Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Spring 2023 - 61

Practice Management
MyStyle
Roger Wolk, DDS, MS, Orthodontist,
Inventor, Entrepreneur
How many of you have had a chairside revelation
and conceived of a product to make our clinical
lives easier and more efficient? Most ideas fail to be
realized and come to market. Dr. Roger Wolk shares
his experience in developing some successful and
not so successful products you may recognize.
Juliana Panchura (JP): Give a brief history of your
professional career.
Dr. Roger Wolk
Malibu, CA
Dr. Juliana Panchura
Los Angeles, CA
PCSO Bulletin Contributor
Roger Wolk (RW): I wanted to be an orthodontist
from the 10th grade, when my English teacher
instructed us to research and write a paper about
a career. At the time, I was in braces and I liked my
orthodontist's lifestyle. I attended the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for my undergraduate
degree and then entered the University of Southern
California (USC) Dental School in 1967. USC required
students to fulfill military service before going to specialty
programs, so instead I headed to Loyola, Chicago.
Upon graduation, I had an amazing opportunity
to associate with Dr. Robert Ricketts in his Pacific
Palisades office. Well respected and somewhat controversial,
Ricketts shook up traditional concepts with
the bioprogressive technique and promoting early
nonextraction treatment to improve facial esthetics.
His in-office seminars attracted orthodontists from
around the world. I recall Dr. Ricketts enucleating
developing third molar tooth buds chairside, infiltrating
the area with lidocaine and popping the bud
out with an air-water tip! He was quite the showman.
I credit Dr. Ricketts for igniting my entrepreneurial
spirit and venture into new product development.
In 1970, I opened my practice in Malibu, California,
and took over a part-time practice in central Los
Angeles of an orthodontist who passed away. I had
a broad cross section of patients, from routine to
extremely difficult. Dr. Chaconas at UCLA invited me
to participate in the weekly multidisciplinary Surgical
Orthodontics Seminar from 1973 to 1990.
JP: What were some of the products you invented?
RW: Equal Pull Headgear: In the 1970s, most Class II
cases were treated with headgear. Regulating force
levels was a challenge. An elastic strap hooked up to
Spring 2023 PCSO Bulletin
the headgear delivered a variable force depending
on the extension of the strap and the movement
of the head. Molars oftentimes got too loose and
tipped if forces were too high, and the headgear
was ineffective if forces were too low. Around that
time, a tragic accident led to a headgear injuring a
patient's eye, as it did not " break away " upon pulling
out. Safety breakaway straps were then mandated. I
had the idea to develop a constant-force module of
a specific tension (light 12 oz and heavy 24 oz) that
would give the choice of an orthopedic or an orthodontic
force. The idea came from a spring-loaded
clothesline I saw mounted on the bathtub in a
hotel room. The Negator string can be pulled to any
length while maintaining a constant force, exactly
what we are looking for in a headgear. I designed
the module with a Negator spring and pull cord
with a release clip. I filed a patent and hired design
engineers to do the drawing and tooling. As major
orthodontic supply companies were reluctant to
carry a new unproven product and offered a minimal
return on my investment, I rented a booth at
the AAO, and the Equal-Pull Module was an instant
hit. Now seeing the demand, I negotiated with
companies to distribute the product. Although it has
been 40 years and headgear has fallen out of favor
in clinical practice, orders still trickle in. The parts are
tooled and assembled in Ventura County.
Dental Duplex System: At the time, we were sending
our alginate impressions to outside labs to pour
and trim to ABO standards. I designed the Duplex
Dental System. When executed properly, the dual
tray took alginate impressions of both the upper
and lower arch as well as the bite registration. This
impression was then inserted in a mold shaped to
the proper ABO angles, and plaster was introduced
via a squeeze bottle. Results were unpredictable
and highly sensitive to operator error. The process
was also rather messy. What I expected would
be a simple solution to save lab fees resulted in
increased materials, lab time, and cleanup for my
staff, whose time could best be utilized elsewhere.
Auto Flosser: Flossing is a task that most people
do not like to do yet know it's important for dental
health. A dental company approached me to help
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Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Spring 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Spring 2023
