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