Orthotown October 2021 - 38

Office Visit
spend one to two days per week there and
so does my business partner. It's a slower
pace, because it is a de novo startup practice,
but it's starting to gain some traction and
is rapidly growing. I spend the remaining
time at our main office, and it feels like a
nice balance.
For seven years, you gave
seven seminars a year to
orthodontic residents through
3M's Bottom Line lecture
series, speaking on how to
open and successfully run
a practice. What was that
experience like?
I have always wanted to give back to the
orthodontic profession in any way that I can.
This profession has been so generous to me
and afforded me a wonderful working life.
I've made a good living doing something
that I love. That was the real genesis of
participating in the Bottom Line lecture
series. I wanted to encourage and help young
residents start their own practices, rather
than going to work for big corporations.
My segment was entitled " Hanging Your
Own Shingle. "
During this course, I shared how to go
through the decision process of figuring out
where to practice based on demographic
data, growth patterns, lifestyle, etc. Then
we'd go into lease negotiations, finish-out
hints, tips and suggestions, bank loan
proposals (including a pro forma cash-flow
projection analysis), hiring employees,
business planning, creating a logo and a
website, and ideas for marketing oneself
in the community.
I would give these materials to all of the
residents and it was an extremely rewarding
experience. Now, it seems like at every
AAO meeting, someone will stop me and
thank me for sharing all of those resources.
Inevitably, my lecture gave them the tools and
the confidence to open their own practices
and they felt compelled to thank me years
later. It continues to be a very sentimental
experience.
38 OCTOBER 2021 // orthotown.com
In addition to gaining
notoriety from your lecture
series, a popular bracket
system is named after you,
the Norris 20/26 system.
How did you come up with
the concept, and what sets it
apart from systems that were
previously on the market?
The idea actually came to me when I
was in dental school, working at an orthodontic
office during the summers. From
an engineering standpoint, it simply didn't
make sense that the largest wire in the
0.022-inch slot office was 0.019-by-0.025
inches. When asked why we didn't fill the
slot, the orthodontist replied that a larger
wire was just too heavy and would break
brackets, resorb roots and cause more pain
to the patient. I asked why we didn't instead
use a bracket that fit the 0.019-by-0.025-inch
wires that we like to use, but it didn't exist.
I've been told that I don't see the world
as it is, but instead see it as I'd like it to be.
I don't know whether that's a compliment,
but in this case, I simply couldn't get the
idea out of my head.
We finally have a bracket that fits the
wires we like to use, making the system
unique. I like to compare it to going from
driving an old farm truck, where there is
slack or slop in the steering wheel, to driving
a Formula One race car, where each of the
steering wheel's subtle movements takes
you exactly where you want to go, fast!
The increased control is present in all three
dimensions: torque, tip and rotation. So as
long as the brackets are accurately placed,
the wires can bring the teeth to the finish
line with unprecedented efficiency.
How involved were you
through each phase of
production? What was
the entire process like?
Although I'm known to delegate duties
at my office, I was very hands-on with this
project. This had been my brainchild for
more than 20 years, and I wanted to make
sure that the subtle nuances that a clinician
would desire would be fully integrated into
the bracket.
The system needed a beefy, dependable
door that never fails, an internally ramped
door that aids in wire seating, and a base
that enhances bond strength and decreases
bracket failure significantly. It also needed a
door that is easy for a clinician to open and
close and uses a reciprocal-force mechanism
so the tooth does not feel the pressure of
an instrument pulling or pushing to open
and close the door.
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Orthotown October 2021

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