I saw this guy last weekend.

Hello,

Did I ever tell you that I will never put a book down? I don't care how much it sucks I don't stop. If it is bad I will read it day and night just to finish it.
I am doing this right now with the Operational Instructions book by Anne Lamont. It is not that it is terrible but it is just not good.
But I have bought a new book called The Lone Soldier.
I am dying to read it. I know I will start by Monday.
Anyone read it yet?

Now lets get to it,
I mentioned I went to the Florida National Dental Conference this weekend.
I went to a couple of courses and my head is still spinning.
I want to tell you about them.

I went to a three hour course on Smile Makeovers. As have dabbled in lecturing, I think the person talking has to be credible. I think the vibes the presenter gives off is important to me.
You know...Can I trust this guy? Do I buy what he is selling?
If it is a 65 year old guy talking to young people about how it is being a new dentist. RED FLAG.
This guy I couldn’t read. He was wearing some nice slacks (do they still call them slacks or is that just what my mother calls them) and a polo shirt. No suit. Hmm?
He started the lecture with I am busy with the reconstruction part of my practice but the day to day stuff is slow so this when I start lecturing more. Hmm?
That is weird because I know for a fact that lecturing is not that profitable. It’s cool but not profitable.
He is a Pankey grad, so he has that going for him.
He has created a Tier IV practice. He doesn’t do kids and he doesn’t do fillings or small stuff. (Now to me this is like saying he practices on the moon. How can you not do fillings? What if during one of your full mouth reconstructions someone has a tooth that has occlusal decay? Do you refer to another general dentist to do a filling? Do you wait until it needs a crown?)
So this is all in the first 10 minutes of the lecture. So I am getting a pretty good picture of who I am listening to.
Now to his lecture.
His slides are magnificent. And I just don’t say this about anyone. He takes pictures of the patient during a New Patient Exam in a mini studio ( in the space where his panoramic machine used to be) in his office.
Even the slides on his PowerPoint were damn good. They looked like they were professionally done. Not the pictures but the slide. So not only is he Tier IV at the office but in his lecture as well. Damn do I feel small.
He was a little stiff for me. No jokes, no smile, just down to business. Never raising his voice (very monotone). But this kind of goes with everything else.
Anyway, I will tell you the long short of his lecture. The second half of the lecture was talking about one case and I want to tell you about it.
He saw a woman for a New Patient Exam and she didn’t return. But she eventually came back. Only after she had 28 units done in the Arizona area for about $38,000.
She was miserable. Her jaw was hurting and she could hardly open her mouth.
Now she hated dentists and wanted all her teeth out.
He said it took about 6 months of pampering to get her to trust dentists again. He equilibrated her after an initial occlusal splint therapy. Once she said, “Can you do what you did with my splint and do it with new crowns?” he knew she was interested in the dentistry he provided.
After proper mounting and lab wax ups, after significant amount of study and education of the patient, he got started.
He says the dentist previous to him used all porcelain crowns with Unicem. He said this was a major issue because the stuff would not come off. Even to the point of breaking teeth to try to get them off. When he showed photos of the preps it was like a war zone.

Now the temporary phase. Pretty good temporaries. I mean he was no Frank Spear but good.
Because she had lost some teeth she now went in for implants on the upper.
While she was waiting for the implants to integrate this allowed him to go to completion on the lower.
He does his arches in 3 sections. He never takes a full arch impression. So he did the posterior right, then the posterior left, then the anteriors.
Once he finished the mandibular arch he flashed a photo and pointed out some mistakes.
Now he does professional wax-ups. He uses the best labs in the world.
Let me just take a second to tell you about the kind of labs he uses. They charge $550-600 a unit, no this is not a misprint. He says that the lab picks the doctor. He says they interview you. And they will tell you if they will work with you. He says that they an take up to 6 months to get a case back to you. Hmmm?
Back to the case…My thing is that he does the all the pre-treatment work up (mounting, studying and waxing) and there are still mistakes. He was saying how the canine was too high and the buccal of #28 stood out a little. How does this stuff still happen after all the mounting, studying, waxing and temporaries? (I mean if it is going to happen with or without the months and months of pre-treatment work, why do it? I mean, I know the answer, I am just saying.)
Then he began to put in all the uppers. 3 sections.
Like I said before, they were magnificent.
But here is the catch. I TOOK FIVE YEARS TO COMPLETE THIS CASE.
Oh, yeah and $85,000. Yes I said, EIGHTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS.
It took over 80 visits.
I can see a year and a half with the implants and the occlusal study but five years.
The lecture was good. The lecturer was very credible. But there are questions.
Am I the $38,000 guy?
Am I okay in my Tier III world.
My stuff is good but this guys stuff was WOW!!!
Do I change and try to do this?
You know what I am saying?

I will end here because something exciting happened yesterday that I want to tell you about.
I also need your help.

The AGD called yesterday and asked it I wanted to give a lecture at the annual meeting.
She then went on to tell me what I was being asked to do.
Apparently last year the annual meeting rolled out a new thing where they have a dude (like me) giving a 50 minute lecture on the exhibit floor. You know off to the side but right in front of everyone.
The exhibitor wears a microphone and the audience wears headsets (to block out all the outside noise).
I know it was late notice and someone like Gordon Christianson had to drop out and I was first on the SUCKA list, but I don't care. (She was funny, she said that I could think about it over the weekend and I said, "I don't need to think about it. Yes.")
This is how I roll. Don't think, DO.
It is going to be on Thursday at 3:20pm. I know we talked about a BBQ but maybe this will be the next best thing to sloppy joes. I will ask if I can bring the beer.
I want you all to come. I will have special blog VIP seating.
This is just another reason to come to Orlando in 4 weeks. If you haven't signed up, it is getting late.
I know I am always the one doing things on the last minute but NOT this year.
I am growing, what can I say.

But this is where I need your help.
They have given me until Monday to think about what I am going to talk on.
And you all know that the name of the course is what brings people in. I went to a course this weekend and it was called How to Get People to Accept Comprehensive Treatment and there was 300 people in the room.
Can I tell you I have spoken to 7 people before? My title must suck.
But I digress.
What do you think I should call it? The subject matter will come later but the title is important.
I am thinking something like...
Meat and Potatoes. No I am serious.
I (think) I am a dentist's dentist. I am not too advanced. I am not all about mega research but I am about the stuff that goes down day to day.
I can do a mean filling and I am passionate about doing everything well.
You have seen and read alot about my stuff.
What do you think?
How about...
Top Ten ways to make your practice stand out.
or
Exquisite Fillings

See what I mean, I need your help.
YOU MUST HELP.
Lets brain storm together.
Write me your title suggestions.

Thank you in advance,
john