Pam Johnson

	When it comes to marketing laboratory services to potential clients, Dena Lanier, owner of The Lab 2000 located in Columbus, Georgia, has always thought outside the box. So when she saw an opportunity to engage her clients by tapping into the potential new business presented by the soldiers stationed at Fort Benning military base in town, she needed to think big. That’s when she decided to turn to billboards. She wanted to drive the public to dentistry and indirectly to her laboratory.

	“Laboratories can’t market to the general public and have patients call us, but we can advertise much the same as the big drug companies do, asking the public to request their dentists  “prescribe” restorative work to The Lab 2000,” said Lanier.

	So she went after military personnel with three billboard themes. One billboard reads: “Have you smiled at your soldier today.” The second billboard theme “Change your smile and you change your life” lets people know that a beautiful smile can impact lives in a positive way.  The theme of her third billboard is an “Unbreakable Crown.”

	“This billboard I think was a good move because a lot of people have had a crown fracture or know someone whose crown broke,” Lanier said. “All of these billboards drive the patient to the dentist.”

	How did she know whom to contact with her billboard concept?  “I always read billboards and noticed that a lot of them were owned by CBS OUTDOOR,” said Lanier. She called her local CBS outdoor center and a sales rep came to the office to meet with her and her husband Dennis. The two told the rep what they wanted and he got the ball rolling.

	“The good thing about using CBS Outdoor is they have billboards all over the country,” she said. “ Once you get the artwork or vinyl completed with your advertising concept, the artwork or vinyl can move from billboard to billboard.”

	Lanier’s billboard will be on display for 30 to 60 days in one location and then move to another area of town for the next 30 to 60 days.

	“We signed up for six months, moving from billboard to billboard across Columbus,” said Lanier.  “We also are having one made for the Midwinter meeting in Chicago this February. It will be up for a month, and then when Midwinter is over, we will move that billboard to Atlanta for the Hinman show. If you can’t be at an event, you can have a billboard made to represent your company and or your product.”

	A couple of people have asked Lanier if her billboards may be driving business to other labs in the area. Although she admits this may be true, Lanier is not bothered because the campaign is driving dentistry and the business generated helps everyone. “You may want to get together with other labs in your area and have a billboard made with something like “This smile is brought to you by your local dental laboratories: ABC Dental Lab and DFG Studios”, etc.

	“There is so much you can do with a billboard,” she said. “You need to keep it simple and as few words as possible because the consumer doesn’t have a lot of time to read and grasp the concept being presented.”

	The cost of a billboard will depend on the area in which it is located.  Obviously, some areas have a higher traffic volume and thus will be more expensive to rent. However, if you compare the cost of a billboard to the cost of an on-staff sales representative, you will come out ahead because the billboards are 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

	“This all is new and exciting,” commented Lanier. “I hope that other labs will join in and start doing some billboard marketing.  Before you do, be sure that you are doing the right thing by marketing dentistry not your laboratory.”

Articles

 When it comes to marketing laboratory services to potential clients, Dena Lanier, owner of The Lab 2000 located in Columbus, Georgia, has always thought outside the box. So when she saw an opportunity to engage her clients by tapping into the potential new business presented by the soldiers stationed at Fort Benning military base in town, she needed to think big. That’s when she decided to turn to billboards. She wanted to drive the public to dentistry and indirectly to her laboratory.

Smart marketing with billboards

	Lee Culp’s move to join Dental Technologies Inc. (DTI) as Chief Technology Officer is one more step Culp sees to further support a dental technology industry that is rapidly evolving. Owned by Healthpoint Capital, DTI is a network of 17 North American laboratories, including its flagship laboratory, Microdental in Dublin, Calif. DLP talked to Culp on his first day on the job about his decision to join DTI and how he envisions his role there.

What do you want the industry to understand about your most recent move to DTI?

Most important is that I’m not abandoning all the relationships built over the years, nor my commitment to education, nor my consulting work which have been the foundation of my business life. I’ll still be teaching and lecturing, still working with dental manufacturing companies in research and product development. I’ve spent too many hard years building these pillars to say goodbye. DTI was terrific about structuring our agreement so that I can continue to be intimately involved in the industry.

 When Microdental first approached me several months ago looking for a Technical Director, I very politely turned them down. But as we continued to talk and delved deeper into discussions, it was clear that Healthpoint Capital was now ready to put much more focus and investment into the laboratory side of their holdings. If that meant that they were moving forward and committed to taking their manufacturing to a digital platform, then I told them I would be interested in helping with that effort. I met with John Foster, Chairman of the Board of Healthpoint Capital, and DTI’s CEO Kim Bradshaw, a former VP from the medical devices side of their business holdings, and we carved out the position of Chief Technology Officer.

 How do you see your role evolving at DTI and how do you see it furthering dental technology?

 Well, this is just my first day in my new office, but I have been thinking about the future of the industry, what that will look like, and what needs the smaller laboratories will have as the industry evolves. There is no question our industry is shrinking. All of the talk of consolidation, polarization, and the aging of the industry is actually happening now, and it’s affecting the number of laboratories still in operation. That said, it’s important to understand that the four largest laboratories in the U.S. control only 6% to 7% of the total laboratory business; the remaining 93% to 94% of the business is still controlled by the small laboratories. I think we’re going to see larger laboratories reaching out to form partnerships with the smaller laboratories, providing them with a wide range of services that they just don’t have access to as standalone businesses. By doing so, the larger laboratories are not directly competing for marketshare but working together with them as partners. The smaller labs already have the relationships, they are the storefront for their clients, and this is the value they hold. If we can’t figure out a way to work together and for each other in the next five years, then we will lose far more than the 2,000 laboratories we lost this year. DTI will be committed to finding paths to work with and for smaller businesses.

What are your first steps as DTI’s Chief Technology Officer?

We’ve just become a Beta testing site for D4D Technologies, adding to DTI’s strong relationship with other manufacturing partners. My goal is to take the company strongly digital over the next year. We will even be looking at technologies not directly associated yet with the laboratory industry. I would like to see us partnering with other dental manufacturers and laboratories invested in technology and with those not yet invested to keep us all successful in business.

 Lee Culp’s move to join Dental Technologies Inc. (DTI) as Chief Technology Officer is one more step Culp sees to further support a dental technology industry that is rapidly evolving. Owned by Healthpoint Capital, DTI is a network of 17 North American laboratories, including its flagship laboratory, Microdental in Dublin, Calif. DLP talked to Culp on his first day on the job about his decision to join DTI and how he envisions his role there.  DLP: What do you want the industry to understand about your most recent move to DTI?

Culp speaks out on DTI move

	The rising cost of gold and other precious metals combined with the relatively low profile of dental offices and laboratories has put them on the radar of crafty theives who see an easy target. The first month of 2010 witnessed at least 53 burglaries of West Coast dental laboratories and dental practices for their inventory of gold and platinum alloys or for the precious metal contained in metal-based cracked or chipped gold crowns that dentists removed from patients.

	In Orange County Calif. a burglaring twosome was responsible for a string of 18 robberies of dental laboratories between November 2009 and January 2010 when their spree came to an end. In Seattle, it was a lone thief who robbed more than 35 dental clinics and laboratories and would be still if his fingertips had not been found on one of the stolen crowns.

	Thieves have found pawning gold a very lucrative business and small businesses such as dental clinics and laboratories easy targets. And although police admit it's an odd occurrence that dental offices and laboratories are burglarized, the state of the economoy has thieves looking into every nook and cranny to find something they can pawn.

	DLP contacted Chuck Yenkner, President of Business Development Associates, and asked if he had any advice for lab owners for protecting their businesses against theft or to minimize the loss should their laboratory be a target. Beyond installing a full security system, his five recommendations are:

Don't buy or hold large quantities of gold alloys. Keep on hand only what you need for the next few days' castings.

Store precious metals in a secure place that is locked. Invest in a safe; most good safes cost less than one-ounce of gold. A fire retardant safe also provides a safe place to securely store important documents.

Each day issue only the amount of alloy needed for that day's casting to the technician doing the casting. Have him or her return unused material and scrap to the safe daily.

Don't unnecessarily promote the fact that your business deals with gold to non-dental people. Obviously, it's fine to speak about gold to dentist clients, but don't make a big deal out of the fact you use gold when discusing the lab business with family, friends, and especially strangers. In marketing materials and brochures, use the terms "high noble" and "noble" in place of terms such as "gold" or "semi-precious." Don't leave marketing materials that do mention gold where they can be seen by unknown people.

Control access to your laboratory in terms of who comes and goes, and in terms of the entrance and exit points. Limit the number of keys you distribute and keep track of who has them.

 The rising cost of gold and other precious metals combined with the relatively low profile of dental offices and laboratories has put them on the radar of crafty theives who see an easy target. The first month of 2010 witnessed at least 53 burglaries of West Coast dental laboratories and dental practices for their inventory of gold and platinum alloys or for the precious metal contained in metal-based cracked or chipped gold crowns that dentists removed from patients.

Is my business a target for burglary?

	“I’m really excited and honored that the American Prosthodontic Society (APS) elected me to their Executive Council,” said Robert Kreyer, CDT on hearing the election results Friday, February 26 at this year’s annual APS meeting held during the Chicago Midwinter meeting. Kreyer, owner of Kreyer Dental Prosthetics in Larkspur, Calif. and well-known continuing education provider, is one of a growing number of technicians who have joined the only international dental society that recognizes dental technologists as equal voting members.

	“Those of us practicing prosthetic dentistry recognize the value of our technology colleagues and how they work hand-in-hand with us in fabricating and designing dental prostheses,” said Dr. Esposito, current president of the APS.

	Dental technologists have always been welcomed into the APS as members but until 2007 were elected to a separate category within the society. In 2007, APS members voted to eliminate the category of dental technologist and give technologists full member rights and privileges. And in that same year, the Society voted Todd Fridrich, CDT to sit on the APS’ six-member Executive Council. One other honor the society bestows upon a technologist each year is the Ken Rudd Award, given to a technologist for his or her demonstrated skill level, integrity, and contribution to prosthetic dentistry. The very prestigious award is sponsored each year by a grant from the Editorial Council of the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry. This year’s recipient was Matt Roberts, CDT; last year the award went to Willi Geller.

	“As a dental society we want to be inclusive, not exclusive,” said Esposito. “ In our estimation there should be no membership distinction between dental technologist and dentists. After all, we work as an integrated team to serve the patient.”

	At this year’s annual meeting, the APS also took another significant step toward recognizing the value of dental technology by voting at their annual business meeting in Chicago to change the society’s bylaws and allow not just Certified Dental Technicians as members but any technician currently working in the field who is sponsored by an active member of the Society. Esposito said the society as a group recognized that many, very good dental technicians (RDT’s, MDTs and other educated DLTs contributing to the field of prosthodontics, were not certified by the National  Board of Certification for Dental Laboratory Technology  and thus, until now, could not be accepted as APS members. 

	“We’re very excited to announce that now any technologist can be sponsored into and is welcome to join the APS,” said Esposito. As it is for any dentist or dental technologist wishing to join the APS, the process begins with sponsorship from an existing APS member, validating the skills and integrity of the proposed new member. “We feel very strongly that we need to embrace dental professionals who have a profound interest in prosthetic dentistry, be they prosthodontists, general dentists, or dental technologists, and bring them into the group. We all benefit from that,” said Esposito.

	New member applications are reviewed and approved on a quarterly rather than annual basis. All members of the APS receive a subscription to the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, reduced pricing for the annual meeting, and, Esposito said, in the future will have access to a rotating team experts hosted online at the APS Web site for case problem-solving.

 “I’m really excited and honored that the American Prosthodontic Society (APS) elected me to their Executive Council,” said Robert Kreyer, CDT on hearing the election results Friday, February 26 at this year’s annual APS meeting held during the Chicago Midwinter meeting. Kreyer, owner of Kreyer Dental Prosthetics in Larkspur, Calif. and well-known continuing education provider, is one of a growing number of technicians who have joined the only international dental society that recognizes dental technologists as equal voting members.

Open Arms

	Titanium is becoming the new buzzword in dentistry these days. With gold more than $1100 an ounce and platinum topping out at nearly $2,000, the cost of the traditional high noble PFM crown, the bread and butter of dentistry, continues to skyrocket. This has kept laboratories and dentists searching for lower cost alternatives especially in an economy where everyone is doing some belt-tightening.

	Some have switched from metal to all-ceramic, others from high noble to noble or even non-precious, and now a growing number of laboratories and dentists have turned to titanium as the understructure material of choice. Strong, lightweight, exceptionally biocompatible, radio lucent, and price stable, titanium offers all the plusses of gold without the fluctuation in price, allowing laboratories to offer fixed price restorative services. But it’s the ability of titanium to now be CAD/CAM milled that has made it a viable choice.

	“The option to CAD/CAM mill titanium versus casting is one of the biggest reasons titanium is catching fire in the industry,” said Jamie Stover, Manger of Ziemek Dental Laboratories in Washington. Ziemek is working with NobelProcera, the new scanner from Nobel Biocare, to scan models, design copings and frameworks, and then send the design data to Nobel’s centralized production center for milling. Ziemek gets back the milled substructures, which are milled from a Grade 5 titanium alloy, within a couple of days, for light metal finishing and porcelain layering with GC’s Initial Ti porcelain. It’s allowed his laboratory to offer a fixed price for crowns, whether it’s a molar, bicuspid, or bridge unit, it’s all billed at the same price point and their clients like that option. The real savings Stover says is when fabricating bridges and larger copings. Because so much metal is used in the connectors and pontics, the cost of a substructure can skyrocket if constructed in high noble or noble alloy. With titanium, a unit is a unit regardless of size or weight and gets billed at the per single unit price.

	Lab-to-lab outsource businesses also are experiencing a surge in orders for titanium milled substructures. Only a handful of CAM milling units can mill this metal but for the service centers offering the option, titanium milled substructures. Only a handful of CAM milling units can mill this metal but for the service centers offering the option, titanium substructures are becoming an ever-popular choice said Ryan Gillespie, Manager of Precison Milling Center . It’s actually more cost-effective to mill titanium than non-precious because of the milling blank price; the cost of a titanium-milled coping is in the same range as a zirconia or chrome cobalt unit.

	For labs tapping into domestic outsourcing services and sending design data, titanium can be a nice profit center. Titanium holds an ADA classification that is higher than a noble metal and recognized by insurance companies as reimbursable to the dentist.

	“Our Laboratory customer can send us a coping file to be milled in titanium for a cost of $25. That’s a big savings for labs as the typical cost of noble metal alone is $25 before they add any cost of labor. The double cost benefit comes from the ADA’s classification making the titanium crown more valuable than its noble metal counterpart.” said Gillespie. Precision Milling Center uses the ORIGIN CAD/CAM system to mill copings and frameworks from Grade 5 titanium alloy that is 89% titanium with an MPa of around 950.

	But titanium is not for everyone. Some laboratories are hesitant because titanium requires specialized handling and requires a dedicated workstation, which may not fit into the laboratory’s current processing setup. “If you do work with titanium you have to be regimented in your final processing,” said Stover. “You have to be more diligent about cleaning up the work space and work a little cleaner.” Both Gillespie and Stover suggest using a dedicated workstation and dedicated crosscut carbide bur for metal finishing to eliminate the risk of titanium particles contaminating high noble or noble copings, which will react during the degassing and opaquing production phases and cause bubbling. “It’s a similar mindset as when working with non-precious alloys,” said Stover.

	Titanium coping surfaces also need more roughing up during sandblasting for a better bond so a courser aluminum oxide (125 microns) is suggested and a blast angle of around 45 degrees. The biggest difference in working with titanium is that you don’t degas in an oven. After sandblasting and steam cleaning, the coping or framework should be left to sit at room temperature prior to layering on a bonder. At Ziemek they recommend a sitting time of only 5 minutes while Precision Milling Center believes in a 10- to 30-minute “degas” phase.

	“Titanium loves oxygen,” said Gillespie. “During that “degas” period the surface of the coping is reacting to the air and building an oxide layer.” But be careful. It’s just as detrimental to the final outcome to let the substructure sit for more than the allotted time than not to let it sit and oxidize at all.

	Once the oxide layer is ready, you layer on a bonder, fire it, then opaque, and then stack porcelain. Stover suggests porcelain margins whenever possible with titanium because firing causes the metal to turn dark gray. He says he uses a bleach white opaque layer to mask the metal and then comes back with a regular opaque. “Sometimes we do three opaques, a white wash, then the desired opaque shade prior to stacking,” Stover said.

	Several manufacturers offer porcelains specially suited for layering titanium. GC’s Initial Ti, Vident’s VITA Titanium, B&D distributes Dentaurum’s Tri-Ceram (distrubed by B&D Dental), Zahn’s Noritake TI-22, and Nobel Procera Titanium are among those available.

	Titanium-based restorations may not fit everyone’s bill, but for patients titanium also exhibits unique heat transfer properties that reduce the risk of hot and cold sensitivities often experienced with conventional metal-based crowns. Better than gold? Some think so.

 Titanium is becoming the new buzzword in dentistry these days. With gold more than $1100 an ounce and platinum topping out at nearly $2,000, the cost of the traditional high noble PFM crown, the bread and butter of dentistry, continues to skyrocket. This has kept laboratories and dentists searching for lower cost alternatives especially in an economy where everyone is doing some belt-tightening.