Drinking the Kool-Aid

I’ve been thinking about writing this for a while; and I don’t want to alienate my readership. I’m here to make you think, not agree with me.

The other day, a dentist friend was talking about a course he had been to and how he was all in on the technique he had learnt (Bioclear) and he was going to have to invest in some materials, composite warmer etc to meet the criteria of the technique.

So I said, tongue in cheek, “oh you’ve drunk the Koolaid”. He replied that people on the course had been using that phrase as well; he thought it might be a Bioclear catch phrase. He had no idea of the origins of the phrase and you can read up on that here. I’m old enough to remember when the Jonestown massacre happened, so I gave him a brief run down.

Anyway, I think we are all prone to sipping on various dental soft drinks and that’s all fine as long as we pick the ones that aren’t harmful; and drink in moderation.

It does say something for the power of marketing from the dental industry that we are so susceptible to this.

Here’s a few I can think of, off the top of my head.

• InvisAlign

• Prime Practice or other practice management businesses

• Digital Smile design

• CEREC

  and I suppose now I think about it

• Bioclear (but I have no exerience of this, so may not be so)

I’m sure there’s others you can name if you think about it.

InvisAlign was created by an investment banker/ venture capitalist, Zia Chishti, not a dentist; I didn’t know that until recently. It’s a disruptive use of technology powered by a huge amount of very clever marketing that has both the dentist and the patient captive. There seems to be tie ups between certain scanners and an ever increasing need to commmit to this workflow and not mix and match with other labs. Training is realtively cheap, compared to long form othodontic training/ courses.

There might have been more influential practice management coaching businesses than Prime Practice, but most Australian and NZ dentists would be aware of this company and if they have not experienced some training from them, they will know someone who has. The communication skills are good and can be helpful to learn what motivates patients, however, going ‘all in’ is a significant financial commitment from a practice owners perspective and I believe that in the long term, you can become dependent on the coach rather than outgrowing the coach and widening your experience/ development. I even had one of their ex-coaches express a downside of this to me one time. Ok to dip your toe, but I think you could lose your identity as a practitioner and live by their code rather than your own.

CEREC demands a large upfront committment financially. That makes it difficult for a clincian to leave the equipement lying idle in the lab. It would be painful to walk past it everyday or use it for hanging the practice washing on. CEREC demands a significant investment in clincal development since the materials respond better to non retentive prep design and requires appropriate handling. With the advent of all ceramic and non retentive crown preps and a shift to scanning, this is maybe not the case. However, these techniques are most probably not, as yet, being taught frequently at dental schools. There is a need to upgrade software, there is the CEREC Club for updates, and there is a need to renew the equipment at intervals to maximise the benefits of the techology. A CEREC machine is not just for Christmas. That being said, I’m a member of that cult. It’s most proabaly not really a cult.

DSD (Digital Smile Design) I took a DSD course back in 2017. I think it was in Sydney, so not preceived as an ‘official’ one; so If I wanted to become certified or progress, I would have had to do a repeat. It has all the makings of a cult.

Once upon a time, DSD had a unique offering. Design labs are more accesible now. They still have more to offer than most other design labs.

DSD are always going to be at the forefront of developments in this space as they have a huge presence that is backed by a focus on quality. They have a reputation to protect, meeting the demands of some of the best dentists across the globe. The value for members is in the community rather than necessarily the identity that it adds to their practice, since smile design is everywhere now and has escaped.

The question is, does DSD benefit more from being associated wth these leading figures in dentstry rather than the dentists themselves who are paying for the privilege?

Something that all of these businesses have in common is that they were ground breakers. These companies brought something different to the table and transformed the way we do dentistry. They are the various ‘Hoovers’ of dentistry. The profession would not be progressing without them.

Ultimately, the diffuclty for any of these companies is controlling the results of the end user.

InvisAlign tightly controls the before and after images on its website and there’s most probabaly quite a few less than ideal outcomes.

The same for CEREC, DSD, Bioclear, or any other flavour of Kool-Aid that is to our liking.

We need to remember, that these are tools to help us take care of our patients. We need to make sure that we keep one eye open and critically appriase the techniques and our ability to deliver the treatment, ensuring the patient is better off at the end of it and not paying a biological cost for the perfect smile.

As a great marketer once said:

There’s a difference between what’s in the best interests of our patients and the dental industry. Our challenge as professionals is to be advocates for our patients and use these tools for good.

Have a great week, please share with a friend as I love growing this newsletter.

Rosie