| Shaun Keating CDT + Dr. Dennis Murphy DDS |
Dr. Dennis Murphy DDS is an experienced family dentist who had been practicing dentistry since 1977. He believes in minimally invasive dental techniques and has the desire to get to know each one of his patients making his job more rewarding. Dennis likes to keep a mellow pace when he works, allowing him to make a connection with his patients. A key to success for Dr. Murphy is to be able to gain the patient’s trust through genuine communication and care. Currently, Dr. Murphy runs and operates a thriving family practice in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Full Transcription
Shaun Keating: How’s it going Doctor Murphy?
Dr. Murphy: Going pretty good Shaun, ready to get into this. I figured you probably need some turkey to roast today so, here I am.
Shaun Keating: Ah dude, you’re the man Doctor Murphy, I’ve always loved you. You probably one of the most dentist I’ve ever seen from out of state, coming to my lab. You’ve been here several times and you’re just like a world-wide traveler. You like to get out and about and I know your two boys are down here. I remember when one of your son’s, he moved down to LA and he was in the Malibu area and he was a bartender at one of the hottest spots out there. Is he still working in that restaurant? Or still doing bartending, or …
Dr. Murphy: No. No, that was the Firehouse up in Venice.
Shaun Keating: Yes, that was it.
Dr. Murphy: I think it was in Venice, near Santa Monica. He’s actually coaching a swimming team up in Pacific Palisades.
Shaun Keating: Oh, there you go. That’s beautiful up in Pacific Palisades. Is that at high school level, college level, where’s that at now?
Dr. Murphy: It’s the club team, he has age group kids. He works with kids that are up and coming and helps them develop into bigger athletes, or better stars, whatever you want to call it.
Shaun Keating: Yeah we have a-
Dr. Murphy: He likes building them.
Shaun Keating: Man, swimming’s a tough sport and it’s a lot of dedication and commitment. You need to be in that water early morning and lots of laps, man. I remember back in high school-
Dr. Murphy: Oh, yeah.
Shaun Keating: … I used to go to the pool, I was in gymnastics and we would have the vaulting board at the edge of the pool with the horse, and we would run and do our vaults into the pool and yeah, it was kinda fun. Fun times there, back in the day.
Dr. Murphy: I’ve spent my time in the pool too.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. Floating with a Mai Tai and a little rubber ducky with you, but no.
Dr. Murphy: That’s the more recent [inaudible 00:01:50] things but, yeah.
Shaun Keating: That’s what we do now. I got that big swan. That thing is like they had them out in the Hamptons or something, so I bought one of those and that’s a big old swan and I go jump on that thing all the time and my wife actually puts a little scarf around her neck in different seasons. She’ll put a different scarf and yeah, it’s our little weird, little thing with our pool swan.
Dr. Murphy: I’m going to leave that alone.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, let’s not go there. We might have to cut that out, that sounds a little weird. I think we have different names for her too, depending but … Now dude, I like to always start off a little bit about sports. Knowing you’re in Cincinnati area, dude, what do you got man? What happened to the Reds? I remember back in the day with the Reds and Johnny Bench and that was like the ’70s and ’80s and you know even too, when Ken Griffey was there, junior, and then you haven’t really heard about the Reds in years. What’s going on with that? Is it ownership? What do you think is going on with that major league baseball team?
Dr. Murphy: You know, hard to say but I’m fairly well aware, even though it’s not necessarily my strong point, that they don’t really have a great farm program going, so a lot of … The Reds have always been known for bringing people up through the system and there’s a few that are there and I know they got the top prospect last year, but I don’t think it’s really a very strong issue at this point in time. They’ve got a lot of young kids, we’ll see what happens. They just, it’s not gellin and I don’t know, maybe it’s a coaching issue.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, what was that top prospect? Was he a pitcher? Is he an infielder, shortstop, or what position?
Dr. Murphy: Well, he’s a little bit of both and I forget his name, but he’s right out of high school, but I think they’re settling in on him being a pitcher, but apparently he was also … I don’t think it was an infielder or an outfielder. Not hearing a lot about him here, a little, because he’s not at that point where he’s ready to come up yet, but we’ll see.
Shaun Keating: Probably double A ball stole or something yeah, yeah. We’ve had a hell of a time with our angels. In 2002, we actually won the World Series and it’s been downhill ever since, but we keep hoping, but then the Dodgers man, they got the best team money can buy. They almost made it, but man, those Houston Astro’s, what a story there. Those guys, kind of good for them with all the hardship they went through with the flooding and all that and the storms and Houston’s pretty resilient, but man, they’re World Series champions. It’s hard to believe and I thought the Dodgers had those guys, that was just crazy but yeah, it’s okay.
I didn’t lose much sleep over that but yeah, I think Dodgers are going to be good for the next few years, for sure. They got a good team but yeah, I don’t think that pitcher they got from the Texas Rangers, Darva, whatever his name was, that guy didn’t do that great, and I don’t think I’d invest in him going forward. I think they want to but, kind of crazy. What about football out there? What do you got out there? Ohio State Buckeyes, right? Is that anything near you?
Dr. Murphy: Well, Buckeyes are hanging around the neighborhood. I don’t know, everybody’s trying to draw their lines and make a case for them to be a team to be considered to be in the championship group, but I don’t know that that’s going to happen.
Shaun Keating: Yeah it’s going to be tough.
Dr. Murphy: It’s high school football season here and yeah, that’s the big deal in this area.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, you know what, you guys in Texas and certain other states down there in the south and stuff, they take football, high school football, like religion and I just, I got some friends from Texas and one guy went to Oklahoma. They shut down those little local towns and they really support their high school teams and I think it’s just great. I love it. My city in Irvine, we had four high schools in our city and it was like, if we would have just had one team for all those kids, we would be a powerhouse, but there’s like 250,000 people in our town, so I don’t know, it’s just I’d like to see a stacked team wins championships.
We never had it here where we were at, but I just love the passion and the commitment that all the parents and the whole town has for that high school programs football. That’s always been my dream man, be a high school football coach, head football coach. Run my wishbone. I should have been from Oklahoma or Texas man, I just love that bone and that veer option, and four or five plays, couple of passing plays, three or four running plays, and just, the other team knows what you’re going to do, but you just execute it so good and there’s no stopping it, but.
There’s a reason you don’t see that wishbone too much in college or never in the pros, because once you get good coaches you can shut it down. There’s a few techniques like what the quarterback does, what the guard … I mean everyone if your good coaching you can shut down that wing t pretty quick, and that’s what happened to us. We would get out there and some of those coaches just kind of broke it down where they put 10 guys in the box and we couldn’t do nothing. I guess that’s why I’m not a head coach anymore. Is this the new football? We had plumbers, painters, dental technicians as all the coaches and that’s not a good thing really when you think you’re all that and you’re really not. Yeah. That’s funny.
Dr. Murphy: Everybody has their role.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, exactly. I was the loud mouth, “Come on boys, let’s go,” but no. What about the Bengals man, Cincinnati Bengals. They were back in the day pretty good too, back I was a Boomer Esiason wasn’t it? Remember him?
Dr. Murphy: Oh yeah. They had a great run back in the late ’80s and they just haven’t been … That’s an ownership problem.
Shaun Keating: Yeah.
Dr. Murphy: We’ll just call it that.
Shaun Keating: It’s something, I mean-
Dr. Murphy: Not a fan, don’t root against them, but not a fan.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. Well, heck man, that’s pretty awesome though. Well, so good to hear you here. Doctor Murphy, I just can’t thank you enough. I know it’s a short week this week being with Thanksgiving and everything and looking forward to that. You know me, I think I practice Thanksgiving about four to five nights a week, every week. I can’t do that anymore, I got to stop. I got to bring on like two days a week. I got like four days, five days of Thanksgiving and about seven days of October fest. That can’t happen anymore. All right, I’ll shut up. Let’s dental up baby, here we go.
Hey, Doctor Murphy, tell me. Why did you get into dentistry? And at what point did you think, I want to be a dentist? Tell me a little bit about that.
Dr. Murphy: Well that’ll be kind of an interesting answer. There was nothing else to do. Honestly, I graduated from undergraduate with a biology degree and it kind of played around hospital operating rooms for a few years before I graduated, and I decided I wasn’t really sure I wanted to stay in medicine. I was actually going to try to get into graduate school and get a master’s in physical education and coach swimming.
Shaun Keating: There you go.
Dr. Murphy: Ironically that’s what my kid does now. It wasn’t until I was out of school about maybe four or five years that I actually said, “I think I can do this.”
Shaun Keating: No kidding. You had to be pretty smart man, to have all that. You had a smart brain in you to be at that level already.
Dr. Murphy: Well, stuff worked and I stuck with it and it paid off. I found my passion after I bought my practice. I found a group of people I enjoyed helping out, and that’s what I’ve been doing for 40 years now.
Shaun Keating: That’s so crazy. So in ’77, you started, I was like a freshman in high school. I didn’t even know how to wipe my bum back then, but ’77 you were knocking it out. So, did you go and work as an associate at a dental school? Or did you go and start your own practice?
Dr. Murphy: I bounced around a little bit. I actually got hired to work in an office up the road from where I am now and in an office the guy just didn’t need any help, but he always thought he wanted some and after about six weeks there I said, “Let’s just stay friends and I’ll go wander on,” and I did. I spent a couple of years working at medicaid clinic’s in a big office downtown where they did cash up front, and eventually found this small practice that was available for a song and a dance, and it happens to be right near the University of Cincinnati, so it’s an urban environment, and got all kinds of employers and schools and they got hospitals left and right and just lots of people to pick from here-
Shaun Keating: That’s awesome.
Dr. Murphy: … and lots of things to get into, so.
Shaun Keating: Now that practice area when you’re there, where’s that at?
Dr. Murphy: Well, I’m in Cincinnati in the city, the neighborhood’s called Clifton and I’m just slightly north of the University of Cincinnati, so I’m about four and a half miles north of downtown.
Shaun Keating: No kidding. How far are you from your house? Do you live in town? Or outside a little bit?
Dr. Murphy: Currently I live near the river and it’s about four miles away.
Shaun Keating: Down by the river.
Dr. Murphy: East side.
Shaun Keating: It’s Tommy Boy, remember that?
Dr. Murphy: Yep.
Shaun Keating: I got to move … Okay. So you got the practice going so you bought a practice? Existing practice? You built a practice? Or how’d that work?
Dr. Murphy: I bought a practice that actually had been fairly large previously. The guy I bought it from downsized it. I purchased the way he was working in it. I slowly built it back up. I like the one man operation. I’ve tried some ventures with other people and I think I always do better by myself. I always tell people, I just don’t play nice with other people.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, all right. I hear you there man. What kind of hurdles did you face when you got in there? Was it a money issues where you had a lot of debt out of college? Or?
Dr. Murphy: You know in light of what goes on with the students graduating these days, I probably will have rocks or mud or dog dirt thrown at me. Hell, it was cheap back then.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, I bet.
Dr. Murphy: The other side was, my father was a physician and going to Dental school was something he approved of, so he helped me, but he also was helping two of my other sisters at the same time, covering everything and I graduated with no debt. It actually created a minor problem that I really didn’t have a whole lot of drive to have to do something, and it’s probably why you know at the beginning, I made that comment that I after about four or five years I said, “I can do this.”
Shaun Keating: No kidding.
Dr. Murphy: But I was about three years into my own practice then. I mean, it wasn’t a lot of money to buy it. I did not get help with that, it was my nut to crack and didn’t jump into a house right away, and downsized cars and started growing a family and a practice and I just had a blast talking to people and enjoying and learning new skills all the time.
Shaun Keating: Oh, yeah. You’re really into dentistry, you love it and I know how you love your people. I mean, your a big guy in dental town and I think that’s where we met and it’s amazing. It’s amazing that you just got a great attitude, just in life, and then you do good dentistry. You’re doing a little bit of everything, you always have. You’re doing implants, you do fits, you do a little bit of everything, and it’s a pretty neat thing man, how you do it and you’re always … I’ve never seen you mad ever. I probably never get you when you’re mad or if we screw up or anything, but you always seem to be positive and upbeat and I like that.
Dr. Murphy: Well I do have to compliment your staff on that. I spent a lot of time talking either to Bob or Bob Brandon or Steve [Tapie 00:13:54] among others. If there’s a problem with something, I’ll say, “Well, it might have been a bad impression, not sure, patient moved,” whatever and both of them always give me back the line, “No, it’s our fault Dr.” And you guys fix stuff, you guys fix it, whatever it is, however it got that way, it’s always gotten fixed and I couldn’t find a better group of people to work with.
Shaun Keating: Ah, that’s so cool. Thank you so much on that.
Dr. Murphy: There’s your plug. There’s your plug.
Shaun Keating: That’s a good plug. You can’t teach that man, that’s coming from the heart and that’s the way we feel though, we both work for the patients, so at the end of the day, it’s not where to spread blame, it’s what we can do to get it right and going forward, we always just try to find a solution. There’s never something we can’t fix and get right and the end of the day, those patients pay our bills and so, we work for them. We got to make sure we get it right and that’s just the way we feel, but I know you’re the same way, man. Well, that’s awesome. So, tell me a little bit on your practice now. I know you have several staff members and stuff, so you’ve never really had associates, you’re always been a single dude just going at it huh?
Dr. Murphy: There was a time frame where, I tried to do something with some other people. You know one of them, and it just didn’t, for various reasons, work out the way we had planned to do it. We were trying to do a four doctor group office back in the ’80s. Circumstances were not correct and we all backed away from it, and we all went our separate ways and everybody’s been successful where they were.
Shaun Keating: Well, it’s like a marriage, it can be tough when you bring … I tell you, to find that partner and to have to deal with him, and day to day, year to year, it’s tough. It’s tougher than a marriage. It’s tough enough on a marriage, it’s the same thing bringing associates in, that’s where I’ve had guys that have had great experiences with it, and a lot of guys say, “You know, I’ve tried it several times, it never works.” And it’s just hard to pin it on why it works and why doesn’t just finding the right person. It’s hard.
Dr. Murphy: To throw one more comment on that, I’d rather stay friends than have been business partners, so the friendship still thrives.
Shaun Keating: Absolutely, absolutely. Now tell me, in your practice, how many operatories you got? You just work out of one and got hygiene in another? Tell me a little bit about your practice. What’s it like?
Dr. Murphy: Well, I moved to the current location in 2003, and at that point in time we were doing a lot of work with the HIV population. We still do. We don’t participate at the same level we did, but we came over here and have two dedicated hygiene ops, and then had three other ops for me to work in, and another one plumbed, which we’d never really got to. Used one of them as emergency and the other was back and forth and I’ve never worked with an … Well, that’s not true, I just couldn’t get my patients to let her work, I wasn’t really happy with the pace when it got really fast. I don’t feel like I can concentrate, and I don’t feel like I get to know people as well as I want to. And that is important to me. One of the biggest things about success to me is getting to know people well enough to tell them exactly what’s going on and have them be able to tell me what they feel they need to, so.
Shaun Keating: Well that’s what I was going to ask you.
Dr. Murphy: Because I mean, we always agree.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. I mean what’s it-
Dr. Murphy: Yeah. We don’t always agree but.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, no but, like I was just saying, what tips can you give some of our newer dentists starting a practice and I think right there, just to really show that good side, bedside manner, but to get to know the people and be genuine and I think dentistry works its way out if you can just get to know the people and see their wants and needs and show them up on the big screen maybe, and just become more of an advocate for them, and not so much tell them what they need but, kind of get to know them first but. I don’t know, that seems like a lot of the dentists that are successful do it that way.
Dr. Murphy: You gotta work hard. That’s overstated.
Shaun Keating: Yeah
Dr. Murphy: You know, there’s the cliche, but I just always try to deliver a good product, I listen to what people tell me, I don’t oversell them, and I’ve got a stable staff, to motivate. People come and go, it’s going to happen. It’s an urban environment. But I like to chill out, have fun, and enjoy my family.
Shaun Keating: There you go. I know you do, I know you do that. You like to travel and those boys are … Now you have two boys and a girl is it? Or two boys or-
Dr. Murphy: No, I have three boys.
Shaun Keating: Three boys.
Dr. Murphy: Two out there in L.A. and the third one’s up north in New York City.
Shaun Keating: Three boys.
Dr. Murphy: That place they call upstate.
Shaun Keating: Upstate.
Dr. Murphy: That could be anything beyond Manhattan.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. I got my mom some little place upstate New York called Little Falls, New York and that’s up in the middle of, I don’t even know. I’ve been there a few times, but it’s right at the bottom of the Adirondack mountains or whatever that is. It’s called a poke and Plum town, you poke your head out the window, you plum out of town.
Dr. Murphy: That’s a sport’s thing though, it’s not what you said, it is Adirondack and they make baseball bats.
Shaun Keating: Oh you’re kidding? Yeah they do, what a trip. I think that at the Adirondack’s they go through a few states though, don’t they?
Dr. Murphy: probably a branch of the Appalachians.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. I couldn’t tell you that stuff. I didn’t listen in class when all that stuff came around in geography. I was thinking about lunch time and playing with Mary Lou or something, it’s recess, playing kickball. So dude, You got any crazy, funny dental stories? Anyone done some crazy stuff in that chair? What can you tell me a little bit of without giving names or years or something? That HIPPA stuff.
Dr. Murphy: There’s been some bizarre comments that I won’t repeat. You know basically if it hurts to do that, don’t do it. We’ll I’m going to leave that one lay right where it is.
Shaun Keating: Don’t go anywhere with that, we’d have to cut that out, I could tell that one. What about, do you do anesthesia in your office or no?
Dr. Murphy: Yeah, I can get my patients numb, but it’s actually-
Shaun Keating: I mean like-
Dr. Murphy: I know what you mean. I’ve worked a lot over the years. My background is, my father was an anesthesiologist and we talked a lot when I was coming out of school about the conscious sedation related issues and there was a guy here in town that I have to give him a shout about if he’s … he’s not in the business anymore, but a guy named Bob [Kreger 00:20:50], and he developed a program within his own office to deal with patient fears that went all the way from sedation, all the way to the point where he actually worked on them before he got done with them, with no anesthetic.
Shaun Keating: No kidding.
Dr. Murphy: He basically taught these people to step down and so between the influence from my dad and the influence from Dr. Kreger, it kind of just developed this … I talk to people, I let them know that I’m not bullshitting them. I never tell people I’m not going to hurt them when I give them a shot, that’s a lie. You don’t know. You try your best and you just try to live up to whatever reputation somebody else has brought forth. I won’t even let my staff tell people I’m not going to hurt them.
Shaun Keating: Well, that’s good, be honest about it, so.
Dr. Murphy: If people need more than that, we find people to take care of them, but no I don’t do that here.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. Well, is that almost hypnosis in a way? Or it’s just relieving their fears? Talking to them or just calming them down?
Dr. Murphy: I would say no, it’s not hypnosis, and it doesn’t work for everybody. I’ve run into a lot of people I can’t help, but there’s a lot of people that know we take the time and settle down and listen and don’t try to rush and just make something happen. I have never said to anybody who said that they’re not numb, “Well hey, I gave you a shot, you got to be numb and I hear that back from patients all the time, and I’m like no, you’re not necessarily going to be numb if I gave you a shot.
Shaun Keating: Yeah I might not have hit that block or I might not have got it in the right spot. I know that happen to me quite a few times as a little kid. It’s like, dude give me six shots and he didn’t get it in the thingy or whatever. I’m still feeling that thing like it’s coming through my head. I think that was the biggest thing back in the early days when I was growing up. I think a lot of people in America, going to the dentist, they got a bad rap there, because sometimes a person couldn’t get numb properly or something and they still went ahead and practiced on it and that’s why I’ve been the last 15 years going to the dentist, I have never felt pain. Really, even on the injection part, the way they wiggle your lip and it’s a little prick, but there’s not really any major pain, but then they go in and grind down teeth, and do root canals and not feeling, it’s just they put their little headphones on you, whatever.
It’s very tolerable and I think to the smell of the enamel being cut, that’s kind of a freaky smell. But other than that, I think it’s a bad rap. I think dentistry if it’s done right and nowadays, it’s pretty … I wouldn’t say enjoyable, but it’s very tolerable and just the results you get because of it, you’re able to chew or you’ll be able to get more aesthetics, and it’s just a great … It’s like going and getting a great haircut, you just feel good after it and going to see the Dentist after you get a restoration put in, after something was broken down or cracked or if you’re going for a grill, to change your appearance, and it’s just a great, great thing and it makes a big difference in people and their psyche. I think it’s a wonderful thing, I love it.
Dr. Murphy: I definitely love the positive response. We just had the case we just finished from your lab, with a six implant case, the patient has just so afraid, had been at several other offices and we just took our time, got our way through it, your guys got it right. We worked hard to work with them to get it right.
Shaun Keating: That’s so cool, dude.
Dr. Murphy: She walked out happy to have everything and I said “Now we need to get a night guard over all that.” She says, “I’ll be back, not before next year.” Because she’s, “Stay away from me for a little while, it’s been a little too up close and personal for a while.”
Shaun Keating: Can we just not see you for while, little lady. Go enjoy those implants like a new car man, you just got to get used it, but. What about, do you use our delineator’s much? Or have you in the past?
Dr. Murphy: I don’t know. I haven’t used one of those. I don’t replace implants, I restore them. I’m in an urban area. I’ve had these relationships with great surgeons, periodontists, and oral surgeons that have done great work for me since the ’80s-
Shaun Keating: That’s perfect.
Dr. Murphy: … and I just don’t see any reason to butt into what they’re doing and all I need to know is what size wrench I need once they do it.
Shaun Keating: Exactly, and how to torque it, that’s awesome. That’s why you probably got so much positive attitude and just because you’re letting other guys do what they do and you do what you do, and it works. I think that’s a great thing. How does that work with your guys who you pick? It’s just long time friends? Do they wine and dine you at lunches? Or do anything like that to woo you? To send patients? Or no, it’s just-
Dr. Murphy: No, it’s well, the guy who does most of my work, I’m actually sending my grandfather to pull his teeth.
Shaun Keating: You’re kidding. Perfect.
Dr. Murphy: He’s done an implant on me, he’s worked on my kids, my staff. Interestingly he’s an oral surgeon who’s always in his office.
Shaun Keating: Really?
Dr. Murphy: If he goes to the hospital, it’s because somebody he knows is sick, but he doesn’t do any hospital related dentistry and he’s just been so available my entire career, I’ve just developed this tremendous relationship with him.
Shaun Keating: Keep it.
Dr. Murphy: But I have several others. I draw people from all over the area, so I’ve got surgeons in every corner.
Shaun Keating: That’s awesome.
Dr. Murphy: It’s a lot of different people, and no, they don’t wine and dine me enough.
Shaun Keating: You got to say, “Hey dude, come on man, I’m sinking, I’ll lose my patients, all these implants.” Is that one dude, what implant or choices he have? Is it a Straumann guy? Or anything particular that he likes?
Dr. Murphy: Well, one guy likes to do Astra Tech and he switched to the E.V. and I’m talking to him about it, I’m not always thrilled with E.V. But Nobel and some Straumann with different people, I’d probably have used seven different systems over time. I’m not placing, but you know which branch works out.
Shaun Keating: Yeah I mean it doesn’t matter, with us especially, whatever it is we can restore it. And we’ll teach the doctor and even give you wrenches and everything else. I remember at Straumann and Nobel, Nobel Biocare’s in my back yard, their headquarter’s here and I want to give a torque wrench and every existing account and then I found out how much all this stuff was that I want to do, and then saying, “Well maybe we’re not going to do that,” but whatever we can do to make your job easy and to help it, I want to do that and so, if it’s four or five hundred bucks in hardware, God, I want it.
All the doctor’s are frugal on all that stuff, but I’d rather get it for them and eat it myself, and just think, I’m going to get years of restoration from this guy, more so than not. I’m going to do whatever I can if it cost me five hundred thousand bucks to give you some easier stuff in your office to make it more predictable, that’s what it’s about. I love that.
Dr. Murphy: I’m going to have to get you to buy me some wrenches, because you haven’t bought me any yet.
Shaun Keating: Well, let me see what kind of systems you need and then I’ll talk to my guys, no. What about endo? Do you do any endo? Are you referring that out too?
Dr. Murphy: I’m referring that and all my extractions out. I’m one of those guys who has had a whole lot of fun getting beat up throughout the course of my life, and four years ago I had to have a reverse total shoulder done, so I don’t want to have a rotator cuff and pushing and pulling doesn’t work real well, so I don’t do endo and I don’t do extractions anymore.
Shaun Keating: Extractions are crazy aren’t they? I watched some video’s, I don’t see nothing. I worked in a dental lab all my life, and I’ve got an operatory here, but it’s usually just placing restorations, but to see how they see how they squeeze out like that Tommy Murphy, and [Fletcher 00:29:07] and all those. They have seminars and they go in and I remember they got a couple of different dentist, their practice is limited to fricking shucking teeth all day. Like, “I shucked 100 teeth here, I shucked … ” just the way they pop out. Do you have to sew up every extraction site usually on that stuff? Or how does that work? Sometimes?
Dr. Murphy: I normally did when I did multiples, occasionally with singles, a lot of singles. I think I have read some literature in the past, that said sutures actually help promote infections, although I can’t cite that, so anybody who wants to pick on me, go right ahead. It was fairly successful, we’ve had a lot of stuff work well, but all that shock requires a lot of pushing, and I can’t get my arm to do that anymore.
Shaun Keating: No kidding. I remember my brother, number 11, my canine. I was freshman or sophomore in high school, and this thing came out and my teeth were all perfect, come in perfectly, but my canine, number 11 came up in my gumline like a fang tooth, and I had this three or four millimeter gap to my lateral and my central, where my lateral and my bicuspid, I had this big gap, because my canine was five, six, millimeters, super general, way up there in my lip line.
I remember I used to fight a lot, and get in fights and whenever I’d get popped in the mouth, I always bleed like crazy, and it’s like, “What’s going on?” It’s because my pointy tooth up there would be nailing me. My mouth guard’s too for football, is always a beast trying to get a mouth to fit, my brother had to start making me these custom mouth guards. So anyways, he was at SC, I probably told this before, but me and my buddy Chris went there, he was dental technician also, but we were still in high school and we drove all the way up to USC and it’s not a real good area off site where we park. We had to park off site and low and behold, the car got towed.
We found out after getting my tooth pulled, but I went into the USC dental school and I remember my brother Kevin, he shot me up, and numbed me up, and he literally got up on the chair where his two knees on the side of me, like he’s straddling me like in a missionary position I was in, but he was over me in a way and he basically, they were regular pliers they looked like, and he got in there and just cranked that thing and he was a pretty strong dude. I got to see him flex his muscles and like, “Whoa, what is this?” And all of a sudden, poof. It popped right out, one piece. That thing is so long, that’s why they call it an eye tooth. He popped that thing out, and he goes, “It’ll be fine Shaun, your teeth will grow together.” And sure enough they did. I don’t have a canine on my upper left and just my bicuspid looks like it had kind of a little shifted forward.
I remember taking that tooth, and it was a whole tooth, came out in one piece. I made an impression in dental school, in dental technology school, and I went there and I cast it out of this Gin gold and so I got a gold looking canine, but it was like Gin gold, like fake gold, like bronze or whatever, and I put a hole in the root tip of it, just a hole and then I put like a chain through it, and I wear that thing around. I still got it in there. That was frickin thirty some odd years ago. Thirty five years ago, but I just seen that little canine again and I was going to cast it out of a type two [inaudible 00:32:35] tea gold, get a real gold one and people will say what’s that? “Well, that’s my tooth.” That’s frickin crazy man.
Dr. Murphy: That’s so holly weird.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, it’s a little different, but yeah, so I can smile on my right side, because I got number six, so when I do a smile it’s a little fuller, when I go over the left side, I’m a little collapsed there with that central lateral bicuspid. And actually too, it never actually closed up completely. There was always about a two millimeter, a millimeter and a half gap so, my dentist went and did a little composite bombing on the distal line angle of that lateral at number 10. I still have it. It was about four or five years ago I said, “Let’s close it up and Dr. [Tassie 00:33:19] did a good job man, it’s still looking pretty good and kind of a wide lateral if you really look at it closely, it’s probably not as big as of central width, but it’s getting close there, but a little Tom Cruises over there on the left side.
So, what sets your practice apart from other practices in your area? Are you guys inundated with dental practices? Or just a few guys in your area? Or tell me a little bit about that.
Dr. Murphy: I mean if you get into what seems to be the general demographics of most dental practices, they don’t seem to want to be in urban areas. There used to be five of us up here in the area I’m in now. There’s only three of us now. And we’ve got all these businesses around, and our patients come from out where everybody else is in suburbia, but as far as what sets us apart is my patients know I’m not going to sell them anything they don’t need. We start talking to somebody, we had a woman in here today that has kind of an unusual situation and I said, “Okay, now we can do the root canal, post and build up, but I don’t think you’re going to get more than a couple of years out of that. It’s on the menu, we’re going to tell you everything.” And she chose actually something relatively simple to get started, because it’s the holiday season and she needs an answer right now. I just tell people what I think and give them options and let them decide what they want to do.
Shaun Keating: No kidding, that’s awesome.
Dr. Murphy: I’m pretty laid back.
Shaun Keating: Yes you are. I know you are baby. I’ve drinken with you, I’ve partied with you, I know how you are.
Dr. Murphy: I needed some more of that 25 year old Macallan.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. You got Scott’s stuff. That stuff taste horrible man. I don’t know how you guys get into that stuff or whatever. Give me a cold beer, baby. Cold beer and some snack-ems and we’re good to go here. Put on the football channel.
Dr. Murphy: We can do that too.
Shaun Keating: What about, you’re hanging out with [harold 00:35:26] Goldstein and the guys still at those townie meetings or no?
Dr. Murphy: I haven’t been to a townie meeting in a while and they switch the dates of them. Went to April and May, it just didn’t work with my life. I do know they’re going to Orlando, I think the end of … I forget though when that is.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, I think it’s April. March, April, I’m not sure.
Dr. Murphy: I think I’ve got something else that’s in the way of that, just other things there, but I always see Howard in Chicago at the mid-winter meeting and we do a scotch tasting up there with a few other guys. It’s pretty much a townie group, not entirely, but we have a good time. We do it every year.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. I don’t know how you guys get into that man. I did it a couple years with you guys at the [Cakeapalooza 00:36:07] and that stuff, I mean we were just tasting little different ones and I swear to God, one, he said, “This tastes like the bark of a tree.” Or something like, “How the heck do you know what the heck of the bark of the tree … ” And I just said, “It taste like the worst fricken thing you ever put in your mouth and you try to swallow it and it’s like, that’s nasty. There’s nothing good about that taste.” I guess you acquire it.
I remember my dad used to drink Dewar’s man. Dewar’s Scotch and I guess it’s a cheaper Scotch, but he said “Shaun, I say stuff I never knew I knew when I drink this Dewars.” He becomes a philosopher, like a scientist or a historian, its like, that Dewar’s is magical stuff papaw, because you sound like you really know what you’re talking about, but you don’t make much sense. No, just kidding dad. All right, so what else can we talk about?
Dr. Murphy: It’s all alcohol.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. Alcohol.
Dr. Murphy: It’s drinking scotch, it’s all alcohol. You don’t dilute it with anything unless [crosstalk 00:37:10].
Shaun Keating: Yeah, he used to say, don’t waste no space with that ice cubes either, okay? It’s like, what? Just pour it straight in? Man, that’s crazy. Yeah. I just never could do that, that’s a good thing probably. So hey, what about driving patients to your practice. Is it all word of mouth? Do you do any social media stuff? On that Facebook or that Inner web at all? What are you doing there?
Dr. Murphy: Well, most of it’s word of mouth. We don’t do anything specifically aimed at marketing other than just making sure our patients are satisfied, make sure they ask us if they have problems. I do have a website, it’s just not … I’ve actually found out that some of my university patients up the street have just typed in, they’re looking for a dentist near UC, Well guess who owns dentist near UC.com?
Shaun Keating: Who?
Dr. Murphy: And it pops up the link to my Web page and they find me and I’ve actually gotten about 15 or 20 patients out of that.
Shaun Keating: No kidding.
Dr. Murphy: Just that one website. But, it’s just sitting there and it links to my other one, so.
Shaun Keating: Yep. I see it, Clifton Family Dentistry. Clifton, now is Clifton’s your little city.
Dr. Murphy: Well it used to be an incorporated area that the city annexed back in the early 1900s. All of our areas have names and boundaries, but they’re all still part of the city.
Shaun Keating: No kidding.
Dr. Murphy: But Clifton is yeah, that’s where we are.
Shaun Keating: University-
Dr. Murphy: Gaslight area.
Shaun Keating: And you’re by Xavier too huh?
Dr. Murphy: I’m what? I’m near Xavier university. It’s not X Xavier, it’s Xavier.
Shaun Keating: Xavier, where the heck that is, is that on the map? No, they’re good in basketball, I know they get in their final 16 sometimes, every once in a while. Yeah that’s awesome.
Dr. Murphy: We will have a big, let’s see, rivalry game I think, two weekends.
Shaun Keating: No kidding wow.
Dr. Murphy: I think that’s on Saturday the second of December. Xavier and UC play, the local war.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, we just-
Dr. Murphy: Some of the best fights have come out of that.
Shaun Keating: Yeah I bet. That’s awesome. We have our little USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins here. Bruins they lost to Creighton last night. Who the heck’s even Creighton. And here’s some top 20 team in the nation, they lost Creighton, it’s over. I think the whole ball issue and those guys stealing in China, I think it’s just going to put a hamper on their season this year I think, but you never know, but I think if they-
Dr. Murphy: I’m amazed those guys got home.
Shaun Keating: No shit, I thought for sure those guys were going to lock them up in a Chinese jail for years. They don’t mess around. Especially American’s, they all hate us outside of the US. I’m not going anywhere, to Europe or nowhere, man. If they find out I’m American, I’m gonna say, I’m Canadian, don’t mess with me. No. It’s kinda crazy. You ever go to Europe at all?
Dr. Murphy: It’s been a while, I haven’t been, gosh, I don’t remember the last time I was there, probably 2006.
Shaun Keating: Well, dude. That’s not that long ago.
Dr. Murphy: I haven’t been traveling the past … My life has changed in the past several years, so I’m not doing some of the same things I used to. But I do like to travel, mostly been in a car by myself lately.
Shaun Keating: No kidding. Well, that’s a good thing. Sometimes that’s neat. Let’s check out things, different things in life, that’s awesome man. What about digital? You doing anything digitally? You thinking about going anything digital with digital impressions? The trio’s? The 3Shape? Or no? You just going to be old, keep doing it the way we do.
Dr. Murphy: The way I am, I definitely am old school. I don’t think I would want a CEREC or any CAD CAM device personally. Just because of the tilt toward minimally invasive. I look at things and don’t always think they need a crown or an onlay and I realize that’s not what it’s about, I’m not trying to bad mouth It. I’m interested in looking at taking impressions digitally.
Shaun Keating: It’s pretty neat, dude.
Dr. Murphy: Just haven’t made that step yet.
Shaun Keating: It’s pretty neat. We’re trying to work some things out with some different vendors and you know, maybe I can pay some of them I know the trio’s is like $2200.00 a year for their fee, their service thing, maybe we can start taking care of that for the doctors. I was thinking about doing like, taking care of their lease payment, but that doesn’t work out real well. But, it is just so frickin amazing. I just had a bridge done on me, and replaced a bridge and I was telling people in the past couple podcasts that I went in and 10 minutes they just cut that thing off, and scan it real quick. Went to the lab and it was done. We didn’t have one adjustment, looks beautiful, we did my Bruxzir esthetic, and a little three minute bridge, and frickin thing dropped in. I’ve never had a crown, not even in my own lab. My doctor’s always have to dust the contacts or adjust the occlusion a tad, just a little bit, but the way we did the occlusion on this and collaborative the bytes, virtual reality.
It was modeless dude, that’s just unbelievable, it just blows me away. All we’d have to do back in the old days of wax a coping, divest it de-gas it, opaque it, then boom modifier on that opaque, and then go ahead and build it up with a dent and then size, bake it and grind it in, and glaze it, and then polish it, and now it’s just like, “God, I can design it on a damn 3Shape computer with a virtual thing through the inner web that comes to me and I have the virtual clue. “It’s just so frickin crazy man that it’s just the digital revolution is coming.
I see a lot of dentist’s not wanting to do the CAD in their office, the CAD CAM and the … I’m not saying that, I’m saying, just to wave that wand and then send it off to lab or you’re not allowed to do … You still do your little impression with your temporary at the beginning, I’m biting the vat, so you have that temp, but it’s so frickin accurate man.
The pressure materials been great. I’m a big imprint guy, I love the polyethers, there’s nothing more accurate, but at the end of the day, it’s a process and it’s expensive, this lab, but I just think you get on this system, even the most expensive trio’s wireless is like 30, 35 grand or whatever, that’s such a small price to pay. That thing will pay for itself in six months, a year, year two, year three, especially if your lab’s paying for your service contract and everything else for some. It’s a no brainer. It’s a neat thing.
Dr. Murphy: Remind me to ask you about all that stuff when I’m ready.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, Oh no, and let us know and we’re really working out with some different guys, some of the head people at Patterson we’re working with, and maybe some of the guys at Shine, because they deliver these trio’s, so I’m just such a big trios guy. I love 3Shape, I love 3M, they’re real good to us too, but I tell you man I had the frickin [Honer 00:44:32] the head guy in here for several hours and I just met up with a bunch of their people and I’m excited about it and just I want my doctors on these things man, because you know it saves me a lot of shipping money, shipping charges, and it’s just between … My restoration is not really breaking ever again and to have it so accurate, God we’re just taking all the variables that, what can go wrong?
Well, we’re really coming in with some big time accuracy and big time great esthetics, and dentistry is really kind of neat lately, but I just need more of my doctors to get on this digital revolution and send it to me, because I could do it in about an hour and get it right back to you. And the pricing’s even a little cheaper than whatever our list price is, we drop it like 20%, because you know what? I’m not paying my plaster guys, I’m not paying the UPS to get it here, and it’s a neat thing though.
Dr. Murphy: I’ve enjoyed using the Bruxzir’s and the esthetic, working very well for me.
Shaun Keating: That’s awesome.
Dr. Murphy: Wearing one myself.
Shaun Keating: There you go. Hey, just think, you’re just like Dick Butkus, he’s wearing them. I love it man, I loved having frickin Dick Butkus, I’m such a football guy. I remember Dr. Hirsch out in Malibu, you know Tom Hirsch, he has the … What’s that thing in the mountain?
Dr. Murphy: Isolite.
Shaun Keating: Isolite
Dr. Murphy: Isolite
Shaun Keating: Dude has frickin made Isolite man, him and his brother. That guy’s a stud. He was one of my first guys, or second or third guy, did a podcast with him. He was real busy, but he goes, “We’ll do another one on the Isolite.” So, he’s telling me, yeah, Dick’s loving your crowns Shaun, we got them, and so I go, “Let me ask him if he could do an ad with me.”
He actually gave me his number, and I went, “Dick, what’s up? I’m Shaun, I’m the lab guy, I did your teeth.” “Oh yeah, hey.” “Well, I’m coming down to Orange County, I was saying, I’d love to do an ad and give you some CAD whatever.” And he’s like, “Well, I’m coming down, I got to see my cardiologist out at Saint Joseph’s.” and I go, “Really? Who’s your cardiologist?” He goes, “Dr. [Santori 00:46:40],” I go, “That’s my cardiologist.” It’s like, that’s terrible that we have the same cardiologist. I’m 50, he’s 70, it’s like, “Well, come on in.”
So, he brought his wife in, he’s been married too for like 50 years. Just the nicest humblest dude. He’s all in shorts, he’s so tan and everything. He takes off his shirt in my office and he puts on his 51 Butkus shirt, and he goes, “Yeah, let’s go take a picture out on the lab floor.” And so we did a bunch of pictures. What we did is, we went outside and we got a frickin big rock, out of the dirt, and I said, “Okay dude, let’s do this where, take this frickin rock and put it up in your mouth like you’re biting on it.” Because you know back then [Glidewell 00:47:22] had their hammer test, and so I got a big picture of Butkus biting on this rock, and it says, “We don’t need no hammer test, we got the Butkus test.” It was a great ad I thought. It was pretty cool, but yeah.
We use that quite a bit. I’ve seen him a few times since and he’s just a great guy. He told stories too about his biggest contract was like $100 grand back in the day and he was like the elite top guy and now he says all these guys are getting millions and millions of name and nothing like back in the day. He was such a stud, but it was before the big money, now these guys are getting 20 million a year and stuff. It’s kind of ridiculous, but. Well, I’ll shut up and Dr. Murphy man, I know you’re busy, I know you’re on your lunch time right here but, it is a holiday weekend and we’re excited. What have you got planned for Thanksgiving? You having the boys are coming out? Or no? You just going to be chill a little bit?
Dr. Murphy: No, I’m just actually probably be quiet this Thursday for the most part, not totally but, I am planning on being out there at Christmas time. Hope to bump into you guys out there.
Shaun Keating: Come on by, we’re open, we’re here, come on by the lab. Heck, we’ll hook you up baby, you know we will and we love seeing you out here and you know, just walk right through that front door. You don’t even have to check in with [Serene 00:48:39], just go right back into the lab. You act like you own it. You know this place better than we do.
Dr. Murphy: Can’t walk by serene.
Shaun Keating: I know.
Dr. Murphy: She’s my window to your world at 6:00 in the morning your time.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. She’s here so early, dude. Just like, I come in three hours later, “Hi, Serene.” “Hi, Shaun.” And she’s been with me for so many years. She’s awesome. Yep. You’re only as good as your people, man. You got to take care of your people.
Dr. Murphy: Absolutely.
Shaun Keating: I know your staff’s been with you a long time, you got a great staff, talking with those guys, you guys are always great. But I can’t thank you enough for all the lab work, and dude, whatever we can do, you let us know and we’ll take of you in any way we can.
Dr. Murphy: All right. Sounds great Shaun. Happy Thanksgiving.
Shaun Keating: Hey, happy Thanksgiving to you Dr. Murphy, and again, thank you so much for coming on our podcast and we’ll talk to you real soon.
Dr. Murphy: All right. Take care.
Shaun Keating: All right doctor, bye bye.
