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AUDIO - HSP #270 - Jeff Dryer
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VIDEO - HSP #270 - Jeff Dryer
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• Dr. Dryer's amazing journey through dentistry
• Going from private to group practice to inventing DryerPliers
• How to use DryerPliers
When I first began utilizing sectional matrix systems at my practice in Plano, TX.; I was immediately impressed by their ability to achieve anatomically "tight" proximal contacts. But, I also found myself continually searching my instrument drawers for some type of pliers that could be used for delivering those little bands into the patient's mouth. My thumb and index finger frequently became my only option. You too, have probably experienced those same frustrations with trying to avoid bending them, accompanied by the" fear" of dropping them! The difficulty of placing a sectional band (without deforming it) into a Mesial preparation done a maxillary molar, can only be understood by a dentist who has done it. Sound familiar?
After searching several dental supply catalogues; I then began asking manufacturers at dental conventions. After receiving numerous blank looks from them across those exhibit tables, it reminded me that dental suppliers have no concept of working on a real patient. That is when I decided to design them myself. The early development versions were marketed on a limited basis from 2003-2007. Since then, numerous improvements in the design of the DryerPliers have been developed. They are now capable of placing all manufacturers sectional matrix bands into a mesial or distal tooth preparation, without ANY deformation of the band. Also; before completing your restoration, DryerPliers are able to remove the band from the tightest of proximal contact areas. You will never again be asking your assistant for hemostats!
Try them out yourself, you will not be disappointed.
Best regards,
Jeff Dryer, DDS
http://dryerpliers.com/
Howard: Welcome to the greater New York meeting, 2015, in downtown Manhattan at the Javits Center and I’m with the man behind DryerPliers.
Jeff: Right.
Howard: Is it DryersPliers?
Jeff: No, it’s DryerPliers.
Howard: DryerPliers and you’re Jeff Dryer and you have a very interesting story, so go ahead and tell them your story and how you came out with DryerPliers.
Jeff: I was a private practice general dentist which I still am, but I’m no longer in private practice, in Plano, Texas. After I …
Howard: That’s a suburb of Dallas?
Jeff: Yes, a northern suburb of Dallas.
Howard: You’re one of those obnoxious Cowboy’s fans?
Jeff: Big time. Yeah, but [inaudible 00:00:52] he’s done, plus I’m not a big fan of Jared Jones.
Howard: He broke his collarbone again?
Jeff: Again.
Howard: Is he out for the season?
Jeff: Yeah, he’s done, but I’m also a Patriots fan because now I live in Boston.
Howard: How’d you get from Dallas to Boston?
Jeff: I married into it. I met my wife while she was living in Texas, but she’s originally from Massachusetts. She moved back, we started dating and then she moved back to Texas again. We got married and I had a long … about 2003, I had a pretty bad motorcycle accident which ended up having to quit practicing dentistry, sold my practice. Fortunately, I was covered with disability insurance as every dentist should be, but after selling my practice my wife said, “Hey, you can move me home now.” There we are.
Howard: Not to be too personal, but what were the lessons learned on the motorcycle? There was an accident where you weren’t wearing a helmet or it was it offroad?
Jeff: No, I had a helmet on, but …
Howard: Was it on the street?
Jeff: Yeah.
Howard: Was it your fault or did a car hit you?
Jeff: Pretty much it was my fault. There was a median in between the road, a sharp curve and I didn’t know it was a sharp curve, hit the median, rode over it and then landed face first on the …
Howard: With a helmet on?
Jeff: … opposite side with a helmet on, but it knocked my head back and had some bleeding in the brain.
Howard: You were disabled then?
Jeff: Permanently, yeah.
Howard: Oh, permanently?
Jeff: Yeah.
Howard: Do you feel better now? How long did it take you … You seem totally normal now.
Jeff: I know and I’m doing amazingly great considering that …
Howard: That was 2003?
Jeff: That was 2003 and …
Howard: How long were you let’s say in [inaudible 00:03:04]?
Jeff: I actually came back to my practice and after about six, seven months after the wreck and because I seemed fine, but my memory is affected, my immediate, short-term memory. I practiced almost a year because it doesn’t affect my memory of things I’d already learned. I knew dentistry backwards and forwards, I knew it better than at my own house, what to do. I noticed that I was forgetting things that I had just read in their chart or I look back at their radiographs and say, okay, I need to do number da, da, da, number 29 [inaudible 00:03:54] and da, da, da, da and I would get in their mouth and I would look back, look back. I had a couple of close calls that really scared me, so I said I can’t do this, I can’t risk this. I called my disability, for dental disability insurance companies and I told them what was happening. I said I can’t practice. Of course, they said, well, you’ll see this doctor and another doctor and they said oh, yeah, you can’t do it and
MRIs.
Howard: The MRI showed that you had some type of short-term memory loss?
Jeff: [Inaudible 00:04:36].
Howard: There’s a lot of kids out there. A lot of them are thinking ah, do I need disability?
Jeff: I’m glad you brought that up.
Howard: What lessons did you learn on disability? Now that you collect disability do you wish you would have bought it differently or more?
Jeff: No, no, thank God.
Howard: Talk about disability.
Jeff: When I was a senior in dental school at the University of Texas in Houston, during one of those little … I remember we were all eating lunch. Someone came in and spoke to us and it was a fairly young dentist who had … I don’t even remember why, but he became disabled. He was talking to us about how important it is to buy disability insurance specific for practicing dentistry because that’s what you’re trying to do. If something happens with your back or your neck or anything you need to buy immediately when you graduate from dental school. It might seem like it’s a good bit of money, but in reality it is not much. Basically, you can only buy an amount equivalent to what your income is.
When you’re first starting out you buy a minimal policy, but as your practice grows increase it. A lot of dentists I’ve talked to they all go, wow, you had enough because I was at the peak of my practice. I’d been practicing, I don’t know, 12, I think maybe 12 years. I was just really at a higher level and fortunately I had as you increase your income from your practice you need to call your disability insurance company and raise the amount for your coverage. Another note is your disability insurance payments, this is huge. My CPA loved me when I told him this. Don’t deduct your disability insurance payments as an office expense, deduct them … Have you heard this before?
Howard: Deduct your …
Jeff: After taxes you pay your own disability insurance. That way if you ever need it …
Howard: It’s after tax money.
Jeff: … it’s tax free.
Howard: It’s tax free.
Jeff: Because you can only … It limits you and it hurts when you … Me, I became disabled at age 40. I never thought I would, never. Thank God I had enough coverage because income-wise I didn’t really …
Howard: A name brand company? Can you say who you bought it from, the insurance?
Jeff: It was through ADA, an insurance company they recommended.
Howard: It was the American Dental Assocation?
Jeff: Yes, yes, and fortunately …
Howard: Was that the Texas Dental Association or the American one?
Jeff: The American Dental Association.
Howard: The one they recommend …
Jeff: Yes.
Howard: … is the one you bought from them?
Jeff: Yeah, just try to find a disability insurance company, a policy that will allow … Basically, specific to what you’re trying to do, a private practice, because there are some policies that will say … If you can go and teach at a dental assistant school then we won’t pay or if you can go teach in a community college we won’t pay. You have no possibility of making an income level of a private practice dentist because that’s what you’re trying to do. You’re not trained … You need to have a policy that’s going to pay you equivalent to what your income you’re used to making.
Howard: What’s that clause called?
Jeff: Specific to private practice is how I refer to it.
Howard: Okay, so then now that you’re disabled and you decided to focus more time on your patented invention. Tell us about that, your DryerPliers.
Jeff: What happened was … Several Dental Town members if they’ve been around long enough might remember … I introduced and talked to them quite a bit on Dental Town because I invented these in … I came up with the idea in 2002 practicing dentistry and in 2003 literally the month that I was marketing them out of my own practice, opened up a separate incorporation. There’s that word. Literally the month that I started marketing on them and introduce them, that’s when I had the motorcycle wreck and so with the TBI, the traumatic brain injury and trying to recover from that and then eventually realizing I can’t practice
Dentistry, I had to sell my practice, all of that. I put it all to the side until this year.
My wife who’s a dental hygienist said, “Jeff, you got to do something with those pliers or leave them alone.” Because the whole time I’d been tinkering with them and improving them and improving them and just I’d say maybe a year or two year ago, I wasn’t marketing them to anybody, I had no exposure at all. I had lost connections with dentists because I wasn’t in practice. I questioned whether there was still a need for them, but I knew that I had radically improved them where not I’ve got them …
Howard: Tell the story.
Jeff: … exactly like I want them.
Howard: What exactly are they? I just saw your YouTube video. In fact, I commented on your YouTube video.
Jeff: Which one did you watch?
Howard: Did you post that on Dental Town?
Jeff: There are three YouTube videos.
Howard: Yeah, yeah, I watched all three.
Jeff: Oh, good.
Howard: Do you know you can post those on Dental Town? When you go make a post on Dental Town there’s a little YouTube box. If you go to YouTube and when you click share and it’s says video embed and you cut and paste the embed and throw it in the YouTube block and that YouTube video is right on Dental Town. If you ever go throw a YouTube video on Dental Town the views will explode because there’s 205,000 dentists on that thing.
Jeff: When medical and everything hit with me I quit going on Dental Town. All right, so …
Howard: Remember, most people are listening to this on iTunes.
Jeff: They’re not seeing … right.
Howard: Only …
Jeff: You know how when you’ve got your patient laid back and you’ve prepped an MO, a mesial, post to your composite restoration, say an MO on tooth number 15 or 14 and that little sectional matrix band, whatever system you use, you know to carry … Basically, most dentists are using their thumb and index finger to carry that little band back there because there are no cotton pliers or [inaudible 00:12:11] or anything that can hold that band to deliver it without distorting the curvatures of it, bending the corner or something. That’s why that’s a big problem with all sectional manufacturers, so I looked for about a year.
When I first started using sectional systems that was my biggest complaint was how do I … I can’t believe they don’t make something to carry this, deliver this mesial positioned sectional matrix band. I looked at conventions all over the place and you had to turn that around because this is mesial. Yeah, and couldn’t find them, couldn’t find them. I would go along the [inaudible 00:12:58] asking different suppliers do you sell something, pliers that I can deliver a sectional matrix band. They all looked at me blankly because they weren’t dentists, they didn’t understand what I’m talking about. They think oh, you can do this, but it’s not a flip top lid. I’m going no, you have to come in from the front. They’ve got lips, cheeks and everything and you can only come in from here in a limited space. You’ve got a rubber dam on, if you use a rubber dam, hopefully, when you’re doing posterior composites. Even less room to get your fat thumb and finger in there without bending that band.
I tinkered with them and tinkered because I was at a hockey game, a Dallas Stars game with an orthodontist buddy and I was telling him about it, my complaint, and he goes, “Jeff, why don’t you just make them?” I said, “What, what do you mean?” He goes, “You make them.” We had a few more beers and watched the Stars and he talked me into it. I said, “All right, I’ll try.” I started tinkering with them in ’02 and I got patents and decided hey, all right, I’ll try these on my own.
Howard: The patents in America are … Is it 17 years or 19 years?
Jeff: Twenty.
Howard: U.S. patents are now 20 years?
Jeff: Yes, 20 years.
Howard: You got the patent in 2000?
Jeff: Two thousand and three, I got several patents on them, 2003 and 2004 covers the patents.
Howard: You can sell 24?
Jeff: Yes, ballpark.
Howard: This is 15?
Jeff: Right.
Howard: You got to get rolling on these things.
Jeff: That’s what Marianne said, what my wife said.
Howard: That’s why you got to start …
Jeff: I’m improving them.
Howard: … [inaudible 00:24:40] on Dental Town, improve that deal.
Jeff: I need exposure, but the mesial plier is able to … Basically, you open that … Put your glasses on, see the [inaudible 00:14:58] ledge in front of it, pull it. That holds for mesial delivery into an MO prep.
Howard: It should be facing …
Jeff: No, you’re coming in …
Howard: She’s in your head, okay, okay.
Jeff: Yeah, no flip top lid.
Howard: Nice.
Jeff: Look how that … Talk about limited space. You have your rubber dam clamp back there and they can’t open very wide and you can’t stretch their cheeks out that far. You’re not doing this, you’re doing this.
Howard: [Cami 00:15:32], will you come lay on the table, so we can try this on a live demonstration. Come on, [Cami 00:15:39].
Jeff: Do you know what I actually did? I’ve got between 30 and 31, I have open contact believe it or not.
Howard: Now can you also use the prong to burnish the …
Jeff: Yes, you can. Yes, you can. After you’ve put it in at the right angle, too. That’s another instrument, how do I get on a mesial? That’s the mesial part.
Howard: Do you have any … a tri-ring that you like to work with or do you have any favorites there or are you agnostic to all those?
Jeff: I have not tried the V-rings because they came out after I quit practicing. I’ve
looked at them, I think they’re a great idea, but I like the Garrison Golds, I liked Palodents, I’m open …
Howard: Have you worked with any of those companies? Have you …
Jeff: I’ve talked to them, but it’s hard to get in the door. Really hard for an independent guy that’s invented a product. They just don’t tend to listen and a lot of the manufacturers that you are talking to they’re not dentists, they don’t understand the concept. I’ve shown them to some, but …
Howard: I think you should post these on Dental Town and then see if you can get any product champion dentists who are big posters on Dental Town like [inaudible 00:17:12] or whoever to see if any of those guys like those, Lee Ann Brady.
Jeff: Lee Ann Brady loves them.
Howard: Oh, my gosh, she loves them.
Jeff: She told me to tell you some …
Howard: She’s probably the most famous clinical dentist … You worked with Pinky and [inaudible 00:17:25].
Jeff: I know, I know.
Howard: She’s a legend.
Jeff: She absolutely loves them and I saw her yesterday, I went by and said hi.
Howard: You saw her yesterday here?
Jeff: Yes, she’s here. She’s doing a hands on course today, but I had sent her a set of my pliers, I don’t know, six, eight weeks ago. She said I love these, they’re great. I’m like, wow, okay, cool. She said yeah, use my name, da, da, da. Yesterday she told me tell Howard I said da, da, da. I don’t remember what she told me to tell you, part of the brain ding.
Howard: Right on.
Jeff: You’ll have to ask her.
Howard: I think she told her that I was the most handsome dentist in all of dentistry.
Jeff: That was it, but I didn’t want to embarrass you.
Howard: I’m pretty sure.
Jeff: Yeah.
Howard: Howard, have you seen these?
Male: No, I haven’t.
Howard: Come look at these.
Male: Right now?
Howard: Yeah, right now.
Jeff: Jump in.
Howard: He can show them to Lee Ann Brady there, Dave, but basically in a nutshell.
Male: [Inaudible 00:18:17], so how are you doing, Howard?
Jeff: I know, I know your name, too. I’m the unknown guy, mesial and distal,okay. There’s a mesial plier for delivering in a mesial position. There’s a distal plier for midistal.
Howard: Basically, in a nutshell every …
Male: [Inaudible 00:18:35] contact manager.
Howard: Every dentist in America is [crosstalk 00:18:38].
Jeff: Any sectional matrix band.
Howard: Fingers and thumbs.
Jeff: To put it in a mesial.
Howard: Yeah, where you’re using fingers and thumbs.
Jeff: Or you’re faced to buy the ones with tabs on them which the tab a lot of dentists don’t like because it gets in the way of your view when you’re shaping the adjacent marginal ridges. It really gets in the way and it’s difficult to take those out sometimes with their systems.
Male: You sell the bands and the pliers?
Jeff: No, I do not. I do not sell the bands because I just sell the pliers. They work with any bands.
Howard: Who makes the pliers for you?
Jeff: I have a manufacturer that makes them.
Howard: Oh, you don’t have a dental company that make them, an instrument company?
Jeff: Individually, I do individually shape and contour the tips.
Howard: You do yourself?
Jeff: I do it myself.
Howard: Wow.
Jeff: This is a brand new deal, a brand new company, but rather than doing this … This is a mesial plier. You squeeze it to load, see the ledge and you turn the band around the right way. These are Palodent bands. Load it, boom, okay, and then … Because when you get that band seated into position where you want it then you squeeze the bars together and leave it there. To avoid dropping it while you’re carrying it, delivering it, you shift to a grip like this, okay, and that way you cannot drop it inadvertently and you can push down on it. Feel how I can put downward pressure to seat it.
Male: Okay, very cool.
Jeff: Then as Howard very astutely pointed out you can take the tip and burnish it.
Male: Great idea.
Jeff: Now the distal plier …
Howard: How much are these set of pliers?
Jeff: One hundred and fifty for one set, multiple sets, $135 per set, you get a 10% discount which is a steal. They should be priced higher, I believe, but it’s a new product and for as long as it takes I’m going to keep them down.
Howard: This was Shark Tank right now and not the dentistry uncensored podcast, what would you say?
Male: I like it. Is there a certain thing you say in Shark Tank, I’ve never seen it.
Jeff: Oh, it’s great.
Howard: You’ve never seen Shark Tank?
Jeff: I love it.
Male: What do you say when something’s thumbs up, thumbs up?
Jeff: No, you say I’ll buy in.
Howard: It’s the only program …
Male: I’m buying, okay, I’m buying.
Howard: It’s the only program that all four of my boys like to watch with dad. If I turn on the NFL football it’s about two of the four boys.
Male: Okay.
Howard: They turn on the Shark Tank, they all love Shark Tank. Yeah, I really like this because the bottom-line is … I always thought I was lucky because when I was in dental school I had one of the smallest hands of my friends. One of my best friends in dental school was a linebacker from Notre Dame.
Jeff: Oh, boy.
Howard: In fact, you know the most interesting story … You know Rotary Files started with McSpadden …
Male: McSpadden.
Howard: … out of Chattanooga, Tennessee and you know what the mother of invention of all that was?
Male: No.
Howard: Have you ever met John McSpadden?
Male: I believe so.
Howard: He’s the size of a door and everybody was saying oh, take these [inaudible 00:22:07] files and do this and I could put my hand in John McSpadden’s palm and he’s just this big moose of a man. He’s like I couldn’t do that and so he had to run home and invent an engine-driven file holder and that whole thing started …
Jeff: Mushroomed.
Howard: … because that guy couldn’t get his finger and thumb … I always thought I was a lucky dentist because I have these dainty little girly hands and I had no problem, but I personally have a problem placing these in my …
Jeff: Oh, everybody.
Howard: … finger and thumb.
Jeff: There’s just no room.
Male: I used to use the ones, the [inaudible 00:22:44] thing.
Howard: Pin hole tap.
Male: They never worked right. [Inaudible 00:22:47]. You couldn’t get the hole …
Jeff: I have to be cautious in what I say. You haven’t been seeing the benefit.
Howard: It lasts forever.
Jeff: You haven’t even seen the full benefits.
Male: Some dentists might be honest with you and might think I’m doing multiple sets for … One will be sterilization.
Jeff: For composite setups.
Male: At least three setups I would think for dentists.
Jeff: There’s more … They’re advantageous features.
Howard: There’s more.
Jeff: That’s not it.
Howard: Continue.
Jeff: Order now and we’ll …
Male: You get the [inaudible 00:23:24].
Jeff: … send you one for free or something. No, I did not say that. Distal plier, you seat it. Do your restoration, take your ring off after you’ve [inaudible 00:23:36] surgery composite. You don’t need to get hemostats. The distal DryerPlier, the tighter you squeeze it the tighter that it gets and it’s all concentrated on that point. You grab it at any accessible place, lift it out.
Howard: That’s hard to do.
Jeff: Try to pull that band out of that plier.
Howard: Yeah, and that’s hard to do.
Jeff: Don’t cut yourself.
Howard: Wow.
Male: Besides bands, can you use these as hemostats [inaudible 00:24:02] for other things?
Howard: Removing the matrix band is one of the hardest things especially if it’s got some kind of [inaudible 00:24:10] …
Jeff: Yeah, I don’t think it would have any other …
Howard: … to the sort of material.
Jeff: No, after you’ve placed that in the distal, same thing, you use that tip, burnish, and the tips are smoothly polished on both sides to concave on one side, convex on another just like the sectional matrix band.
Howard: I think everybody in trying to remove the matrix after the filling is cured.
Jeff: Oh, that’s huge.
Howard: Everybody at least once is trying to work that off and then it pulls out too fast and then gouges soft tissue injury on the way out.
Jeff: The second molar.
Howard: Have you not done that?
Male: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Howard: Yeah, so to be able to precisely work that out without having to … would be very nice.
Jeff: Yeah, you can lift it up without … I think what you’re referring to, Howard, with not traumatizing it.
Howard: Is that a reality for Michael Miller?
Jeff: Yes, yes, it’s not on my product though.
Howard: Not on mine. Is Michael Miller still doing the reality …
Jeff: Yes, he is.
Howard: Does he still have his book?
Jeff: Yes, he has them. I recently sent him a set and he’s going to …
Howard: He’s still doing that in Houston with his orthodontist wife, Ingrid?
Jeff: I don’t know that many details about his personal life, but yes.
Howard: [Inaudible 00:25:20] through Michael Miller reality and his orthodontist wife, Ingrid.
Jeff: I don’t believe. Initially, I got the impression that maybe he was lukewarm on these pliers, but he did say that they would evaluate them, so we just need to do it.
Howard: I would just be very nervous if I was him married to an orthodontist in Houston. Remember that other orthodontist in Houston who drove over her husband three times?
Jeff: Woo.
Howard: We’re still alive. I just don’t know if I’d marry an orthodontist.
Jeff: You’re not afraid of any lawsuits, are you?
Howard: I don’t know if I’d marry an orthodontist if I lived in Houston, Texas.
Jeff: I just don’t let her drive.
Howard: Just don’t let her drive. Hey, best of luck to you. Is it okay if he posts a thread on this and posts his YouTube video or is that …
Male: I could tell him the right way of doing it.
Howard: Tell him the right way of doing that.
Male: The right way of doing it is you get someone off the record …
Howard: [Inaudible 00:26:25].
Jeff: Other people need to learn, too.
Howard: Because I want [inaudible 00:26:28] to explain.
Male: We don’t want Dental Town to become too spammy, in other words. We want people to comment and say hey, try our new pliers, blah, blah, blah, the only one on the market. Number one, if someone asks a question, hey, I hear about these new DryerPliers, does anyone know anything about them? That would be a perfect opportunity for you to jump in and give all the information you have on it or …
Howard: Has anybody asked that question?
Male: No, but …
Jeff: I’m not even marketing them. I’ve literally just started.
Male: If I don’t see us hanging out on Dental Town you can [inaudible 00:27:01].
Jeff: I have a website, that’s it.
Howard: I’m on the app and I’m going to search Dryer, D-r-e-y-e-r.
Jeff: D-r-y-e-r.
Howard: D-r-e-y-e-r.
Jeff: No, D-r-y-e-r, just like the appliance.
Howard: D-r-y-e-r.
Jeff: P-l-i …
Howard: Y-e-r-s. DryerPliers.
Jeff: P-l-i-e-r-s, but you’ll still find it that way.
Howard: Oh, no, it’s P-l-i-e …
Jeff: I-e-r-s. Hopefully, that’s how you spell pliers.
Howard: Okay.
Male: Also, you’ve got [crosstalk 00:27:29].
Jeff: It’s too late.
Howard: There’s already three threads where that shows up.
Male: How about that?
Howard: How do you get contacts with … By the way, on this phone app, when you dentists are at home and you have a question eating at you and you have a smartphone in your pocket where you can download the Dental Town app, 205,000 dentists, there’s really almost no question you could ask that someone else hasn’t already asked. Here is where John [inaudible 00:27:54] is even on that thread. That’s infamous John and [Moddy 00:27:58]. Yeah, you should be … They’re talking about it.
Male: What you can do is …
Jeff: Wow.
Male: You can subscribe to DryerPlier, the words DryerPlier and every time it comes up you get an email …
Howard: Subscribe to that thread.
Male: Then you can email the contact of the thread.
Jeff: I hate to say it, but after my life changing events I haven’t been on Dental Town for a few years.
Male: We got to fix that.
Jeff: I know.
Howard: Do you think you can explain to the podcast viewers about the rules of we don’t want to be spammy.
Male: You don’t want to be [inaudible 00:28:34].
Howard: He’s a dentist.
Male: Right, but you help answer questions. Someone asks a question, you say hey, you should try this. You keep all your contact information in your signature area, no links in the post, but you could put links in the signature area.
Jeff: Right, right.
Howard: The difference with a post and a signature area.
Male: [Cami 00:28:51], would you like to explain that?
Male: A post is what you write.
Jeff: What you’re typing.
Male: Okay.
Jeff: Where you’re writing.
Male: At the end of your signature you have to set up beforehand.
Jeff: Yeah, the standard.
Male: Beforehand it’s your name, your contact information, your website.
Jeff: Okay.
Male: Whatever, that type of thing and people can turn that off. There is a setting that …
Howard: I want to make one comment about our [inaudible 00:29:08] is that the single, biggest mistake I ever made with Dental Town besides hiring [Cami 00:29:15] is the fact that I didn’t understand in ’90 what a cyberbully was. I thought every dentist has eight years of college, we’re all adults. I’m not going to go in there and do anything, you guys are all adults. It took me till … You were one of the first people that were telling me you’ve got some cyberbullies on here that need to go. I was a libertarian, not into big government. C’mon, we’re all dentists, you got eight years of college, who am I to edit what you’re saying. They’re [inaudible 00:29:49], but it was you the one who told me there are cyberbullies and they’re going to ruin this town. We finally put you in charge and you banned some people and …
Male: Some of them we brought back after they learned their lesson and they’re great dentists now.
Howard: I just want to credit you of making Dental Town a fun place to go where … By the way, and I want to talk about another dispute where a lot of dentists from Dental Town don’t like the fact that some of these people talk and are anonymous, but it was [inaudible 00:30:19] Christian who’s Gordon Christian’s wife who kept telling me, “Howard, you have to leave anonymous because dentistry needs a place where you can ask a stupid question.”
Jeff: Yeah, that makes sense.
Howard: You make everybody say who they are and there’s no place that any dentist can go to ask a stupid question that’s not going to serve dentistry, but we know who …
Jeff: True.
Howard: … the dentists are when they register. Art Goldstein knows who they are.
Male: We’ve got to make sure that they really are dentists.
Howard: Explain the report abuse button.
Male: After every post there’s a spot. After every post there’s a spot where you hit report abuse if you see someone being a cyberbully and rather than you fight back, just report it, we’ll take care of it. The same with spam, if someone says hey, come to my … buy our widget for today for … No one wants to see that on Dental Town.
Jeff: Right.
Howard: What percent of dentists would you say are just bad shit, crazy? This table?
Jeff: Oh, hey now.
Howard: This table, at least a third, possibly two-thirds. What percent would you say of dentists in general?
Male: About half, about half.
Howard: About half.
Male: Yeah.
Howard: Because man, you’re so good. Because I see the behind the scenes stuff. Sometimes I think to myself how can you have eight years of college and be that illogical?
Male: Right.
Howard: Sometimes it just makes you realize that all humans at the end of the day are just talking monkeys. I don’t care if you’re a dentist, a preacher …
Jeff: I have a theory on that.
Howard: … or if you’re the President of the United States.
Jeff: I think it’s because most dentists are alone. They’re the king in their practice and all of their staff, everyone else in the office is afraid to say oh, no, that’s crazy or that doesn’t make sense.
Howard: No one stands up to doctor.
Jeff: No one and so that’s …
Howard: Then when someone says …
Jeff: It’s easy to develop to I know everything.
Male: The big thing is that there’s so many different ways of being a good dentist. It’s a profession where someone could do an amalgam, someone could do a composite and the patient is going to have great restoration either way as long as they do it right.
Jeff: Yeah, just do it right.
Male: Some dentists …
Jeff: Do it well.
Male: … get the idea that my way is the only right way.
Jeff: Yeah, that is irritating.
Male: It drives me crazy when I see posts like that where it’s like you’re not doing it my way, it’s wrong. Really, is your ego that fragile that it has to be your way. Can’t it be another way also?
Howard: Those are the dentists that think they have an office manager, but they really don’t because the office manager doesn’t ever stand up to any of them because the office manager goes if I want to keep my job I’m just going to agree with you. That’s what they call the Saddam Hussein staff, the Saddam Hussein staff was telling them oh, you can defend America, you can keep America out of here. If you told Saddam that that wasn’t true he would execute you.
Male: Right.
Howard: Then when he finally picked a war he lasted 100 hours. If your office manager … If your office manager doesn’t feel like she can go get another job tomorrow then she’s not going to say to the doctor I have an office manager. You have the yes, ma’am. I see it on Dental Town where you can just tell that some dentists are profoundly shocked that anyone disagreed with them. They’re just such in a bubble of I am the 400 pound gorilla, nobody ever questions me, and they’re just stunned that someone actually questions them.
Male: Right, you have to have a … You can’t have a fragile ego and not too many people … Oh, I’m a dentist, I have my own office, I’m the king. No, you can’t, you’ve got to be …
Howard: How did you over the years develop a thicker skin, a less fragile ego?
Male: I’ve always had a self-deprecating humor myself, making fun of myself, but I was still the boss, but still. Every time I did a job interview I had every single person, even the girls working there one hour a week in and on the interview because I don’t always can tell … They pick up things that I can’t always pick up and I pick up things they can’t pick up.
Jeff: You get in trouble for …
Male: I want everyone there.
Howard: I think I developed a very thick skin just by realizing that we’re all complicated, our brains are all different, we all hear things, see things differently and when someone just profoundly is seeing, acting, behaving a totally different way you just think that’s how they saw it, we’re all animals, we’re all talking monkeys and you just got to … I think as you get older you lower your expectations of people and then people can’t let you down. When people … I remember the funniest thing ever was when the guy with all the Olympic gold medals …
Jeff: Mark Spitz.
Howard: Spitz and he got caught with pot and all of these people were like …
Male: Phelps, that was Phelps.
Howard: Phelps.
Jeff: Oh, Michael Phelps.
Howard: Phelps, and they’re all let down because Phelps got caught and I’m like dude, when an Olympic swimmer lets you down your expectations are just … Why would a complete stranger you’ve never met be letting you down right now?
Male: Exactly.
Howard: Maybe you should lower your expectations for the whole planet Earth and maybe some guy on TV you never met should not be letting you down. I think on Dental Town, when you realize that what I love the most about Dental Town is the insurance companies are against us, the patients want everything for free, the staff want a raise every time the sun went around the moon. Sometimes you feel that you work 12 hours a day, seven days a week just to provide free jobs and free dentistry for half the community. Dental Town needs to be a special, fun place where we can go to get refueled and nourished and I like the fact that you got rid of the negative energy.
Male: You gave me the lead on what to do and I figured out how to do it and it’s done. I’ll be honest with you, we get more reports of abuse on spam than negativity now where everybody says no, no, no, no, look, there’s spam. Usually there is and we have to get rid of it.
Jeff: Wow.
Howard: Sometimes I tell people that … I’m afraid they’re going to be reported as spam and just go on there and say Howard told me to do it. Howard told me to come.
Male: We get that, we do get that.
Jeff: Ah.
Howard: Any last words on your … How do they plan, you go to doctor,
DryerPliers.com.
Jeff: DryerPliers, yeah.
Howard: I spelled it wrong, I admit it. I spelled it wrong.
Jeff: Even if you misspell it, it will probably find it.
Howard: We just had hieroglyphics on the side of a barn. It’s D-r-y-e-r-P-l-i-e-r-s.com.
Jeff: .com.
Howard: You’re Jeff Dryer, D-r-y-e-r.
Jeff: As in the dryer, Pliers.
Howard: As in the dryer, DryerPliers.
Jeff: Yeah, why not.
Howard: Hey, congratulations on surviving a motorcycle crash.
Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Howard: Congratulations on coming back. I think your hygienist wife is adorable. I could tell she’s really got your back and she’s got more …
Jeff: Yes, that says a lot for her to stick with me through … That’s another thing about …
Howard: Because I always recommend against marrying a hygienist after [inaudible 00:37:19].
Jeff: I know, everyone told me.
Howard: Don’t do what [inaudible 00:37:22] did. Don’t do what [inaudible 00:37:24] did. No, your wife is adorable, too. I’m with two men that married hygienists.
Jeff: Yeah, it can work.
Howard: Is that the [inaudible 00:37:30] to success?
Jeff: If they’re right.
Male: We don’t work together.
Howard: You don’t work together.
Jeff: Mine quit after we got together, she quit.
Male: Yeah, she worked in my office three months and I said, “Debbie, could you get those things?” “Get it yourself.”
Jeff: Exactly.
Male: Yeah, this is not working.
Jeff: Yeah, yeah, the rest of the staff goes ooh.
Male: Yeah, so she works elsewhere. She’s a teacher as you know. Howard, in 30 seconds, can you tell us what your thoughts are on the American healthcare system.
Jeff: Ah, ah.
Howard: I absolutely will in 30 seconds.
Jeff: I’d like to hear this.
Howard: I would say this. The American healthcare system is the most expensive. It’s really one of the earliest ones unregulated. You’re spending about $7,000 per person and you’re not covering 50 million. Then after World War II a lot of countries started socializing medicine because Winston Churchill was telling all these countries when they rebuild after World War II that if all your people are sick and dumb you’re not going to build a country, so let’s spend a lot of money on education and healthcare. After World War II about 20 countries from Britain, Germany, all these countries had socialized healthcare systems and they all did it differently.
Then they had lower costs and they covered everyone, but what really made me the most interested is the last systems, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore. These people had 50 years of data to watch how England did it slightly different than Germany versus Denmark, versus Australia and New Zealand and they studied all that. Ten years ago Singapore and Taiwan set up their systems. Every healthcare economist that I know at Arizona State University says they have the highest outcomes and the lowest price and if you look at outcomes in America you see outcomes for cancer in the richest hospitals like Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins, Sloan. Those guys are having about 10% less mortality than the hospital up the street from you. That’s what Hong Kong and Taiwan and Singapore figured out. Let’s get all this data.
Jeff: Right.
Howard: I think one of the craziest things on dentistry is they’ll come out with a new
crown and we’ve all been practicing years. Remember Targus Vectors? I don’t know what Targus meant, I don’t know what Vectors meant, but I know they didn’t like each other. There was another one, ART Glass. I don’t know what [inaudible 00:39:56] is called, I don’t what the ART, the glass, but basically in dentistry, whenever they put two different materials together they usually delaminate. Since all the dentists’ data was not connected on a common platform no one was … We should have known. There could have been 1 million units cemented and six months later we already knew there was a problem.
All the dentists’ data is fragmented and that’s what a national health insurance does is by putting all the data on one platform you just sit there and say, you know what, the people treating prostate cancer like this are having better outcomes than the people treating prostate cancer like that. I think that America is headed correctly towards a single pair system and I also think it’s a shame that the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States is from healthcare. We recently know of very rich dentists who can’t afford their own cancer. If a rich dentist can’t afford cancer treatment then what’s the middle-class and the poor going to do?
Male: I agree with you totally on that, Howard. We can talk all day on this subject alone, but I don’t know how we got started [inaudible 00:41:06].
Howard: Because you asked me.
Male: Yeah, I know, I did ask you. I knew it was a setup, too, but yeah, I totally agree with you. People complain about … Dentists are going to make money no matter what system it is, let’s face it. It’s a good profession and you’re going to be well off no matter what. It’s not going to kill us to …
Howard: That’s what Taiwan and Singapore figured out is that they had no problem with letting you earn as much money as you wanted, but you were going to see more patients, work more hours. They were giving doctors more money to do treatment before 8am, after 5pm and on Saturday. They were doing the time and a half thing. I think it’s silly …
Male: You didn’t have to. If you wanted to make less money you didn’t have to do that, correct?
Howard: Yeah.
Male: Okay, yeah, either way.
Jeff I think a big problem with Americans’ healthcare system is the litigation that is so prominent. If you don’t have … Like a tort reform.
Howard: The way you have to look at litigation …
Jeff: Then they’re going to charge more and have to charge more and more.
Howard: The way you have to look at litigation at the end of the day is there’s 950,000 MDs and there’s 1 million attorneys and 1 million attorneys bill out $1 trillion a year. When you look at our $17 trillion economy, $1 trillion goes to the lawyers and until the United States realizes that to have our legal system, that you’re going to give them $1 trillion a year and if Americans are good with that great, but I don’t think Americans realize that one of the most easily taxes they could reduce is the legal profession. Those guys are taxing us $1 trillion a year and no one pays attention to it. I pay attention to it. You could lower … The only secret to lower prices is lower costs and you could lower the cost of everything made in America by $1 trillion if you tackled the 1 million attorneys, but we’re off subject. We’re on to our next … I’m going to have to let you go because we have a guest waiting who’s so much cuter than you are.
Jeff: Hey, I’m still honored to meet you in person. Thank you for your time, Howard.
Howard: Okay, thank you for all you do and tell your adorable wife …
Jeff: It was a bonus to meet you, too, doctor.
Howard: … I say hello.