AME: Chicago Midwinter 2025 Review

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[00:01:28] Alan Mead is a dentist with too much time on his hands and too much recording equipment in his basement. Armed with an obsession to bring entertaining and informative content to the dental world in a way that's never been done before. I give you the Alan Mead Experience. Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Alan Mead Experience. I'm your host, Dr. Alan Mead.

[00:01:53] I'm a dentist, podcaster, a recent participant in the Chicago Midwinter Dental Meeting. So, I had a great time in Chicago. I just got back yesterday evening. So, it's the Sunday after midwinter. I've been digesting what happened at this meeting. So, I was there for three solid days. I was there to podcast. That was what I was there to do. And I did. Did I ever. It was good. Really good.

[00:02:23] I was on the exhibit floor a very little bit. It's funny because the Chicago Midwinter Meeting now has this podcast booth. I know I've talked about it on the show. But what's really cool about it is that they've set aside a place for people, if they want to record podcasts, to do that. And so, this is the second year that I've kind of taken advantage of in a big way. And I think this year was even topped last year, which is saying something. To tell you, it was really good.

[00:02:53] But I will say that I got 17 interviews done. So, that's spectacular. I didn't. I don't remember how many I got. I don't think I had 17. Because I have to tell you, I spent way more time. I spent way more time in the podcast. Like, I have to tell you, Friday, like, I got there at like 9 or something like that. I got there at 9 and actually, because I was going to be doing an interview with Dr. Jason Goodchild from Premier.

[00:03:21] And we were going to be talking about some products that Premier had released. I wanted to go. They were showing a specific product. It's called Veneer now. And the actual inventor of the product was there. And one of the Premier folks said, why don't you come over beforehand? And he can give you the demo himself. You can see how it works. And I've actually had the product in my office for a little while. And I messed around with it a little bit. But I didn't do too much. I just didn't get to it. So, I'm like, okay, yeah, they've got the inventor here. I'm going to go watch it. So, I did that. I got there at like 9 on Friday morning.

[00:03:49] And so, I saw just a couple things on the floor. I brought my bag in. And I had my little mobile setup for podcasting. And I set up. And then basically, my first interview was Teresa Duncan at 10 a.m. And I feel like I didn't look up until 5 o'clock. It was insane. It was absolutely insane. Like, I just, the days just went by completely now. And I had invited people to come by and say hello. And I feel really bad because there were quite a few people.

[00:04:17] This podcast booth is like a big fishbowl. It's like there are four tables. So, four tables worth of podcasters could be going at any given time. And there were never more than a couple other people in there. I was in there like the whole dang time. But there were never more than a couple other people. So, anyhow, I saw people walk by and kind of look in and wave and stuff. And I feel bad because I really just didn't have it. I was in the zone. And I did not have a chance really to break away to say hello to lots of people. So, thank you for coming by. I noticed you.

[00:04:46] And I just couldn't get away. I honestly think maybe what I need to do, knowing that I'm going to do this and knowing what it's been like for the last two years, it's such a great opportunity for me to record with people in a place where they already are. Maybe what I need to do is like one of the nights say, hey, we should go out to dinner at X. Or we should go meet somewhere where we can say hello and hang out. I don't know. I'm not sure. I probably need to do that because as much as I wanted to see people, I just did not. I didn't get away from the podcasting very much. Which is funny.

[00:05:16] You'd think after 11 years I'd be like the podcasting would wear me out. I'm like, it does wear me out. I'm tired. But each time I sit down and start a podcast with these people, it energizes me. I have to tell you, I am an introvert. Honestly, when I was done podcasting, I would take the little bus. They have buses that will take you back to your hotel. So, I would sneak on the bus. It was great. Those buses are fantastic if you know how to use them and stuff. Because I didn't have to take a single Uber the whole time I was in Chicago. It was fantastic.

[00:05:46] I'd get on the bus and I was lucky to not fall asleep right on the bus. And each time on Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon afterwards, I had to tell myself, look, you have to go get something to eat. You haven't eaten anything. You have to get something to eat. I got to my hotel room and I was just like, I just want to stay in here and go to bed. But I hadn't eaten anything. The days would go by and I literally would forget to eat anything. It was very cool. Voices of Dentistry was often like that too, where it was just like a whirlwind.

[00:06:13] But honestly, the midwinter, since it was just me, I wasn't trying to manage some kind of a meeting. I got a lot done. It was fantastic. I loved every minute of it. Honestly, I wish there were more meetings like this. And frankly, I wish there were ones that I could drive to. I love the idea that I can drive to Chicago. It's a five-hour drive, four and a half-hour drive actually from my house to the midwinter. So Thursday morning, so Wednesday night was Sean had a concert.

[00:06:43] Sean, my oldest son, the tuba player, the symphonic band had a concert. So I couldn't miss that. So I'm like, okay, I'll drive to Chicago in the morning. So I got in my car at four in the morning. And of course, so Michigan time is on Eastern and Chicago's on Central. So actually, it was like three o'clock in the morning, Chicago time. So I hopped in my car and I took off and I was making great time. And I was supposed to, I would have been at my hotel. Actually, what's really cool, this is so much better.

[00:07:13] I figured out there's just a regular parking garage just a block away from the hotel I'm staying at. And I used to do, I used to do like, I don't know if you can hear that in the background. My son is practicing tuba. So this is a little bonus episode for the Alan Mead experience. You get a little tuba solo in the background there. So that's, sorry about that. Hey, this is real life, people. This is real life. I'm not some corporate shell podcasting to giant. I'm in my house.

[00:07:41] I'm in the upstairs bedroom, man. This is as good as it gets. Sorry. Normally, I would be in my basement studio. I'm literally so tired, I can't even bring myself to go to the basement. I'm literally in the upstairs second bedroom recording. That's why if it sounds a little different, it's because I'm using one of the headsets from Chicago. I was too lazy literally to go down to my studio. I'm just that tired. Anyhow, Thursday morning, I'm planning on getting my parking spot, my parking garage at about 8 o'clock in the morning so I can kind of figure out my bearings.

[00:08:10] And then I found out on Wednesday that I was able to request an early check-in if I wanted to to the hotel. So I thought I was just going to have to drop my bag off and pick it up at the hotel. I actually was able to get into my hotel room. So I'm like, this is sweet. I'll be able to get in. And then I can. So I hit a snowstorm in southwest Michigan. It was brutal for about 45 minutes. I was wondering if I was even going to make it to Chicago that day. It was so bad. And then I basically turned the corner, was in Indiana, and the roads were clear, and I was going 75 miles an hour.

[00:08:38] So it worked out great. I got to my hotel room at about 8.30, 8.45. I know that the exhibit floor opens at 9 a.m. And my first podcast was scheduled at 10 a.m., I think. I think. Anyhow, so I literally got in my hotel room, just dropped my stuff off, jumped on the bus to McCormick, got there in plenty of time.

[00:09:05] I had a chance to walk around the exhibit floor for a few minutes, and then I started podcasting on Thursday, and I did the same thing. It was like I recorded six episodes on Thursday, and then I went home, forced myself to eat. I found a ramen joint that I could walk to. It was so good. There were three of them within walking distance. And by walking distance, I mean like two blocks from my hotel. I don't know if, I think all of the stars aligned my hotel is mid-ramen. That's what it is, man.

[00:09:35] It's the Homewood Suites, but apparently the ramen joints are all around Homewood Suites. I'm not sure how that works. So anyhow, I got ramen and then came back and went to bed. And I did it Friday. I kind of did the same thing. My first recording was at 10 a.m. I got there at 9 to do the, just to look over the premiere stuff, that sort of thing, and then went straight through. And I was so tired on the way back that I, again, had to convince myself to eat. It was crazy. It's just, it's a blast. I had a really good time, but it's also like really tiring.

[00:10:05] I always remember that too. Then I had a couple of people said, hey, you should come out and, you know, come out and do stuff with this. I'm like, dude, I'm not going to be able to do that. I remember this from last year. I'm so tired. I can barely walk. And on Thursday in particular, because I got up at, you know, three o'clock in the morning to drive to Chicago. So it was totally worth it. 17 really episodes that I think are going to be really good. I did get a little bit of time on the exhibit floor, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Not a lot of time.

[00:10:33] I mean, it used to be when I was young and spry and not podcasting for the entire time, I would spend a lot of time on the exhibit floor. And actually back in the day before the internet and where you go to the exhibit floor and everything out there was brand new. You've never seen it before. I would buy things on the, I would buy things on the spur of the moment and they would show up in my office weeks later and I would have forgotten that I even bought them as that sort of thing. I did not do that. I honestly, I didn't buy anything.

[00:11:03] I did not buy anything at the midwinter. I didn't have time. I never had any time to actually do anything that I was going to buy. It was nuts, right? That's like never happened before. But so I, there's a lot of cool stuff that I saw that I'm interested in. I'm just going to tell you some of the highlights. So for starters, okay. I, I, um, Premier Dental and Septidont. If you remember, I did an episode with Paul Mondock, who's like the, the U S United States

[00:11:30] CEO of Septidont and Julie Charlestyn, who's the CEO of Premier. And they are very excited. Basically they're releasing a product that simplifies buffering anesthetic. If you've ever buffered anesthetic, you know that it can make anesthetic act faster. It's more, more comfortable. It's more pH balanced. So it doesn't burn going in and it lasts longer and it's more profound. Basically it takes your anesthetic and it just makes it more effective all the way around and more comfortable.

[00:11:58] The problem with buffering. First off, there's a bunch of ways you could do it. There are products that, that would allow you to, uh, buffer right in your, your carbule or, or you would have to use their, their own like anesthetic syringes. I I've tried all of them. I've literally tried every single way to buffer. And what I found is that it wasn't, I didn't find that it was bad. I just found that it wasn't worth it.

[00:12:22] It wasn't worth it because for instance, if you, one of them would have a cartridge and as soon as it was, as soon as you lance the cartridge, you had to use it within like two days. It was only fresh for a certain amount of time. So you, what you found yourself is like struggling to use it and it was wasteful. Another company, a neutral had something where it was, didn't have that problem as much, but you had to use their syringes. And I just don't, I don't love their syringes. I didn't get into their syringes. So, and it had a big kind of hardware aspect to it.

[00:12:49] So premier and septodont septodont is like the, they're the, they're the anesthetic people. They have syringes. They make anesthesia. They have, that's kind of their shtick. Um, they developed a product that is really smart. And I, I do talk about it in one of the, one of the interviews I did, but I got a chance to actually go to the booth and see it. I, it's kind of ingenious because it takes. So in a lot of, in a lot of cases, the buffering has been like sort of a hardware intensive kind of thing. You have to have the special hardware to be able to do this.

[00:13:19] This is really cool. This is, there's no hardware involved at all. It is a, it is in a, a single, it's in a package. It's a single little piece of, uh, it's basically a little, a little, it holds a little bit of this sodium bicarbonate and in a little lance. Like, and basically you put your carpule in it and the lance kind of pokes right into the, the little rubber bladder there.

[00:13:40] Like, like it would if you were injecting with a needle and then you, you squeeze on it and it puts the, the sodium bicarbonate right into the carpule. It's really slick. It's like, part of it is like, why didn't someone think of this? Because, and it's essentially the, the same as your DIY kind of thing, except it's all set up and it's, it's clean and easy. And, and it comes in a sealed package, a little sealed packet.

[00:14:04] And the packet apparently has like, it's got some kind of special lining so that it keeps the sodium bicarbonate fresh for like two years. It's, so shelf life is no problem. You're not going to lose it. I mean, and since you, it's only got enough solution in it for one carpule, you just use it when you want to use it. Now, some people say, I, I do everything. And that's why, so maybe, maybe these other solutions are better for them. I still found myself feeling like I was struggling to use it all without wasting it.

[00:14:32] I think for me, buffering might be great in a, in some particular situations. And I got to tell you right now, the particular situations I'm thinking of is a hot lower molar you're trying to open up. That's what I'm trying to think of. Or something like that, where, where anesthesia has been tough and you know, you want more profound and maybe honestly, probably lower blocks is where I'm going to use it in most cases. Cause it actually, it, it comes on quicker to quicker and stronger. And so maybe I wouldn't have to give quite as much anesthesia.

[00:14:59] I got thoughts about it, but I think I'm going to start using this stuff on the regular. And what I like about it is I can just use it when I want to. So I won't feel like I need to use it for every anesthetic, you know, if I don't need to. So kind of exciting. Um, and I think that, I think you're going to see quite a bit more of this as, I mean, I think they rolled it out in Chicago. So I, I, interestingly, I didn't grab any kind of samples or anything like that.

[00:15:22] So I have to, I have to get ahold of someone actually, I haven't used it clinically yet, but because I was able to kind of put a carpule in it and use it, it's easy. It's, it will not add any time to your anesthesia at all. Um, I don't know how much it costs. I don't, I suspect it's probably dose per dose, somewhat similar, maybe a little more expensive than the other solutions. But the reality is it depends on it. You know how you're going to use it. If you're going to use it all the time, I don't know, maybe it's not the right solution, but I think for me, it'll be just about perfect.

[00:15:48] So that was one of the things that I really enjoyed the, the buffer pro by premier and septa. Now, another highlight, uh, Teresa wouldn't like me saying this, but, um, so I talked with Teresa Duncan. We talked, we, we just talked about a thousand things, but Teresa is kind of known. And she does a lot of education for front desk stuff. And she really knows a lot about insurance and insurance contracts and, and billing and all that stuff.

[00:16:15] And, and I teased her because I said, you know, it's not very sexy, but she's like, yeah, I have to make it entertaining because I speak about it all the time, but it is very important. And even though a lot of times she's talking to office managers, I think, I think dentists and clinicians need to know this stuff. We had a great conversation, but we, we got into talking about a lot of, a lot of the problems with insurance and a lot of problems with, with like, she said something that really affected me.

[00:16:41] Like a narrative that you write for an insurance company is not really what they want. What they really want is they really want a copy of your, your chart notes for this procedure. And so what you're saying is what you're saying is the chart notes really need to basically be as good or better than a narrative you might write.

[00:17:02] And I'm not saying that they won't take a narrative, but I had been kicking around the idea of using some kind of an AI tool to just record each appointment and then create really detailed, um, chart notes. And I had, I hadn't pulled the trigger. I had a, I talked with Dr. Giles Dameron a few weeks ago, maybe, maybe a couple of months ago about his use of, um, some AI tools. And I like, man, that sounds great. And it really seems to do a nice job. And I just haven't really pulled the trigger. I think I'm there after talking to Teresa about this. I think I'm there.

[00:17:32] I think, um, my chart notes are not, not detailed enough that I could reliably call that, uh, something as good as a narrative for something. And it isn't that you do your chart notes for insurance. You do your chart notes so that on some level we probably do chart notes the way that we're, the way you're supposed to do. It has to do with a lot of legal stuff.

[00:17:53] Um, but I also think that like these AI tools, the way I AI works, one of its strong points, it's really good at, at like basically taking a document of some sort that you give it and making an outline and making really good notes from it.

[00:18:10] And essentially, if you're giving it a recording of the, of, of, uh, an appointment, even an audio recording of an appointment that you did, you can literally just speak out loud all the important parts of the appointment that you don't want to miss. Like the diagnosis, how many carpials, the shade of the composite, all this stuff in your, if you continue to use this, your, your, your chart notes are going to be amazing. They're going to be really good. And so I was just thinking about that.

[00:18:36] I'm like, you know, I don't, for the longest time I've been sort of looking at trying to make the very best chart note I can. And I do feel like right now these AI solutions are going to be the way that it is. Not that you don't look them over, but, um, it gets you way past the blank page of making really good chart notes. So I feel like the one I'm going to try, I think is called freed AI, which is actually kind of a medical specific, but Giles says it works quite well for dentistry. I'm just going to pull the trigger and try one. And if it's not easy, I'll try another one. I know there are some dental specific ones.

[00:19:05] I'm not exactly sure. And if anyone knows them, you can shout them out, you know, yell at me in the show notes or, or in the Facebook group or whatever AI stuff I've already asked. And we've got several people that have suggested tools. I, I just need to start using it because I feel like really excellent chart notes are within our grasp without too much effort. Now, um, honestly, whatever it costs would probably be worth paying. If that took that burden off of ourselves or our assistants, whoever's doing the charting in your office.

[00:19:34] And I think the more you use it, the more you'll realize what you need to do to get all the information into the chart note. And I think, I think that's going to be one of the, they talk a lot about AI reading x-rays and AI, but I think this is going to be one of the better, better use of AI in dentistry. And I, so I think I I'm slow to move into these things, but I think I'm ready to start pulling the trigger on that. So, and of course, obviously if I start using one that I love, I'm going to talk about it on the podcast because that's just how I do things. But so talking with Teresa Duncan may have caused me to pull the trigger there.

[00:20:04] And of course you can now look forward to having a, you're going to hear a great conversation with Teresa Duncan coming up. I'm not exactly sure when, because like I said, I've got a whole bunch of episodes that I'm going to trickle them out. I'm going to make you wait for them. So just with that in mind, keep, keep listening to the podcast because you will be getting some excellent content out there. So another thing that was really good, an interview that I had was with Dr. David Clark.

[00:20:31] And of course, David invented the whole bio clear concept and all these matrices that he uses and all, all the techniques that go along with it. And of course, early in the podcast, Dave was on constantly weary and I am a bio clear guy. I love what they do. I use their matrices in lots of different ways and all this stuff, but I've kind of, I don't know, over COVID and stuff, we kind of fell out. We just, I wasn't like following up with Dave. Dave had some health stuff. And honestly, they have a lot of really great instructors now. It's not just Dave teaching there anymore.

[00:21:01] So we had a great conversation, another fantastic podcast. You guys are going to love that, but something interesting. I have, I am right up to date on their most recent posterior matrices. They're really good, but I had not followed through with their anterior matrices as much.

[00:21:18] And he admits in the interview, so they have a whole kit for black triangles, which is, which is basically, you're trying to literally, um, you know, if someone's finished with orthodontics or whatever, and they've, they've got, uh, black triangles from, from straightening their teeth or periodontally, they've just got spaces in there. He created anterior matrices that, that are meant specifically to close black triangles. They're kind of like diastomic closure, but not quite. They're, they're not the same.

[00:21:48] And he just flat admitted, he said, look, basically the only anterior matrices you need now from BioClear are the, are the black triangle matrices. So I'm going to get one of those kits. I got a chance to look at it at their, at their booth and they look amazing. And he was, he had a lot of really good things to say about it. But I do still love the BioClear, uh, products. I'm going to go back to Tacoma, hopefully this year. And we'll probably do lots of podcasts from there to, to kind of catch up on, on the BioClear, like the techniques.

[00:22:18] Cause I mean, with new matrices come new techniques and he, he described them in this podcast. I'm like, okay, I need to go and see this in person. I need to see them teach this. Um, as much as I'm up to speed on BioClear stuff and I use it a lot, I'm going to go back and learn the techniques. Cause you always got to learn that. Um, he, they've got the BioClear alumni summit coming up. That sounds pretty great too. So I, I, I may look into that as well. The travel part is hard for me, but, um, it was pretty compelling to talk to him and really good to see him. He looks great.

[00:22:45] He's, he's the same mad scientist, Dave Clark, that he ever was. I think this was probably the best interview we've ever done with him. He was really funny. He was really good. And, um, he's very lovable to be perfectly honest. I, I'm, I still got lots of love for BioClear and those guys. He was, he was great. Another thing that I, so this is something I got to see on the last day. Like I finished podcasting at about noon on Saturday. And of course, Saturday at the Chicago midwinter, uh, they're packing up pretty early.

[00:23:15] Let's just say they're like some of them. If, if the traffic's not great on Saturday, man, these people have got, they got places to go, people to see. So, uh, they're tearing down their booth sometimes, but I, so I was able to run around and see some stuff. I saw the, the shining 3d scanner, which I talked about actually with Armin over at Cadre quite a bit. Um, but you know what I didn't do when they were up North in Michigan last September is I didn't actually scan with it.

[00:23:41] Um, and so I went up and, and I had a chance to actually kind of like, kind of like play with it. So, um, it's the shining 3d a oral scan elite. And I don't know how they say it because, um, it's spelled a O R a L scan a oral scan. So I, I don't know.

[00:24:02] And it's the one that it's the one that basically allows you to, um, it, if you, you can use it to do interoral scans of like big implant cases. Like it's not, it's, it's a regular scanner scans, you know, crown and bridge and teeth and everything, but it also has these little flags you put on the implants. And it actually allows you to use those as a, as a, it, it takes a lot of steps out of like full arch implant stuff. So it's, it's really cool. And that's one of the features. It wouldn't be a feature that would make much sense to me because I don't do that stuff.

[00:24:32] But, um, I think it, maybe it could down the road at some point, but the, but the reality is it's a teeny little scanner. It's just tiny and it has a huge scanning area. And so if I ever, if I upgrade right now, I have the, the, um, Medit i700 and it's a good scanner. It's been really good for me. Actually, it's been a terrific scanner. I've had great luck with it. I love the software. I make sure I'm up to date on all the, all the, uh, software updates and everything. And it's worked really well for me. So it's not like I'm itching.

[00:25:00] I don't need a new scanner and I'm not sure that I got the money to spend on it right at the moment. But I think the other thing I want to know is what do people think about the, the shining three software versus the Medit software? Cause the Medit software is pretty compelling. And I don't know why the Medit software does some pretty amazing stuff. Um, I'm not sure that the shining three D software can match it. Although it, there's definitely similarities from what I could tell. I had a chance to play with a little bit, not too much, but I did scan a model and it is blazing fast and it was really accurate.

[00:25:29] Um, and, and I think just the bigger scale, the bigger scanning head and some of the more updated hardware on it makes it just, you know, I'm sure it would be good. I, I don't know that it would be like complete game changer as much as it would just be a little bit easier. I'm not sure, but I, I gotta say, I was very impressed with it. The size is delightful cause it's tiny and it has a huge scanning area. So shining three D is doing some cool stuff.

[00:25:53] And I, I gotta say, I didn't have a chance to, I should have done the same thing with the Medit i900 to see if it scans similarly. Cause I think they're kind of, I think the i900 might be a little bigger than the, than this one, but I was impressed. I was impressed. I'm not probably looking to buy a new scanner right away, maybe later this year, but I am looking real hard at these things. So if you're, if you guys are interested, Cadray sells it. Uh, I would highly, Cadray has the best service anywhere.

[00:26:20] So I can't, you can't argue with Cadray being able to, to deliver on these things. And actually Cadray sells the i900 Cadray sells all kinds of stuff. So if you're looking, you should go there, but I did get a chance to play with the, the shining 3d scanner and it is pretty darn impressive. So, uh, that was another cool thing that I got to see on the floor. And so I've got a list of things here. Let me find my next one there. Okay. So, oh yeah. I, okay.

[00:26:44] So I, I mean, I'm, I'm kind of, you know, me, if you've listened, I am slow to jump onto the new thing. I have been, I'll obsess about something and really get involved in it before I actually pull the trigger. I'm just like, that's just how I've always been.

[00:27:00] And I am interested in this whole, for hygiene, the, the, uh, guided biofilm therapy kind of where you're using the, um, the, well, I guess the EMS version is called the, the air. What do they call it? I'm trying to remember. Sorry, people in blanking. This is really excellent podcasting. Um, it's called the airflow airflow. That's what it's called. It's called the airflow.

[00:27:23] And it's basically a, um, particle that uses, you know, it's not air abrasion, but it, but it's a particle abrasion. You, you disclose the teeth. And I had a great, I had a great interview with a hygienist that I've talked to before. Her name is, uh, Melissa Obrotka. She came in and she was talking about her journey with all this stuff. And so, uh, but I, I had a chance to see there's, there's a version from a company called Woodpecker that is really nice. It's, it's got the same kind of thing where you've got a, you've got this air airflow style design.

[00:27:53] I mean, it's what I liked about, and it's got a, it's, so it's got a piezo. Um, it's got two hand pieces connected to it and it's got like a water. It's, it's kind of an all in one, um, kind of an all in one piece. It was really cool. I didn't actually take a picture of it. I can't believe it, but I, I will put a, uh, I'll put a image of it in the show notes. You can take a look at it. It's a, it's a combined piezo electric, uh, scaler and air polisher from Woodpecker.

[00:28:21] And actually the company where I looked at it, it's called Vocker, but I also know that golden dent sells it too. And you can get it with a, in a cart. It's really, it's really slick. It's got a Bluetooth, uh, it's got a Bluetooth pedal for it. It's really cool. What I, what I wanted to see is I've seen it online, but sometimes you want to see these things in person to see how they actually fit in your hand. And they look, and this thing's really compelling and it's, um, EMS obviously has a great product. This is a, this seems like a really solid product too.

[00:28:50] And it's, it's significantly less expensive than the EMS product. They would probably hate me saying that, but I think it's worth looking at when you're looking at this stuff. And I have heard of people that have, that actually have both and say the Woodpecker one performs very well. Excuse me. The Woodpecker product also performs really well. So I think that's worth looking at for sure. Now the last, the biggest and last most impressive thing, the thing that I may well be pulling the trigger on moving forward. My friends at, uh, Innova Illumination always have cool stuff at their booth.

[00:29:19] They had a great, this was no exception. Their booth was great this year. And they typically bring a scope called the, oh, the ZoomX OMS 2380. And I actually have that scope in my office. I had the first one in the United States. It's a terrific scope. It's, it's kind of amazing. It's got the suspension system is like no other. It's really good. Um, one of the things, but I've also had some other really great scopes in my office before. And, and this one, the OMS 2380 is big.

[00:29:49] It's a great big scope. It takes up a lot of room. It's got some amazing features in it that kind of require the space. The arm is a big, beefy, huge, takes up a bunch of room. And in my operatory, we mounted it in such a way. We didn't know like if the ideal way to mount this, we didn't know how much length the arm was going to have. So I put it where the old scope that it was replacing was. That was a mistake. Uh, it, it works, but it, it's literally the pivot is all the wrong places.

[00:30:16] So the, I can't fold it up against the wall closely. It just, it's a huge scope. And, and honestly, because it's so big, it's actually a little harder to use because it's so big. Now the other thing, this thing has a lot of great built-in documentation. It's got video. It's got, it's got stills. It's really cool. But one of the problems with it is, is it records to an SD card. It doesn't record.

[00:30:39] Like I can't, there is no way to take pictures and video of someone's teeth and then literally just show them like you would with an intraoral camera. Like you take the picture and then it's on the screen for you. There's not an easy way to do that with my OMS 2380. I, the, the video goes to like an SD card. And I'll usually take, when I want to show someone, I usually take the SD card and put it into a computer in like our, our, our room where we do consultations and stuff.

[00:31:07] It's fine, but it's not instantaneous. And if you're like, if you want to show someone, you know, a broken cusp or something like that while you're sitting in the operatory, it's kind of ungainly. That's one of the downsides of this particular unit. And honestly, they've really upgraded the software on these, these ZoomX microscopes. So the reality is because I kind of got the first version, I probably don't have the most refined version product of it. I mean, the scope is amazing. It worked great.

[00:31:34] The documentation part of it is amazing, but it is difficult to show right there. And then the reality is even in my other scopes, it's a little easier when I'm using like a Sony camera. Cause I can kind of, I can kind of zoom through the menu on that and show them on the monitor. Well, all that is going to change with me. So for one thing, there's a scope that I've been looking at for a while. It's called the, the ZoomX OMS 2050.

[00:32:01] And first off, it has many of the features that this existing ZoomX scope has that I like, but it's way smaller. It's way smaller. It does not have the same suspension system. So it doesn't have the slickest suspension system that they offer, but the reality is I'm not sure that as a, I'm not sure that that functionality is the most important thing to me. Uh, what it has is the software allows me to take pictures and video at any time and stop.

[00:32:29] And then literally just show that video right on the monitor in front of the patient. So if I'm like, it's got that sort of intro camera instant show the show the patient, what you're looking at feature that, that I can't get on my other ones. And I got to tell you, it's much smaller. It looks like I could probably fold it up against the wall. And so the thing is you, if you have a microscope, you want it to be as usable as possible.

[00:32:53] And I mean, no matter what you're talking about, if it isn't convenient to use yours, you're not as likely to use it. I was talking to my friend Bart and he has a laser, an amazing laser. But one of the problems is he doesn't have one in every operatory. So if it happens to not be in the operatory, it's a bit of a pain and you might not use it because you got to bring it into the other operatory. You got to set it up and all that stuff. And that is a barrier that sometimes keeps you from using it.

[00:33:19] It's one of the reasons I wanted to have microscopes in all of my operatories because I didn't want a barrier to using the microscope if I wanted to. But I have to say, right now, this large microscope, the 2380, it's big. It's a little bit like I can't just pull it off the wall. I have to kind of pull it from behind the TV and past my delivery unit. It's just enough of a hassle that I wouldn't use it as much as maybe I would.

[00:33:43] And this other model is a smaller model that will fold up against the wall, won't take up as much space in the room. And it's got that functionality where I can actually show the patient all the pictures. It's got a 4K camera on it. It's freaking amazing video. It's awesome. I'm very excited. And the Inova rep is coming to my office next week and we're going to talk about it. So I may have some good content to create there and I may have found the right scope for general dentists to start using because it's smaller.

[00:34:12] It's a little less expensive. It's documentation quality is right there. Like I kind of want four of them in my office. I'm at a point where I may be trying to do that. So that's insane. That's absolutely crazy. Those are the things I saw at Chicago that I was ruminating and thinking about and kind of obsessing about as I drove home from Chicago yesterday. It was a great trip. For those that came, I know you probably enjoyed it too. I'm sorry if I didn't get a chance to talk to you.

[00:34:40] I want to try and do better next year with that. But I will say so much content was made there. The Very Dental podcast is better for me showing up there because I have lots of great content. I can't wait to share with you guys. If you have any questions or comments, go to the Very Dental Facebook group. If you're not a member yet, you need to join. Use one of five passwords. The passwords are Lipscomb, McQuethy, Timmerman, Papa Randy, or Hornbrook. Any of those five will get you in. We'll have good conversations there. I'll put some pictures up and stuff like that.

[00:35:10] It was a great trip. I'm still really tired. I'm still catching up from lost sleep. So grateful for the people who sat down and podcasted with me. It was really fun. We had a great time. And so with that, I appreciate you guys listening. Tell a friend about the podcast. We've got to grow this thing. We've got to make this thing dentistry-wide. Too good. A lot of good stuff going on out there. I don't want to share with everyone. It was great. Thank you for listening. We'll catch you next time.