A Nashville, Tennessee oral maxillofacial surgeon who has been effectively helping eliminate temporomandibular disorder (TMD/TMJ) is now launching commercial operations to help many more patients, often in as few as 2 office visits.

The Urbanek TMJ Device and Protocol—designed by Anthony Urbanek, DDS, MD, MS—this week announced an official launch for its commercial operations in North America, offering dentists a new way to treat the 10+ million TMD/TMJ sufferers in the United States.

“After more than 4,000 cases treated with a 95% success rate, we’re excited to finally offer this solution nationwide to treat the growing epidemic of TMD. With this FDA-cleared medical device and our comprehensive training and support, dental care providers can now offer their patients an easy and affordable solution,” says CEO and Founder Dr Urbanek.

Developed by the oral maxillofacial surgeon with over 40 years of experience, the Urbanek Device and Protocol is the only non-surgical, custom CAD-CAM, 3D-printed resin device that alleviates the inflammation of the TMD joint. Unlike a nightguard, this FDA-cleared medical device was specifically designed to treat the root cause of TMD.

“It’s our mission to provide dental care professionals with a system to safely eliminate TMJ/TMD for their patients without surgery or medications,” says Dr Urbanek.

The device, customized to each patient, unloads the joint just like a set of crutches unloads an inflamed knee, the company says. The patient starts by wearing the device 24/7 for 2 months, and then at nighttime only for the rest of their life. That works for about 85% of the patients, reportedly, and the company has completed 4000 patient cases with a success rate of 95%, which indicates what can happen if they follow the protocol. Results have been successful with patients in as few as 2 office visits, the company states.

 or register for Dr Urbanek’s CE webinar here: 

 Clinicians can take the 2.5-hour online course to become successful and safe with the basics of the method. After listening to the whole course and taking a short test for CE [continuing education] credits and certification, they receive certification to use the device.

Articles

Company announces the launch of commercial operations in North America; now offers solution for TMD/TMJ sufferers nationwide. 

Urbanek TMJ Device is Designed to Relieve the Inflammation that Causes Temporomandibular Disorder

Five deserving dental professionals have been named recipients of the 2023 Colgate Award for Research Excellence (CARE).

Colgate-Palmolive, a caring, innovative growth company that is reimagining a healthier future for all, is pleased to announce this year’s recipients of the CARE, who will each receive a 1-year research grant ($30,000) to foster the development of their areas of interest in dental, oral, and craniofacial research. The 2023 CARE Program recipients and their research topics are:

 – The University of Iowa College of Dentistry


“Impact of Stress on the Oral Microbiome of Children”

“Vitamin D levels and Severe Early Childhood Caries in Puerto Rican Children”

 – University of Florida, College of Dentistry


“Restorative dental materials with wavelength-controlled light-responsive release and recharge of L-arginine”

– College of Dentistry, University of Illinois Chicago


“Assessing Infant Fluoride Use and Caries Experience”

The Ohio State University, College of Dentistry


“Correlation of Streptococcus mutans Microcolony Size to Disease Potential and Therapeutic Tolerance”

Proposals were reviewed by an independent, esteemed panel of senior academic dental researchers. Winners were selected based on the program’s criteria, which includes innovation, clinical significance, originality, and scientific quality.

“The CARE Program, now entering its 7th year, fosters the development of much needed dental academicians by providing seed research funding to emerging leaders at a time in their career path when it is most needed,” Maria Emanuel Ryan, DDS, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer, Colgate-Palmolive states in a press release issued this week. “We recognize the importance of fostering the careers of young academics and researchers as they are essential to the education of the next generation of dental professionals and play an important role in advancing the science of dentistry. This is more important now than ever before as the need for faculty is acute, with several hundred faculty positions unfilled throughout the country. The shortage in research focused faculty in dental schools carries over into other sectors, such as industry and government, where a significant amount of research is conducted.”

Established in 2016, the Colgate CARE Program is designed to foster and provide financial support to young academic researchers. To be eligible for the Colgate CARE grant, faculty applicants must be in the first 5 years of an academic appointment. To date the program has supported the research projects of 31 academicians in numerous areas of oral health research.

Colgate is also instrumental in other programs to support dental researchers. In conjunction with the National Dental Association Foundation, the Audacity to Dream Program and TORCH Program have the important goal of helping address racial disparities in oral health research.

Every year Colgate-Palmolive celebrates the research projects at Colgate’s Clinical Research Innovation Day, where recipients of the CARE program, the NIH Medical Research Scholars Program, the Audacity to Dream Program and the TORCH Program all come together at Colgate-Palmolive’s global technology center in Piscataway, New Jersey, to present and celebrate their research. This year's Clinical Research Innovation Day took place on May 24.

“On behalf of Colgate’s 34,000 people around the world, we offer sincere congratulations to the winners of this year’s grant awards,” says Dr Ryan.

 more information about the Colgate CARE Program for Young Academic Researchers and application guidelines, visit 

https://www.colgateprofessional.com/care-program

https://www.colgateprofessional.ca/en-ca/care-program 

Honorees will each receive a 1-year research grant ($30,000) to foster the development of their areas of interest in dental, oral, and craniofacial research.

5 Named 2023 Recipients of the Colgate Award for Research Excellence (C.A.R.E.)

SmileDirectClub, Inc.’s SmileMakerTM Platform is designed to allow customers to view their smile transformation in minutes using a mobile device. With the recent U.S. launch of the platform, the company is expanding its patented teeth straightening technology to its largest market.

SmileDirectClub piloted SmileMaker Platform with its launch in Australia in late 2022. According to a company-conducted survey, 85% of respondents who downloaded the App during the pilot said they were more likely to move forward with treatment after seeing their potential results via SmileMaker Platform. Learnings from the Australian market resulted in numerous enhancements to the artificial intelligence (AI) process, as well as new customer journey features, strengthening the technology and overall user experience. In April 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Patent Number 11,633,260, recognizing the unique technology for generating 3D models of teeth that powers the SmileMaker Platform, the company states.

“The U.S. launch of SmileMaker Platform marks a milestone in SmileDirectClub’s commitment to be on the leading edge of innovation in oral care technology,” says David Katzman, CEO and Chairman, SmileDirectClub. “The patented SmileMaker Platform integrates AI diagnostics and analysis into telehealth and leverages the convenience and accessibility of a mobile device, all through industry-first technology that makes it easier than ever for consumers to begin their smile journey and get a smile they love.”

The SmileMaker Platform is available for free through the SmileDirectClub App and leverages advanced AI technology to show consumers their potential smile transformation within minutes. Consumers can download the SmileDirectClub App and capture a mobile 3D scan of their teeth, bite and alignment using their phone’s camera. This patented technology is an industry first, upgrading current 2D remote scanning options and introducing real-time AI to capture a 3D view of the teeth, according to the company. The App is currently compatible with Apple devices and will soon also be available for Android devices.

Since piloting this AI technology in Australia months ago, that company reports significant incremental growth in conversion due to the App’s ability to shorten the timeline from the initial customer engagement to purchase decision.

“This technology is just the beginning of what’s to come for the future of oral care and SmileDirectClub intends to continue its focus on AI applications that democratize access to affordable oral care as we build on our growing innovation portfolio,” adds Katzman.

Just minutes after taking a mobile 3D scan, customers receive their “Custom Smile Plan” showing their potential new smile, along with an estimated treatment time to achieve results. Following receipt of a Custom Smile Plan, customers are prompted to provide further high-definition scans through a doctor-prescribed at-home impression kit or a scan from a local SmileShop or Partner Network location. This information is then uploaded into SmileDirectClub’s virtual care platform for review by the customer’s state-licensed treating dentist or orthodontist to determine candidacy for clear aligner therapy. Once approved, customers are provided with a final treatment plan, their “Smile Prescription”, to start them on their way to a new smile.

SmileMaker Platform is now available in the U.S. and Australia and will expand into other international markets later this year. Consumers in the U.S. and Australia can go to the Apple App Store and begin their “Smile Journey” today.

AI technology designed to allow customers to view their smile transformation in minutes via a mobile device. 

SmileDirectClub Launches Its SmileMaker Platform in the U.S.

Renee Knight is a freelance writer and editor who's been covering the dental industry for 15 years. 

Whether you decide to build a practice from scratch or buy an existing office, there’s a lot that goes into opening a dental office. Although it is an exciting time in a dentist’s career, it also can be pretty stressful. Many critical decisions must be made, from practice location to the type of equipment to invest in to how to attract patients to your new practice.

It can seem a bit overwhelming but remember you’re not the first to go through this process. Many successful dentists once had the same concerns and challenges. Here, we talk to Drs Sarah Jebreil, Jennifer Sanders, John Flucke, Ankur Gupta, and Chad Duplantis about their journeys, what they wish they knew before they opened their practices, and what advice they have for dentists who are ready to take that leap and become practice owners.

When Sarah Jebreil, DDS, AAACD, was ready to open her dental office, everybody told her to buy an existing practice rather than start from scratch. They warned her about the competitive landscape in Southern California and advised that the goodwill from an existing practice was the foundation she needed for success.

But Dr Jebreil wasn’t deterred. She had a clear vision of what she wanted her practice to be, and it was important for her to start with a clean slate. She wanted to choose the equipment and hire team members who understood and shared her philosophy of care. To her, building a new practice was the only option, so she began what became a yearlong process and opened her new office in 2015.

“I didn’t want to inherit somebody else’s way of doing things. I wanted to do things my way. I wanted my practice to reflect my personality,” she says. “Starting a practice from scratch is scary but it’s the greatest feeling in the world. You get to build what you want instead of buying someone else’s goodwill. You don’t know how much of that goodwill will stay with you.”

She was determined but also a little worried that it would take a long time to grow her practice. She didn’t want to overextend herself financially, so she opted to keep her practice relatively small. But her patient base expanded much faster than she expected, and she’s since outgrown the space. If she could go back, Dr Jebreil would have put a plan in place to allow for more growth; she realized she’s capable of more than she imagined.

One of the challenges Dr Jebreil encountered during the building process was obtaining the necessary city and county permits. She had issues with the number of practice parking spots, and she had to go to the city to petition for more. Had she known the issues she would face, she might have selected a different location for her boutique practice, she says. She at least would have been more prepared, making the process less stressful.

Selecting her equipment is another area she wishes she had known more about. Her sales representative talked her into investing in top-of-the-line products for her office because, he said, they last longer.

“In reality, with wear and tear all equipment ends up failing,” she says. “So pick and choose what’s important to you but don’t feel like everything has to be high end because at some point it’s going to break down.”

A lot also goes into the human resources side of a dental practice, and she spent a great deal of time dealing with documentation in the beginning. She has since invested in HR for Health, which streamlines the process and allows her to put her focus elsewhere. She recommends HR for Health to anyone starting out and wishes she would had something like it in those early days.

If you’re thinking of starting from scratch, look at the competition and determine a niche you can make for yourself, she says. Not everybody will be an ideal patient for your practice, so focus on attracting those who are. Get creative with your advertising and take advantage of free opportunities. She offered deals from Groupon, for example, to get more patients in the chair. She also enlisted her social circle to get the word out and asked happy patients to post reviews on Yelp.

And although advice from peers is valuable, take it with a grain of salt, she says. Don’t let it keep you from pursuing your dream dental career.

“After you work as an associate, you see how you want to do things,” says Dr Jebreil, who worked under the mentorship of her father right after she graduated. “It’s hard to go and buy somebody else’s practice when you know exactly what you want to do.” 

knew the practice she decided to purchase in 2014 needed a little work, but there were a few surprises along the way she wishes she had been better prepared for.

The 900-square-f oot practice had 2 chairs, with just 1 dentist and an assistant seeing patients. The dentist was ready to retire and essentially was practicing part time, so things were pretty slow. But it seemed that there was a decent number of active patients, and production numbers weren’t too bad, considering how little he was working. The practice was also the only one in town, which was a big plus. She decided to take the leap and make the practice her own. 

So what were the surprises? Turns out, only about one-third of the active patients were actually active, so she wasn’t nearly as busy as she expected. She also soon discovered that one of the delivery units didn’t work and the other was pretty broken down. Within the first few months of buying the practice, she replaced both chairs and added a third, an expense she wasn’t expecting. She also hired a hygienist, because she knew that would be important to growing her practice.

“It was a bit of an adventure,” she says. “But even if I had known all of that, I probably still would have bought the practice. I knew it was a fixer-upper, but it would have been less stressful to go into the situation with eyes open and to have a plan, to know what I needed to replace right away. I knew I wanted a hygienist and a third chair and a panoramic [x-ray] machine, but I didn’t understand the full scope of it.”

The previous dentist handled everything, including payroll, tracking everything with a spreadsheet and taking deposits to the bank himself. After he left, no one in the practice knew how to do any of those things, so Dr Sanders had to figure it out as she went along. Things would have gone a little smoother had she known more about the business side of dentistry and what questions to ask before purchasing the practice.

The biggest challenge, she says, was learning how to run a business on the fly. The business side is much easier to handle today, even though she opened a new 4000-square-foot practice with 8 operatories and 2 associate dentists in 2020 in Frenchtown, Montana.

“I put a lot more time in running the business than I do now even though it’s bigger and busier,” she says. “It runs better because I have systems in place.”

She implemented those systems over time and trained her team members so they could run them with her oversight, freeing her up to focus on the dentistry and her role as practice CEO.

If you’re ready to open your own practice, it’s important to think about what you actually want, Dr Sanders says. She was OK with buying a practice she saw potential in even though it needed work, but other dentists might prefer to walk into a fully functional practice. You have to think about what kind of business owner you want to be and then find the practice that best suits you.

And know you don’t have to do it all on your own. Although there isn’t much focus on business in dental school, there are plenty of experienced dentists you can reach out to, whether you find a mentor near you or turn to an online forum for advice, Dr Sanders says.

She knows just how valuable it would have been to build a dental-focused team to guide her during the practice purchase, to have a financial planner and an accountant with experience in the industry. Yes, it would have been an extra expense, but it’s one that likely would have saved her money in the long run, not to mention reduce her stress.

It’s also important to realize you can still be successful even if you don’t own your practice, Sanders says. Not everyone wants to be a business owner, and that’s OK. Don’t make yourself miserable; determine the right path for you and then take it.

“Realize that if you’re going to buy a practice, you are an entrepreneur,” she says. “You’re not just a dentist. You’re not going to spend all your time seeing patients, you’re going to spend time being an entrepreneur. You must have that mindset shift and ask yourself if this is something you really want to do.”

Even though John Flucke, DDS,bought an existing practice, he basically had to build his patient base from scratch. The practice’s previous doctor, a retired military dentist, realized he hated private practice and walked away after only a year. The office was closed for a few months before Dr Flucke took over, and he didn’t have much to work with when he did. There was no existing recall, just a list of patients seen in the office who might want to come back, and only 1 treatment room. 

It was a different situation, and Dr Flucke wishes he would have known more about practice marketing and business operations. Although he felt his clinical skills were good, he didn’t know much about how to manage a team or how to grow his patient base.

“It would have been nice to know things like real estate values,” Dr Fluckesays. “I didn’t know how to negotiate a lease. I basically took over the lease from the previous dentist, but it expired about 2 years after I became the owner. I didn’t even know what rent was going for in my area. That was overwhelming.”

Approximately 15 years ago, Dr Flucke left that location to build a new practice in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Unlike the horror stories you sometimes hear, the process was pretty seamless—and he attributes that to the team he assembled around him.

Dr Flucke knew a local architect who had designed medical and dental practices, so he reached out to him when he was ready to get started. Because he had done this type of job before, the architect already had a team that could handle different aspects of the project. They all worked well together, and that resulted in a low-stress office build-out. So although this can be a challenging, stressful process, working with the right team makes it a lot easier.

Buying an existing practice and building one from scratch are expensive endeavors, and it’s OK if you’re not ready to jump in right after school, Dr Flucke says. There’s no shame in working as an associate for a few years and saving up so you can start your dream career. Determine how much you need to save and how long it will take, and then set a budget to ensure you get there. Avoid unnecessary splurges that will take you off track.

Once you’re ready to open your practice, don’t go overboard buying expensive new equipment, Dr Flucke says. A lot of dentists end up taking on more debt than they can handle because they think they need to buy their scanner, mill, cone beam and 3D printer at once. Instead, plan on buying 1 piece of technology to start and adding more as you grow.

Because they’re in so much debt and eager to start earning, many dentists concentrate too much on the money and selling dentistry once they start treating patients, he says. Patients can sense that, and it makes them more likely to question your treatment recommendations.

“If you focus on doing what’s right, you’ll make a terrific living,” Dr Flucke says. “If you focus on making a terrific living, you probably won’t.”

Once you do start making money, don’t spend it all. Think about putting some away for your retirement so you can have the lifestyle you want once you decide it’s time to step away from dentistry.

“It’s important but hard to realize that when you’re 30, when what you really want to do is celebrate yourself,” he says. “Celebrate a little but don’t spend everything you make.”

When Ankur Gupta, DDS,and his wife Nisha opened their practice in Ohio in the early 2000s, the advice they received was pretty simple: Be nice, be good dentists and patients will flock to your office. That’s exactly what they did, taking continuing education (CE) to improve their skills and building rapports with patients. The problem was, after 5 years, they weren’t nearly as successful as they expected. 

After reading a few business books, it became clear they needed to make some changes. The biggest? Stop behaving the way they thought a dentist should behave. Instead of accepting they were going to be in debt, they stopped buying expensive things just because the bank told them they could. With student loans, car and house payments, and credit card bills, they were paying a significant amount per month to take care of their debt, thinking it was normal and that the only way out was having more success as business owners. He wishes he had realized sooner that wasn’t the case at all.

“We realized we needed to change the way we lived a little and pay more every month to get out of debt,” Dr Gupta says. “And once we did that, we’d have more freedom to upgrade things in the practice and spend more money on marketing. So we began living a lifestyle that was still happy and fruitful and full of great memories, but much more intentional when it came to spending on luxury items that didn’t bring that much fulfillment.”

They also realized they needed to tap into the “incredible power of the internet” to start marketing their practice, something Dr Gupta wishes he had done sooner. Until that point they’d relied solely on word of mouth, and that wasn’t enough. Whenever the team did something remarkable or funny, they’d post a video to YouTube, their website, and Facebook. It didn’t cost anything, and it got people’s attention. The effort resulted in a reservoir of new patients who liked the practice’s fun, happy feel.

Many of these patients work at schools or day cares, creating another opportunity. The team began asking if they could come to the school to teach children about dentistry in a fun way. After every presentation, a few more families would call the office to make new patient appointments. They still do those presentations, expanding to community groups such as the Rotary Club and senior centers.

It’s important for dentists to set a realistic budget for both their home and their practice, Dr Gupta says. Be realistic about the money that is going out and use that as a template to determine what your collections goal should be each month. And it’s not the more the better. That mindset puts you in a “state of financial desperation,” he says, making you likely to take on cases you should be referring out.

Dr Gupta also recommends getting several quotes from distributors rather than going with just 1 when designing and equipping your practice, taking care of your physical health as part of your daily routine, and resisting the urge to lecture to patients about their dental health issues.

“I’ve learned that the more compassionate I am, the more I put myself in their shoes when I make treatment recommendations, the more people actually say yes,” he says. “I take a photo of their teeth, put it on a TV screen, magnify it, look at the screen with them side by side, and ask them what they see. I let the patient talk about their situation and long-term goals.”

After working as an associate for several years, Chad Duplantis, DDS,decided he wanted to be a practice owner. He hired a broker and began looking for the perfect office, but it took time, and he ended up going in a direction he hadn’t expected.

Nearly a year into his search, Dr Duplantis had looked at approximately 30 different practices and still hadn’t found the right fit. Then he met with a dentist who was looking for a partner. Rather than hiring an associate, this dentist wanted to bring someone in with a vested interest in the practice.

“We had a lot of compatibility in philosophy and vision. We both enjoyed working with other people but we also both valued the importance of ownership,” he says. “It was an unexpected surprise how well we meshed together.”

Twenty years later the partnership is still going strong at the Texas practice. 

Although they have been successful, Dr Duplantis still wishes he knew more about the business side of running a practice when they first started. He’s a pretty good leader, he says, but “business is a different animal.” The dentistry and the scientific side become the easiest part of the job; the hardest is “maintaining the positivity and keeping your team motivated day in and day out,” he says. You have to plan ahead and have a keen business sense to be successful.

Maintaining a partnership can be a challenge, but don’t let that discourage you from following that career path. The key to a successful partnership, he says, is finding someone with a similar vision and philosophy and establishing clear communication.

Before looking for a partner, it’s important to develop your personal vision and mission statement, he says. Think about where you want to be 5, 10, 20 years from now, and then find a practice that lines up with your goals.

Treat it like you’re buying a house: You have to find what best suits you. Buying into a practice is a huge commitment, so be patient. Don’t rush into something that isn’t the right fit.

“Don’t just look after hours. Ask if you can be a fly on the wall during business hours to see how the practice is run and make sure it lines up with what you’re trying to do,” he says. “Then make sure you create a work-life balance and that you don’t let the practice consume you. Keep up with CE from a clinical and business sense and make sure you keep striving to become better every single day.”

Five dentists tell us about their experiences and offer advice for dentists who are ready for ownership. 

What I Wish I Knew Before I Opened My Own Practice

British MedTech start-up Bryant Dental has released a measurement application designed to allow clinicians to order custom loupes from the comfort of their home. The online measurement system allows these sophisticated measurements to be completely automated, allowing dentists, hygienists, and surgeons a convenient buying option and giving Bryant Dental instant access to the global market, the company says.

One example of this is the launch of their Refractives, a pioneering ergo-loupe, online as an e-commerce product. This move has given the company access to 20 new countries in just a few months, without distributors or subsidiaries. This measurement application is the latest in a string of novel releases and may change the way customers shop for loupes, which are commonly used by dentists and hygienists.

Due to their bespoke nature, the buying process for loupes traditionally involves customers being measured in person by a sales representative, followed often by a lengthy production process.

Built by an in-house team of artificial intelligence engineers, this patent-pending application uses hundreds of facial points to map the user’s face in real-time. From this, the application can generate a 3D scan and extract 12 highly accurate measurements.

“A key value of our business has always been to question the status quo and improve it where possible. We’re confident that this is the future of loupes and we’re excited to lead the charge into a tech-driven future,” says Co-CEO Dr Priyam Patel.

Bryant Dental plans to use this patent-pending measurement application to access more markets and sectors, bringing loupes to thousands more clinicians. The company plans to release version 2 of the measurement application, which will include a full spinal scan to assess posture, sometime in 2024.

Online management system is designed to allow customers to conveniently order the right loupes from the comfort of their home.

Bryant Dental’s Measurement Application May Change the Way Clinicians Shop for Loupes

The founders of Wellplaece, a dental marketplace that consolidates the buying process across all clinician products and vendors, have announced the company's Private Beta launch in addition to a $5.5M seed round which includes funding from a pre-seed round.

Wellplaece describes itself as a more streamlined way for Dental Support Organizations (DSOs), group, and single practices to purchase supplies. Currently, ordering supplies, and any kind of comparison shopping for the best dental products is a fragmented process, one that also is time-consuming, costly, and prone to human error, according to Wellplaece.

Unlike other companies in the dental marketplace space, the San Francisco startup’s performance-based business model leverages built-in AI to deliver newfound savings to its clients, DSOs, and dental practices everywhere at no cost to them. The company leverages aggregated customer volume to get their practices market-competitive pricing, and customer-specific settings to enable practice or group specific purchasing behaviors across a large network of suppliers. Clients are only billed after their orders are successfully processed, placed, and confirmed delivered, according to Wellplaece.

Based on the company’s internal research, dental practice offices rely on at least 3 and up to 7 different suppliers on average. Wellplaece ultimately empowers dental offices to spend their time more efficiently. It also provides data to power interoffice optimization, decision making, and business intelligence, particularly valuable toward the management of group practices.

The funding was led by Eniac Ventures and Bee Partners, along with participation from Erik Anderson, Co-founder CEO WestRiver Group; Haroon Mokhtarzada, CEO & Co-founder of TrueBill and RocketMoney; Andy Oreffice, former CCO of Affordable Healthcare; and entrepreneur Francis Hellyer.

Wellplaece plans to be a platform for dental offices to source the right products at the best prices. Co-founded by Caen Contee, serial entrepreneur and founding team member of global micromobility startup Lime; and CTO, lead software engineer Ivan Bertona, the company already reports achieving significant growth, proven consistent customer savings, and is scaling up to meet industry demand with the launch of their automated, multi-vendor supply product purchasing platform.

"I am constantly working to save, in order to take the pressure off of our top line, so we can focus on quality of care," says Armand Begian, DDS, of Sugarbug Dental. "I value the relationships I have with my traditional suppliers, and I thought I had negotiated good prices. I can't believe the savings Wellplaece has been able to optimize on our behalf."

Wellplaece's proprietary technology is said to shop an ever-expanding network of suppliers on the client's behalf, resulting in more streamlined access to the right products for a better price. Wellplaece places the order and manages supplier logistics while only charging the client once for the aggregated cart of supplies. In addition, Wellplaece even manages returns and chargebacks when necessary.

"By utilizing our AI-empowered tech to do the shopping across a much-expanded supply network, we help dental practices make more informed, consolidated, and informed decisions on the procurement process," says Wellplaece Co-founder Caen Contee. "As the dental industry and private group practices evolve into this new decade, it's becoming clear that it's just as important and impactful to save on the bottom line and make your practice more operationally efficient as much as it is to focus on topline growth, upselling patients, treatments, and maximizing patient throughput."

By the end of Q2, Wellplaece will have doubled its distributor and manufacturer supplier network and is on track to onboard 100+ new locations over the coming quarters, according to a press release.

Startup leverages AI workflow optimization to streamline procurement process for dental practices. 

Wellplaece Launches New Dental Procurement Solution 

Bola AI Partners with Peerlogic AI. Image: © Bola Technologies © Peerlogic


Bola AI has announced a new partnership with Peerlogic, a voice-based artificial intelligence (AI). Bola AI and Peerlogic’s new partnership will combine AI voice technology to enable dental practices to measure call performance, integrate perio data directly into practice management systems, and help grow the practice, according to a press release from the companies.

“The combined AI technologies of Bola AI and Peerlogic help bring us one step closer to the improved dental experiences that will be commonplace in the future,” founder and CEO of Bola AI, Rushi Ganmuki says in the press release. “We are continually striving to find ways to save time, improve efficiency, and drive additional revenue in dental practices both large and small. This partnership dovetails perfectly with that mission.”

Peerlogic utilizes a proprietary software to capture office interactions, inbound and outbound calls, and help clinicians streamline processes. Partnering with Bola AI, which provides AI-powered voice assistance, will optimize workflows for dental practices especially in the front office, according to CEO of Peerlogic Ryan Miller.

“We’re thrilled to put our partnership with Bola AI into practice,” Miller says in the press release. “Both products are aimed at bringing improved efficiency to the dental office by creating solutions that save time, improve conversion rates, and increase productivity. Partnering with Bola AI was exciting to us as we believe that the best AI companies are going to succeed by partnering together and ultimately providing a better product offering.”

Bola AI and Peerlogic will partner to provide dental practices with an artificial intelligence-powered voice workflow to streamline operations in the front office. 

Bola AI Partners with Peerlogic AI 

Lisa Newburger, a master's level social worker supervisor, helps audiences find humor in talking about tough topics. Her "in-your-face" style of presentations and writing will make you smile or just shock you into taking some action. Either way, she is very effective at empowering others to reach their goals and feel better about themselves. Her entertaining workshops are available for national and international audiences. Writing for the dental industry since 2010, she uses an alterego (Diana Directive) to illustrate her points in a sarcastic but effective way. Presentations can be scheduled by contacting Lisa at www.discussdirectives.com/dental.html.

How to Navigate the Difficult Hospice System. Image: © Newman Studio - stock.adobe.com


Pain can be excruciating and can make life not worth living. Unfortunately, I have a colleague, Martha, who is watching this happen to her father, and she wants you to learn from her experience if you must ever face this nightmare. Here is Martha’s story.

Her dad, Paul, has been living with pain for 10 years. He has tolerated it with some medications, but he is declining fast. It has gotten to the point where Paul wants to stop living this way. Martha brought hospice in for palliative care and learned a couple of things along the way.

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She contacted hospice for an informational meeting to see if he was eligible for palliative care. The shocker was that palliative care does not provide the pain medication (narcotics) that he needs. Instead, they put him on hospice as he met the criteria for this service. The plan being if he can break the pain cycle and have a quality of life again, he will go off hospice. If not, he is planning to stop eating and will pass away. These are tough conversations for anyone to have to go through, but that was not the worst part.

The worst part was getting Paul on hospice. You must have a referral from a doctor to do so. If not, you need medical records, and the hospice medical director can make the order. Right now, in health care, getting ahold of medical professionals is a nightmare.

Martha is a dental assistant. How is she supposed to make calls and get what she needs done when she is at work? Many offices will collaborate with you so that you do not have to take a leave of absence, but in this case, Martha had to. She could not make the system work unless she stormed the doctor’s office.

You get better results being grateful not angry.

On Friday, she heard from the doctor’s assistant Patty at 8:15 a.m. that she would discuss the request for Hospice with the doctor. At 1:00 p.m., there was still no phone call from Patty. Martha went in person to the doctor’s office and asked to speak to Patty. She stayed calm, deliberate, and respectful. She was told to take a seat and they would let Patty know. Then, she was called to the desk and told the doctor was still with patients and Patty would call her at the end of the day.

Lesson 2: Do Not Leave Until You Get What You Need

You know what that would mean? Doctors do not always make those calls and then it would be another couple of days for Paul to live in agony. Martha politely asked for help to get medical records sent to the hospice director and was given a phone number to call. Martha sat back down in the waiting room and made the call. You guessed it, a voicemail. At this point, Martha’s chest started tightening as she realized she was not going to get results and tears silently started falling.

She politely asked for an ombudsman or the supervisor for medical records to help with this emergency. At this point, the staff took pity, brought tissues, and ran back to tell Patty what was going on. Again, Martha was instructed to take a seat. At this point, the entire waiting room was aware that a patient in pain needed a hospice referral, and this family member was having trouble getting that done.

It took a while, but Patty came out and told her the order was written. Martha went home and 2 hours later hospice arrived and started the patient on narcotics.

This story is important for some of you who may be dealing with caregiving issues. It is a nightmare. Then, you add your work schedule, it gets worse. But the challenge of health care workers being short-staffed, or not caring, is simply wrong on so many levels. Why is it that someone must break down with tears of frustration to get action? Paul is getting some relief now. And Martha is recuperating from this additional trauma. This is wrong. Our system is failing so many of our patients. This is why you must be an advocate whether you want to or not.

The intent for this article is to empower you to do what needs to be done to help your loved ones.

Go to the doctor’s office if you do not get responses on the phone.

Do not get angry. People become passive aggressive when you do and are less likely to help you now and in the future.

Do not leave the doctor’s office until you have a resolution. If she had left when Patty did not want to talk to her initially or when she was given the medical record phone number, she would be no closer to having gotten the hospice referral.

Also, every hospital system here in Cleveland has ombudsmen who can help with these types of issues. Request one. If not, then ask for supervisors until you get a person to help you out.

I know this is upsetting to hear, but hopefully this will help if you are ever in a situation like that. Do not give up. Once on hospice, Martha found that they were the most helpful supportive professionals who are accessible and never rush or avoid a caregiver. That is how you make a system work.

Email me at diana2@discussdirectives.com to share if you can relate to this experience.

Dental professionals are busy every day so when the worst comes to pass and family members need end-of-life care, it can be a heavy burden to face alone. 

How to Navigate Difficult Caregiving Systems 

Robert Elsenpeter is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Dental Products Report and Dental Lab Products. He is also the author of 18 technology books, including the award-winning Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line. As such, he’s particularly interested in the technological side of dentistry.

Although endodontists make their best faith efforts to relieve patients’ pain as quickly as possible, they may not be able to do it fast enough. The treatment may take time to heal or, even worse, they may not be able to begin treatment right away. In either case, endodontists have a number of tools at their disposal to help make those patients more comfortable.

Sometimes it is simply not avoidable. Even in the face of agonizing pain, some patients may just have to wait for their ultimate treatment and can only be seen for an initial visit.

“Generally, what will happen is endodontists or oral surgeons or specialists––or general dentists who are making time to see patients for emergencies––sometimes [only have] enough time for an emergency visit,” Nicholas Pappas, DDS, MSD, an endodontist from The Woodlands, Texas, says. “When I make my schedule, I have certain spots for emergencies, certain spots for treatment and evaluation. We do our best to be able to accommodate any type of emergency. However, if we cannot see a patient immediately, we are trying to see that patient the following business day. So from my personal experience, if we have a patient [who is] in pain, the longest they’re waiting is a business day.”

However, some practices make every effort to deliver treatment, in an effort to help patients alleviate pain.

“It’s our practice’s philosophy that if somebody comes in in extreme pain, I’ll never turn them away without providing some type of help,” Ryan M. Walsh, DDS, MS, Diplomate of the American Board of Endodontics, and endodontist at Advanced Endodontics of Texas in Keller, says. “And most of the time that involves initiating treatment of one type or another. If it’s something where the tooth is going to be clearly extracted, most of the time I will call an oral surgeon or…the referring dentist and let them know, ‘Hey, this has to be extracted right away.’ Rather than me starting any treatment, let’s get to the endgame first. But what you have to first determine is where the pathology’s coming from––or where the pain’s coming from. Is it an endodontic infection? Is it a periodontal infection? Is it an infection at all? Is it just an inflammatory response? Is there deep decay? Is there a crack or a fracture causing it? …Those things could change the way I manage this patient and/or help determine what’s the best course of treatment, long-term, and the best course of treatment, short-term.”

Patients can present with several pain profiles, any of which call for a different pain management regimen.

“From an endodontic perspective, it is important to diagnose the source of a patient’s discomfort,” Dr Pappas says. “For example, irreversible pulpitis, nerve pain, can be manageable if you’re keeping stimuli away from it, meaning we’re not eating ice cream, we’re not drinking cold water, we’re not chewing on that side. When there’s possible necrosis, that pain might present as the dull, constant ache. Spontaneous discomfort––pain that wakes a patient up at night––that typically is not going to be something that you can manage by taking away a stimuli…. The problem with necrosis is that that pain can be constant and can’t be turned off.”

The most obvious way to treat pain is through medication. It may be something as simple as analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or it may be as potent as an opioid. However, Dr Walsh prefers opioids to be the last thing he prescribes.

“I try to use opioids as the last line of defense, because I think so much pain can be treated and managed without it,” he observes. “Our leading pain experts suggest that over-the-counter medications work better than opioids in controlling endodontic pain. So being able to use something that has no addictive potential, has no intoxicating or mind-altering effects, and treats endodontic pain more effectively, that’s a win-win.”

That’s not to suggest that opioids don’t have their place in reasonable pain management strategies, but given the effectiveness of over-the-counter medication, opioids tend to be the last thing suggested.

“I still prescribe opioids in cases where, if it’s an acute apical abscess or an acute infection, the pain has not been controlled with over-the-counter medications,” Dr Walsh says. “I still think there’s a time and place for opioids. I just think we have to be selective about when we use them, as opposed to using them as our first line of defense.”

No matter the protocol, it all starts with knowing the patient and his or her needs––and their history.

“Generally, when we prescribe medications, it’s usually when we’ve seen the patient and completed a proper medical history,” Dr Pappas says. “I feel it is important to see a patient and prescribe a regimen that is appropriate for their medical history. Secondly, it’s important to administer the right medication for that diagnosis. For example, if we have a case of irreversible pulpitis where the nerve is vital, an antibiotic is not necessarily effective or necessary. Now, if we diagnose the nerve as being necrotic, an antibiotic could…be indicated if there’s a sign of swelling or fever, et cetera. Generally, what I like to start with is over-the-counter medications, specifically acetaminophen and ibuprofen. [Results from] recent studies have shown that a combination of acetaminophen and ibuprofen, when taken together, can work as effectively as an opioid. So as we try to scale back our prescriptions of opioids, we’ve actually found that over-the-counter medications, when taken together, have extremely potent effects.”

Painkillers are not the only medications used in the quest for pain management. The problem is a war that must be waged on several fronts.

“I would not say antibiotics are used for pain management, per se,” Dr Walsh says. “Antibiotics are used as the name would suggest––to help reduce bacteria in the body. I think there’s a time and a place for those in endodontic treatments as well. I think of endodontic pain as having a triad of causes and a triad of treatments. In other words, we have bacteria (or we potentially have bacteria), inflammation, and pain. And so, if we can effectively manage the bacteria and the inflammation, both by treating it endodontically and by using over-the-counter [medications], most of the time the third leg of that triad, the pain, is controlled all on its own without really having to use a lot of pain medication to control it. So if we can control the sources of the pain, it usually is much more manageable.”

Regrettably, endodontists must be on the lookout for drug seekers. Fortunately, it is not as prevalent a problem as it used to be.

“Drug seeking is still out there, but I’ve seen it diminish over the past 5 to 7 years, probably because of internet-based tracking software,” Dr Walsh says. “For instance, Texas has a pharmaceutical management database where we have to enter the patient’s name and other identifying information to see how frequently and how often they’ve been prescribed medications from other providers. So by going to these digital platforms, I think that kind of puts dentists in connection with physicians who may also be prescribing and when.”

Obtaining pain medication from an endodontist, Dr Pappas observes, may not be drug seekers’ first choice, because access to endodontists is not an easy route.

“Endodontic offices are generally not the first thought in a patient’s mind when experiencing dental pain,” he says. “Since most of our patients are sent via referrals, it can be fairly laborious for a drug seeker to end up in our chair. Therefore, most drug seekers are looking for easier access, such as walk-in clinics and urgent care facilities . So I personally do not see much drug seeking; however, it does happen.”

Medication isn’t the only tool that can be used to mitigate patients in pain.

“I'll look for pain that’s caused by a certain stimuli, meaning patients complain of pain while chewing or when drinking cold water,” Dr Pappas says. “My first step would be to try to avoid any of those stimuli. Sometimes there’s pain associated with swelling or fever, so in certain cases, cold compresses can help just relieve discomfort. But generally, there’s nothing better than getting to our office for definitive treatment as soon as possible.”

Of course, the best way to alleviate pain is to remove the source in the first place.

“We take as kind of a hallmark of our practice that if you’re in pain, you will get treated that day, not just managed,” Dr Walsh says. “One of the things we have at our disposal is local anesthetics to numb the location of the pain, which not only helps the patient feel better, but sometimes can break the pain cycle and allow them time to get more over-the-counter medications on board to effectively manage the pain when it returns. Sometimes even breaking the pain cycle, allowing the patient to get some sleep and some mental recuperation, will help in the pain management protocol.”

Ultimately, it is in the patient’s best interest to deal with their problems sooner rather than later, which can prevent a small problem from growing into a big one.

“From a practice management perspective, we’re built for emergencies,” Dr Pappas says. “So sometimes a little bit of hesitation can just delay the patient getting into the chair. Always feel free to give us a call, because definitive treatment cannot be administered until I have seen a patient. So the sooner we get involved, the sooner we can help.”

Dental pain can be torturous, and endodontists see a lot of it. Happily, they have many tools at their disposal to help patients alleviate their pain.

Dealing with dental patients who must wait for treatment.

Managing Patients in Pain 

Study Shows Sensor-Adapted Dental Clinics Reduce Stress for Autistic Pediatric Patients. Image: © University of Southern California


A new study from the University of Southern California (USC) has demonstrated that dental clinics that use visual, auditory, and tactile adaptations, reduce stress for pediatric autistic patients. This study, which was done by researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, gave dental cleanings to autistic children in both standard clinics and adapted settings. These adapted settings included blackout curtains, a slow-motion visual effect which was either an underwater scene or abstract colors, nature sounds and quiet piano music, and a butterfly wrap to provide children with a hugging sensation.

Results were measured using electrodes placed on the child’s fingers to measure electrodermal activity which provide a physiological measurement of the fight-or-flight response in the brain. Researchers also measured results through observation of distressed behaviors like crying, biting, and clamping down.

The quality of care between the control environment and the adapted environment was the same. Children entering the adapted environment had decreased stress levels even before treatment, according to lead study author Leadh Stein Duker, assistant professor at the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy.

“So many interventions try to change the person,” Stein Duker says in a press release from USC. “Instead, this intervention sees children for who they are–it does not try to fix or change them–focusing the intervention to modify problematic environmental factors as a way to empower the child and family to engage successfully in occupation.”

This study was done to address the reality that autistic children are often presented with unique, sensory challenges at the dental office, which can be a barrier to care. Stein Duker and Sensory Adapted Dental Environments (SADE) aims to find new ways to eliminate these barriers to boost efficacy of dental care for this patient population.

“Because it’s a fully-powered study, we were able to identify some other very exciting things,” Stein Duker says. “For example, our data showed that children’s physiological stress dropped as soon as they entered the adapted dental cleaning room before the actual cleaning even began, and that level of physiological stress predicted behavioral distress during the cleaning.”

this study also aims to help close an ethnic disparity gap, with 72% of parents of the children enrolled self-identifying as Hispanic. To ensure fidelity, the SADE research team had bilingual members to communicate with participants and families.

The research team hopes to expand in the future by implementing SADE studies for typically developing children with dental fear and anxiety, and, eventually, researching preliminary data for adults with intellectual developmental disabilities and/or autism.

“Regardless of population, my advice to dental professionals and parents alike is to work together to find ways to improve the overall clinic experience,” Stein Duker says in the press release. “There are weighted x-ray bibs in every single dental office that may help calm the child; they can wear sunglasses; they can wear a beanie hat covering the ears to muffle noises–all of these are completely free and easy adaptations that have the potential to improve the clinic experience for those with sensory sensitivities, without negatively impacting dentists’ ability to provide care.”

This new study from the University of Southern California demonstrates that dental clinics that make small sensory adaptations in the treatment room are better equipped to care for autistic pediatric patients. 