3M Mobile Scanner and African Adventure

Full Transcription:

Shaun Keating: Hey, everybody. I’d like to welcome you this week to the Dental Up Podcast here at Keating Dental Art. Today we have Dr. Jack Ringer with us. He’s in Anaheim Hills, California. He’s our cohost here. He’s been busy for the last couple of months. He told me, he goes,”Shaun, I won’t be back til probably May.” Thank god Dr. Ringer’s back, but Jack, what’s up, baby?

Dr. Jack Ringer: Oh it’s good to speak to you again, man. It’s been a while, but time flies, huh? I mean it’s incredible. It seems like two minutes ago I was at you but that was two months ago.

Shaun Keating: Oh it’s so crazy, dude. Yeah. You left me here all alone. I’m floundering, kind of figuring out what the heck on this podcast stuff. We’ve been doing a lot with Skype and GoTo Meeting. I had some issues with our volume and sound, but I think we’re getting it down. Hopefully the listeners will give us a little time to get the quirks done. Dude, it’s so good to have you back onboard. We like to start off in sports a little bit, I like to. Dude, I know you’re a big Ducks fan forever. What a game last night, man. Overtime or what?

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah, like last night, I took my family out to dinner. I was pissed off because I wanted to watch the game. I was sitting there on my phone and I see the end of the first period. They’re down two nothing.

Shaun Keating: Yeah.

Dr. Jack Ringer: I’m like saying, “Oh, maybe it’s good I’m not watching. I’ll be probably screaming at the TV.”

Shaun Keating: Yeah.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Then the next thing I know, I get home, they’re up 3-2 and it’s a minute and a half left. They tie it up. What an overtime, huh? In 40 seconds, or whatever, Rakell gets that shot. It was phenomenal.

Shaun Keating: I couldn’t believe what it Getzlaf, too? I think he had like three goals. I think he set up that last goal.

Dr. Jack Ringer: [inaudible 00:01:38] at four points last night. He’s like the beast. He’s an absolute beast. Now they’ve got back their home ice. They come back on Friday, so it’s 2-2, and the momentum’s with them. You just got to hope, huh?

Shaun Keating: Oh man. I mean when they were down 2 nothing, and I as kind of bragging on it last few weeks. “Oh our Mighty Ducks are at a Stanley Cup playoff.”

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah.

Shaun Keating: “Second Round.” Then these Edmonton dudes, these little Canadians … and they’re kind of younger too. They got a couple vets, but kind of a younger team. Not really been in this position. They freaking at home, you know I heard it’d be tough for you, I know you’ve been a long time season ticket holder, but they kind of spanked you guys at home. Spanked us for 2 nothing. It was like, “What?”

Dr. Jack Ringer: It was pretty depressing. Just shows you, you never know in sports like this.

Shaun Keating: Oh, absolutely. Well hey, we also got a big weekend … I like my horse racing and the first weekend, the first Saturday of every May is the Kentucky Derby. We’ve got 143rd Kentucky Derby going on Saturday. Real tough. I’m betting on Classic Empire. He’s the favorite. There’s several horses that aren’t in it. Harrigon and a couple other big time ones. It’s a big 20 horse race and it’s going to be a tough call.

That one called Irish Warcry, who’s like the second one, and being Irish I’m like, “Fuck. I want to bet on this Irish Warcry.” It’s such a gamble man. They’re so close. I mean you got some that are 4 to 1, some at 6 to 1, some at an 8 to 1 and then I think Gormley this one that I bet on a couple times, he’s like 15 to 1. He’s like won 4 out of 6 races and the last 2 he kind of kicked my butt. So I ain’t betting on him. Not that I’m a big better. I like the big races. The Triple Crown thingie, chairman. It’s like, “C’mon.”

This year there’s no clear favorite for Triple Crown at all because all these horses are not really well known. It’s a toss up. Kind of excited about that. Then we got Canelo Alvarez, the little ginger Mexican kid. He’s a good boxer. He’s kind of funny looking there. It’s kind of trippy the way … I mean he’s a big dude. I’ve been watching him for years box. Canelo, man, I don’t know what that means. I think … I’m not sure if that means “The Ginger.” He’s kind of got red hair. I’ve never seen a Mexican dude with red hair. He’s a tough guy, and he’s fighting Caesar Chaves Junior. You know, Julio Caesar Chaves. You remember him? Remember Senior?

Dr. Jack Ringer: Right.

Shaun Keating: Oh that guy was a stud. Now his son, he’s fighting for the championship against this guy. I think they’re at a buck 68 or something. So we got a good weekend man. Good weekend sports. We got the CDA started today. We got a lot of our staff down. You going to the CDA? Down in Anaheim?

Dr. Jack Ringer: I’m going to be there tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to be meeting with some reps and I got to come over to your booth. It’s just more like a little networking more than anything else. I’m not going to drive it there. That’s crazy. Take a Lyft. Then an Uber.

Shaun Keating: It’s so tough. You know what I found out the best way to do it? We use to taxi in years back and drop us at the front gate. Because they have you actually almost parking over at Disney Land and taking shuttles. Or parking away and walking miles, it seems like. But we found the best way to do it, it costs a little bit of money, but we drive in and right on the end of it all is the Morton’s Steakhouse right there. Well they got a little parking lot with these guards all over. But they charge 50 bucks to park there. And I’m like, “Hey 50 bucks. It’s worth it dude.”

Man because I’m going to freaking eat there in two hours when I go in, check out things, and then walk out. I love that Morton’s. They got a bunch of different good food there. So yeah man, I’m already excited.

Dr. Jack Ringer: It’s not the parking. You go for the food, man. I’m going to take an Uber or a Lyft to get dropped off in front. I don’t have to be dropped off at the steakhouse. Unless you’re buying, I’ll meet you there at the steakhouse.

Shaun Keating: You know I always buy baby. You can eat and drink your fill when you come out with Shaun-y boy. That’s a guarantee. I do that because people looking at me going, “Dude. You’re going to order two different meals?” Like, “Yeah. Go ahead order whatever you want too.” And they’re like, “Man this is different.”

We got our booth there. I don’t even know what number. We’ll have to find out that number and throw it out here in a little bit. Our booth is 22-30.

Dr. Jack Ringer: 22-30. I’ll be there tomorrow.

Shaun Keating: Any of you dentist out there, we’ll try to get this out tomorrow on Friday. But yeah, if you want to come on by we’re there today, tomorrow, and Saturday. Yeah, we got a big booth there. This is our home show. Our California doctors come by and see us. It’s great seeing a lot of our existent accounts but then I get to go out and look at what the other labs are doing. Check out my competition. But dude, yeah, look forward to seeing you at the booth tomorrow.

I’m sure a lot of doctor’s will come by and say, “Hi.” Loved to see you and stuff like that. Well hey man talk me … let’s dental up a little bit, man. I got this thing here, I know you’re a big 3M guy. I know we got the True Def in our operatory here, but dude I heard there’s this new … they one this Edison award for … they got a small portable compact tablet that we can do impres- I mean it’s what a difference from this rolling machine. Now they got this little tablet that 3M’s developed, and won this big Edison award for a mobile True Def app. Little tablet. Do you know anything about that? I’m sure you do.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah. So back in October I went to the Scientific Session that they hold in Minnesota. They invite some dentists there, and that’s when they launched it in Minnesota. It was kind of a cool little thing. They had a guy come out dressed up like a spy in a black suit and everything with this box with a chain on it to his wrist. They open up the box and, there’s the portable True Def.

It was kind of a cool little marketing thing. I’m a huge huge advocate of digital impressions, as you know. It’s just a no brainer now a days. But as with most technology, you got to weigh up the costs and the risks and the benefits of it. Right? How much is this thing going to cost me? What am I going to get out of it? So when I was investigating most of the impression devices out there, logic seemed to me like the technology of the True Def, which is 3D video, was the way to go. Versus the point and click with say Itero or Cyrac or whatever. Plus the price point was so cool. True Def was only 15 grand compared to the others. Which are 30 up to 150 thousand depending if you’re going to get a milling right?

One of the problems with most of these scanning systems is they are a bit bulky. Okay? Even though they’re portable. You know, they’re on wheels. Some of the offices that have multiple ops with multiple doctors and you’re running around and stuff, it becomes a little tedious to wheel the cart around. I mean it’s not the end of the world. You unplug it and this and that. But 3M, I guess, with their brilliance whatever, came up with the portable scanner. Which is 100 percent the same as the one on the cart. The only difference is the screen is smaller and it’s portable.

It’s battery charged. So you don’t have to plug it in when you’re using it. It comes with a little mount. Little portable mount if you want to put next to your chair. Okay? Or you could rest it on a tray if you have it over the chair. Wherever you want. So it’s very very versatile. If I was … you know my practice is kind of small. I’m a single doctor. I pretty much work out of one or two rooms. So the portability of it, for my type of practice, wouldn’t be the big sell. I like the bigger screen for me. You know, older need bigger things. Whatever. With older eyes.

For today, for most of these practices out there are group practices. You have two, three doctors. Maybe more. They have four, eight, ten, operatories. What a when. The price is still the same. Still only like 8 grand. And they can pick it up and take it from room to room to room. An impression digitally today only takes a couple minutes. It’s not like you need it in the room for an hour or something. There’s no mixing. There’s no anything. You have the patient open their mouth, scan it, and give it somebody to take to another room. So I think it’s a brilliant brilliant concept right now. Having the same technology as it was with the larger unit but with the portability.

Yeah. That’s a great device. No surprise they won the award.

Shaun Keating: Oh, it’s huge.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah.

Shaun Keating: Yeah. Anything that has an Edison Award with it … Thomas, man that guy knew his stuff, I’m thinking.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah.

Shaun Keating: I just think it’s … that other unit, not that it’s huge and stuff but it’s just dental ops are kind of not the biggest thing in the world. If you do have four or five or two or three different operatories to pull just a little portable compact tablet and bring it to the next one, to be able to send it off to your lab, I just think it’s a neat convenient thing. For 3M, man I remember when they did their CAD Cam machines, the big lava mills. I mean those were a quarter of a million dollars. They’re so huge. But to see them shrinking the blueprint of these products in the last several years, they really get it.

I know they’re really fighting with the market share of the Zirconia industry. Because they were so high. The pricing came down, and they had to adjust. 3M always … I mean the lava is some of the beautiful-est material out there. It’s just so darn expensive.

Dr. Jack Ringer: They just released the Lava-stetic.

Shaun Keating: That’s what I heard.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Which is really really a pretty ceramic. Okay? Using the cubic zirconia where we’re having the translucency but enough strength in the posterior for your crowns, you in lays, and unless somebody has some of the most absurd expectations with aesthetics, a lab like yours, who mills it out and finishes it, they look gorgeous. I’d have it in my mouth. I would never be able to see that it looks anything different than something hand made. So these monolithic restorations really have captured the market right now.

Shaun Keating: It’s believable. It’s come a long way. We have our own aesthetic too and it just … with the E-Max we’ve done so much. But at the end of the day, E-Max is a pretty finicky material, man. I mean it’s … you can have issues on heating and temperatures and values. It likes to gray out. Bottom line. I’m finding that our aesthetic and the other aesthetics out there are catching up, if not getting right with the E-Max. We’re actually looking at this other stuff. Clesta, we’ve been doing. I think it’s a Shine or a Dent Supply, but we’ve been really putting the Clesta up against the E-MAX, up against the Lissy from GC. Have you tried any of the Lissy yet or no?

Dr. Jack Ringer: No.

Shaun Keating: Man, I’m telling you we’re excited because we just kind of an old dog set in our ways on what we use. Creature of habit. We don’t take the flavor of the month when a new product comes along, we just put it out on the floor and let the technicians, they have nothing in the came other than technique and results so, we put it out on the floor and this Lissy stuff is just … it’s pretty amazing man. I’m pretty excited about it. The wow-ness, I think it’s a little bit better than the E-MAX lately. What we’re seeing with the Lissy. The reaction layer, it’s got like no reaction layer divesting it. It’s actually stronger, but all of the sudden now, I guess, Ivoclar comes out that E-MAX is now 500 mega [inaudible 00:14:09]. I don’t know about that.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Well what they’ve done originally with Ivoclar, when they did all the studies, they published that it was 470 or 90 or whatever it was mega paths. Over the years with the continual studies they were showing it was 500 or a little bit more consistently. At the mid winter in Chicago is when they announced the new branding of it. They call it now “E-MAX 500.” They use the NASCAR 500, the Daytona 500, remember? They use that as a marketing thing. They had a NASCAR. They’re sitting there with 500 written on it, plus E-MAX. It was a whole big marketing thing. But I guess it’s easier for people to process the number 500 than using 487 or 512 or whatever.

But there’s another very aesthetic zirconia that we use. Maybe you know something about it? It’s called “KDZ.”

Shaun Keating: Yeah.

Dr. Jack Ringer: You know anything about that?

Shaun Keating: That’s the Keating Devil Zirconia baby. It’s taken a lot of research and development. Take a lot of beers and a lot of thought process, many nights of working with our scientists and engineers. I don’t think there’s a better product. I think E-Max, Lissy, Clestra … now the KDZ Bruxer baby. Or the Bruxer aesthetic. I think it’s the best stuff on the market.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah, the only problem with it is that name Keating or something. You know they got to think of something better.

Shaun Keating: That’s why we just put the K. We don’t want to upset too many people that don’t like this Irish man here. No.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Call it “Special K.”

Shaun Keating: Special K, that’s it. Dude, that’s so cool man. What else man? Where the heck were you for … you left me for a couple months. What kind of stuff were you doing? I know you had to hit it out … you went on a safari or something. What the heck went on man?

Dr. Jack Ringer: Well yeah. You know my history. I was born in South Africa. My family was and everything. 10 years ago, my brother and I took my dad on safari. He was very old at the time. It was very memorable. It was great. It’s a memory I’ll have forever. He had the memory but he didn’t have it for very long. Because he passed away. My sister never got to go. So I promised him before he died, I’d take her. So a couple years ago I took her on safari. Then I was saying to myself, “You know, I’ve got a son. I don’t want to wait until I’m 90 or 80 years old.”

So when I got back with my sister, I planned the trip for last month. Two years in advance. Just he and I went.

Shaun Keating: Ah, you’re kidding? You didn’t kill no lions did you? Or nothing like that?

Dr. Jack Ringer: Oh no no. Don’t go down that road. The only thing you take away are photographs.

Shaun Keating: Yeah. Thank you Lord. I don’t like those guys that put that shit on the walls, man. It’s like, “Why?” Like the giraffe. Why you got to mess with the giraffe? No.

Dr. Jack Ringer: You want to hear the most frightening kind of story about animals. You know the rhino, it gets poached a lot. Because of the horn. You know what a rhino’s horn is made out of?

Shaun Keating: Uh uh.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Your fingernail.

Shaun Keating: Oh you’re kidding?

Dr. Jack Ringer: It’s just keratin. You know. It’s just fused hair.

Shaun Keating: Unbelievable.

Dr. Jack Ringer: I don’t know how many hundreds of years ago, some bright spark in China thought that the horn had aphrodisiac properties and could cure cancer. So now the Chinese pay for this horn.

Shaun Keating: Oh Geez.

Dr. Jack Ringer: They pay poachers. Do you know what they are paying for one big horn?

Shaun Keating: No.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Take the most stupid guess you can think of.

Shaun Keating: 500 bucks.

Dr. Jack Ringer: 5 million dollars a horn. Dollars a horn.

Shaun Keating: No way. You got to be kidding?

Dr. Jack Ringer: They are killing four these rhinos a night. In these reserves. So the anti-poaching people are really stepping up. They’re using aircraft and thermal imaging and drones and things like this. They don’t arrest these poachers, they shoot them on the spot.

Shaun Keating: Oh, they should. I think they should. They should just go through the villages of all the guys that do that and they should just murder a human … I think the same thing with the elephants, how they cut off the tusks. That’s just the saddest thing man. It just makes me like, “Uhh.” I’m just weird with that. I’m sure a lot of people are. Even dogs and stuff. Fuck, I just don’t like that.

Dr. Jack Ringer: I know. It’s horrible. So when we were there, we actually went to a elephant, it’s kind of like a rescue place. They rescue some of the elephants who the mother or father has died or something. They take the elephant back to this area and they rehabilitate it. When I was there with my son, we went there to that place. I’m just pulling up a picture. Maybe you can see it? I don’t know.

Let’s see if you can.

Shaun Keating: Right there. Oh look at that elephant. He’s got his tusk too.

Dr. Jack Ringer: We’re petting it and then there’s another picture. Here, check this out. There’s my son and I standing with this massive bull elephant.

Shaun Keating: Look at that. That is so huge dude. That’s crazy.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah. I’ll tell you, anybody who wants to do a trip today that is totally unique, you go on a safari. You go to Europe today, there’s still a McDonald’s and a Bed, Bath and Beyond on every corner. The world has become so small. When you’re on safari, man. It is … the air is sweet. You see the animals. They’re right next to you.

Shaun Keating: I wouldn’t be able to sleep in that damn tent. There’s fucking cheetahs and lions and tigers and bears coming to get you. Elephants.

Dr. Jack Ringer: No. They walk right by the jeep. They don’t care about you. We had a massive elephant walk into our lodge one day. It took them seven hours to get him out because he was quite happy there.

Shaun Keating: Yeah, I hear they’re so smart too.

Dr. Jack Ringer: They can be aggressive if they feel threatened. None of the animals were aggressive unless they’re threatened. So you’re sitting in your jeep, they ignore you. I mean we were sitting next to lions and leopards. They just ignore you. As long as you’re not trying to insight or rile them up. It’s just … it’s like a piece of heaven dude.

Shaun Keating: That’s so cool. How long was it? Was it in the Serengeti or where the heck was it?

Dr. Jack Ringer: No. I took my son to the Kruger National Park which is in South Africa. There are dozens of private reserves around it. So the private reserve is the way to go because it’s intimate. You can go off road to see where the animals … you know the food is incredible. I know you’d love that. They feed you about six times during the day.

Shaun Keating: Hell yeah. Sign me up. They got a meal plan, do they?

Dr. Jack Ringer: It’s all included. Man. All the … next time I see you I’ll show you more detail. I’ll tell you, it is the most amazing thing to do. And really-

Shaun Keating: How many days you guys do that?

Dr. Jack Ringer: This trip I took my son, we went to two different lodges. We were there for seven days.

Shaun Keating: No kidding.

Dr. Jack Ringer: So we spent four days in one camp and three in another. When I went with my sister, we were ten days. When I went with my dad, I think we were about eight or nine days. It’s so far to go. It’s 21 to 23 hours flying to get there.

Shaun Keating: Forget that. I’m never doing that. Ever. I wouldn’t care on my private jet dude. I am not. That’s just crazy.

Dr. Jack Ringer: No, you go. You use your frequent flyer miles. You go business or first, you get a nice bed, your own little mini bar, you kick back, and you have all the entertainment, food on the plane. It’s great.

Shaun Keating: I’m waiting for the super sonic jets in a couple years. I’ll pay the 25 grand to be there in three hours. I get nervous just flying to Hawaii from my house. It’s about six hours straight flight. But the whole freaking time, dude, it’s like you’re just over water. It’s like, “What the heck? If we go down, we’re swimming with the fishes.”

Dr. Jack Ringer: You’re not going to go anywhere. It’s safe. It’s fun. It’s great. You should love flying.

Shaun Keating: Yeah. It’s all in the Lord’s hands. And as long as the pilot, it’s not his last day, I feel pretty confident that I’m going to be okay. Because Lord love me. That’s crazy. Well hey dude, man it’s so good to get you back. What else you got in dental? You got awarded something didn’t you? The AACD. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about that?

Dr. Jack Ringer: That’s kind of exciting. You know in cosmetic dentistry we don’t have a specialty yet. But it’s coming soon. There’s a lot of buzz out there about cosmetics and a couple other disciplines getting what we call “Diplomate Status”. That it’s on the horizon. Which will mean that, once that does happen that any dentist who gets the credential can be considered a specialist in that area. Like implants or cosmetic dentistry.

Right now the only credential out there is what’s called the “AACD” accreditation. They took it one step further. They have a level above it called “Fellowship”. Since the inception of AACD, which is 33-34 years they’ve only had about 60 dentists in the world do that. They’re only about 30-35 present active. I’m now one of those.

Shaun Keating: That’s so cool.

Dr. Jack Ringer: That’s a great honor.

Shaun Keating: Congratulations dude.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah. At the AACD meeting couple weeks ago in Vegas they honored the newly accredited and the newly fellowed members. Make you feel pretty special for a whole week. Everything revolves around them. So it was kind of cool. Then another thing I went and did with my affiliate, the Orange County Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, which you guys are part of. We had a fundraiser for the Charitable Foundation for the AACD, and our members in our affiliate all banded together and in the month of March we were able to raise over 15 thousand dollars for the charity. Considering they only get about 50 thousand a year nationwide and we were able to raise 15 thousand in a month.

Shaun Keating: Oh dude.

Dr. Jack Ringer: We presented them with a check in Vegas. That was kind of exciting.

Shaun Keating: Oh heck yeah.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah.

Shaun Keating: That’s awesome dude.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah. So I got a lot of irons in the fire. I’m working on a couple of projects in the Middle East. I’m going to Bahrain to speak in November. We’re working on a project for Dubai and for Qatar. So yeah, there’s a lot of things going on. Also trying to, obviously, treat patients in my practice and enjoy my regular life and go to the Angel games and the Duck games. You know I’m on this sense of urgency as I’m getting older. I want to get it all done, you know?

I don’t want to have regrets.

Shaun Keating: You’re freaking young at heart. You look young. You practice like a freaking monster in that chair dude. You really got it down. Heck, my buddy Mark, we did his grill a couple months back and-

Dr. Jack Ringer: How does he like it?

Shaun Keating: Oh, he loves it man. He sends me pictures all the time. Like, “Dude. Quit sending my pictures of that mug man. Just put it in front of your teeth. I just want to see those.” He’s just so happy. His wife even talked to us. Just his self esteem and teeth really do make a difference. It’s just something that to be able to do that, how we did it, just changed his life. He’s been wanting those teeth to be fixed for years man. To have it happen so quick and I thank you for that.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah, but it’s having a good team like with you guys behind me. I can’t do it myself. In fact, I’ve learned you surround yourself with smart good people it makes you look smart. I just found the best to work with and hang around with, makes me look like I know what I’m doing.

Shaun Keating: Dude, we’re the same. Because I’m a dumb ass myself. But I got a lot of smart people around me. That’s why I’m so successful. I’m very thankful for it. Again, I want to thank everybody for tuning in. Dr. Ringer, I want to thank you for this week, man. I’ll see you, what? On Monday out here?

Dr. Jack Ringer: We’re going to start kicking butt again with all of this stuff. Get our programs going. Get the Hands On.

Shaun Keating: Yes. We got a Hands On coming up. I think, we’ll work out dates on Monday. I want to get a Hands On here over the shoulder that we can do a patient. Also some direct stuff. When were scanning it goes directly to the mill. I mean we got some neat things in our study club. I’m excited dude. Thank you so much, Dr. Ringer. I’ll see you tomorrow at the CDA.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Yeah, we’ll talk some more man.

Shaun Keating: All right man. Hey everybody if you could, subscribe to us on iTunes. Just go to the Dental Up podcast, leave a review if you could. And I want to thank you all for listening to this week’s Dental Up podcast and we’ll see you next week. Thank you.

Dr. Jack Ringer: Thanks. Bye.