] Longmeadow,” he added. “It’s going to be more and more inconvenient for them to come out and see me [in Feeding Hills and Chicopee].”
Rappaport said he’s been a friend of McKenna for years and thought joining McKenna would be a great fit for himself and his patients.
“McKenna Orthodontics is well respected in the region and has been in existence for over nine decades,” he added. “The decision to join McKenna Orthodontics after 40 years in my own private practice allows me the freedom to do what I love, which is working with and treating patients, with the support of a great staff.”
The regional orthodontic practice was founded in 1918 by McKenna’s grandfather Dr. Paul McKenna I, and has remained in family hands for three generations, Stephen said. The family has resided in Longmeadow for almost 100 years.
Rappaport, a Longmeadow resident, is the first non-family orthodontist to join the practice, he noted. Both McKenna Orthodontics and Rappaport’s practice got their start in Springfield.
McKenna said the orthodontics practice is also office certified to utilize Invisalign – a series of custom-made aligners made of virtually invisible plastic, which are an alternative to metal braces. They are the only orthodontist practice licensed to use Invisalign within the state.
Rappaport said Invisalign aligners are a series of removable trays that progressively move teeth.
“They’re not applicable to all cases, but in many cases they’re a very good alternative to conventional fixed braces,” he added. “They work very well with adults.”
McKenna said his practice also offers a more cost-effective alternative to Invisalign called Orchestrate.
With Invisalign, an orthodontist sends information about a patient’s teeth to the company’s lab technicians, who then produce a video showing how the teeth would shift in a patient’s mouth based on what the orthodontist sent them, he explained.
With Orchestrate, the orthodontist would complete the lab technician’s job themselves, he added.
A computer program for Orchestrate can also be used alongside an inter-oral scanner, which takes a digital impression of teeth to allow the orthodontists to move teeth digitally on a computer, McKenna said. From there, they are able to create models of their patient’s mouth using 3D printing technology.
“[This technology] didn’t exist two and a half years ago,” he noted.
He added that all three offices are networked and that any patients who call would have access to their records regardless of the location.
“In September, we’re going to putting a new web-based telephone system in, so that if you call one office and I’m not in that office, but you called to talk to me, you’ll be able to be seamlessly transferred to me wherever I am,” McKenna said.
The practice also utilizes “old school” services such as an answering service, he noted.
Rappaport said both he and McKenna fight to maintain a personal nature for their patients, which is something that isn’t as commonly embraced today.
“We both have that similar philosophy – that service is a dying art and it’s something that people value,” McKenna said.
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