The right fit

It's not easy breaking into the world of dental consulting, landing a spot on the lecture circuit or getting published in a top-tier dental publication or online venue like Dentalcompare. In my never-ending tours of dental shows, events and CE events, I have the pleasure of seeing and meeting the cream of the crop. Yet, over the years, I've begun to notice that once you've heard these folks a couple of times.... well... you've heard them.

While it's always a pleasure to hear the legends speak, I have always been more interested in the up-and-comers, the professionals who are bringing new ideas, attitudes and excitement to the profession.

That's why it was such a joy to spend last weekend in Charleston at the Speaking Consulting Network, where about 140 established and emerging lecturers and consultants gathered to soak up the experience of the legend Linda Miles and network with their peers. As someone who has attended this event four years in a row, it was exhilarating for me to see how so many of these newcomers have developed and advanced their careers. As a dental editor, it has been one of the highlights of my career to help many of the SCN crowd get published and establish themselves as thought leaders in their own right. Attendees at the event got the opportunity see some of the best speakers in action, speakers such as Jeanne Robertson and Janice Hurley-Trailor. For many attendees, the highlight was the opportunity to present short lectures to the group for critiquing. I've spoken before this group in the past, and I can tell you it's a bit intimidating... and I didn't have to worry about receiving any of what Dr. David Reznik so graciously calls "love taps." Congratulations to Dr. Marty Wade who was named the best of this Spotlight on Speaking event.

The challenge at SCN meetings always is to find the time (even with 72 hours of networking!) to talk with everyone you want to meet. It leads to late nights in the lobby bar and very little sleep. (Special thanks to my friends at 1-800-DENTIST... Larry, Naomi and Laura... for their stellar closing dinner featuring superb wine and food pairings and a setting perfectly designed to facilitate mingling.)

For me, one of the highlights was meeting Teresa Duncan, keeper of the excellent Dental Implant Blog. Teresa recently contacted me seemingly out of nowhere and submitted an excellent article for Dentalcompare. In person, she is intelligent, witty and driven to advance implant dentistry, and I look forward to a long working relationship. Anybody who meets me and immediately starts calling me out (including telling me to dump that geeky photo to the right) is a friend and colleague I want. Teresa provided a perfect example of my major challenge at SCN: balancing time with great friends while making new contacts. OK... this is a high-class problem and I'm not complaining. But it goes to my main point here... I think I have one anyway.... that we all need to be open to new ideas, new attitudes and the new people who will carry them to us. Let's stop doing things just because we always did them. Let's stop following the "thought leaders" just because they've achieved their position. Let's find the good stuff.

All week, in-boxes have been packed with celebratory e-mails expressing the joy and inspiration from the attendees, all of whom seem ready to take on the world, build their careers, and continue to find new ways to help your practice succeed. To the docs out there, I encourage you to seek out these newcomers. When you attend dental shows, balance your CE time between the well-known names and the people who are working for peanuts to bring you new ideas. And know that the right consultant can truly help you transform your practice, if you have the right attitude, seek the right fit and let them do their job. All weekend I heard stories of practices improving their productivity and profitability by implementing, and FOLLOWING, systems established by consultants who put as much intelligence, time and effort into developing them as you put into performing great dentistry.

We all know dentists weren't trained as business people. And, unless you're lucky enough to have an MBA running your office, signing on with a qualified consultant can provide you with the systems you need to take your practice to the next level. Are there bad consultants out there? Sure. But far more often, when consultancies fail, it's because of a bad fit. So do your homework and be open to newcomers. If you're looking for a consultant or a speaker for your next dental event or study club, do yourself a favor and check out the talent available in SCN's membership guide.

To those in SCN, keep up the good fight. Dentistry is a profession of abundance, integrity and ever-increasing promise. I encourage all of you to stay true to your mission and your ideals, to seek out opportunity, and to never forget that you will get the furthest when you remember that it's all about your client... not you. Help make happy dentists, and know that, through that mission, you are touching the lives of not just the dentists, but their families, staff and patients. Have faith, work hard, and if there's anything I can do to help, get in touch.

And to Linda Miles... what can I say. You're a great person and a true force in this profession. I'm trying to conceive of how many lives you've impacted, and I think it's probably incalculable. You are a mentor to many, an inspiration to all.

Back to Vegas... with Nobel Biocare

When you cover dental conferences, you spend a lot of time in Vegas. In fact it's starting to feel like a second, and very strange, home. But each time I'm here, it's because that's where the top clinicians are. And wherever they are, I am.

Today I'm attending the Nobel Biocare World Conference, a gathering of 10,000 attendees, with many more attending, lecturing and performing live techniques from around the world via satellite. It is, by far, the most technologically advanced and exciting dental event yet seen in the United States. Even more exciting that the technology is the international flair. To walk the halls is to experience a United Nations of dental excellence, the halls and conference rooms buzzing with several languages at once. (Again, it's technology that makes it all understandable.)

If you want to see what you're missing, go here.

The focus of the five-day event is exploring the latest techniques and products from one of world leaders in oral health technology. The World Conference is a unique opportunity for dental professionals to receive state of the art education on innovative, scientifically based solutions for their patients.

The Nobel Biocare World Conference 2007, the world's largest dental educational and personalized forum, features a program with 35 live treatments televised via satellite from around the world, many of which are being shown live for the first time ever, including the first live real time broadcast from the University of Peking in China. Close to 340 internationally recognized dental experts will be giving lectures and conducting hundreds of hands-on sessions, workshops and seminars.

In a breakthrough in dental events, women speakers will have over 215 appearances. Another first at the conference is "Bring Your Own Case" discussions that provide participants an opportunity to bring in a patient case and discuss treatment solutions "one-on-one" with dental experts. Participants have booked more than 15,000 sessions. In total, Nobel Biocare is featuring 300 new products and solutions at the World Conference. Here are some of the most exciting:

The Nobel Biocare Maxillofacial Concept, premiers at the World Conference and supports the research and work of Professor P-I Branemark. This concept will assist specialized surgeons in providing smiles to those who need them most. Maxillofacial surgeries can correct a number of deformities in the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial regions, caused by disease, trauma and genetic defects.

The concept will use the complete Branemark System of dental implants (in lengths from 7mm to 52mm) and the broad line of prosthetic components for anchoring final prostheses.

When necessary, treating physicians can submit specifications for the production of customized products from the Nobel Biocare Karlskoga precision production facility.

The new concept will also employ a state-of-the-art 3D computer software package for diagnosing and planning maxillofacial surgeries. Nobel Biocare plans to offer future training courses on the software.

With the Maxillofacial Concept, Nobel Biocare will offer the market's most complete selection of fixed solutions for reconstructing a person's face, both inside and outside the mouth.

NobelActive: This world premier features a new implant design with an innovative thread pattern. The one-stage implant features a unique shape and a new thread design with a "self-drilling" capability to facilitate drilling protocols in areas of narrower osteotomy. The product is easy to use and provides high initial stability and good outcomes. NobelActive(tm) has been designed for increased soft tissue volume at the head of the implant, resulting in improved esthetics.

Curvy Abutment: Supporting its core concepts of Soft Tissue Integration and Easy Esthetics for Beautiful Teeth Now, Nobel Biocare introduces the Curvy Abutment. This implant abutment features an hourglass shape at its base and a curved margin, which have been designed to stabilize and promote an excellent soft tissue seal. This product will work with all two-stage Nobel Biocare implants.

I will have more every day from the Nobel Biocare World Conference, both here and at www.dentalcompare.com. We will have podcasts, articles and interviews with as many leading clinicians as we can corral.

An educational oasis in Scottsdale

Few have ever complained of a lack of continuing education opportunities in dentistry. But to sense the spirit at the Grand Opening Celebration of the Scottsdale Center for Dentistry April 25, to stand in the gleaming lobby and witness the hundreds of clinical and industry luminaries assembled in one place, to view the satisfaction on the faces of these people as they watched top-flight didactic and hands-on education taking place in the most technologically sophisticated and comfortable learning environment ever to grace dentistry, was to believe that previous learning opportunities were sparse at best.

The opening of the Center is a bold move, and, many say, a big risk. The facility itself represents a capital investment of many, many millions of dollars, backed by Mercer Advisors and born of the brain and vision of Mercer CEO Imtiaz Manji and the passion for excellence and integrity of its new Dean, Dr. Gordon Christensen. Besides the financial investment at stake are the reputations of these two men, who have logged an equally hefty number of hours and miles building those reputations by spreading their visions for excellence in the clinical and business practices of dentistry.

I believe the risk will pay off. The Opening Celebration drew a Who’s Who of clinical leadership, all of whom were impressed with not just the facility, but the mission and vision that enlivens it. Many already have signed on as faculty, and many more are in negotiations.

Throughout two days of presentations, one day for the dental laboratory industry and one for clinical leaders, the focus was on the Center’s three-tier promise: To provide the highest-quality learning environment both in terms of faculty and technological infrastructure; to uphold integrity and honesty in education; and to expose all who study there to a best-practices approach to clinical and business pursuits that focuses on conservative, minimally-invasive treatment that honors each patient’s individual needs and wants. In his introductory comments, Dr. Christensen referred to the Center as “the people’s center,” an institution that will serve as a second dental school to prepare new dentists and update experienced dentists with the tools, techniques and principles to provide the best treatment to all patients, not just those who can afford $30,000 cases.

“There has been a disturbing trend towards over-treatment in our profession,” Dr. Christensen said. “As a result, we have fallen from the top of the list in terms of the public’s trust, to the middle. We have the ability, the tools and the technology to treat our patients with the highest integrity and still do very well. What is missing is the willingness.”

By combining Dr. Christensen’s passion for excellent dentistry, rooted in integrity, with Mr. Manji’s focus on teaching the business systems that allow dentists to thrive by treating each patient to the best care possible, the Center has the brain- and heart-power to make this reality. All in attendance agreed this is both laudable and achievable. The challenge will be convincing dentists that it is worth it.

That’s where my colleagues in the dental media can help. As the clinical leaders in attendance were challenged to uphold the teaching of excellence and integrity, so the dental journals and online information sources need to spread the message that practicing with integrity is not only possible, but profitable. We can keep presenting clinical research data unrelated to the work most dentists conduct and shallowly over-hyping the next big profit builder without context. Or we can provide thoughtful, relevant content that informs and educates the profession. We can devote our space and attention to information that is, as Dr. Christensen called it, “evidence-based and practice-focused.”

Our challenge in the dental media is to find excellence wherever it exists and use our unique positions to widen the audience, share and democratize the intelligence we find, so that all in the dental profession know where to find it. We can use our pulpits to heap shallow praise on the latest and greatest, or we can encourage and empower dental professionals to nurture and develop excellence for the benefit of their careers, their teams and, most importantly, their patients.

A new day for dental education

Less than two weeks now separate us from one of the most exciting events in dentistry: the grand opening of The Scottsdale Center for Dentistry. Having closely followed the development of this center from the initial glint in founder Imtiaz Manji's eye to finished facility, I can confidently predict that the day will come when the continuing education landscape in dentistry will be delineated as "Before Scottsdale" and "After Scottsdale."

For those who don't know, The Scottsdale Center is a $50-million, state-of-the-art dental learning facility adjacent to the prestigious Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort. Its location alone would be reason enough for many dentists to plan a working vacation around the site. But the Center also would be worth the trip if it were located in Dubuque. The 65,000 square-foot facility is equipped like no other learning center. From its fully wired auditorium to its impressively outfitted learning center and operatories, no effort or expense has been spared to make the facility a world-leader in offering the what Mr. Manji proudly refers to as "the finest broad-based, unbiased, and complete continuing education for the dental profession."

Features of the Center include a 278 stadium-style auditorium equipped for filming and broadcasting, a fully functional six-operatory "dental practice of the future," a 10-operatory and 36-lab-bench training facility and many other innovations and amenities to help make the Center among the most cutting edge teaching facilities in the world.

More importantly, the Center is dedicated to truth and integrity in continuing education. Unlike other facilities that subscribe to a single clinical philosophy, the Center welcomes all schools of thought across all disciplines. Under the leadership of Dean Dr. Gordon Christensen, a man of unique character and integrity in a profession awash in murky relationships, the Center’s goal is to provide dentists, dental specialists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, and dental technicians with ideal choices about both the subjects and the depth of their continuing education. Given the list of clinicians the Center has drawn to its faculty, I believe this goal is easily, for the first time, within reach.

I will be attending the Grand Opening Gala and will cover the event here and on Dentalcompare.com. Be sure to check back; and be sure to add the Scottsdale Center to your education calendar.

Toothpaste art in NYC

So I'm wandering through SoHo on a recent trip to NYC, when I pass a grafitti covered door that's vaguely inviting me to come inside. The sign appears to be for a shop... though I'm not entirely sure. Climbing the steps, I'm still not sure if I'm about to enter a hyper-trendy shop, an after-hours club that's still going from the night before, or a crack house. But, alas, after a long flight of creaky stairs and a couple of turns, I find myself in Kiosk.

Featuring no more than two dozen seemingly random items from a single country (the country changes every few months, according to the owner's travel schedule), the blank space highlights the simplicity of the items proffered. Furniture shims, chocolate, toothpaste... it takes the attention of a gallery-goer to let the theme eventually sink in. These are items that are perfect in their simplicity, everyday items that are so taken for granted by the natives that no one would ever think of exporting them.

Sparingly set on simple shelves, with thoughtful note-card descriptions, the mundane items become art, commerce and cultural anthropology all in one. And you can buy it. Of particular note to me, of course, was the Ajona Toothpaste, which the owner described as, "A German punch in the face!" Only $8 a tube. Yet, I was happy to pay it. Because while dozens of high-end stores have no problem selling high-design product that's no better than generic, here was a curator who was willing to devote rather expensive floor space to a rather generic product made art through the simple act of her observation.

I finally got around to reading the store's manifesto: "We opened the store to provide an antidote to overdesign," it read. "We consider the items we stock to be straight-forward and beautiful for their simplicity and directness. Their beauty is sometimes hard to see in today's oversaturated market. Our motivation is to shed some light on their quiet perfection."

For a stumbled-upon store, Kiosk is a true work of found art.

Action for access

In reference to my post below, there are statements, and then there are Statements. The National Dental Association, an organization uniquely dedicated to access issues, last month released a Statement of grace and fire regarding the recent deaths related to dental issues of not one, but now two children.

"Many dental organizations and media sources weighed in on the events, citing 'a step backward for the nation’s health'," says NDA Executive Director Robert S. Johns. "It is the position of the National Dental Association that there may never have been a step forward, only that the information age has publicized this issue to a greater audience, and the public is now as energized as it is informed."

To paraphrase the rest of his letter is to do it a grave injustice. I urge everyone to read it in its entirety here.

Then, contact the NDA to find out how you can support the 8th Annual NDA on Capitol Hill Day, May 10 in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room B339 – B340. The NDA is extending an invitation to NDA leaders and members, healthcare professionals, Deans and alumni from Howard University’s College of Dentistry and the University of Maryland Dental School, dental students and VIPs.

To take the fight for sensible access to care directly to your Senator or Congressional Representative: House of Representatives www.house.gov; and Senate, www.senate.gov.

For more information, contact kgaines@ndaonline.org or call 202.588.1697, extension 16.

I also have it on strong authority that at least one dental company is doing exactly what I recommended below: Working to establish a direct line specifically to connect underserved patients with dentists who will treat them.

More as I learn it.

On tragedy

Interesting that the ADA should refer to the recent death of a Maryland boy from a brain infection tied to an abscessed tooth as illustrating "why organized dentistry—all of us, working together—must stay focused on trying to improve that system." The ADA goes on to state: "We’ve taken several steps in response to the death, including a statement that’s on ADA.org and an op-ed we’ve provided to state dental societies. In the best of worlds, we can all hope to focus on this tragedy to leverage our profile as advocates for the under served."

A statement. Thank God. I have covered the ADA for years, and, while I agree it is a worthy organization, there are two areas in which it has continually frustrated me. First on the list is its inability to marshall support for access to care. Second is its refusal to market on behalf of dentistry. (More on that below.) Beyond, "we need more money from Medicaid," the answers seem to come sparingly from 211 E. Chicago Ave. I know this is a complex issue, and sponsoring legislation is important. And, on that front, thanks to the ADA for supporting legislation.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman's reintroduction of a bill calling for federal grants for state Medicaid and SCHIP programs to provide dental care to low-income children is smart, and it's supported by the ADA. The bill aims at encouraging dentists to work in low-income regions by offering dentists bonuses if at least 25 percent of their practice consists of SCHIP and Medicaid patients. But let's get past the more-money answer, can we please? I support dentists getting paid, but what we need here is real, grass-roots, old-fashioned caring and civic mindedness on the part of individual dentists.

Here's where the ADA can help:

1. Educate the public on oral health and the importance of regular dental care, including MARKETING dentistry from an oral-health/overall health standpoint and an esthetic standpoint. Thanks be to Discus Dental, 1-800-DENTIST, Invisalign and DEN-MAT for doing what the ADA should have been doing all along: getting people excited about dentistry.

2. Get dentists mobilized. There are myriad groups that facilitate dentists providing direct service. Work with them to connect dentists with programs such as The National Children's Oral Health Foundation, or, more importantly, their local affiliates. According to the ADA, Washington D.C. staff is meeting with lawmakers to find new answers. "Among new ideas discussed are a grant program to fund Mission of Mercy projects and tax credits for dentists who donate care. While these ideas are still in the rough-draft stage, we expect to work closely with Hill staff in the coming weeks on these and other proposals." Again, great; I hope it succeeds. But how about providing moral and civic leadership to get dentists serving even without tax credits. There are many dentists out there doing just that. Publicize them to their peers and network them. Devote part of ADA.org to create a volunteer clearinghouse, where dentists can connect directly with programs.

3. Stop patting your own back and honor the dentists, groups and dental manufacturers who are making a difference.

Tragedy is one of the most incorrectly- and overused words in the English language. A tragedy is when someone is led to his or death by his or her own flaw. This Maryland child's death is not a tragedy. It is negligence. The tragedy will be if the most powerful dental organization in the United States deteriorates through irrelevance to its constituents on both sides of the dental chair.