AME: Upgrades

[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 in his basement

[00:00:16] Armed with an obsession to bring entertaining and informative content to the dental world in a way that's never been done before

[00:00:23] I give you the Alan Mead experience

[00:00:27] Well hello and welcome to another episode of the Alan Mead experience. I'm your host Dr. Alan Mead

[00:00:35] I'm a dentist, podcaster and

[00:00:37] doc sitter

[00:00:39] Kind of funny. We have a pond at my house and

[00:00:43] we have

[00:00:44] my wife got very obsessed with the concept of a floating dock last year and she

[00:00:51] Long story short shoot we had bought someone else's

[00:00:55] Pieces of floating dock with

[00:00:58] bought them used several years ago

[00:01:00] With the idea that we would figure out a way to put them out into our pond

[00:01:03] And we never really did and they just sat in our lawn kind of moldering. They're these big plastic floating pieces

[00:01:09] They were upside down they got filled with rainwater and weeds and stuff like so they sat there for a couple years

[00:01:15] We didn't do anything with him, and then my wife decided she wanted to do something with him, so

[00:01:19] She went to a dock place that sold

[00:01:23] Floating dock and she helped them design a dock for our pond and the dock she'd always wanted a

[00:01:31] kayak

[00:01:33] Like a kayak landing loading area, and I'll get a picture and put it in the show notes actually long story short

[00:01:39] She put together a

[00:01:41] Design and they they kind of helped her design it and we spent a ton of money on it

[00:01:45] And it was done at the end of last summer

[00:01:49] And cool thing about a floating dock in a pond is you don't have to take it out

[00:01:52] You can just leave it there

[00:01:54] You know the pond freezes over every year, but apparently the floating dock can handle freezing and it did it was fine

[00:01:59] So we are now starting to use our quote-unquote waterfront if you will more than we did before which is really cool

[00:02:07] So it's today is the day before Memorial Day that I'm recording this so

[00:02:11] That's Memorial Day 2024 for all my listeners in the future

[00:02:17] We have a traditional

[00:02:19] Our Memorial Day almost always involves a parade we either watch it or my son is actually marching in it

[00:02:26] this year so

[00:02:28] We go to the parade in the morning

[00:02:30] We've always kind of done that and and we used to go up north when the kids were younger

[00:02:34] But now we pretty much do the parade all the time. It's pretty great

[00:02:37] We're last year

[00:02:38] I walked in the parade with the marching band and like gave I carried water for people and I said you know I'm not doing

[00:02:44] That anymore. I volunteer enough for the for the band boosters and all that stuff

[00:02:49] So I'm gonna sit and watch the parade tomorrow like I think it's my American duty to do so

[00:02:54] so I hope you're having a lovely Memorial Day and

[00:02:56] I would like to thank all those who have fallen in protection of our country

[00:03:01] But so it's Moral Day, and that's also the unofficial start of summer

[00:03:06] Which is also the unofficial?

[00:03:09] start of

[00:03:10] sitting on the dock

[00:03:12] and being in the pond like our pond is

[00:03:16] Nice enough that you can swim in it, but it doesn't have much beach in other words

[00:03:22] It's kind of mucky and what's really interesting is this this pond formed because they dug out a bunch of

[00:03:29] Land to build our house kind of up on a hill so the house a little bit higher

[00:03:33] So they dug out a bunch stuff to make a foundation for the house

[00:03:35] And so it's in this pond is really deep apparently. It's 40 some feet deep in the middle, so it's quite deep

[00:03:41] It's not a very big pond, but it's quite deep anyhow, so we finally got a dock and hopefully that's gonna

[00:03:45] Make it more useful. It's a nice upgrade which is kind of what I'm going to talk about in this in this episode

[00:03:51] So the dock was an upgrade that at the time seemed to me seemed a little bit wasteful seemed a little silly

[00:03:57] To do that, but now

[00:04:00] After having the dock done. It's really nice

[00:04:03] we actually we bought another kayak too, so we had four kayaks for the four of us in my family and

[00:04:10] My oldest son is bigger than I am now and the kayak that he had as a little kid was riding quite low in the

[00:04:16] Water because it's maybe not made for a guy as big as he is so we found a used kayak up north

[00:04:21] It's actually a tandem kayak, and it is really stable and it can fit big people, and it's pretty great

[00:04:26] So we got that and like I said we have a kayak launch on the on the dock

[00:04:31] It goes so yeah

[00:04:31] We can kayak in the pond and we're gonna be able to swim in it

[00:04:34] The funny thing is is now that we love the dock so much really could be great to have just one more piece of

[00:04:39] Floating dock for us to swim off of so we're gonna look at that too bottom line

[00:04:44] What what I'm talking about today is

[00:04:48] Something that a lot of people in wellness and mental health in dentistry

[00:04:52] There's there's an overwhelming amount of people to the point where I'm not so sure that I think it might be an over talked-about thing

[00:04:58] I do think people need to take care of their mental health, but but part of it is is like I

[00:05:04] Think if you listen to certain mental health people they will tell you that there's a way to avoid burnout

[00:05:09] And I've said this before I'm not sure that you can avoid burnout if you

[00:05:14] Run a schedule of doing the same thing over and over again all the time I

[00:05:19] Think repetition for one thing repetition and reps make you good at something

[00:05:24] Obviously getting reps is the best way to get really good at some, but it's also can be very boring with no variety

[00:05:30] Things can get boring, and I think that's where burnout comes from

[00:05:33] I think doing the same thing over and over in the same dumb problems the same so

[00:05:37] I'm gonna suggest a way that has less to do with you know

[00:05:42] hard mental health work and more about

[00:05:45] Buying cool stuff. This is this is a funny solution, but so I'm gonna suggest that one of the ways that you can make

[00:05:54] burnout and repetition in dental practice

[00:05:58] Better is by upgrading upgrading something now we're gonna talk about this so I have I have multiple bikes

[00:06:06] my latest is a carbon fiber suspension mountain bike that I freaking love like I

[00:06:12] for the longest time I would look in in all the used bike places around me and I

[00:06:17] Constantly looking at bikes and like oh, so I found this bike last year

[00:06:20] And I decided that what I wanted was I wanted a bike that was a good

[00:06:25] Frame that I could add stuff to later if I wanted to and that's exactly what happened so that I bought the bike

[00:06:32] And I but it was used it's an older bike

[00:06:34] It's not a brand new bike or anything like that

[00:06:35] But I have consistently added things to it to make it even more fun

[00:06:38] And oh I added some some kind of different handlebars that I really like a lot

[00:06:43] I think they're they're ergonomic technically, but but more than that this was the thing that was in my brain for the longest time

[00:06:50] Okay, so if you if you ride a bike often and you have

[00:06:54] Shifting that's uses a wire which is most most shifting is is a wire that stretches from

[00:07:00] whatever shifter you have down to the the derailleur which changes where the

[00:07:05] Chain is on the wheel

[00:07:07] Wires if you ride enough those wires will actually get stretched a little bit

[00:07:11] And so this shifting becomes less and less reliable

[00:07:13] I had a couple different bikes where a

[00:07:15] Lot of times depending on what gear I was shifting between I can I had to click the I had to click the little clicker

[00:07:20] Twice to get it to go or I had to adjust it just to get the in other words

[00:07:23] there's just enough given that those wires that

[00:07:28] The cables that you use to switch the gears that it got a little bit less and in stories you can tighten that it's something

[00:07:33] You can do but instead of instead of doing just that I had always been looking at this. It's very cool

[00:07:39] It's it's basically electronic shifting for a bike

[00:07:42] So you have literally a shifter on your handlebar and then you have a derailleur that changes the chain

[00:07:48] But there's no wire between it uses Bluetooth. So you have a little battery on on it and it uses Bluetooth. That's very cool. I

[00:07:55] It's expensive. It's really expensive. It's sort of stupid expensive

[00:07:58] It's almost as expensive as the bike is and I decided I was gonna try that this year because I really I was a little

[00:08:02] Tired of the the shifting thing because I ride a lot

[00:08:04] I ride almost daily and so what you know, the the wear and tear on a bike, of course increases significantly when you're right

[00:08:10] All the time. So this would be cool. The shifting won't do that. Well, it is a gadget. It is a gadget

[00:08:15] It is an unnecessary

[00:08:17] Thing for a mountain bike. You don't need this. There's plenty of mountain bikers probably most of them that don't do this sort of thing

[00:08:23] This is almost a silly gadget now

[00:08:26] Let's step back as a dentist. Can you think of silly gadgets that dentists use?

[00:08:31] We have tons of silly gadgets almost everything in dentistry is a silly gadget now

[00:08:37] Sometimes the silly gadgets that we decide to buy end up becoming

[00:08:41] Super important to our workflow and what we do for instance

[00:08:45] Intural scanner. I use the I use a med at i700 now, but I'm actually and I started I started with the 3m

[00:08:53] Oh, I can't even the 3m one in 2016

[00:08:57] I was almost 10 years ago and I talked about on the podcast. It was fine. You need powder

[00:09:01] It was it was a it was better than no scanning

[00:09:04] But it because there's a lot of you I could learn that scanning was accurate, but it was a huge pain

[00:09:08] The powder was a pain. It was just not then

[00:09:09] I liked how small the handpiece was but it was in black and white

[00:09:12] There were a lot of limitations to it

[00:09:13] Then I switched to the i500 the med at i500 and I thought that was pretty grand and then I switched to the i700

[00:09:19] Which was even better there. I'm looking down the barrel of the i900 now, which was just released which looks pretty cool, too

[00:09:24] But there's also the trios wireless ones. There's some pretty cool internal scanners out there now

[00:09:29] Do I need that? I have an i700 that's paid for and that consistently gets me good results

[00:09:34] Do I need to change no, but I'm thinking about it because there's a certain amount of fun

[00:09:38] There's a certain amount of I could do things a little differently we do

[00:09:43] Dentistry is full of toys like that

[00:09:45] We have to think about that all the time, but I'm going to suggest that doing the upgrades like that

[00:09:50] Can help make the stuff that's dull and boring and over and over a little bit more exciting

[00:09:57] And I'm also I'm gonna give you some suggestions of things to look at that aren't necessarily that expensive

[00:10:03] Things that you can upgrade your your day-to-day experience

[00:10:07] Maybe give a better patient experience but more than that make it a little bit more fun for you or something

[00:10:11] Honestly, just a little shot in the arm to keep it more interesting

[00:10:13] I'm gonna tell you that I think that upgrading your setup or upgrading your procedures or upgrading

[00:10:21] Whatever. I think that

[00:10:23] Might be as important to your mental health just to give yourself something kind of fun and different

[00:10:29] While you're actually doing your day-to-day

[00:10:31] I think that's as important as other things or at least there it can help like I

[00:10:37] Won't lie to you

[00:10:37] There was never a day that I was all excited to go in and use polyvinyl siloxane impression materials, right?

[00:10:43] I guess if I had started if I had started with reversible hydrocolloid and switched to PBS, maybe I would have looked forward to that

[00:10:50] But honestly, there's a certain wow factor to the this is the internal scanner that people still love. I've been using it for years

[00:10:56] We joke about them the music that it's I I have with it. We joke where patients love seeing the 3d model

[00:11:02] It's just really cool

[00:11:03] There's there's a cool factor there and it has made you know

[00:11:06] It has made my my single and double unit crown and bridge just revolutionized my workflow

[00:11:11] It's just fantastic and patients like it. I like it. It's fun and

[00:11:15] I didn't have to do that polyvinyl was working fine for me. I didn't have to do that

[00:11:19] But that was an upgrade I chose to try and I'm really glad that I did now. It's really revolution

[00:11:22] I revolutionized my workflow. I will say that my mountain biking I think is better because I've upgraded to

[00:11:29] To the digital or the electronic shifting

[00:11:32] I can't prove that I have no evidence of that except I feel like I'm a little bit more aggressive of

[00:11:38] A mountain biker knowing that when I hit that shift button, it's gonna go exactly where I want

[00:11:43] So for instance if you come to a spot where you're gonna have to climb real fast

[00:11:46] And you got it. So you got a downshift fast

[00:11:48] I am confident that my downshifting will be much faster than it was with the wire. So it's fun

[00:11:53] I like that

[00:11:54] I think that's cool and I think that's interesting and it's made at my experience more fun and I think that's worthwhile

[00:11:59] so my suggestion to you is

[00:12:03] Try some upgrades if you're in a rut try some upgrades now

[00:12:07] It's easy in dentistry to choose an upgrade that costs an awful lot of money seems to me like most most of the upgrades

[00:12:14] You're seeing in social media or dental meetings are of the 20,000 plus dollar upgrades like an internal scanner

[00:12:21] Something like that right now. Actually, there's some deals going on from Cadre that

[00:12:24] Especially if you have a trade in it, you can get you can get a really great scanner for significantly less than that

[00:12:29] But whatever like I'm thinking scanners. I'm gonna suggest that my dentistry would be changed significantly if I got

[00:12:36] a

[00:12:37] CBCT machine, so I'm thinking hard about that because

[00:12:42] For one thing I would love to be better at case selection. I've had in the last week

[00:12:47] I've had a couple cases in endo and an extraction that maybe I would have chosen

[00:12:53] Not to do them or to do them differently had I had I had a three-dimensional version of the tooth before I started it

[00:13:00] Maybe it's because I never have any emergencies, you know over the weekend and I've had to both

[00:13:06] Both on teeth that when I was done going who I hope they're okay with that

[00:13:10] So yeah

[00:13:10] I've had some emergency any in any case and I talked to people who have CBCTs that that really it's

[00:13:17] Revolutionized and changed how they look at things. So I mean that that's an upgrade I've been looking at

[00:13:21] I haven't pulled the trigger on that because it's quite an expensive one. It's not to say that I can't swing it

[00:13:25] It's just you know, do you want to add that expense?

[00:13:27] So I have some suggestions

[00:13:30] For upgrades that I got some in at all price level. Let's just say that if you're if you're someone who

[00:13:37] Who wants to try something but doesn't want to spend a bunch of money on it?

[00:13:41] Try something new give it give your your workflow a shot in the arm. I have some suggestions

[00:13:45] I have some good suggestions actually so for one thing if

[00:13:49] You're not using a rubber dam

[00:13:51] I gotta say I don't use a rubber dam for everything

[00:13:53] But I'm ramping it up again because a lot I have found myself

[00:13:57] For obviously for endo I always use a rubber dam but for restorative there's times when when a rubber dam really simplifies things

[00:14:04] Certain patients certain procedures that sort of thing and and I always think to myself

[00:14:10] Why am I not doing this all the time because patients really if you if you are very matter-of-fact about

[00:14:16] Using a rubber dam patients accept it really well

[00:14:18] Very few patients really complain about it and then occasionally you get a patient goes man. I've not seen that that's really great

[00:14:22] I'd like to use that next time I and I know that sounds like I'm making it up

[00:14:26] But I'm not there's actually patients that I've used it on there like that's great

[00:14:29] Couple reasons that I think that's that a rubber dam can really give you a shot in the arm and upgrade your procedure first

[00:14:34] off I'm gonna go to

[00:14:36] our friends over at

[00:14:41] its

[00:14:43] Berman instruments, okay, so Lou Berman is an endodontist. He works with spear. I've interviewed him several times actually he's a good guy

[00:14:50] He's a really good guy

[00:14:52] he's

[00:14:53] He created a company. He's an endodontist. He actually you know has written textbooks

[00:14:58] He's pretty serious guy

[00:14:59] But one of the things that drove him crazy is how much a lot of things cost

[00:15:03] That they use on a regular basis like the dental supply places are gouging him

[00:15:07] So he has a company that has really good instruments that are really inexpensive. I think

[00:15:13] Honestly, you might be shocked at how good this stuff is but okay, so

[00:15:17] If you want to do a really inexpensive

[00:15:21] Upgrade that might make your work more fun and more easy and you want to spend six bucks

[00:15:25] I'm gonna put the link in the show. It's this is awesome

[00:15:27] he has like a wide selection of rubber dam clamps of rubber dam retainers and

[00:15:33] I have a lot of rubber dam retainers over the years that was one of the things I used to do I would buy rubber

[00:15:37] Dam retainers because I was convinced that that if I had the right one it was gonna make things work and everything

[00:15:42] I've come to realize for me

[00:15:43] I only need really two maybe maybe three including an interior on occasion

[00:15:48] but I only need I only need the

[00:15:50] the w8a

[00:15:52] The wingless 8a which is the apical one and the w2

[00:15:57] Which is a pre Miller size one those two and so you can get one of those each from

[00:16:02] from

[00:16:04] from Lou Berman's

[00:16:05] Berman instruments website for six bucks a piece like your shipping is probably gonna be more

[00:16:10] Expensive than anything else. Also, they have cool limited edition like rainbow ones. You can still get also six bucks

[00:16:17] I'll tell you this

[00:16:17] I like to sandblast them when I'm done using because rubber dam clamps seem to get gunk on them like crazy

[00:16:24] They get restorative materials on them. No matter how hard you try. It's like instruments. They get gunk on them

[00:16:28] So I sandblast them so the black the cool black coating on them comes off after you Sam sandblast them

[00:16:35] But I don't care just I know that they're clean and bottom line if you're sandblasting your rubber dam clamps

[00:16:39] They look clean and they look nice and I like using that way and they get they do get weakened over time for sandblasting

[00:16:45] But guess what?

[00:16:45] They're six bucks from Berman instruments and you can if you decided you're gonna use a rubber dam on more restorative things

[00:16:53] It will change the way you feel about dentistry and you can like get started with a really good rubber dam clamp for six bucks

[00:17:00] So there's one upgrade I'm giving you for six bucks. Check that out

[00:17:04] now one of the things that keeps people from using a rubber dam is

[00:17:09] The pinchiness of a retainer

[00:17:11] I never try and place a retainer on a tooth that I that I don't have

[00:17:16] Profound tissue anesthesia on you can place a retainer on a tooth

[00:17:21] That's not numb and it won't hurt the tooth. It hurts the gums is what happens

[00:17:25] so I like to have really profound tissue anesthesia before I place it too and

[00:17:30] There is something to be said about the profoundness of your anesthesia including tissue

[00:17:36] You should be able to poke that tissue all you want and no one's gonna complain about it

[00:17:40] You can do that

[00:17:41] Basically, you know, you got to have pressure behind your injection to get the tissue numb. I've talked about this instrument million times

[00:17:48] I'm gonna talk about it again. This is a huge upgrade this this makes this makes life so much better and so much easier

[00:17:53] It's an instrument called the paraject by a company called septodont

[00:17:57] And I'm gonna give you a link to crazy dental because they have the lowest price of the paraject

[00:18:02] Intraligamental syringe that I've been able to find online. It's 360 bucks

[00:18:06] So it's not an inexpensive thing it's not it's not as expensive as a interaural scanner

[00:18:11] It's not as expensive as a CT, but it's kind of expensive

[00:18:14] Here's the thing if you have this you will find reasons to use it. The best reason is to get tissue

[00:18:22] Numbness, honestly, you can also do a periodontal ligament

[00:18:26] Injection so if you've got a hot tooth that you're having a hard time getting numb

[00:18:29] You can go you can put this right it's like the wand except it doesn't have the electronic part

[00:18:33] It just allows you to it allows you to put a lot of pressure behind your injections, but you're holding it like a pen

[00:18:38] It's very cool

[00:18:39] So if you go to crazy dental though

[00:18:41] I'll put the link in the show notes for this thing and then you use the coupon code very dental 10 you get another

[00:18:46] 36 bucks off is 10% off

[00:18:48] And this will I love mine man. I have I have I think I have like five of these things

[00:18:53] I just and I call it the pencil whenever I want the pencil

[00:18:56] They just grab this thing that means I'm gonna have really good tissue anesthesia if I need it

[00:19:00] I use it more now than I ever have and honestly, the other thing is I don't

[00:19:03] I'm not a guy who loves to pack cord, but I understand the benefits of packing cords in a lot of situations

[00:19:10] Out comes the pencil if you have complete tissue anesthesia, and I do the palatal all the time

[00:19:14] I literally I lean into lean into the pallet with a mirror and give them this paraject and they're so numb

[00:19:19] You could do anything you wanted to so you can pack cord till the cows come home. It's great

[00:19:22] I swear by it. This is an upgrade to not having this as far as I'm concerned

[00:19:29] Obviously, I'm sure there are tons of upgrades that you guys can think of things little things or even big things that have made dentistry

[00:19:35] More fun and better for you and less of a burnout risk

[00:19:38] Because if you look for I know it sounds dumb to say oh

[00:19:41] I really look forward to going into work so I can use this particular instrument sounds dumb until it's kind of true

[00:19:46] You know, it's fun

[00:19:48] You changing changing it up the things that you're doing on a normal basis

[00:19:52] You know bread-and-butter restorative dentistry can get a little boring, you know, whether that means

[00:19:57] Trying a new composite matrix or trying a new, you know sectional ring or trying a new

[00:20:04] Periodontal ligament syringe or whatever you can it's kind of fun. It's like hey

[00:20:08] This is kind of cool

[00:20:09] Like our our nature is to be kind of experimental about these things because that's sort of what dentists do you're trying new things

[00:20:15] And this is a fun way to upgrade your experience without changing it too much

[00:20:19] I remember Seth Godin used to call it zooming

[00:20:22] I think I've talked about this with Seth Seth Godin was is a guy who writes about marketing God had probably

[00:20:28] 15 20 years ago. He was talking about zooming which was

[00:20:33] Kind of like what you're doing, but a little different, but it isn't like the full paradigm shift. It's just like zooming

[00:20:39] It's trying something a little different

[00:20:40] But you know so making what you're doing just a little more interesting a little more different, but it's not a complete paradigm shift

[00:20:46] It's not taking my bread-and-butter restorative practice and turning into it an all-in-four office

[00:20:51] It's just I'm using a little bit different materials

[00:20:55] Or I'm using a little bit different instrumentation to do the same thing and it's maybe a little bit better

[00:20:58] And it's definitely more fun is keeping it interesting. I think

[00:21:01] Upgrades to keep what you do interesting is a great idea, and I know it sounds dumb

[00:21:07] But I think it's it's pretty important to help with burnout that you do things a little differently just to keep it interesting

[00:21:13] I could be wrong if I'm wrong

[00:21:15] I would love to hear you tell me how wrong I am in the very dental Facebook group

[00:21:19] So go to the very dental Facebook group if you are not a member

[00:21:21] we're actually having quite a few people recently joining up again, so I'm gonna give you the

[00:21:26] Passwords passwords are Lipscomb McQuethy

[00:21:29] Timmerman Hornbrook or Papa Randy one of the five I've had a lot of Hornbrook

[00:21:34] I've had a lot of Papa Randy not so much Timmerman lately, but he was the original he was the OG

[00:21:40] But any of those five or all five for that matter will get you in

[00:21:44] So I'm keeping the very dental Facebook group small because I'm only really letting people in who hear the passwords on

[00:21:50] On the podcast so it's a small group, and it's a safe group done that on purpose

[00:21:55] I have to tell you I've been thinking about

[00:21:58] Creating another group that is not password protected that could be a bit more of a garbage fire if we want it

[00:22:04] This to be because what happens is when you get a bigger group

[00:22:07] You tend to get more people that are not in the know with the podcast or whatever and it's probably more trolly

[00:22:12] But frankly that's what the dental hacks nation was it was a blast, but it was also a garbage fire

[00:22:18] So I'm thinking about that if you guys have any thoughts on on yes start another Facebook group that we could be trolls in or no

[00:22:24] Keep it small

[00:22:25] I'm not I'm not gonna change the the current listeners group the group that I have the password protection from listening

[00:22:31] But I'm thinking I might do something just for fun

[00:22:34] Social media is a complete shit show so I don't know why I'm even thinking this but sometimes sometimes

[00:22:39] It's fun to have a group that you can sort of be a little bit crazier on like that

[00:22:43] I'm thinking about that so go go

[00:22:45] Let me know if you think I'm wrong or right about the little upgrades to make things a little bit better

[00:22:49] My shifting is faster on my mountain bike

[00:22:53] My anesthesia is more sure my patients are more comfortable when I'm placing a rubber dam clamp or packing cord because I've been using this

[00:23:00] Give yourself an upgrade go for go get yourself a $6 rubber dam clamp and tell me I'm wrong. I'm serious

[00:23:05] I really appreciate you guys listening to show this was this is kind of fun

[00:23:09] I hope your Memorial Day is peaceful and happy and

[00:23:13] Go join the very little Facebook group, and we'll catch you next week