The Dental Hacks Podcast

This is a VERY SPECIAL EPISODE! There is nothing wrong with your podcast app. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your podcast app. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Clinical Hacks Podcast Special thanks to Josh and Lance Oh yeah, we discuss crown preps too. Enjoy!

Alan had a chance to discuss how the UK has been affected by the coronavirus with one of our favorite guests, Dr. Jason Smithson. He describes what's been going on in his part of England as well as how the government is handling it there. Jason describes what dentists are being asked to do with regard to emergency dentistry and how it differs from what's happening across the United States. He's interesting as always but gives some perspective from an educator's point of view as well. You're going to get a lot out of this one! Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coarse bur for crown preps and operative. It's a terrific bur by any standard, but the fact that it's single patient use means there's no risk of cross contamination and you always get a great cutting, brand-new-out-of-the-package bur. Go chec

Jason and Alan had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Gary DeWood from Spear Education about what we can expect during the Coronavirus crisis. Gary's message is one that we all could use right now and we're grateful for him giving us some time. Some of the things we discussed: What do you do when you find yourself at the edge of the cliff and you don't know what to do? This is a "government mandated" economic downturn which makes it interesting and scary What should we be doing with our teams? What about the potential bill being passed? Tax credits vs. tax "cut" Do a 4 week "break even" Own the fear/angst "It's hard to make a plan when you don't know what the rules are" Furlough vs. layoff What should we expect with regard to infection control? Are "universal precautions" still universal? testing and how many people actually have the virus? hopeful information about this virus what's a the story on the n95 mask How is coronavirus like a horrible game of telephone Some links from the show: Spear Online MedCr

Dr. Artie Volker is a dentist in Queens, New York. NYC is ground zero of our current Coronavirus crisis and Alan talks with him about what he's seeing on the ground there. The two of them discuss what's going through their heads about the problems dentistry is facing and may face in the future. It turns out that we have a lot more questions than answers! Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coarse bur for crown preps and operative. It's a terrific bur by any standard, but the fact that it's single patient use means there's no risk of cross contamination and you always get a great cutting, brand-new-out-of-the-package bur. Go check it out at dentalhacks.com/damngoodburs! Let Microcopy's experience change the way you see dentistry with their damn good burs!  

This is part 2 of our discussion with Dr Rick DePaul of Powerprox 6 Month Braces Fame Highlights include: Cleveland Rocks! Mayfield Oh Mayfield My High School Dear The Top ten (or so ) reasons to do orthodontics in your practice Patients want it Improves your cosmetic “eye” It sets up cosmetic crown and veneer cases 4. It improves your photography 5. It’s conservative 6. Low start up costs 7. Indirect bracket bonding rocks 8. Digital Planning with Inman Lab We discuss clear aligners 9. Orthodontics is team driven 10. Orthodontics leads to a lot of other dentistry Here is the Powerprox website!

Alan sat down to talk with Jacob, his 10 year old son about our current Coronavirus crisis. It's kind of silly, kind of fun and a little bit of a relief to realize that this kiddo is taking it in stride! Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coarse bur for crown preps and operative. It's a terrific bur by any standard, but the fact that it's single patient use means there's no risk of cross contamination and you always get a great cutting, brand-new-out-of-the-package bur. Go check it out at dentalhacks.com/damngoodburs! Let Microcopy's experience change the way you see dentistry with their damn good burs!  

 Jason and Alan spend some time checking in after the first serious week of change after the Coronavirus. Both of us have closed our offices to everything except emergencies. Some of the discussion points: What are Jason and Al doing with their practices? How did the “emergency only” decision get made? How are the employees taking it? Everything is happening FAST Feels like a sci-fi movie Feels like we know a tidal wave is coming Offices that are staying open...predictions? Now is the time to contact creditors and see what kind of breaks they can give you What are we doing to keep productive? Exercising Al: going to work on the charting templates that I’ve thought about for years Podcast: do we keep delivering similar “normal” content? Talk to some people in banking/finance Maybe talk to some people in the dental associations? Go Hack Yourself Inexpensive/free content to keep us busy Spear Online  Kindle Unlimited Netflix/Amazon Prime 100 Humans  Love, Death and Robots Disney+ releasing new-ish

Alan speaks with Dr. Caroline Zeller about the evolving coronovirus situation in the United States. Caroline is a dentist in an interesting situation. She has advanced training in oral surgery and splits her time amongst 4 different practices in Oregon delivering oral surgery services to underserved populations. She's working on her masters in public health, she's a delegate to the ADA and she's on the board of the Oregon Dental Association. As well, she has a terrific podcast called "Removing the Bite Block." In the episode we discuss the increasing pressure from our professional organizations for dentists to move to "emergency only" treatment. A few highlights: If you think we're talking about universal precautions, you're missing the point. This is about people staying home and social distancing. What constitutes an emergency: pain, swelling, fever and infection. Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! Y

Sit back, pour yourself a Quarantini (That's 2 parts Gin, 1 Part Emergen-C tablet or Airborne), socially distance yourself, and listen to our main man Rick DePaul of PowerProx 6 Month Braces fame . We discuss our favorite episodes of "The Office" to kick it off and then get into Rick DePaul's origin story. How did Rick get into dentistry and subsequently into ortho? How did Kevin get into ortho? Do Mac and Zach even know what a bracket is? How does Rick teach ortho in 2020? Enjoy and "Spoiler Alert"  we'll catch him next week!

Jason and Alan got to talk about Nebraska comfort food (Runza) and how to effectively help your patients pay for bigger case dentistry. Dave Roehr of Proceed Finance sat down with Jason and Alan and told them about how he got into the business of patient finance. It's a pretty great story, actually! Be sure to check out Proceed Finance for your big case/elective dentistry needs!   Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coarse bur for crown preps and operative. It's a terrific bur by any standard, but the fact that it's single patient use means there's no risk of cross contamination and you always get a great cutting, brand-new-out-of-the-package bur. Go check it out at dentalhacks.com/damngoodburs! Let Microcopy's experience change the way you see dentistry with their damn good burs!

Zirconia is widely used. Many love it, some hate it. But there aren't many people that know more about it than the one and only Dr. Mike DiTolla! Mike joins Jason and Alan to answer questions from the Dental Hacks Nation about all things zirconia! Some topics we cover: Mike's shoulder surgery experience and why you shouldn't feel too bad about missing a block again. How Mike invented zirconia (Al's word, not his) Is zirconia too strong? Can you bond zirconia? And how does that work? How does the lab approach zirconia (e.g.--die space, etc.) 30 micron margins! Crown margins = really narrow class V restoration Best ways to adjust zirconia (water on, very fine diamond)  Mike and Josh Austin's AMAZING performances at VoD 2020! What is zirconia's Kryptonite and why do we have to clean zirconia before cementing/bonding? Best way to open an access/drill a hold into a zirconia crown and how to repair Blended zirconia materials Will zirconia eventually take over? Cementing vs. bonding The Lipscomb Scale of how much i

Dr. Randy Houska is an interesting guy. He's a dentist in Vermillion, South Dakota which is home to the University of South Dakota. Alan and Randy discuss the pros and cons of being a dentist in a university town. Then Alan brings up a problem he's having with a particular earworm. Somehow, he can't get "You Got Lucky" by Tom Petty out of his head. Then they talked about AC/DC and team building events.  Even though Randy is a self-professed "regular-ass" dentist he has an amazing Twitter following that you should definitely check out!  Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coarse bur for crown preps and operative. It's a terrific bur by any standard, but the fact that it's single patient use means there's no risk of cross contamination and you always get a great cutting, brand-new-out-of-the-package bu

Today we discuss what might seem like a mundane topic, yet it's a procedure that most of us do 8 to 16+ times a day and some surprising discussion actually came up from the longest hygiene exam of all-time. Can you make a career out of hygiene checks? Mac tells us about someone who does. How often do you check your patients?How long do you spend in there?   What do you do when something is wrong that might take more time to talk about? Do your hygienists help you fill the schedule if there's something that could be done same day?

Memorie Valentine is a hygienist with interesting experiences! She's practiced in several states in lots of different kinds of offices and has a lot of wisdom about communicating patient needs. Alan and Memorie talk about the concept of "planting seeds" about treatment. It turns out that some of the the very best people to plant those seeds are the hygienists that spend the bulk of their time with patients!  Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coarse bur for crown preps and operative. It's a terrific bur by any standard, but the fact that it's single patient use means there's no risk of cross contamination and you always get a great cutting, brand-new-out-of-the-package bur. Go check it out at dentalhacks.com/damngoodburs! Let Microcopy's experience change the way you see dentistry with their damn go

How many teeth have we done root canal therapy on that we probably never should have in the first place? It's an uncomfortable topic because we have to be humble about our ability to diagnose and treatment plan for success! Dr. Lou Berman joined Jason and Alan for an in person interview from the Spear Summit 2019! We dove right in to cover a bunch of interesting endodontic topics! How do you know when you SHOULDN'T start endodontic therapy? How do you evaluate the foundation before the house is built? Creating Spear Education's endodontics curriculum Root resorption...what's up with that? It's not coming from the pulp, it's coming from the periodontium (external)...it's NOT an endodontic problem! Orthodontics and root resorption...feline herpetic viruses? The financial commitment of endo (and retreatment) "Root canals don't work on me" Endo temporaries (why don't we seal the access?) Single appointment endo vs. multiple appointment Leaving teeth open Berman Instruments new premium line! Al's rubber dam clamp

Alan had a chance to talk to Clinical Hack Dr. Zach Meiners about what he does when he's not being a dentist! Zach is a Kansas City Chiefs fan and happened to attend the Super Bowl in Miami earlier this year! What you didn't see at the Super Bowl living near decent sport teams how well does he disengaging from the profession when he's not at work? social media: do the positives outweigh the negatives! The Clinical Hacks! Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coarse bur for crown preps and operative. It's a terrific bur by any standard, but the fact that it's single patient use means there's no risk of cross contamination and you always get a great cutting, brand-new-out-of-the-package bur. Go check it out at dentalhacks.com/damngoodburs! Let Microcopy's experience change the way you see dentistry wi

The Clinical hacks this week discuss regular ass magnification.   Mac tries to be coy with his 3.5X loupes... THEN mid-episode has a reveal you won't want to miss.  Kevin one ups everyone with his level of magnification, but mainly because his eyes suck big time.   Zach has the most pathetic journey of magnification you could imagine, but admittedly he's on a pathway towards redemption.   Does your team magnify?  Do you magnify at home like we do?    How about headlights? Tell us more about how you magnify at the office and get on there to make fun of Zach and his overseas cheap loupes on the Clinical Hacks Facebook Page.

Jason and Alan discuss the coronavirus. Our take is uninformed by evidence. But don't worry. We're totally right.  Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coarse bur for crown preps and operative. It's a terrific bur by any standard, but the fact that it's single patient use means there's no risk of cross contamination and you always get a great cutting, brand-new-out-of-the-package bur. Go check it out at dentalhacks.com/damngoodburs! Let Microcopy's experience change the way you see dentistry with their damn good burs!

If you're a dentist and you are trying to get case acceptance, that means you're a salesperson. You might not love the wording, but the concept is true. If you are explaining the pros and cons of treatment, the benefits of treatment and consequences of no treatment...you're a salesperson! Jeff Palmer of the Case Acceptance Academy explains how to help patients move forward in an ethical and predictable way! We discussed a lot of topics including: Where did Jeff come from? How did he learn his case acceptance techniques. Why is case acceptance part of marketing? How do you measure case acceptance? "Marketing can't control what happens after the phone rings" In person coaching vs. online training (Jeff can do both) The exam isn't the case presentation! (diagnose first, treatment plan second)  "You need a..." is the wrong move after diagnosis  Show, tell, ask After you show the patient then shut up. Don't be the first one to speak. Having a staff member ask the questions that the patient is probably thinking Wh

Jason and Alan are joined by Lisa Moler of MedMark Media and Dr. Erin Elliott of Erin Elliot fame! They sat down to discuss a bunch of stuff on the second day of Voices of Dentistry! Topics include: How does one start a dental media company? The ZZZ Pack Podcast! Creating publications for specialists Dental Sleep Practice magazine What happens when you catch the sleep bug? Podcasting as "infotainment" (start with the "-tainment", move to the "info-") MedMark and social media...where are the big guys? Put it out there, you can't control how people react to your message Podcasts are social media The community that we've built through podcasting and social media Who are the "right" providers for sleep and airway? You don't have to treat, but you need to screen Our friends at Microcopy Dental have been making Damn Good Burs for more than 50 years! You need to give their single patient use burs a try! You need to request a free sample of their damn good NeoDiamond 1116.8C. It's a work horse round end taper coars