Dentaltown June 2018 - 68

office
visit
The big thing I see coming is how 3D printing
is going to revolutionize this profession. In Europe,
printer companies like EnvisionTEC already have
approval for long-term indirect crown-and-bridge
material. Printer technology is going to change
full denture fabrication, and this could be a huge
practice builder. Studies have shown that the
number of edentulous patients who will need
complete dentures will increase in the next 20
years. Unfortunately, many young dentists are not
comfortable with creating full dentures because
of changes in dental school curriculums. Digital
dentures will provide a faster, predictable way to
fill this void. By lowering cost, we will broaden
the marketplace by delivering an aesthetic denture
to a greater percentage of the population.

OTHER PRODUCTS
Orthodontics
* ClearCorrect
* Blue Sky Bio ortho module
for limited ortho cases
Patient financing
* CareCredit
* Lending Club Patient Solutions
Practice management
* CS PracticeWorks Software
* Weave Communication
Restoratives
Beautifil II from Shofu Dental
Technology
* Ceramill Motion 2 from Amann Girrbach
* Waterlase from Biolase
* Xayav LCD 3D printer
* FormLabs Form 2 SLA printer

What aspect of your work
are you most proud of?
Most of my dental school contemporaries
stayed in Michigan because that's where they grew up, had family
there, or they really liked Ann Arbor. (It is a cool town.) A few others
headed off to New York and San Diego to follow their dreams.
These are all great places, but I also recognized from a business
perspective-which directly impacts lifestyle, right?-that saturation
is a dentist's biggest enemy. Don't get me wrong; I also had preferred
criteria (proximity to ski resorts and an airport), so I did some research
and that's how I found a former factory town 45 minutes north of the
uberhip and, therefore dentist-saturated, city of Portland, Maine. The
classic diamond-in-the-rough Lewiston had plenty of opportunity for
growing the kind of dental practice I had envisioned. I understood
there would be challenges coming in as an "out-of-stater," particularly
after the beloved local guy retired. I just blocked out the messages of
fear and low expectations.
Not to get all Field of Dreams, but honestly, "If you build it, they
will come." They have. We have a great brand and have fun with our
marketing and social media. We do have some cool technology that
allows our patients to have a more comfortable experience, and I am
fortunate to be able to say that I really do have a dental dream team.
All of which makes the marketing part even easier.
In your practice you have something called the "tote system."
What is it, and how did it come into existence?
In a general dental office, we do so many different kinds of
procedures each day. Trying to keep everything you need in one
room means clutter, and I'm all about streamlining and efficiency.
It was actually when we moved to the new location that I tasked my
assistants with implementing Zirc's "ZOBE" system. ZOBE stands for
Zirc's Organizational Box of Efficiency-I need a few of these in my
everyday life. It's basically like kindergarten has come to the dental
office: Every box is color-coded by procedure-endo, restorative, ortho,

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JUNE 2018 // dentaltown.com
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown June 2018
