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ourselves darn hard, it’s still not logical to think that we<br />
can invent everything that a dentist needs and have it be<br />
the absolute best product out there. We pride ourselves<br />
on having progressive, trustworthy products. We pride<br />
ourselves on bringing out what is among the best. But to<br />
do that on every front, to be the best at everything, that<br />
gets to be a challenge. And, if you’re not careful, it can<br />
even be a little bit arrogant. So when they approached us<br />
about distributing their matrix system, we studied it and<br />
thought, “You know, this company is aligning pretty good<br />
with our culture. They’re aligning well with our vision to<br />
improve oral health globally. They’re aligning on so many<br />
fronts, so let’s take the leap and for the first time market<br />
and sell another company’s brand of product.” We’re glad<br />
we did that, and I think they’re glad we did it. Certainly,<br />
our sales team focuses not on 20 or 30 different brands of<br />
thousands of different products like the large distributors<br />
do; they focus on a narrower range. We believe if we can<br />
keep that range narrow, even extending beyond our own<br />
brand if an appropriate opportunity presents itself, that we<br />
really can serve the dentist and their needs in much more<br />
knowledgeable, educated, quality, caring ways.<br />
MD: I think you’re right. I think there is a lot of hubris if you<br />
start to go down the road of: we can do everything better than<br />
everybody else. I think, at some point, you do need to realize<br />
that there are a lot of smart people in this industry, and at least<br />
this one team has spent all their time looking at this one thing.<br />
When you sit and look at that impression tray, there are so<br />
many desirable aspects about it: how it’s taller in the anterior<br />
to help you get the impression of the cuspid, and the way the<br />
material locks into it, and how it has the little seal on the back<br />
to keep the extra impression material from running out the<br />
posterior part of the tray. It’s very stiff; it’s hard to squeeze it<br />
laterally and have it bend at all. So, it really is well thought out.<br />
multi-unit bridge, that problem escalates virtually algorithmically.<br />
So, it just made a whole lot of sense to embrace a<br />
quality impression tray such as what Simon and his team<br />
had developed. And I concur with you, when you look at<br />
the finesse, when you look at the details that you described<br />
— higher in the front for cuspids and the like — you can<br />
tell that a lot of thought has gone into it from entities who<br />
are knowledgeable on dental anatomy and dentists’ needs<br />
and patients’ capabilities in the chair and the rest. It all<br />
comes together.<br />
MD: Even the disposable mesh that goes in the tray, when I<br />
first looked at it I thought there was a mistake in the factory<br />
because the mesh was so loose in the front. But, of course, it<br />
was intentional so that a patient with a deep overbite could<br />
get into maximum intercuspation without tearing the mesh.<br />
So even that little mesh insert has had a lot of thought that’s<br />
gone into it. It’s like you locked seven people in a room and<br />
gave them some quadrant impression trays and told them they<br />
could come out in a year. It looks like that’s the kind of time<br />
that was spent, and it’s pretty ingenious.<br />
I heard you say something that I didn’t know about you.<br />
You started off early in your career doing a lot of full-mouth<br />
reconstruction? I’m surprised because I know you hate crowns<br />
now. (laughs)<br />
DF: Quite frankly, Mike, I don’t hate crowns. In fact, just<br />
this morning I prepared a crown on a patient. What I say is:<br />
I place fewer crowns than I used to in my younger years. I<br />
don’t plead with my colleagues not to place crowns anymore,<br />
but rather to try and push that more invasive procedure<br />
back in a patient’s life. Not committing them to the invasive<br />
procedure of a full-crown prep in their 20s, 30s and 40s,<br />
When you look at our laboratory statistics, 75 percent of the<br />
impressions we get here are for single-unit crowns, but almost<br />
75 percent of those are still in plastic disposable impression<br />
trays. When you take these disposable trays and you squeeze<br />
them, they distort very easily. We know polyvinyl siloxane<br />
materials already shrink on their own as they cure. Frankly,<br />
it’s amazing that crowns fit as often as they do. Have you done<br />
any research into disposable impression trays? Or do you just<br />
kind of have a feel for how much better these Triotrays work?<br />
DF: We basically believe the same concepts you do. In fact,<br />
my initial passion out of dental school in Loma Linda in the<br />
mid-’70s was full-mouth reconstruction. I ate, drank and<br />
slept that type of dentistry for some time. What you said is<br />
so true: The research that extends for decades shows the<br />
importance of a tray that’s not deformed, that’s rigid, that<br />
holds its shape and supports that impression material to<br />
the best of its ability. And, certainly, when you compound<br />
that with moldable units beyond one unit — boy! With just<br />
a tiny bit of inaccuracy extended out over the length of a<br />
Interview with Dr. Dan Fischer41