Digital Cosmetic Dentistry

Full Transcription:

Shaun Keating:                   This week we’ll be talking about digital cosmetic dentistry. We have a practicing cosmetic dentist who has been making the transition to digital impression taking due to its benefits of time saving, data storage, precision, and flexibility. Please welcome Dr. Marc Purdy, practicing cosmetic dentistry in Ithaca, New York. Hey, Dr. Purdy. What’s up buddy?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Good, Shaun. Thank you. (laughs) Doing all right.

Shaun Keating:                   It’s so cool, dude, that you came on. I know you’re so busy. You had a patient in the chair. That was kind of an emergency. I was sitting here waiting for a little bit, and I’m thinking, “I hope it’s not one of my crowns that’s not fitting.” I guess a small, little patient came in with some issues?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Not a chance. Your crowns are doing quite nice for me.

Shaun Keating:                   That is so cool, man. I’d like to start talking a little bit about sports. I know you’re in upstate New York, pretty much up there. Do you guys like the Buffalo Bills? Are you New York Giants, New York Jets? You like the football? What teams do you guys root for out there?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  They’re all sad right now. (laughs)

Shaun Keating:                   I was going to say … The Giants lost to the Cowboys. The Jets lost to the Bills. At least you’ve got Buffalo out there that won.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Okay. Their winning season right now.

Shaun Keating:                   1 and 0. They got rid of those coaches, Rex Ryan and his brother Rob. I get a lot of guys saying, “Hey, Shaun. You kind of look like Rob Ryan a little with that long hair.” I’m like, “Dude, I’m not that fat.” That’s kind of crazy.

My mom is from upstate New York, a little place called Little Falls, New York. I don’t know if you know where that is. It’s up by the Adirondack Mountains, somewhere up there. We used to have to fly into a little place … Syracuse, actually, to get there. It’s been years. But yeah, Little Falls, New York, man. That’s what you call a poke and plum town. You poke your head out the window, you’re plum out of town. (laughs)

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  [inaudible 00:02:06] completely opposite. You went to LA, huh?

Shaun Keating:                   Yeah. My dad was a Navy man. My mom met my dad. He was in Boston, born and raised. But he was in the Navy. They got divorced after 17 years. I was just like a five-year-old. We had four boys and a girl. I was the youngest of four boys.

My mom and dad got divorced, so my Uncle Dick lived out in a little place called Westminster, California. It’s in Orange County. My mom said, “I’m taking the kids out to California.” Thank God. We moved out in like 68 and been here ever since. It’s a different world, man.

I can imagine I would have been a back east freaking dude, not a beach guy. I grew up in Huntington Beach and …

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  You would’ve been a mountain man. (laughs)

Shaun Keating:                   I would have been a mountain man with a beard and … No. Who knows. I’m kind of glad it worked out the way we did.

I was excited to get you on board here. Let’s go ahead and just dental up a little bit. I was so excited to get you on board with us because you’re just a real great dentist practicing. I think we met way back or you got word of us. Bob Brandon told me that he met you … It was at a … What was it? It was like a …

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Out in Vail.

Shaun Keating:                   Out in Vail, Colorado, at the Rocky Mountain Study Club in like 2006. He met you. I guess, Bob, he did a speech on CAPTEK. We were one of the top CAPTEK labs in the nation back then. But you had came in and started with us with CAPTEK back in the day. It was so cool that we got this one doctor, Marc Purdy from New York. Dude, you’ve been just crushing it with us ever since. You went through CAPTEK, and then you went into all ceramics, and then you kind of did KBG Ultra for a while. Now you’ve been with the monolithic with us.

I know, Dr. Purdy, you were looking into the digital impressions. I know you went back and forth with us, with Bob and stuff. Tell me what system you got, which one you picked out, and what do you think about it?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Like you said, Bob was instrumental in helping me know when the timing was right, that he thought it would be for a solo practitioner. I’ve been to a couple of lectures that guys had the 3Shape and was pretty impressed with how it worked. I had the chance to go down to the New York City meeting and actually look at all … I think it as three maybe that’s out there, that are pretty highly rated. Just felt this was the better way to go. I was happy with it.

[inaudible 00:04:45] always taking my time, making sure I get the technology that works. My father was a dentist before me. I had plenty of opportunities to see how he’d buy something and it sit on the shelf shortly after. There’s a lot of stuff that he has on shelves.

But I did learn, and that’s how I got into dentistry. He had me hooking up some fiber optic hand pieces when I first came out. We’d have some new technology for him. I’d try to help him put it into use and the equipment and something like that.

I have really taken my time and watched. Obviously [inaudible 00:05:30] the first one’s out. The thing that I find is that it’s got to be easy for me. I don’t want to buy something and spent all kinds of time tinkering and messing around with it. In a modern-day, efficient office, I got to be producing [inaudible 00:05:47] Doing the things that I do and let the systems do the things that they can do. Boy, this now is … Finally we kind of reached that point.

I kept checking with Bob. I kept asking, “Are we there yet?” And he’d say, “Maybe not for you. Give it another year.” He was a good feedback for me. I really appreciated that.

It was this last one with the New York meeting, had a chance to really look around and see the different offerings. Went with 3Shape. Had a couple people show me how it was working. It just seemed really quite good. I really was impressed.

Shaun Keating:                   We have the 3M one here. But the 3Shape comes in color. They also have a [inaudible 00:06:41] function and a color map with it on their TRIO scanner. I know it’s a little bit more pricey than iTero and the other ones out there, but I just think all my top scanners I have here are 3Shape. These things … Some of them are 40, 50 grand for some of these newer scanners. That’s just for the models and stuff.

The CEO came in here a while back. Young dude, kind of looks like Mark Zuckerberg in a way, but taller. The dude came in. Humble as can be. Showed us things that we weren’t even doing. Kind of hooked us up with the different people at 3Shape. I just love that guy. When he came in and just kind of humbled himself down and spent the whole day with us, by himself.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  That’s great. Yeah.

Shaun Keating:                   For a dude to be that big and to do that, hats off to him. I really love their product.

That’s awesome that you got it. A lot of guys … “I can get this one for 10 grand cheaper, this one for 8 grand.” Sometimes you can’t just cut corners …

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  You get what you pay for.

Shaun Keating:                   Exactly.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  You get what you pay for.

Shaun Keating:                   By then you’re going to be buying this model and this model to update to this. Although that’s kind of with all of them. I just think it’s a great thing for us, as a dental lab. A lot of guys say, “You’re worried about digital impression?” No. Digital impressions I embrace. I love.

As for guys getting all their CAD/CAM milling machines in their office, you’re going to do two or three crowns a day. If that’s what you want to do, that’s what you want to do. As for digital impressions, you could still do all that you’re doing. It’s a pretty neat thing for the consistency and the accuracy.

But that’s awesome, man. I’m glad you got into that. We’re doing them left and right, like I said. Earlier we got 9 and 10 on Edith, Edith Bunker. [crosstalk 00:08:37] “But Archie! But Archie!”

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  The funny part with Edith is that she wants her teeth crooked. That’s why we’re [inaudible 00:08:47] She wants them just the way they were. She didn’t want me to change it.

Shaun Keating:                   I love that.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  “You can’t change the crookedness of them.”

Shaun Keating:                   We don’t want it like a picket fence. I got an Aunt Pat just like that too. “Shaun, I want it shorter. I don’t want it even. I want this one shorter. Kick out the dis-aligned angle.” She didn’t say the dis-aligned … “I want it kicked out like the preop.” That’s good. That’s real.

We do that all the time. Even when we’re doing setups on the 22 to 27 in a fix case, or 6 or 11, we like to flare out. Kick out the laterals a little bit. Let’s drop the heights in here. Let’s really get those embrasures separated and make it look like individual teeth. You don’t want that bright fence always. Especially, from far away, it all just kind of blends in. It’s really important on separation and characterization, when it comes to that.

For Edith to say that, good for her, man. All the way out there in Ithaca, New York. Love it.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  That’s right. (laughs)

Shaun Keating:                   You went with the best one from what I hear and what we see. It’s a little more expensive than the other ones but man … Just the whole color and everything else. It has the shade-taking color map with it too. Are you using that at all yet?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  We haven’t messed with that yet. Maybe we communicate pretty well with you because I just did a crown right before I sat down here. I’m just looking at it, going, “Man, I can’t get over that these things can look as good as they do.”

Shaun Keating:                   That’s just amazing.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  You figure that it was a block of white when it first came out and you’re trying to pull porcelains off of it.

Shaun Keating:                   It’s just crazy how the monolithics evolve. I see that you’re using more and more of our Bruxer aesthetic. I think it’s one of the best monolithics out there, aesthetically.

A lot of these guys are kind of dumbed down with some of the product that’s been available from some of the bigger monsters out there selling it. “More brawn than beauty.” That’s not with ours. We have the strength but we have also the aesthetics. This Bruxer aesthetic can mimic an e.max pretty damn close.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Yep. And they’re real pleased with. Why not go with something that’s stronger than e.max if you can make it look good?

Shaun Keating:                   Exactly. Almost twice the strength. It’s kind of up there with enamel, in a way. How much strength do you truly need?

In the old days of PFMs, through the years we’ve done so many of those restorations. You always have that little tin can effect here and there when you loaded up a crown, if I was thinning and area, or if it was not totally bonded with the opaque. We had a little bit of pop-age and breakage. That’s kind of what got my hair silver is all those years of doing thousands of PFMs. Little bit of breakage here and there. That’s kind of gone away. Our breakage is kind of gone. Now we’re just really pushing the envelope on aesthetics. It’s just amazing.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Several of the people I used to listen to were very big years ago on gold. They really loved gold. You get a patient and they’re like, “Huh? I don’t want gold.” So this is like a perfect match because you got very similar characteristics. You’ve got something that won’t fracture, that’s a lot like a gold crown. Hard to beat it.

Shaun Keating:                   It really is. My old boss, for years he’d say, “Shaun, if we could just get a gold material in the color of teeth, we’ll be rich.” And I’m like, “Jim, it ain’t never going to happen.” Because gold is the best restoration. It’s just so beautiful. It’s going to go to the grave with you. The sealant of the margins. It’s never going to break. But the whole thing was color, especially out here in the west coast. Everything’s, “I need toilet bowl white.” This and that.

It’s weird how patients, in the back of the mouth, where you can’t see your teeth … Gold is just a great restoration, but a lot of the newer doctors, they will never use it. Some of the older guys are having tough times with patients accepting it. At the end of the day, it is one of the best materials still.

But now with this monolithic type material, if you can get it in the mouth, it’s going to go to the grave with a lot of these patients. There’s not going to be any breakage. If you have nice [inaudible 00:13:26] and that … Especially, too, with the cost and everything, it’s really brought pricing back to the 80s and 90s. As a lab it’s tough with trying to get … anything over $100 too much, it’s like, “Shaun, I’ve got these guys. I can get it for this, this, this.”

I go, “I know that but I can go to 7-Eleven, get a hamburger there too, but it’s not an In-N-Out Burger, dude.” It is what it is. At the end of the day we have to be competitive price-wise. I think we really are with our materials and products here. But that is so cool, dude.

Tell me a little bit … Today. You sent a case in for this morning for a number 18 monolith. How long does it take for a scan to do a single prep? Say, like, a single prep on a quadrant. Does it take you long? Tell me a little bit about that.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I don’t have to worry about it. My assistant’s doing that.

Shaun Keating:                   I was going to say, “Next question is: your RDA, is she doing this function? Can you delegate it to an RDA?” Obviously, you are.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Yep. It’ll kick it back. It’ll tell me that something’s not right. If they struggle with it, I come up and I enable it and we’ll get the [inaudible 00:14:39]

Shaun Keating:                   Absolutely.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  It’s very nice. How are we now?

Shaun Keating:                   That sounds so much better.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Sorry.

Shaun Keating:                   It’s all good, dude.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Check, check. One, two. (laughs)

Shaun Keating:                   One, two. No. That’s so cool. No worries there. Is there anything different you do for margin isolation? Do you utilize the same techniques for a PVS or an upper gum impression?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Funny you should say that. When I bought this there was a deal, which worked out pretty well for my benefit, but that’s only because now they’ve gone to a cordless version … They were selling me the corded version.

But I ended getting a diode laser from DILAS. That’s one option that you can either do with their diode … I also have a water laze. I jumped into technology, like you say. But I still find if I pack a first cord around, I do the prep, a la Gordon Christensen, a lot of times I’d follow that and I can many times just pack another one right after it and pull it. We have not had a problem. I’m pretty much doing what I’ve done in the past.

It does make me be honest though. I have to be honest with what type of case I’m doing. If I get into a situation where it’s on a second molar or even somebody who can accommodate a third molar, that distal area, there’s too much tissue back there. The scanner will have trouble picking that up. That was one of those little bugaboos we worked out between you guys and us. I’ve learned that either I’ve got to cut that tissue back or I’m going to have to take a traditional impression.

I’ve learned what limitations there are. As far as the prep … I talked with Bob when I first got it. He says, “Yeah. You got to change your prep a little bit.” That was pretty straightforward and got it done.

Shaun Keating:                   That just makes you better. You can see everything. That’s a tough impression no matter what, by digital or doing it by hand with a PVS. It’s kind of neat that the system won’t let you go on to the next area or the next level unless you get it right.

What’s also bitching is if we have an impression that something doesn’t go right … Maybe we missed the mesial lingual of that number 18. We can go right back into the file and bring it on down. It’s on file where you almost … I’ve done it on a few crowns. “Shaun, we missed this line angle on the gingival margin on the palatal of 24.” Whatever. We can go in there and drop it where we need to, on the same circumference of that prep and not even need a new impression. We can do it real quick and send it right back out to you.

It’s kind of neat that you do have that file. It’s just amazing.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I’m glad that that’s happening for somebody else because it hasn’t happened for me. (laughs)

Shaun Keating:                   We only did it once or twice. I’m just like, “That’s amazing that we can go right into the file and just add to it in that one area.” And then it actually works. We have the same dimensions for contacts, mesial distal-ly.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Right. That was one little spot we did have one time, I think, where it’s kind of surprising. The contact was a little off. But like you said, you send it back and you can make that change.

Shaun Keating:                   That’s so cool. It really is. On the delivery appointments, are they going a little bit less seat time or about the same or … Because you were always sound in your impression taking.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I’ll tell you, that was why when Bob said “Send me out a couple cases. Try our lab,” I was so impressed. Most of the time I would get stuff back and I was barely even having to worry about … I would always check it but I would always find that the contacts were so nice. If I’d done the right job of showing you the margins, you guys usually didn’t screw it up.

Shaun Keating:                   (laughs) That’s so cool, dude. And you’ve done a ton of those, like a million dollars in lab work. You’re crushing it out there in Ithaca.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  As Bob and I have talked, and as you’ve said, it is amazing to see it all done modelessly. To get that back is kind of unnerving to see that without a model. But you get that crown, it sits on there, and it’s just like, “Boom. Done.”

Shaun Keating:                   That’s so crazy. It blows me away because I’m an old school, [inaudible 00:19:29] technique. Got to have [crosstalk 00:19:32] and this and that. This stuff is like, “God!” And my kids are … It’s up there alley with this digital and all this stuff.

Today, we got one … Patient Edith. I won’t give her last name but all by itself, monolith. It has a little printout on the screen here. It’s number 9 and 10. We’re doing freaking 9 and 10. We’re going to do it [inaudible 00:20:01] monolith. We’ll do the Bruxer aesthetic. You got the VITA 3D-MASTER 3M1. And it’s monolith! No. I think he might send a model on this one. We will be sending him a model of her teeth, using her impression for a temporary, or just for a study model then, right?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Geez. That’s this morning they popped that one out you.

Shaun Keating:                   Yeah! That’s just this morning, dude. I’m popping this up, 9 and 10. It’s just freaking … It’s just amazing, man, how dentistry has come to this level. It’s so cool. Not saying you’re an old dog, but you’ve been doing this how long? When did you start doing dentistry?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Too long ago.

Shaun Keating:                   Nah! 87?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Yep. I graduated in 88 so it was that fall.

Shaun Keating:                   Can you believe that? And look it. Old dog, new tricks. You’re going digital impressions. A lot of guys just fight it. It’s usually my younger dentists in their late 20s and 30s and maybe in their 40s, they might give it a shot. But it is pretty neat.

What I really like is the predictability and the accuracy, man. When I can get away from pouring liquid-powder ratios and die stone … It expands and then it shrinks and then the impression material likes to expand and it shrinks and you have all this little science working. There’s some variables that can go wrong.

When it comes to fit … “Well it fits the model.” Well my model expanded by 23% more than it should have, or it shrunk by that much. The polyvinyl … I’m a big polyether guy, the accuracy of that. Polyether is really accurate. Polyvinyls can be night and day, just depending on one of three manufacturers that make all the PVS out there. They just color coat them and make them different for different companies.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  When I came out of dental school there was a couple of companies that were having troubles with their PVS. It was just a mess. I had cases coming back that didn’t fit. They were trying to figure out was it the pour up, was it the impression matter? It turned out that Kerr had a bad batch of impression material.

Shaun Keating:                   They go through that, then they go through “It could have been the 35,000 feet in the air in the plane, belly of the beast, and the ion structure of the” … Whatever, dude. You got a bad batch. You’re busting my ass all the time on … “What is going on with this?” Get rid of that batch and try a new one.

What I always found was great when I have a doctor with some issues with impressions or not fit, I’ll send them some of my stuff out. I’ll have some Impergum or I’ll get a good imprint from 3M, which is their PVS. They’re more expensive and everything, but they’re just really accurate.

I’ll send them the stuff and send them to their girls, or whoever’s taking impressions. Low and behold, everything fits then. It’s an impression issue.

With digital, man, computers don’t lie and the parameters don’t lie. If you can get occlusions dialed in and get it scanned right … That was our biggest thing: getting that learning curve of how to go ahead and make sure that we’re all on the same page. We’re all kind of dialed in with the parameters together. It works amazing. Little to now adjusting and the fits are unbelievable and the aesthetics are coming along great. Pretty crazy.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Absolutely. Yeah.

Shaun Keating:                   That’s awesome. So tell me, why did you get into dentistry? What made you think that? When did you know that? Your pops was obviously …

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Think about this. I met Bob out in Vail. It was my father who went to that when Gordon Christensen was teaching out in Denver, I believe, at the time. It was when they first started, back in the mid 60s maybe. He got to go every single year for a week to go skiing. He took us out once in a while. We go to see. How would you not want to go into dentistry when you can do that kind of thing?

Shaun Keating:                   Exactly. Go to Vail, Colorado. So you’re not a boarder, you’re more of a skier like me. Two skis.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I ski. I have tried boarding. It’s interesting. I put the little wristies on so I didn’t mess with my wrists. I did a face plant.

Shaun Keating:                   I fell on my butt so much trying to trying to wake … Or, wakeboard. Tried doing that too. I’m a water skier, two skis. A snow skier. I can do any run. But those kids on those little snowboards, man. My ass. I was falling all the time. I’m like, “Forget this. Give me my two skis and I’ll go parallel down that mountain.”

Our big thing here is Mammoth Mountain. Never been to Vail but I always think of that movie Dumb and Dumber with Jim Carey, where they’re trying to get to Vail on the minibike. (laughs) I love that movie.

What are you most passionate about in terms of dentistry? I know you got a big cosmetic practice. Do you like doing the interior segment more than the posterior? Do you do it all? Do you like to do endo or not?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  You’d think I have a cosmetic practice. It’s actually well rounded. It’s a hard sell in our area to get people … It’s not California or Florida. You don’t get people worried about their appearance. What you see, I’ve really worked hard to get people to take a good look or think about it.

Shaun Keating:                   No kidding.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  It’s always trying to plant the seed, get them thinking about it, and maybe it pays off. I do my own endo. I do implants occasionally. I like to cherry-pick those. I’ll send the sinus list to the oral surgeon.

Shaun Keating:                   Gosh. That’s awesome.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Being able to do all those things, that’s what I kind of enjoy about dentistry.

Shaun Keating:                   You really do. You do it all. Today, you were a little bit late to the podcast. You had a little emergency with a younger. So you’re doing pediatric stuff too?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Yes.

Shaun Keating:                   You’re doing it all, dude. Hats off to you, man. Some guys: “I’m only going to do veneers on 4 to 13.” A lot of guys don’t like to do a lot of different things. You’re wearing all the hats. Hats off to you, man.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Thank you. (laughs)

Shaun Keating:                   That’s pretty cool. Tell me about your practice location. Is it the same one you had since you went in? Was it Dad’s old practice? Tell me a little bit about your practice.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Yep. He built it. I can still remember digging, as a kid, clay out of the bottom. They built the foundation incorrectly so we had to level the floor. That was quite interesting. Grew up around it. He had the foresight to build near Cornell University. It’s really been a great location.

Shaun Keating:                   That’s so awesome.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  We’re about to have this huge development right in the area, that Cornell is going to be putting up. He had the foresight to know where to build and he plopped himself in the right spot.

Shaun Keating:                   That’s awesome. How many ops do you got in there? Do you got room for growth? Do you got associates?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Yeah. I think we will. It was my brother and I. My brother and I decided to practice separately. Sometimes family practices work, sometimes they don’t. My brother ended up having a stroke, so his side is being run now by another dentist. I’m not sure how long he may want to continue. If he’s looking to head out, I might try to bring somebody in and takeover the whole upper floor. We’ll see.

Shaun Keating:                   No kidding. How big is your practice, about? How many square feet do you think?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  We’re about 2,200 square feet. We’ve got three dedicated operatories for me and two for the hygiene. We can flex one of those if we have a third hygienist come in from time to time.

I do a half day and the hygienist will sometimes do a whole day over at a life-care community called Kendal at Ithaca. We’ve been doing that for about 20, 21 years.

Shaun Keating:                   What’s that, like on older patients? Just helping out?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Yeah. It’s a life-care community. They wanted to have a facility over there that people could choose to have their dentistry done there if they needed it, especially for skilled nursing or assisted living. With my help, we set up a little clinic area.

They just recently, a couple years ago, expanded it two operatories. We are able to bring a hygienist and I can treat patients. She can be treating patients. I can do my exams same time she’s there. It works out nice.

Shaun Keating:                   Good for you. Good for you. Do you do any sedation at all in those practices or no? Just try to steer clear of that?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  It’s learning how to give nice, slow injections

Shaun Keating:                   Yes.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I’ve never had the need to. I’ve been fortunate. There’s some people in town that dabble with it. Maybe once in a while we might use a little Valium, somebody really needs it. That works out pretty well.

Shaun Keating:                   My one buddy, Dr. Steward, he always used the nitrous, man. Going in to get my teeth cleaned. “We’re going to have a little nitrous.” He can get in trouble with that stuff. You got to be careful. Some patients might up and … Who knows.

I wouldn’t want to be doing myself. I’d be worried about someone nodding off or something happen that had more variables in it, that something can go wrong. I don’t know. I don’t like anesthesia. I don’t like going under because I don’t know if I’m going to come back out. As a doctor it’s like, “I got to do this big scar. I’m going to put you under to do redo this whole thing.”

I’m like, “Let’s just do a local. Just shoot that up and I’ll be awake and we’ll be fine.” Kind of crazy.

What kind of advance can you give my younger guys starting off? Do’s and don’ts. Everyone paints a picture. A lot of guys paint a picture of all this debt and doom and gloom. I don’t know. I find dentistry pretty rewarding. I still find guys crushing it and doing good. I think it is possible.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I guess my advice would be, and it’s kind of on the same lines as Dave Ramsey. I’m not sure if you ever heard of him. He’s big financial guru that talks on the radio. He talks about when you’re trying to get out from under debt, you eat beans and rice.

My version of beans and rice is you don’t necessarily have to go out and buy new everything. If you’re young and you got a huge debt load, you end up taking equipment. This sounds kind of sad but it works quite well. I have some of my father’s Pelton & Crane Chairman Chairs that he bought in 1965, 66, and they’re still running. All you do is you put new upholstery on them. It’s pretty amazing.

Shaun Keating:                   And it does the same thing as those new ones.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  That’s right. You can make something go along. You’ve saved yourself some money all of those years and you put it towards something else. I know this is the era of everybody just buying everything. But yeah, pick and choose. That’s what I’ve done. Now I can say, “Okay. I’m ready for a cone beam.”

I’ve taken panel ups, GE panel ups, and made it last for 20 years, 25 years. You make those things work, and then you’re ready for the technology you can afford. You bury yourself in debt, you’re never going to get your retirement fund.

Shaun Keating:                   No. You’re not.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  That’s what you want to be doing is focusing on what can you do to get your retirement funded? What can you do to have a fun lifestyle? If you’re buried in debt, get yourself out of it as fast as you can. Just pay it down.

Shaun Keating:                   Absolutely. That’s good advice. What about with you for CE? What have you done … I know you went to Vail several years back. (laughs) What do you do for CE?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  It was funny because that meeting … It’s too bad they don’t run it anymore. It was a week long meeting but they would bring in some excellent lecturers. I learned a lot from the people that’d come in and speak at those. Bob Brandon was there.

Shaun Keating:                   Yeah. He spoke for an hour, he said.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  That’s right. I had gone and taken a series of courses down in University of Florida, Gainesville. I’ve listen to people who are really good at what they do. I’ve been to Dawson years ago. I’ve been to Gordon Christensen. You take some hands-on. You really get to do things well.

If dental or the residency program didn’t train you well, go to the people that know how to do it and take the hands-on, ask the questions. Don’t blow it off. Spend the time with them and learn how to do it well.

Shaun Keating:                   Absolutely. We got Howard Farran out here Friday the 13th, October, coming up. MBA in a day if you want to come on out. I’ll fly you out. (laughs) Howard … You almost piss yourself listening to him. It’s raw and uncut. He’s funny as hell, man.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  You also know John Kanca, don’t you?

Shaun Keating:                   Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I enjoyed listening to his lectures. He was influential.

Shaun Keating:                   Yeah. He’s a monster. I met him in like 2002. We were doing a dental show in … Where the heck was it? In Boston, The Yankee. I had a booth and right next to me was Apex Dental Materials. That was his company for cementation. You had Anchor and Surpass and Simplicity and all this stuff.

I met this dude and we just hit it off because he liked drink and I liked to drink. After lunch we went out and we kind of buddied up there. He liked to eat too and I like to eat. We’ve been friends ever since.

The dude’s a hard-ass. It’s kind of a blue collar area in Connecticut, where he’s at. It’s nuts and bolts dentistry but good dentistry. The dude was the president of the AACD and one of the founding members. He does some of the best freaking dentistry. And it’s just on regular people. He is at such a level, but he demands excellence from us too, as a lab. He’ll beat you down a few times.

If we get a contact or something, I see some of the things to Bob … I feel sorry for Bob, our general manager. It’s like, “Dude, he talks to you this way?” That was only like a year ago when I seen that. I’m like, “Dude, John. You got to relax, dude.” It was freaking number 8 or something.

But he’s made us better. He’s a good guy. He teaches a lot of people. We got to get him out. He’s kind of whined down a little bit. But I still do all his lab work, and I have for years. He’s taken us under his wing. When he goes on lectures, he’ll talk about [inaudible 00:35:52] this dude name Shaun Keating. Got a lab, man. And they do good work. Can’t thank them enough for that.

Everyone thinks he’s just a wet bonding and all the different bonding that he’s developed, but he should go out and just talk dentistry and occlusion or prep design or case design or small design, because he could do that better than a lot of guys that are doing it. He’s just real deal. He’ll tell you the way that it is. No nonsense.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Absolutely.

Shaun Keating:                   I get scared of him when I hear his name, like, “[inaudible 00:36:29] What’s he calling for?” (laughs)

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I didn’t mean to make you sweat here, Shaun.

Shaun Keating:                   I’m sweating a little bit. He’s a good dude. I tell all the young guys less debt, try to keep it skimpy, get your materials for taking impressions, don’t buy any of the extra stuff. Just get your hand wet. Get in the trenches and try to save money and pay down debt. First 10 years you just aren’t really going to make any money. Our food when we didn’t have anything and were starting off was chipped beef. That chipped beef you boil right up and you put it on toast.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  (laughs)

Shaun Keating:                   That was our beans and rice, chipped beef. I still love that stuff, but then my wife said, “There’s so much sodium and crap in this. Shaun, you can’t eat this.” I said, “I love that chipped beef and toast!” The stuff’s probably wicked bad for you.

Well that’s awesome, man. Receiving cases back a little faster with the monolith, aren’t you? You’re getting back in two, three days.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Oh, yeah. It’s very nice.

Shaun Keating:                   Pretty cool there. I know you got to get back to work. Tell me about yourself a little bit more. Do you have any hobbies you enjoy? What do you like doing?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I play a little hockey in the morning. Work out in the morning, yeah.

Shaun Keating:                   Really? Ice hockey or street hockey?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  One time we had about four or five dentists playing. That way if you wack somebody, you had to go fix them. (laughs)

Shaun Keating:                   We used to do that when our boys … It’s weird. Our oldest son, today, he’s born on 9/11, man. 9/11/84. I got a 33-year-old boy today. Kind of crazy. But back in our days, the big hockey thing … We do it on our roller skates or rollerblades. I used to get hockey sticks … I used to get like two a week because I break those son of a guns and …

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  And they aren’t cheap.

Shaun Keating:                   Yeah. They’re not, man. I used to get good. I used get that puck about half a foot to a foot off cement and drive that think where I could hit it. I’d take them out at the shins. It was crazy. We got at it. Once you got good, we can slap-shot it and all that stuff. We’d have the little nets, and then we’d had to go to a different … We do that knuckle puck thing.

That was back when The Mighty Ducks … Remember that? That stuff was going on with the Anaheim Ducks but it was the Disney movie, The Mighty Ducks. But that’s not real hockey. I can’t ice skate. But I can rollerskate like freaking weirdo beach dude.

We used make people wear helmets and stuff because these things were flying. That’s a tough sport, man. Now I do all the Ducks, like Teemu Salanne and Ryan Getzlaf … The dentist for the Ducks is our dentist here. We do his lab work. We get these dudes coming in all the time. These guys are awesome athletes, man. They’re all from Canada and stuff. They’re from all over. But their teeth are all jacked up.

Teemu, he had all four of his centrals gone and his laterals gone. He [inaudible 00:39:40] We did premolars back. We got him a fixed bridge in now. He has a little steakhouse now in Laguna Beach by us. I say, “Teemu!” He’s a good-looking dude too. “Teemu, your smile looks good.” He goes, “Yeah, man.”

He’s got like number four that he wouldn’t let the dentist do, and it looks like a Chiclet. There’s a dark, old crown from Finland. We did everything else. I go, “Teemu, let’s do that one.” He goes, “Nah. That’s okay, Shaun. Doesn’t hurt or nothing. Just leave it. I don’t care.”

I was like, “Oh. That’s new. Give me a porterhouse and shut up.”

Man, I can’t thank you enough. I know you’re a busy man. I can’t thank you enough for all the work.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for all your work that you used to send is. It really is nice.

Shaun Keating:                   Dr. Purdy, that’s so cool, dude. I get solicited a lot with all those labs out there. I thank you for being one of our biggest accounts and one of our most consistent dentists out there and just a real good levelheaded guy. I love it, man. Not too high, not too low. I got some guys that … “Shaun!” What the heck? (laughs) It’s just all your upbringing and your dad did good, man. Good for Pops.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Thank you.

Shaun Keating:                   How’s Pops? Still doing good?

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  No. He passed away several years ago.

Shaun Keating:                   Rest in peace.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  He had Parkinson, unfortunately. Not a great disease to have.

Shaun Keating:                   No. It isn’t. I told my wife when I start getting like that just put that pillow over my head or something. (laughs) Like Barney Fife says, “I’m saving up for a bullet.”

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  My grandfather who lived to be 96, he says “Whenever I get that age, just take me out back and shoot me.”

Shaun Keating:                   (laughs) That’s what I’m trying to say. If I ever get that bad, take me out and shoot me. Just put that pillow and sit on it. You don’t want to live that way. Look at that. That’s great advice from grandpa.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  It’s tough. It’s tough.

Shaun Keating:                   Yeah. It really is. Well dude, thank you so much. If there’s anything we could ever do … When you go over to that other site too, and we have to give back on some of those patients to help out, if they’re not having abilities to get something that they need, we’ll donate that.

The same thing too … I know in your area, when they’re not sure about the teeth, what they look like, maybe get a study model. Maybe we do some wax ups for you here and there that we could show the patients what it’s all about. Hold on to them. We won’t charge you on those. When we do the finals, that’s where we make the money. We don’t make money on temps and stuff.

Sometimes you need to show that patient. “Look what we can do.” It just really helps a lot.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  I appreciate that.

Shaun Keating:                   Whatever we can do to help you, man. You’ve helped us so much. My hat’s off to you and your practice, doctor.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Thank you, Shaun.

Shaun Keating:                   All right, man. Have a great day and thanks again.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  Thank you.

Shaun Keating:                   All right. Buh-bye.

Dr. Marc Purdy:                  You too. Buh-bye.