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just underscores the importance of us really thinking about
the things we don’t think about more. If you envision a
metal matrix wrapping a first or second molar, and you
imagine a mesial-proximal box, with a light guide, the area
that is behind that metal matrix down in the gingival box
is in the shadows to a substantial degree. So, it’s a big deal
to not only have adequate power, but to have a design that
can illuminate the posterior preparations, or restorations,
if you will. These light guides, they work fine for front
teeth, but they sure are not predictable and appropriate for
illuminating in proximal boxes on molars. You take those
big light guides into a child’s mouth and it’s a joke!
MD: Right. There’s no chance of getting down there in those
types of clinical situations. Do you think you face an uphill
battle with this dispensing system? Just in the sense that dentists
are used to and love the fact that you guys have put everything
in a syringe over the years, but this is the first time that we’ve
seen a permanent cement like this that needs to be mixed up
in the syringe. Or do you feel like this is a product that once
dentists get a chance to use it once or twice, they’re going to say
it’s pretty simple to use and that they can sleep better at night
knowing it’s a great cement with no compromises?
DF: The beauty of UltraCem is that the liquid and the powder
are dosed in accurate ways, so you know you’re going to
get a great mix. This is also the case for the capsule with
the Wig-L-Bug; the syringe just eliminates the Wig-L-Bug
and the other apparatus. But, certainly, if they don’t want
to go that way, we offer it in a bottle and a scoop as well,
because we believe in the cement standalone as a quality
self-etching RMGI. But, ideally, they’ll pick up on the beauty
of that syringe just like many other dentists. Many dentists
have found the value of syringes and other dentists prefer
just to bottle. You can’t convince all of them to go down the
same path.
MD: That’s really interesting. I think 3M ESPE’s RelyX Luting
Cement, which used to be Vitremer Luting Cement, has
probably been the product category leader for a while. When
it was a powder and liquid, I don’t think a lot of dentists
had complaints about having to mix the cement and put it
in the crown and cement it. I don’t think it was something
that dentists looked at as being overly laborious or technical
or a pain. So when it came out in the paste-paste form and it
was from the same company, I think dentists just thought: all
right, this is the upgrade. This must be version 3.0, instead
of 2.0. This must be the better version of it. It’s really kind of
stunning to hear you talk about the physical properties and
how, clinically, in the patient’s best interest, it was kind of a
step backward. I hope dentists read this and really stop to think
a little more because I think sometimes marketing can lead us
astray in the case of a product like this.
DF: We need marketing and marketing is important, but it’s
the patient in the chair that it’s all about. We can’t afford to
lose sight of that because they’re the ones who ultimately
pay the price if things don’t work out, and they’re the ones
who ultimately benefit if things do work out. From my point
of view, this is just part of being a patient-centered dentist.
MD: I completely agree. And, obviously, as somebody who
practices within a dental laboratory and talks to a lot of
dentists who are cementing restorations, I’m very happy this is
going to be in our magazine that goes out to 125,000 dentists
across the U.S. But I’m especially happy this will go out to our
customers, so they will get an opportunity to see what your
research has proven.
Another thing that I’m passionate about is impressions. One
of the trays I started using awhile back was the Triotray Pro
from Triodent. They came to us as a laboratory and said they
thought we’d like this tray and that our clients would be able
to get better, less-distorted impressions with it. I started using
it and I liked it, and we started promoting it to our customers
who didn’t like the idea of a disposable tray. Then, I woke up
one morning and saw that Ultradent was now distributing the
tray! I thought, “Well, that’s great. Two companies that I really
enjoy are getting along well together.” I’m interested in why,
when you guys seem to develop a lot of things from scratch on
your own and take a new approach to traditional products,
you decided to join up with Triodent, rather than coming up
with your own tray.
DF: There are a couple things that have been at work here
— maybe more than two. Obviously, Triodent’s Dr. Simon
McDonald and his R&D team have been hard at work down
there in New Zealand pushing the envelope with their
fabulous system. We’ve been working for years to push the
envelope where we could. Both companies are driven by
R&D. We’ve probably put more money into R&D for each
dollar of product we sell than any other companies, and
that’s where the first level of our similarity comes.
The next level of our similarity comes in that both of us are
owned and managed by dentists, so we have that dentist’s
need, that necessity-is-the-mother-of-convention drive to
find a better way to skin the cat.
Then, it’s the words that frame the Ultradent brand as determined
by a large, outside marketing entity that surveyed our
customers about six years ago. The two words they found
that were repeated most often by our customers were “progressive”
and “trustworthy.” So when we looked at what the
Triodent guys have done with this matrix — bringing the
ultimate level of finesse, incorporating science and facilitating
virtually 100 percent of the time tight contacts and nice,
anatomically correct broad contacts for the direct-placed
restoration — we thought, “Should we try and reinvent the
wheel on this, or is it logical that we work together?”
Now I bring about the fourth leg of this discussion and that
is, we decided a couple years ago that even if we applied
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