AME: Holiday Chaos and Smart Choices

[00:00:01] This is a production of The Very Dental Podcast Network.

[00:00:10] Alan Mead is a dentist with too much time on his hands and too much recording equipment

[00:00:15] in his basement. Armed with an obsession to bring entertaining and informative content

[00:00:20] to the dental world in a way that's never been done before, I give you the Alan Mead

[00:00:26] Experience. Well, hello and welcome to another episode of The Alan Mead Experience. I'm your

[00:00:36] host, Dr. Alan Mead. I'm a dentist, a podcaster, and soon-to-be holiday reveler. Yes, that's

[00:00:42] right. I think this is the first Alan Mead Experience episode I've done in like a month.

[00:00:48] According to the calendar, it's like a month ago. So basically, Moe from The Very Dental

[00:00:56] Student Podcast and Kevin and Zach from Very Clinical have been like doing this crazy crossover

[00:01:03] where essentially they've been putting amazing content out and frankly, the Alan Mead Experience

[00:01:11] takes a backseat to that. That's pretty good stuff. So I'm really pleased with what they've

[00:01:16] done. They're really good stuff. I'm not sure that they're done. There may be more. I don't

[00:01:20] know. But I think they're done at least for this year. I got a lot of great stuff coming

[00:01:26] up on the podcast, I have to say. And of course, those guys are a big part of it as well. We're

[00:01:32] having, we have a lot of stuff. But as I was saying, it is December, God, it's December 7th

[00:01:40] already. So yeah, it's been December for a week already. And the holidays kind of come

[00:01:47] on pretty, pretty fast and hard. Actually, Thanksgiving was so late this year, too. I

[00:01:52] don't know if you guys noticed that, too. But it's, you know, we're already into December.

[00:01:57] We just had Thanksgiving like last week. So it seems wild to me. It is a shortened, thus more

[00:02:03] concentrated holiday season here with the Meads. It's okay, though. It's all right. I mean,

[00:02:09] honestly, I'm okay with it. What, what, I don't remember this as a high school musician

[00:02:16] myself. But man, there's a lot going on with high school musicians in, in these holiday,

[00:02:23] this holiday season. So, and maybe it's because my high school musician is a much better musician

[00:02:28] and much more involved in all this stuff than I ever was. As you know, if you've listened

[00:02:32] to the show, my oldest, Sean is a tuba player, and he's a pretty serious tuba player. It's,

[00:02:38] it's interesting because I never, I don't know if these, well, I do know, I don't think

[00:02:44] there were as many opportunities for a high school kid like Sean or like me when I played saxophone

[00:02:51] in, in high school and I marched in college and in high school, but I, I really, I haven't

[00:02:55] played in so long, but I, so I was relatively involved, but I, but not the same way he is.

[00:03:01] He has multiple different ensembles that he's able to play with. So it's, it's funny. So I guess

[00:03:08] what I'm saying is, uh, he's got a concert, a school concert. The symphonic band has a, has their

[00:03:17] Christmas concert next Thursday. So that's during the week in the evening, which is crazy too,

[00:03:23] because it's going to go to like nine 30. It's like all the bands play in one epic concert.

[00:03:29] That's very long and it's going to be late and it's hot mess, but also next week we are going

[00:03:37] to see the local, I think we've decided we're going to see the local holiday pops concert

[00:03:43] on Saturday in the afternoon. And then we're going to go, he has an ensemble called the mid

[00:03:52] Michigan brass band, which is an English style brass band. That's the one that I was doing

[00:03:57] the announcing for and all that stuff. They have their Christmas concert and it's at a beautiful

[00:04:02] church in Saginaw. Uh, that's not the same. So we're seeing a concert in the afternoon,

[00:04:07] throwing the tuba in the truck and hauling ass over to Saginaw so he can be in a concert. The other thing

[00:04:12] is if he had chosen to the local, there is a tuba Christmas, uh, which is happening in Saginaw also

[00:04:22] Saturday, like morning and afternoon, but he's decided that he wants to see the holiday pops

[00:04:28] badly enough that we're going to go. We're going to do tuba Christmas in Grand Rapids,

[00:04:33] uh, on the 22nd of December because tuba Christmas is this crazy. I don't know, man.

[00:04:39] It's pretty cool. Tuba Christmas, you Google it in your area. Basically 50 years ago, actually,

[00:04:46] this is the 51st year they're doing it. Uh, they started a tradition where it's tubas and euphoniums.

[00:04:53] So basically, uh, a couple of different kinds of low brass, uh, they have arrangements of these

[00:04:59] beautiful Christmas carols and there's, there's basically tuba players are, are, are a different

[00:05:04] breed. They're very proud of, of what they do and everything like that. So it's basically a bunch

[00:05:08] of tubas and euphoniums playing these carols, but it's been a tradition for a long time. They

[00:05:12] decorate their instruments. They all, they all wear kind of awful sweaters and get in the holiday

[00:05:16] spirit. It's great. But like they have tuba Christmases all over the place. Like, I mean,

[00:05:21] Michigan probably has eight or nine locations and different days and all that stuff. If you were

[00:05:25] like serious about it, you could drive around Michigan and participate in a bunch of tuba Christmas

[00:05:30] concerts. What's funny is they all use the same carol book that was written back 50 years ago.

[00:05:35] So, and so they, they pick and choose out of that thing and they cut, they do what they

[00:05:38] do is they register in the morning. They do a rehearsal all together, get to know each other

[00:05:42] and then they play a concert in the afternoon. It's a very cool thing. Anyhow. So tuba Christmas

[00:05:45] is also a thing that we do. Uh, we're probably not going to do it next week so he can watch

[00:05:52] a concert and we're going to do tuba Christmas in Grand Rapids on the 22nd. And then he's got his

[00:05:58] concert. I, it's unbelievable all the music stuff. But then also we have all these traditions

[00:06:05] that we do at the holiday time. The thing about it is when you have a kid with autism,

[00:06:11] Sean is the most amazing kid in the world. He was diagnosed with autism when he was like,

[00:06:17] I think he was three. It was like one of the, it was one of the more terrible medical experiences

[00:06:23] that I've ever had. They told us that he would never even be able to read. He'd never be able

[00:06:27] to speak. He'd never be able to go to school. He never, so clearly people who diagnose autism

[00:06:32] at the university of Michigan don't know what the hell they're talking about. It was, it was a

[00:06:34] terrible day. And we thought it, he clearly has overcome every single thing that they've said.

[00:06:40] That said, he doesn't like geometry very much. He's not a big math guy, but like he's got all

[00:06:47] these, he's got a bunch of skillset. He has lots of friends. He's a, he's a very,

[00:06:51] very interesting guy. But there's certain things about autism that are interesting. They're a

[00:06:56] little bit rigid in their, in their routines. You've probably heard that before. And he said,

[00:07:00] well, I'll give you a way that he's, he's not rigid in as much as he just loves traditions of stuff,

[00:07:07] whether it's the traditions of us going up to the cottage, you know, for the 4th of July week or,

[00:07:12] or the, all the different things we do at Christmas. And boy, do we do a lot of stuff at Christmas.

[00:07:17] I just realized the holidays are just jammed. He hates Thanksgiving because he doesn't

[00:07:21] like the kind of food that they have at Thanksgiving, but boy, oh boy, he likes Christmas

[00:07:24] because there's lots of presents and there's also lots of traditions. So tomorrow we're going to be

[00:07:31] driving down to a place called Crossroads Village in the Huckleberry Railroad. It's, it's a full,

[00:07:39] full size steam engine, old time steam engine. I think it's more than a hundred years old

[00:07:44] that they maintain. And it's got this kind of eight mile loop that it does. And it's got holiday

[00:07:49] lights and Christmas music. And, and it's, it's a spectacular thing. We started doing it a couple

[00:07:55] of years ago. And once we started doing that, I knew for a fact, there was no chance we wouldn't

[00:07:59] be doing it every Christmas because Sean is a traditions guy. And he also fricking loves trains.

[00:08:05] If, if you're hearing that Sean and his, his interests and obsessions kind of drive our family,

[00:08:12] you're not far off. Jacob, our younger son is a little bit, he's pretty easygoing with stuff.

[00:08:19] And Sean is pretty intense with the things that he's interested in. So, so much like a lot of,

[00:08:25] if you happen to be the guy who's easygoing, you don't make a lot of the choices about what we do.

[00:08:30] You know, like we just kind of go along for the ride and that's poor Jacob. That's kind of what he's

[00:08:34] done in any case. So we have lots of holiday traditions. I love it. Uh, it makes,

[00:08:40] it makes traveling and doing anything like going to the great, I, you know, the, the greater New

[00:08:47] York dental meeting is a good meeting. It's always right after Thanksgiving. It's a weird,

[00:08:51] I think it's an absolutely weird time to have a meeting, but, but it has been good for me for

[00:08:55] podcasting in the past, but just, I just could not swing it because we had the holiday season,

[00:09:00] so smushed together and everything like that. So, uh, maybe next year I am going to be going to

[00:09:04] Chicago, the Chicago midwinter. Anyone who is thinking of going to Chicago should let me

[00:09:10] know in the Facebook group or, or email me at simple, but not easy at gmail.com. Let me know

[00:09:16] because I am going to, my plan is literally to get there early Thursday morning. I'm a drive

[00:09:21] from Michigan, uh, to Chicago, the McCormick center. Um, I've done it before. It's stupid,

[00:09:28] but I get that hour. It's I'm on Eastern time and they're on central time. So I get an hour. If I

[00:09:33] leave it, you know, six in the morning, I'll get there before the show even starts. So I, I,

[00:09:38] I typically would go get a hotel the night before so I can take it easy. But frankly,

[00:09:43] guess what? There's another concert. There's another band concert that night. And I didn't

[00:09:47] want to miss the band concert. I'm telling you, my whole life is basically driven by band concerts.

[00:09:53] In any case, we're having another band concert. So, uh, I'll be in Chicago though, Thursday,

[00:09:58] Friday, and Saturday, the Chicago midwinter meeting has made the incredibly wise choice for at least

[00:10:03] wise for me. Uh, they have this amazing podcasting room and I, I know I raved about it last year too,

[00:10:10] but it's kind of just off the floor. It's, it's kind of on the far side of the exhibit floor in

[00:10:16] Chicago. I didn't take a single course last year. All I did was stalk around on the, on the exhibit

[00:10:21] floor and grab people and drag them over and podcast with them. It was great. Like how often you

[00:10:26] get to just run into your heroes, like David Hornbrook and say, Hey, you want to come podcast?

[00:10:30] And he says, yes. And then he, I just drag them over and put like, like spur of the moment,

[00:10:34] podcasting with these huge, because everyone goes to midwinter midwinter is kind of a thing. And

[00:10:38] everyone goes to midwinter because midwinter, a lot of new stuff has rolled out in Chicago.

[00:10:42] That's been the tradition. I will say of all the dental meetings that I've been to recently,

[00:10:47] midwinter seems to be holding up the best. Like, and I think, you know why that is? Cause lab day

[00:10:52] is so awesome. I think, I think people, a lot of people go to lab day more than they go to,

[00:10:57] for the midwinter, to be honest, but, but lab day, as far as I know, does not have a killer place for

[00:11:03] me to, to set up and podcast the whole time. So that's what I'm doing. I know I've talked about

[00:11:08] that before, but it's, it's just, it's a great, it's going to be great for me. The podcast is really,

[00:11:13] I feel like I've gotten a real shot in the arm. I have recorded interviews with just some great,

[00:11:19] great people lately. I like last week should be coming out this week. I recorded another

[00:11:26] episode with Melissa Seibert. This time we're talking heavy clinical stuff. I think you guys

[00:11:31] are going to love that. That was really good. Then just yesterday, I sat down with the one and only

[00:11:36] Brian Balawas, who is a, he's a dentist in San Francisco. He's a huge Instagram guy. He's,

[00:11:43] he spoke at voice of dentistry. He's been on the show with Kevin and Zach before, but he and I

[00:11:46] hit it off. I want to have him on again and again. He was great. And I interviewed with Dr. Matt

[00:11:52] Standridge this morning. I got just a ton of content coming out for you. I know the very clinical guys

[00:11:58] have a really good year end wrap up coming up, the two episodes worth of that with, uh,

[00:12:03] with Gary Holtzclaw and Aaron Elliott. We just have really good stuff. Mo is a third year dental

[00:12:09] student. So guess what? Mo is getting a break. Mo needs to be able to take his exams and stuff. Okay.

[00:12:15] So let's leave Mo. Mo and the very clinical guys have been doing, you know, really good work. So

[00:12:22] Mo, you get a little break. I can pick up some slack for you here, but the podcast is going strong,

[00:12:28] really enjoying it. And, and I've got, I've got a bunch of other people I'm going to schedule with

[00:12:32] just really good stuff. I would love it though. If you would go to the very dental Facebook group,

[00:12:37] if you have not joined yet, go ahead and join, go to Facebook and look up very dental podcast.

[00:12:42] And then, and then I don't let people in unless they give me the code word. And so

[00:12:47] are this group grows much more slowly than a lot of other Facebook groups because we're,

[00:12:51] I'm more stringent. I don't let people in unless they're podcast listeners, because I don't talk

[00:12:55] about the, the, the passwords anywhere, but here. So the passwords you've heard them a million times.

[00:13:01] Let's see. McQuethy, Papa Randy, Lipscomb, Timmerman, and which one did I forget? Hornbrook.

[00:13:07] So there's all five of them. That is amazing that I remember all five of them. You can use one of

[00:13:12] them. You can use multiples of them, but you got to give me one of them to get in the Facebook group.

[00:13:16] So I'm very glad to have you guys there, but also who should I talk to? I, I, I continue to,

[00:13:24] it's funny because you'd think, you know, the world is my oyster, but I, I'm also a dentist running a

[00:13:28] practice and I don't, I don't know. I, I don't spend a ton of time thinking about, I mean,

[00:13:33] when I think about it, I only, I hit a few people. And what I normally do is it's people that I see

[00:13:38] stuff on social media, Instagram or Facebook that I'm like, Oh, that's interesting. And I'll hit them

[00:13:42] up. Well, meanwhile, I've gotten a bunch of people just lately from that. But what I fear is that I

[00:13:47] might miss stuff because you guys, the world is a big place, you know? And so if you have suggestions

[00:13:52] for people I should chase down and talk to, I would love to hear it from you. But again, I have,

[00:13:58] I've, I've already got, I'm chasing down people. And, and I think some of the stuff, the interviews

[00:14:03] we've done recently have been really interesting. I, I, I hope that you have liked it. You know,

[00:14:08] I hope, I hope I'm bringing stuff that's helpful for you. And frankly, what I've come to realize

[00:14:12] again, that my strength is not anything more than having conversations about real dentistry stuff,

[00:14:18] like, like the kind of stuff that real people deal with on a daily basis. And, you know, I think

[00:14:24] that I hate to point fingers and say bad things about people. I'm not really, but I'm just like,

[00:14:29] I can't listen to stuff if it's, if it's not applicable to like regular stuff, you know?

[00:14:36] Uh, I, and I mean, that's what I'm trying to create because that's all I am. I mean, I, I,

[00:14:40] I am not a high flyer. I've come to realize that I am what I am and I'm okay with that. And, uh,

[00:14:46] and I do think it's the strength of this podcast is that we get regular folks talk about regular

[00:14:50] things. And we get to talk to some amazing people, but frankly, we still talk about regular

[00:14:54] stuff with them. So I think that's what I really liked doing the most, but I would love to hear

[00:14:59] who you think I should have on the podcast because I will chase them down. I'll find them. And most

[00:15:05] people, when I get in touch with them and tell them what we're about, if they haven't heard of us before

[00:15:09] are pretty interested. So, and I'm trying to bring when I, when I have sponsors or people we're talking

[00:15:15] about from the industry, I'm trying to bring on people that, that would be of interest to you.

[00:15:19] That's helpful to you. I really do. I mean, and even advertisers, as we pick advertising back up

[00:15:25] again, I'm going to be bringing you stuff that I use in my office. I've decided that's probably

[00:15:29] the most important thing, stuff that I either have great interest in or am using on a day-to-day

[00:15:35] basis. You know, when, when I talk about Zerk, it's because I use Zerk stuff all the time. When I

[00:15:40] talk about Cosminent, I use a ton of their stuff. When I talk about microcopy, I've been using their

[00:15:44] burrs for 20 fricking years. All these people that we've worked with in the past and may work

[00:15:49] with in the future. I'm kind of going, I'm looking at my tray and I'm going, okay, these are, would

[00:15:53] these people be interested in working with me? Because I know I like their stuff. So there's

[00:15:58] that. Another group of people that I, I got, I got two thoughts that I was going to cover today.

[00:16:04] And literally I've already been going for 15 minutes, just talking about just dumb stuff.

[00:16:09] So I'll throw, I'll throw, I'll make this slightly dental. Let's just say that. So one of the things

[00:16:15] I was talking with Dr. Brian Bala was about, um, he pointed me to a, uh, a Netflix documentary that I

[00:16:23] just finished watching the, the, it's called the, oh man, I can't believe that I literally just

[00:16:28] finished it. That's, that's my attention span, right? Like I, I just finished watching the

[00:16:32] documentary. I can't remember what it's called. It's, it's the shopping, something about shopping.

[00:16:36] Uh, it was basically a takedown of, of Amazon and how wasteful the way that we live in our lives,

[00:16:42] all that stuff. Let's see. Okay. So it's, it's called by now the shopping conspiracy. Okay. So,

[00:16:53] uh, pretty heavy, pretty heavy stuff. Actually, it's talking a lot about how we've as a, as a comp,

[00:17:00] as a country, as a, as a culture, we've, we've gotten into a really heavily consumer culture. I think

[00:17:05] everyone has sort of thought that and understood that, but how being able to buy so easily. And

[00:17:10] one of the things I love Amazon, I love being able to just click on stuff and buy it, but their

[00:17:14] points are well taken. A lot of it, uh, if I had to go to the store and look for it and pick it up

[00:17:19] and find it, or if I had to go online and look in different places and find it, I would probably buy

[00:17:24] less stuff. And frankly, I would probably waste less stuff. Um, it's, it's an interesting thing.

[00:17:29] It's a bit of a downer to be honest, but, but Brian and I were talking about how,

[00:17:33] how difficult it is to fix stuff and how difficult it is to, and how easy it is to buy stuff

[00:17:39] and how companies are not really standing behind their stuff. And so I, I basically have two,

[00:17:48] I'm going to frame this up in a way that like, when you're making decisions about things that you

[00:17:53] might add to your office or bring to your office, there's two things that, that I, I was thinking

[00:17:58] about that are going to help you make a decision. I guess my point being that the, the classic example

[00:18:03] I'm thinking of right now is adding a scanner or changing a scanner. And okay. So I use, I use,

[00:18:11] um, a Medit i700, which is a couple few years old. I don't know. I remember when it came out new,

[00:18:18] I think I got it relatively soon after it came out. I mean, they have now since released the i900,

[00:18:24] which is the newer fancier version, all this stuff. So it's been a couple of years. I like

[00:18:28] it. And one of the things that's really cool, like I, when I saw Armin back in September from

[00:18:34] Cadray, who was speaking at the Vedder Society, we had a couple episodes on with those guys,

[00:18:39] uh, Cadray, great company. That's a company that I would work with all day, every day, because

[00:18:44] they're amazing people. And more importantly, they're, they are a company that, that focuses

[00:18:49] mostly on service and making sure that what you buy from them is very usable. They don't actually

[00:18:55] care what they, they sell so many different kinds of tech. They don't actually care what you buy.

[00:19:00] They, they want to make sure that you'll come back and buy it from them the next time too. And

[00:19:03] honestly, that's, I think that's a really good model. Uh, but like they also, the people that

[00:19:08] help you with your technology are the same people that you'd see on the, on the floor in Chicago or

[00:19:13] the people that you would text just really, really great support. And, and I, I, Brian's point was,

[00:19:21] okay, a lot of great products out there, but we should be looking for companies that support us

[00:19:26] as dentists that support us and help us use the stuff and make us not feel like we need to throw it

[00:19:32] out and get the new thing necessarily. And that really hit, especially after watching this,

[00:19:36] this shopping documentary, it'll make you feel guilty about everything, everything you bought.

[00:19:42] I will say it's a little, it's by the end, I'm sort of like, wow, this is sort of propaganda,

[00:19:46] but it was a good, it was, it was a good watch. I would recommend it. But Brian's point too was

[00:19:49] like, you know, so much of our, and he's been on a roll on his Instagram page, which I'll link all

[00:19:54] this stuff in the show notes, uh, about how stuff is so throwaway, you know, it's just like, it's,

[00:19:59] and it shouldn't be throwaway. It should like a lot of this, this stuff should be durable and

[00:20:03] should last a long time. So I've been using the i700 for, I don't know, a couple, three years.

[00:20:08] And I know Zach's been using his i600 for this, a similar amount of time. And one of the cool

[00:20:12] things about seeing Armin was, uh, going back, he, he was talking about scanning fundamentals

[00:20:19] and, and he's like, look, these rules work with any scanner you have. This is how you should scan

[00:20:24] before success. And literally, um, my scans are so much better now just after seeing him,

[00:20:30] they weren't bad before, but I had a, I struggled a little bit with full arch scans.

[00:20:35] I would get that kind of, I, I, I'd feel like my, my, uh, my scans weren't so red hot,

[00:20:40] that sort of thing. And I, and, and he really helped a lot. And, and I went to Vetter thinking

[00:20:46] I wanted a new scanner because I just wasn't having as much luck with the 700 as, as I thought,

[00:20:51] or I really struggled to get full arch scale. Well, it wasn't the scanner. It was me and it

[00:20:56] was my technique and it was a few, just a few things to tighten it up. So what I really needed

[00:21:00] was, was the education in that sense. Um, and the i700 is great. Now, now the other thing is they

[00:21:07] talked about the different features of different scanners and yes, you could get a scanner that

[00:21:11] scanned faster if you had a bigger, like a bigger scanning area, like the bigger mirror,

[00:21:15] bigger camera, whatever. And that's what a lot of the newer scanners have for you. But, but the

[00:21:20] reality is do, I don't necessarily need a new scanner. I, I came home from Vetter and it was almost like I

[00:21:26] had a new scanner because I had a skillset that was working better and I'm happy about it. I will say

[00:21:31] that as a scanner, I would love to have a wireless scanner. Uh, I don't, I, the, the cord is annoying

[00:21:38] to me. There's that's, that's an annoyance I've gotten. I really, I got a new, uh, a new cart and

[00:21:43] a new, and it really is the i700 is definitely firing on all cylinders. The cords, a little bit

[00:21:47] of a pain and scanners are less expensive now than they ever have been. So I think about replacing or

[00:21:53] getting another one and you know, whatever. And so that was interesting. That's part of it is like,

[00:22:01] if I'm going to buy one, I want to buy one and work with a company where I'm confident

[00:22:07] that the service that I'm going to get, like, it's not going to show up in my office and then

[00:22:11] I'm not going to be able to get ahold of someone to help me if I need it. It's, it's, it's,

[00:22:16] it's always been important, but I think now it's even more important because man, like as soon as you

[00:22:23] buy a piece of technology, like waiting to buy a piece of technology is very smart as far as I'm

[00:22:29] concerned because like, if you drag your feet a little bit, you're probably on the right track

[00:22:35] a little bit because the next one's coming out. That's the thing. Like the, the, the latest and

[00:22:41] greatest is never the latest and greatest for very long. It's, it's a, it's weird, but it's totally

[00:22:46] true. So like I went in there thinking I definitely was going to be looking hard at the i900. And then I

[00:22:52] saw this adorable little shining 3d scanner that's, that could fit in your pocket. It's in it,

[00:22:57] in it scans as well as it's, so you're like, okay, there's all kinds of options out there.

[00:23:01] And the longer you wait, the more options and in the less expensive or the whatever.

[00:23:06] So if you're not in a rush, waiting is not a bad deal. I mean, that means at some point,

[00:23:10] if you really want to change, you're really going to add something, you're going to pull the trigger,

[00:23:13] but waiting, waiting is a smart move. So, so you got three points here, waiting, not a bad move

[00:23:20] buy from someone who is, has got your back on service. So as I've bragged about many times,

[00:23:28] I now that my next door neighbor, I am in a building that has two suites, my suite, and then

[00:23:35] the suite next door for longest time, there was a physical therapist, a home care company in there,

[00:23:40] a nice guy who was there, but, but I mean, like he wasn't in dentistry. So I didn't have as much to

[00:23:45] talk with him about as I do. I have my lab guy in there. Now, my lab guy bought that side of the

[00:23:50] building and he set his lab up in there. And I'm going to tell you that if you ever have a chance

[00:23:55] to get a lab in, in house, it's not my lab, it's not in house, but it might as well be because

[00:24:01] literally between patients or even while a patient said, I had a couple of weeks ago, I had a crown,

[00:24:07] had the contact was lighter than I wanted. And I'm like, man, I really, and, and I,

[00:24:13] that was something he could fix in no time flat. I mean, literally the patient was in my chair,

[00:24:18] ready to seat this thing. I'm like, it's got to, the contact's light and this is, this is going to

[00:24:22] be a problem we're going to deal with. What can we do? I figured we'd be putting a provisional

[00:24:26] back on having him come back. Turns out the patient was having her teeth cleaned after the crown seat

[00:24:30] appointment. So lo and behold, we let her, we had her have her teeth cleaned. Chad was able to add

[00:24:35] just a touch to the contact. It was perfect. It was beautiful. Ah, what a great move. Like I'm so happy

[00:24:42] to have a lab next door, not to mention the fact that I have another part of the process,

[00:24:49] part of the team to talk to. I love having a lab tech to talk to, you know, whether it's okay. Is

[00:24:55] this a reasonable thing to do for a preparation on this particular case? I can show them a picture.

[00:25:00] I can show them a scan. I can drag them over and have them look at my patient. I can have them do

[00:25:03] custom, uh, custom shading. I love lab guys and we have so many good lab people that we know from

[00:25:10] the podcast, all this stuff, but having, having Chad next door is like my freaking favorite thing

[00:25:14] ever. I love it. But interestingly, I was talking to him about some of the, some of the servicing stuff

[00:25:21] of technology. And he felt this, he, he's basically said the same thing. He's like, you know, I have some

[00:25:27] regrets about the way he got a mill. He's got a great mill, but where he bought it from, I'm not dropping

[00:25:34] any names. I don't need to, I don't need that kind of hassle, but where he bought it from,

[00:25:37] they sold him on it and they were very, they were very helpful when it came to the selling.

[00:25:41] But as soon as he needed help installing or troubleshooting, they were hands off, man. And,

[00:25:46] and the problem is that the way that the company that built the mill does things, they don't have

[00:25:51] service people, they remote in and do the, do it. So, so he feels like he's kind of left high and dry

[00:25:56] a little bit with his mill. And so he'd probably do it a little bit differently. That's the same point

[00:26:01] about, you know, if you're buying technology for someone, you should know maybe even more

[00:26:05] importantly than the technology of who, who are you going to go to? You need help because,

[00:26:08] because you're probably going to need help at some point. I've bragged about Cadray on the podcast

[00:26:13] a bunch before. I, I feel strongly about, and shoot, they sell mills too for crying out loud. But

[00:26:17] the reality is that's an important thing, but here's something interesting as well.

[00:26:22] And I wasn't, I'm not even really, I'm kind of always looking at technology because I think it's

[00:26:28] really cool and there are improvements I could make. I don't have a bunch of money I want to throw

[00:26:32] at anything right now, but, but I always keep my eyes open. Now I'll be in Chicago and I'll probably

[00:26:39] be looking and comparing scanners because clearly for a restorative, you know, bread and butter

[00:26:44] practice like mine. And I, I do things digitally have the scanner is, is a big part of our workflow.

[00:26:50] And so if there's an improvement I can make, that's not going to cost too awful much. It's not,

[00:26:53] it's something I'm looking at. I'll look at scanners again in Chicago. And last year I,

[00:26:58] I was very impressed by the Trios 5, which is the, you know, it's, it's, it's come down in price. It's,

[00:27:04] it's, it's a premium scanner. It's, it's probably the best wireless scanner out there that we know

[00:27:08] of. Although PrimeScan just dropped. So that also is a wireless scanner that everyone is oohing and

[00:27:13] on over too. But what was interesting, I was telling Chad about the different options that I might consider

[00:27:19] moving forward. And of course, Chad sees my lab work. He sees every, you know, basically every scan I

[00:27:23] make, Chad's looking at. And he's like, I got to tell you, I love working with Medit. Medit is

[00:27:28] just so easy to work with. The few cases he works with within the, the Trios software,

[00:27:35] he finds to be a hassle. I don't think there's anything wrong with the Trios software. It's more

[00:27:41] that he is used to working within certain frameworks. I know, I know that he, he has a lot of

[00:27:48] Densfly Sirona people working. So he knows that software, but he also, he likes how easy it is to,

[00:27:53] to bring Medit stuff over into whatever software he's designing. And to the point when I asked him,

[00:27:59] he said, I get it. You know, like, like if he had learned on Trios and Trios was what the majority of,

[00:28:05] that would probably not be the same issue, but he uses it rarely enough that he just doesn't love

[00:28:10] the software. And I know there's labs that think Trios is superior, but on all stuff, but I, I never

[00:28:16] thought to ask my lab guy what, you know, if I was looking at changing something like that,

[00:28:21] what he thinks. And I'm thinking to myself, look, if there's, if, if he can tell me there's a software

[00:28:26] he doesn't love to use, that can make my decision easier. If I'm serious about buying something,

[00:28:31] I'm not yet, but I might be. That's a huge, like, if he says, look, I don't like the Trios software

[00:28:37] and I, I, you know, I will do whatever you want to do, obviously. But if, I mean, sometimes when you

[00:28:43] have all these decisions, you got a bunch of great options. And what you really need is some,

[00:28:47] a way to take some of them off the table. So you're not looking at them so hard.

[00:28:53] I, I, I was looking hard at a monitor, a fancy touchscreen monitor, because I was going to try

[00:28:59] podcast editing on a, on a, and it had this screen that tilts and it's really cool. And I'm like,

[00:29:03] man, that's right. It's really expensive. But I was thinking, I was just about to pull the trigger

[00:29:07] on it. I went to YouTube, but I, I, I, uh, I saw two reviews of the thing and they had lots of good

[00:29:14] things to say about it. But a couple of the features that I really liked, they said, you know,

[00:29:18] they're playing this up, but it's not, it's not as easy to use as they said. Well, like, so it's

[00:29:22] kind of, when you're making decisions like this, one other point. So if, if there's ways to take

[00:29:30] choices off your plate, that simplifies things a lot. Like when you can just cross that off your list,

[00:29:36] because you have a really good reason not to consider this, that's fantastic. What a great,

[00:29:41] what a great thing to be able to do when you're making decisions like this. So if you're the

[00:29:47] three points I want to make about, you know, decisions on changes in your practice, this is

[00:29:52] sort of, sort of my point for the podcast. Look for, look for who's going to give you service,

[00:29:57] who's going to support you after the sale, because everyone's happy to make the sale,

[00:30:01] but it's really good to know who's going to support you after the sale.

[00:30:06] If there's a way to take a decision off the table by gaining information,

[00:30:11] like I just said, that's a really good thing. That's a really good thing. And then maybe the

[00:30:18] last and most important thing is if you can wait, there's no harm in waiting. I mean, if you need to

[00:30:24] pull the trigger, if you need to, great. But if you can wait, waiting is particularly for technology

[00:30:30] and dentistry or change stuff, changing stuff in there. Waiting's not bad. I wait on stuff forever.

[00:30:35] I have, I still, I still have not committed to like a biofilm removal system, like an air polishing

[00:30:43] system. I haven't committed yet, even though I love the concept, but I've waited because I'm not

[00:30:48] sure. I'm not sure about stuff. Being not sure is actually a smart place to be because A, it's

[00:30:52] inexpensive. It doesn't cost anything to be not sure. In the world we live in, you can research till you,

[00:30:57] till you choke on it. And that's fun sometimes. Sometimes that's all I need to do is just get,

[00:31:01] get that, get that itch scratched. And then I'll wait and see what else comes out. That's a good

[00:31:05] thing. So the three points I'm bringing up here, when you're buying, when you're making a change,

[00:31:09] who's going to support you after the change? Who's, who, who can you go to for help? If it's a piece

[00:31:14] of technology or whatever, if you can wait, go ahead and wait. Cause it makes sense. If you can wait,

[00:31:20] there's really no downside to waiting because the technology always gets better. There will be the,

[00:31:24] the next thing will be better. And if you buy something, you know, for a darn fact that the next thing is

[00:31:30] going to come out the next day, that's how it always works. And then last, uh, if there's a

[00:31:34] way to take, you know, take part of the decision, decision out, take one of the choices away.

[00:31:40] Like in this case, my lab tech that I know I'm going to be working with doesn't love the software

[00:31:45] of one of them. What a great thing. I mean, even though the trios is a fantastic scanner,

[00:31:48] I probably am not going to look at it because, uh, my lab guy doesn't love the software as much.

[00:31:53] Why add complication in my life? So, so these are three things to look at as far as decisions in

[00:31:58] changing. It's like, cause decisions about new stuff in the office are hard. And I mean,

[00:32:04] you'll hear lots of people regretting decisions because they didn't have the right information.

[00:32:09] They just didn't know. So those, maybe those can be helpful for you. I hope you guys are having a

[00:32:14] really fantastic holiday season. I hope you too get to see multiple Tuba Christmas concerts or whatever

[00:32:21] you happen to be into. Uh, I'd love to hear from you. You should go to the Facebook group. Again,

[00:32:25] I gave you the, those names. We can have conversations about this stuff there. It's a

[00:32:29] great group. And, uh, I really appreciate you guys listening to the show. I'm, I haven't been this

[00:32:34] excited about the podcast probably in years, to be honest. I'm very excited about some of the stuff

[00:32:39] we got going. And then I got, you know, February, I got midwinter. Oh, I can't wait. It's gonna be

[00:32:44] great. So, uh, let's keep in touch and let me know what I can do better. Let me know what you guys

[00:32:49] like. And if you would go give me, if you haven't given me a review, go to the Apple podcast or wherever you

[00:32:54] listen to podcasts and give a review. I, there's very few reviews are sort of not a thing in

[00:32:59] podcasting anymore, especially since I've been doing this for more than 10 years, but I'd love

[00:33:01] to get some reviews back going again. I'm, I'm not so worried about doing well in the, in the ratings

[00:33:07] or anything like that, but I would love to gain listeners. And if you can think of someone that

[00:33:10] you would benefit from the kind of stuff we're putting out, let them know, let them know. I know

[00:33:14] that we've sort of reached peak podcasts. People are either podcast listeners or not, but I'd love to

[00:33:19] bring some new people in. I got some ideas on how to do it, but, but tell a friend, uh,

[00:33:23] really enjoying doing this stuff. And I got some great stuff coming out for you guys. So

[00:33:28] pretty excited. And thanks again for listening as always. And we will catch you next episode.