The Dental Hacks Podcast

"...a hygiene dollar, even in the best of times, has at best a 15-20% profit margin. A doctor dollar has up to 60%..." -Amy Morgan Amy Morgan will give you 52% clinical excellence. But she wants 48% for business excellence! Amy joined Spear in 2018 as Vice President of Consulting Strategy. For more than 25 years as a She's been a consultant and trainer for more than 25 years and is the former CEO of Pride Institute.  Amy and Alan had a wide ranging conversation at the Spear Summit back in September. Some of the topics they covered include: How did Spear quickly retool for the COVID crisis? Is she over Zoom? Once the "fight or flight" crisis was over, what did Amy and Spear Education learn?  "The Great Hygiene Migration" What's the strategy for the lack of hygienists? (spoiler: you can't wish for something that's not there) Healthy patients vs. less healthy patients Doctors should NOT be doing hygiene Embrace your inner hypochondriac What do you do for COVID no-shows? (RFR..."reason for return") Having patien

"...on the conservativeometer..." --Zach Kevin and Zach are once again joined by Dr. Nate Lawson, this time to talk about the the minimally invasive treatment called resin infiltration. The only product on the market for this technique is called ICON, by DMG. Nate is the Director of Biomaterials at the UAB School of Dentistry! He's also part of the team that creates the DentinalTube Instagram channel!  What is resin infiltration and when do you use it? Designed for posterior interproximal lesions Now used for anterior white spot lesions Results? Does it hold up? Resin infiltration vs. microabrasion Resin infiltration is NOT a quick and easy procedure Driven by conservation of tooth structure How do you charge for it? (it's a mystery) Are there white spot lesions that are too deep? Teenagers post ortho UAB has a course on resin infiltration (online, on demand) Some links from the show: Nate Lawson's website Nate's Instagram DentinalTube Instagram ICON from DMG Go get your ticket and your room for Voices

When you hear the term "second opinion," what does through your mind? Al talks about his experience with a second opinion that's changed a lot about how he looks at them. Some links from the show:  Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." The Very Dental Podcast network is and will remain free to download. If you’d like to support the shows you love at Very Dental then show a little love to the people that support us! -- Crazy Dental has everything you need from cotton rolls to equipment and everything in between and the best prices you’ll find anywhere! If you head over to verydentalpodcast.com/crazy and use coupon code “verydental10” you’ll get another 10% off your order! Go save yourself some money and support the show all at the same time! -- The Wonderist Agency is basically a one stop shop for marketing your practice and your brand. From logo redesign to a full service marketing plan, the f

Alan is joined by Dr. Russell Schafer and Dr. Jason Lipscomb to talk about dentures, digital design and AirBnBs. Dentistry has a denture problem. Many young dentists aren't well trained and many grizzled veterans just plain hate them. But for a lot of people dentures are the only real solution for them. Dr. Russell Schafer wants to make them more predictable and profitable for regular dentists.  Russell's digital solution for immediate dentures (3D printing ftw!) What's so dangerous about metal printing? (answer: JLips' jokes) Why are small classes like Russell's so good? (answer: flexibility to cover what the participants are looking for) The "Bob Ross" technique of staining and glazing a denture Learning Blue Sky Plan Printed crowns containing more than 51% ceramic filler = ceramic crown! (aka: we'll be printing crowns soon) Clinux software for crown and bridge Jason's new continuing education venue (smaller courses all the way to bigger courses) Zillow is dangerous The Return of Go Hack Yourself! Jason:

"Shillingburg." *mic drop* --Kevin Kevin and Zach are joined by repeat guest Dr. Nate Lawson to talk about onlays and partial coverage restorations! Nate is the Director of Biomaterials at the UAB School of Dentistry! He's also part of the team that creates the DentinalTube Instagram channel! After discussing what an onlay is (these aren't your daddy's onlay) they dig in to how and when to do partial coverage!  What is an onlay? Crownlay?  Who's doing onlays? IDS...yay or nea Onlay temporization Onlay cementation Kevin's take on onlays..."not in my hands" Some links from the show: Nate Lawson's website Nate's Instagram DentinalTube Instagram Markus Blatz Instagram Tempocem ID Temrex TNE Ivoclar Telio Onlay 3M Relyx Universal Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! If you want to interact with us, head over to the Very Clinical Facebook Group! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." The Very Dental Podcast network is and will re

That pile on your desk. You know the one. There are probably lots of tasks that come from that pile. And it mocks you. Al tells a little story of how that pile bit him in the butt and how the mantra of "do it now" is making life a little better for him.  Some links from the show: Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." The Very Dental Podcast network is and will remain free to download. If you’d like to support the shows you love at Very Dental then show a little love to the people that support us! -- Crazy Dental has everything you need from cotton rolls to equipment and everything in between and the best prices you’ll find anywhere! If you head over to verydentalpodcast.com/crazy and use coupon code “verydental10” you’ll get another 10% off your order! Go save yourself some money and support the show all at the same time! -- The Wonderist Agency is basically a one stop shop for marketing your

Toothlife.Irene (aka: Irene Iancu) is a Canadian dental hygienist and practice owner. She opened a dental practice in Toronto during the pandemic. She has also recently become She wears so many hats in her practice and she has a LOT to share! She'll be speaking at Voices of Dentistry in 2023! Can you throw people out of your practice for not opening wide enough? Irene on guided biofilm therapy You can add 25% to your fee if you pronounce composite the way they do in Canada Midway through the podcast Al and Irene began walking the floor with podcasting headsets Using disclosing agent will help everything: perio, restorative, etc. When your hygienist wants new stuff, what do they do? Budgeting for new instruments/technology (use it or lose it) Some links from the show: 2Tone Disclosing Solution by Young Dental  Tri Plaque ID disclosing by GC America Bioclear HeatSync Enova Illumination 3M Filtek Matrix Velopex AquaCare Microcopy Dental single use burs Komet ceramic round burs Go get your ticket and your r

SVDV (aka: Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver) joins Kevin and Zach for some incredibly sad New Year stories and a bunch of digital dentistry goodness! Shawn explains how he is involved with a software that helps dentists design bite splints digitally. Shawn also dives into dental photogrammetry! Some links from the show: XOcademy.com (Shawn's Exocad training website) D3Tools software portal ICAM photogrammetry PIC photogrammetry Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! If you want to interact with us, head over to the Very Clinical Facebook Group! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  -- You can learn to love removable, do dentures digitally and learn the basics of 3d dental design all in a 2 day class!  Check it out at denturece.com! -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! Th

Dr. Russell Schafer joins Al for a wide ranging conversation covering podcasting, some courses he's putting together and most importantly how regular dentists can start designing, printing, milling and just plain doing their own stuff digitally!  Some links from the show: denturece.com Russell's podcast "Totally Oral" Pac-Dent Rodin resin Nexdent C&B MFH CAD-Ray Clinux Blue Sky Bio CAD software Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  You can learn to love removable, do dentures digitally and learn the basics of 3d dental design all in a 2 day class!  Check it out at denturece.com! -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! They sell and support all kinds of digital dentistry products from scanners, to printers and even clou

We all have a content creation machine in our pocket. The question that Alan discusses with Laura Maly and Michael Anderson is about content creation? Do we realize that if we're using social media that we're creating a story whether we mean to or not. How involved should a dentist be in the story that's told about their office and dentistry? We are all content creators Who should create content for a dental office? Stock photography sucks (perfect vs. authentic) Websites for dental offices are NOT DEAD! On plagiarism...DON'T!  What's on your website (and your search results) are your responsibility...even if the "web guy did it." Come record a podcast with Michael and Laura at Voices of Dentistry! Some links from the show: Wonderist Agency Dental Hacks Scallion blog post on stock photography Small SEO Tools Soapbox Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very D

Kevin and Zach are bringing you Christmas joy in the form of Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver! Shawn bought Exocad awhile back and decided that he wanted to help others learn how to use the software. Exocad is a huge software and it's not super intuitive, so the guys discuss how you can learn Exocad! They discuss the kind of things Shawn uses Exocad for as a practicing dentist. "My tool is much smaller than Kevin's" --Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver Some links from the show: Poggioli Xmas 2022 playlist (Kevin's brother-in-law) XOcademy.com (Shawn's Exocad training website) Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! If you want to interact with us, head over to the Very Clinical Facebook Group! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  -- You can learn to love removable, do dentures digitally and learn the basics of 3d dental design all in a 2 day class!  Check it

When you're upset about something, should you talk it out with a trusted friend? Well, that kind of depends on whether or not you want to do something about it or if you're just "venting." Some links from the show:  Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  You can learn to love removable, do dentures digitally and learn the basics of 3d dental design all in a 2 day class!  Check it out at denturece.com! -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! They sell and support all kinds of digital dentistry products from scanners, to printers and even cloud based software! For instance, the Medit i600 itraoral scanner is priced at just about $13,000! And if you didn’t know, CAD-Ray now distributes 3Shape scanners and the amazing Trios 4 wire

Dr. Paul Etchison is a dentist, practice owner, podcaster, coach and writer! Etch has recently released his second book entitled "Dental Practice Heroes II, the sequel: How a 3 Day Work Week Can Give You the Life You Want." Paul joins Alan for this entertaining conversation about how he found himself burned out even when he was very successful. His transition to 3 days a week has changed his role more from dentist to business owner where he works ON his business more than IN his business. Is this for everyone? Maybe not, but we discuss how it could fit into the practice owner's life. Our discussion covers burnout, leadership, delegation and the idea that clinical dentistry isn't necessarily the end-all! Some links from the show: Dental Practice Heroes Podcast "Dental Practice Heroes," the book "Dental Practice Heroes II," the sequel Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to s

Kevin and Zach are joined again by Dr. John Olmsted. John is from High Point, North Carolina and teaches at UNC Chapel Hill in the endodontics department. John is here to tell the guys about the Procodile Q endodontic instruments from Komet.  Some links from the show: Procodile Q file Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! If you want to interact with us, head over to the Very Clinical Facebook Group! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  -- You can learn to love removable, do dentures digitally and learn the basics of 3d dental design all in a 2 day class!  Check it out at denturece.com! -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! They sell and support all kinds of digital dentistry products from scanners, to printers and even cloud based software! For instance, the

Dr. Russell Schafer joins Al to discuss denture patients and denture struggles. We refer to a couple classic papers that are worth a read: Difficult Denture Birds and More Difficult Denture BIrds! One of the struggles we talk about is how many procedures have a very specific endpoint (think extractions) while dentures often times go on forever.  Some links from the show: denturece.com Difficult Denture Birds More Difficult Denture BIrds Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  You can learn to love removable, do dentures digitally and learn the basics of 3d dental design all in a 2 day class!  Check it out at denturece.com! -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! They sell and support all kinds of digital dentistry products

Dr. Gregg Kinzer sat down for a conversation with Alan back in September at the incomparable Spear Summit! For those that aren't familiar with Gregg, he's the prosthodontist that joined Dr. Frank Spear (you may have heard of him) in practice awhile back. He also lectures in many programs at Spear Education in Scottsdale, AZ. He's essentially the backbone of many of the programs at Spear Education, so he doesn't get many chances to go take CE of his own. And that, my friends, is how speakers are chosen for Spear Summit! Some of the topics they discussed: Gregg vs. Jeff Rouse at Spear Summit How Gregg chooses speakers for Summit Live Seminars are BACK at Spear!  Virtual seminars vs. live seminars Picking your friendly face when you're on stage Summit is a challenge for a speaker...how to bring your A game. AV at meetings...it's a whole thing Gregg needs to come to the Vedder Society! Gregg on social media and how he and Jeff have evolved on social media and influence Why don't they teach literature review in

Kevin and Zach are joined by an endodontist by the name of Dr. John Olmsted. John is from High Point, North Carolina and teaches at UNC Chapel Hill in the endodontics department. Both John and Kevin have been using the EndoPilot from Komet and the discussion focuses on the why and how of the EndoPilot!    "Komet is a German company. This is like driving a Mercedes Benz." -Kevin, on the Komet EndoPilot Some links from the show: EndoPilot from Komet Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! If you want to interact with us, head over to the Very Clinical Facebook Group! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! They sell and support all kinds of digital dentistry products from scanners, to printers and even cloud based software! For

Al talks about his struggles to be congruent with what he believes to be the best way to practice dentistry...through a microscope. Also how he's attempting to incorporate particle abrasion in different ways.  Some links from the show: Global Microsurgeon's Chair BQE Ergodynamic Velopex AquaCare Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  It's time to stop hating removable! Dr. Russell Schafer is teaming up with our friends at CAD-Ray to teach Dentures: Fit, Bite and Smile at the CAD-Ray Las Vegas campus! You'll learn analog and digital techniques to provide predictable and efficient complete denture care! Check it out at verydentalpodcast.com/lasvegas. -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! They sell and support all kinds of d

If you're in to digital dentistry, you need to be working with CAD-Ray. Alan joined Dr. Armen Mirzayan, Damien Bonner and Jon Acker of CAD-Ray at their booth at the Greater New York Dental Meeting to talk about the array of digital options that they offer. It would be an understatement to say that things have changed since we talked at GNYDM 2021! CAD-Ray has become your "one stop shop" for all things digital dentistry and we dig in to all of it in this entertaining conversation. CAD-Ray is the right place to buy Medit scanners because of the customer support! The fundamentals of scanning transcends the brand of scanner! Without the service and support, digital dentistry can run in to problems There is SO MUCH that digital can do...it's easier to figure out with a course Why bring on 3Shape? Same day dentistry outside of the CEREC workflow! How to make a 3D printer useful in the dental office! How did Clinux, CAD-Ray's browser based CAD software come about? We're not all that far from printed permanent crown

Kevin and Zach expand their discussion about verbal skills that they've developed for moving patients past potential objections.  Some links from the show: Isodam Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! If you want to interact with us, head over to the Very Clinical Facebook Group! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! They sell and support all kinds of digital dentistry products from scanners, to printers and even cloud based software! For instance, the Medit i600 itraoral scanner is priced at just about $13,000! And if you didn’t know, CAD-Ray now distributes 3Shape scanners and the amazing Trios 4 wireless just had a $10,000 price cut! It comes in under $25,000. And all these options come with CAD-Ray’s unbeatable support