Looking for a way to unlock the full potential of your digital dentistry workflow. I'm Elise Heathcote, associate manager of digital services with Everclear. I'm excited to introduce you to Cam Academy. I have a new in-person training experience designed specifically for dental technicians. This hands on course explores the full potential of program Cam software, helping you take your digital workflow to the next level, learn directly from our experts, refine your skills, and bring new precision and efficiency to your lab. Cam Academy is more than a course. It's your next step in digital excellence. To reserve your spot. Visit the Everclear Academy website or contact your local Everclear sales representative today. Welcome to voices from the bench, a dental laboratory podcast. Send us an email at info from the bench and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Greetings and welcome to episode 396 of voices from the mist. My name is Elvis. My name is Barbara and sex is my lucky number. So this is going to be a good episode. Back to the 60s. You know it. Yeah, yeah, that's a Taylor Swift thing, isn't it? No, hers is 13. But you can't trump me on that. Just saying I know you. So, hey, this Friday is Halloween. I mean, you usually go pretty big. I mean, the whole lab. Don't you usually like cobwebs and you're dying your hair? Yeah, but my ass is gonna be on a cruise ship going north east of, uh, New York City. We leave out of New York City. Oh, I can't wait. Um, go all the way east to, I think, Boston. Providence, Canada. But yes, I will say this, that my mom sent me a thing that said, on the cruise we can dress up, so I'm not sure I'm going to because I really need a vacation. And I don't really don't want to work that hard. But. Yes. What are you doing? You gonna dress up like your dogs, are you? Yeah. My question is, are you going to dress up like someone who's on vacation? Yeah. I don't know what that looks like, Elvis. Nobody's going to have to, like, call in or send you an email and tell me what the hell that looks like, because I haven't been on a vacation and I don't even know how long. So no, I don't know. I do know I'm going to drink a lot. There you go. That's the point of a cruise, right? Mhm. Yeah. I'm actually I don't have Halloween plans. I think we might go to the movie theaters or playing the original Halloween movie. Yeah. Well my boyfriend and I, we watch all the scary movies all the way up until Halloween. So we watched scream, we watched Halloween, we did it. Everything. So. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Those are the big ones. Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Oh, nice. Hey. Right after we released Monday's episode. I got the bug. I know. And I finally did what so many people have asked us to do online. Why is it that hard? Tell me. Well, you know what? It's coming up with ideas that are good. I don't want to just put out the basic idea. And I don't know, it's just organizing it, getting it out and then posting about it and talking about it. Yeah. Because you don't like to post, I know. I don't know why. Barb, I don't have an answer. Laziness. I'm busy. Yeah, but anyways, we released a new shirt, and we always sell shirts to raise money for the Foundation for Dental Laboratory Technology. Correct. We're not doing it so Barb can buy more drinks on the cruise. That's correct. We're doing it to give it right back. As in the past, we sell them in batches, so you get a few weeks that you can order. And when that time is up, another company makes them ship them right to you. We don't have to do anything. Barb and I are not in the shirt business. Plus, we just don't have the time. So until November 8th, you can order the newest design, which has the podcast logo on the back. And what I thought was clever. A little name tag on the front that just basically says dental technique. I love it. It's I thought it was cool. I toyed with a few other ideas, but I like the simplicity of it and really it just says what it is. We are dental tech. Love it. Be prepared for strangers to come up to you asking for advice. What does that mean? If a regular person sees someone with a shirt that says I'm a dental technician, they might come up with their denture in their hand and say, how come this doesn't fit anymore? Please? You say you might want to brush your teeth, bro. That was when you put on the other shirt last year. Yeah, exactly. So you got me. All right. So head over to voices from the bench. And there's a link to the store where you can get shirts, long sleeve hoodies, a whole bunch of different colors. I mean, it all goes back to the foundation. All right, guys, order them pronto. Hey, I went in yesterday, and three of my coworkers had our voices from the vent shirts on, so I thought that was great. I love it. I know, I love it. So this week we have a great conversation with two ladies that, out of a horrible experience, didn't even take a breath to grieve and got right back into it. Danielle Collard and Amber Rosemont are both part of the employee owned denture crafters at a Blue Springs, Missouri. They talk about the history of the lab and transferring it over to the employees, but suddenly their life changed. On one night about three weeks ago, when they got a call at 1 a.m. and found out that their lab was on fire. They pretty much lost everything. But Danielle and Amber didn't even take a moment to be sad in the parking lot. They got right back into getting themselves back up and running. I mean, it's a sad story. You don't wish it upon anybody, but it's a great tale of an amazing team, an amazing community and lessons learned by all. So join us as we chat with Danielle Collard and Amber Rosemont. In just a few short weeks, we're going to be dropping our long awaited chat with Jordan Greenberg, the manager Director of Follow Me Technology, but more affectionately known as the Hyper Didn't dude. Yeah, Elvis, that was an interesting one. I don't think we've ever had somebody on the podcast that went into. Such depth about Cam software, have we? Now, of course we haven't. And it was long overdue because it seems like a ton of labs underestimate how much Cam dictates the efficiency and capabilities of their equipment. Well, machine manufacturers certainly don't. Which is probably why Roland DGA, who truly recognized the value of Cam, they have partnered with Follow Me North America to offer their own Hyper Den bundle. They pair it with their DW x50 3D series devices. But since Roland wants everyone to benefit from this collaboration, including their existing users, they're offering a hyper dent trade in promo. Oh my God, what a great opportunity, especially for labs that want to optimize the quality and efficiency of their advanced workflows like those tricky, full arch, direct to multi-unit cases. Oh, I know about those. I know you do. We're talking real benefits. Jordan said that some labs have achieved almost two hours in cycle time savings, all without sacrificing quality. Two hours. That is like, literally no joke. Maybe a slab text would finally make it home for dinner. For once, I don't think I wouldn't count on that. Barb. Don't you like eating at 11 p.m.? No, but if you're running a rolling mill, definitely talk to your dealer about the Roland DGA Hyper bundle. Especially that trade and professional. Good call everybody. Our friends at Nowak, by the way, are participating. And as an added bonus for Nola Lab Fest attendees, they'll be tacking on an extra feature. Multiple instances at no cost. Wow. That's pretty awesome, huh? Yeah. I'll say. Hey. Speaking of Nola lab fest, did you realize it's less than two weeks away? Yes, guys, I'll be on vacation, but November 7th to the eighth. Yes, you're right, Elvis. It is literally right around the corner. Yep. And you know who else will be there? Jordan. So definitely snag one of the last remaining spots at Lab Fest. Track them down and we can all talk about hyper dent cam in the bayou in the bayous. Right. Perfect. Let's go guys. Voices from the bench. The interview. All right, I'm back. Oh, you actually left the room. Okay. Sorry. I didn't even want to use the restroom. All right, I'm ready. All right. Wash your hands. Yep. Awesome. Worse. Always. Barb and I have two ladies on today that we kind of found out about you in an unfortunate situation, but we figured it was a good chance to get to know you, hear the story, find out what happened, and seeing how we can help. So let's welcome from Denture Crafters. We have Danielle Collard and Amber Rose. How are you? Hi. We're great. How are you? Doing good. Very good. I looked at your website and it says this lab has been around since 1996. So did you start the lab? So we did not. We actually. There was a husband. Wife. Mine is this is this is this Danielle? It is. Okay. Danielle. Okay. Sorry. Start again. I'm sorry. That's okay. Um, so Mike and Donna actually were the ones who started denture Crafters and they ran it for, oh goodness, almost 25 years, I would say. And in 2003. Nope. 2023. They actually decided to retire. So they found a company. Who purchases small businesses and makes them employee owned businesses. And that's how we were able to inherit denture crafters. The great news is we were able to keep all of our texts. We were able to keep all of our employees. So literally, our texts have been here for 16 years on like that. We have very experienced texts who worked with and under Mike and was trained by him. It's just now we all have a little piece of ownership within denture crafters instead of Mike and Donna. What do you mean by they found the company that you were able to find? I don't I don't understand. Yeah. So they were searching for solutions to sell the lab, and they ran across a company named Team Shares. And what Team shares does is it buys all different variety of small businesses. And purchases the company from the individuals who are looking to retire and transitions the business into employee ownership. So essentially we have, um, different types of stocks and things like that. And every year, uh, the employees own more of the business, whereas team shares steps away and steps aside. Once we get everything under control, it's wonderful. So it's kind of like a rent to own house, essentially. Yeah. So yeah, exactly what it is. Yes. All right. I was thinking you guys found them somehow, so it didn't make sense. So you were already working there? Yeah. Yeah. Um, myself, I, I came with team shares, but all of our other employees were already employees of Mike and Donna's. Oh. That's great. Okay. Thank you for explaining that, Amber. You were already there. Yeah, I've been with denture crafters for ten years, and Mike actually trained me as a technician. And when they retired, I moved into management. Oh. So tell us, how do you like management? Yeah, you got to tell you about your story. Well, let's go back up yourself. So how did you. So let's go back. Let's start with you. Because you you you started at the lab ten years ago. So how did you find your way into dental technology and that lab? So I actually was hired in to just, like, ship cases. And, um, once they found out that I was, like, super crafty, they moved me to the back where I was a waxer, and I just progressed like crazy. And within five years, I was a supervisor and running the lab underneath Mike. And then after that, they were set. They were looking to retire. So they just kind of kept training me. And I learned front of the house and back of the house. So once they were set to retire, I was able to do both sides of the business. Um, which is one of the qualities that team shares looks for is that they have someone who can help continue running the business because they obviously don't know anything about dentures or anything like that. So there was four key employees that were there that were going to that were set into not necessarily management, but they were there to help run the business and could run the business should anyone else leave because they were selling the business, if that makes sense. Yeah. So yeah, when you started and you started as a Packer and shipper, that's how I started in this crazy world. Did you have any idea what it was? No. Absolutely not. I literally thought you could just order denture online or something. Like, I had no idea there was so much detail and all of that that goes into the process of making dentures. And you just fell in love with it, huh? Yeah. It's my career now. Long awkward pause. Maybe. Well, it is true. I mean, we do kind of fall in love, right? I mean, like, I'm sure you enjoy what you do. You said you rapidly got better. Yeah. And your movement was swift. So obviously, you're smart and you have skills plus talent. So they realized it in you. And I think it's kind of cool that he recognized it and wanted to build you up. So now you are a part owner, correct? Yeah. Awesome. So how was that first venture? Pretty good. Um, actually I didn't. I mean, I remember my first venture, but, like, I, it was, like, perfect. I mean, honestly, like, I had, like, I had overseen it for like, eight months. I was working in, uh, shipping and receiving for like eight months. And then I switched over into being a technician. And my first wax up, they were like. They were like, could not believe how amazing it looked. And I'm just like, it was like a natural thing to me. That is amazing. So were you an artsy kid? Did you like art in school or did you just love the feel of wax? Which I totally get. No, um, no, I was very I'm very, very, very crafty. Like, all around. Cool. It's all. Well, Danielle, what about you? You said you came to them from that company. Yeah. So I actually came from the dental office side. I managed many, many practices from a corporate level of dental practices. So like my most recent was I was a regional for Aspen Dental who had dental labs within it. Sure. So I actually stayed at, uh, decided to be a stay at home mom for a little bit. And then when I came back and saw this opportunity to run the dental lab, I already had experience with my I believe it was like 12 or 13 years that I managed. So I already had experience and all of that. So I just kind of left the dental office side and joined the dental lab side. And this was the cooler side. That's right. So when you came in, it was already employee owned at that point. Yeah. Yep. So we became employee owned April of 2023. And I actually came in April of 2024. Oh, so a whole year after. So what, they just run wild for a year until you got there. So they had temporary support until they found, quote unquote, the right fit for my position. But they had great skill sets of people like Amber that they were able to make the decisions and run that business until they found me. So. And how many people were at the lab at the time it transitioned? 1515. Wow, that's a good sized, removable lab because that's all you did was removable. Right. I'll say it's a huge removable lab, so it's only removable guys. That is right. Only removable and mostly analog at that point. Or were you into digital when the transition happened? That we were completely analog at that point? Yeah. So I'm assuming you guys had a big hand to move into digital or are you still like half and half or you kind of moved to digital? No, we're half and half. We have a lot of old school doctors who just want to stick with analog. And to be honest with you, even some of our processes we just find are better sometimes on an analog side that we haven't, like found like the right material or things that we're happy with, and we don't want to send anything out that we're not happy with. So honestly, we are truly analog and digital mix. We started digital the actually January of this year. Oh, really? Wow. Oh, good for you guys. Well, I'll be honest. Elvis and I talked to a lot of people, and we still hear the same thing. It's like, you know, a little bit of percentage on both, or you're all in on one, or you're all in on the other, or you mix. Amen. Yeah, I truly feel like that's the best mixture. Just because, like, if you shut off one valve, then all your analog doctors, you're not going to have, you know, be able to take their cases. So then you're turning people away or same thing with, you know, turning off digital, where we all know that that's where the world is going towards. So it's just we found that it is really good to have a both a mixture of the two. Mhm. So who learned the digital side. If you had 15 analog technicians who took it on. Amber actually. Amber and one of our techs I sent them to some different types of training classes that really taught them. Um, we outsourced models for a really long time, and then we slowly integrated, like we started doing models, I think in December, like trying to get our feet with wet of, like, understanding the product. And then after those courses were complete, We went ahead. Went ahead and did everything. Jumped feet for just. Literally. Even our rep was like, we have never had someone who just, like, jumps in as much as you guys just did. But we were ready. What'd you get? What printer did you start with? What software? How did you jump in? So we started with three shape and we started with an a Sega max. And we quickly learned that that printer was too small for our volume already. And so we also got an ultra nice. And then we have the dense ply care unit because we bought all the tooth libraries for dense ply, because we're doing the acetone digital print system. You got the best of the best all lined up. Yeah. Are you doing more digital than analog or the other way around? We're doing more analog than digital right now. Yeah, yeah. And when do you predict that? To make the switch. Do you have an idea? Uh, I'm not sure that we'll take. Because, like, you know, how you can take your analog cases and make them digital. I don't know that we're going to do that because our doctors just really like our analogue dentures, and they haven't really voiced like how interested they are in that. So right now we're just doing what digital cases come in. We have made our frameworks digital, so we're designing them digitally and then print the design and then we invest them and cast them ourselves. Oh, do you really, um, have our own frame lab as well? So you actually print the wax for a frame. And then we do we print our custom trays right now too. So like, we're slowly moving things over. The next thing we want to do is move it our occlusal guards over. So we're slowly bringing it over. I probably would predict in the next six months, to be honest with you, especially when we get into the new space and we actually have like, you know, alright, we can breathe and all the things, but right now we're about 30% digital, um, 70% analogue. That's not bad for removable lab. Really? Yeah. For sure. So discuss your new space and what happened and what's going on with your lab. Yeah. So right now we are in a temporary location, so we don't know what exactly is going to go on with our old space slash new space. Um, that kind of determine what's going to be the determining factor with that is if the landlord's going to want to rebuild the building or not. If he doesn't, then we already kind of tough. Yeah. Yeah. So we're kind of in limbo. But we are not the type of people who just sit around and wait. So I actually we are viewing a new space on Monday just so that we can have something on our back burner. But currently the I keep preaching to everyone like how important it is for relationships, especially like our competitors, because we have a lab that we've had have an amazing relationship with and they we called them that morning and they arms open said, come on, we'll share our space with you. So we're actually sharing a space with another lab. That's awesome. That is absolutely amazing. Oh, I heard that Drake did that too, when that lab got annihilated in North Carolina, and they opened up their lab and let them come in. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, well, I'm glad you're on the podcast because you should acknowledge who is that lab? Myron's dental lab. That's great. That's pretty cool. Good for you guys. Yeah. We literally would not be able to be up and running a week and a half later if it was not for them, like, we are beyond grateful. Yeah, yeah. Can you talk about what happened exactly? Do you even know. So there is an investigation going on right now. So like, we're not 100% sure. There's a couple key factors. One, the building we moved into was in 2009. So the walls and everything were up and running. So there wasn't any type of like inspections to make sure wiring or anything like that was done correctly. So we are looking at whether it was electric or whether the gas line needed didn't fully get shut off properly. Those are the two key factors. So there is an investigation going on with that, but I just can't even express enough to. If you have old equipment, especially since that was 2009. I mean, that's almost 20 years old or whatever. Yeah. Like just if you got it, you got to start going more electric and like doing safety measures and things because you never know what's going to happen. So what was that like? Like what what day was that on? Wednesday Thursday? Friday. Like do you get a call and all of a sudden you realize everything's on fire? Yeah. So it was the 26th of September and I got a call. So we had a security system that just has motion detection. And I got a call at 130 in the morning, and I did not answer it because it was an unknown number. 130 in the morning, 130 in the morning. And so then that number called right back ten minutes later. And I answered it because obviously, like if someone's calling two times in a row, something's going on. So I answered it and they alerted me that they it was our security system. They called because they thought originally it was a burglar because the motion detectors were going off. So they actually called the cops for a burglar. Burglar burglary. Um, and they stayed on the phone with the cops until they got there. The cops alerted them that it was a fire. So they called me back and said that you need to immediately respond. There's a fire in your building. Wow. So what the hell do you do? Get out of bed and go there. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We both got out of bed. She called me, and because they tried to call me also, and I didn't answer because it was a 130 in the morning, and I was like, who? That who's calling me at 130 in the morning? I was so mad. I was like, I don't get enough sleep right now already because my husband is in a bed and he's laid up. So I'm like, I have got who? I don't know who it is. I was mad, and then she called me and I didn't answer because I moved my phone away from my from my bedside. And then she texted me and all caps the labs on fire like I it was gonna, like, make me wake up. We were laughing about it later because I'm like, text me in all caps. But we both just rushed to the lab and we were there for, what, 2 or 3 hours there. And then we went back home and had to report back. Yeah, we left that. I think it was like 340. Yeah. 340 we left and then we were told we needed to report back at 740. So we went home, drink a cup of coffee and I started back. I started immediately working on all the cases that we had in lab. We had 128 cases in lab that we have to start over at no charge for all of our doctors. And so I started on that list and started drinking Red bull and was like, I got to get through this. And we literally have not stopped working since. Yeah, we have, we have not had a. Yeah. A stop working moment. So when you got there, I mean, fire trucks there, things ablaze, or was it pretty much just done and. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blaze it very high. Um, they actually said that the flames got 15ft higher than the roof of the building. It was that bad. Wow. That's what happens when you have gas in the building, guys. I can see that. And all your chemicals and every flammable chemicals and all of that as well. Yeah. Because the other issue. So two issues with the fire. One, we had multiple chemicals obviously like on your bench and things like that. So as the heat rose, those chemicals exploded and started other fires. And then not only that, but as the fire started and the temperature rose, the air conditioning actually turned on and sucked the fire into the ceiling. Oh my gosh, I guess you don't think about that through the vents. You know what? That's so that's actually really crazy because my son is in the firefighter academy, and I study with him every night and every morning, and oxygen and airflow is what feeds fire. So I can totally acknowledge that. That's a true statement. That's crazy. Wow. I didn't realize we had an expert online here, Barb. Thanks. Yeah, I am Elvis. But that's like, yeah. So it goes up in the attic. And then all of that spreads and just the whole building. So it wasn't just your dental lab in that building, correct? Wasn't it? More than that, we had a dental office that we subleased out to. And then we also had underneath a sub tenant for various buildings like in accounting a epilepsy. So different businesses, but unfortunately with the smoke and water damage outside of the fire damage, everything's just gone. Everything. So you show back up at what, seven, 730 in the morning? And what do you do? Like a walk through. What's that like? Yeah. You guys have to walk us through how you picked up and kept going. Yeah. So we got there 740 and we are not allowed in the building. The building is not. The roof is like, literally falling in. So you we are not allowed in there, but we have to stay there because the fire investigator has to go through the whole entire building and do an investigation. So essentially what was happening is they would take pictures of equipment, come back out, show Amber. I explain what the equipment does, where you know, where it was located, all of the things, and then they go back in. And that was an all day event. Yeah. We didn't leave there until like what, 130. Oh yeah. Well, and then, then the adjuster had to come back out after that, remember. So it literally was after after the firefighter left. Then I went and got a laptop so that I could start working because I left my laptop inside the building. I didn't bring it home that night, so I had to go buy a laptop to start getting everything in place. And we were just we were starting the process of, okay, what are we going to do? Where are we going to go? All of the like, I called Myron's at like 3:40 a.m. and was like, hey, we need help. And he was like, arms out, like he. I called him at seven something in the morning after that because he didn't like answer at 340, but obviously. But he called me back and was like, yeah, absolutely. You guys can come in. So then we just started planning on rebuilding. We were literally standing in the parking lot of our burned down building, and we were planning on how to reopen within a week, already calling our suppliers like UPS, Fedex Post Office, telling them we need an address change immediately, like alerting the insurance company, obviously, so that we could have the adjuster come out that same day like we were on top of it as soon as placed a large order with Henry Shine so we could get all of our stuff starting to deliver. They started delivering things by Monday at Myron's lab, and we just started setting up. Yeah. So hold on. So you guys had a think tank and you said, all right, what do we need to do to get back and running and just sat down and made a list and then just we're like, you call this guy, you call this guy, you call this girl a little. Seriously? Yeah. Danielle and I make a fantastic. Because I. This is how I explain it to everyone, because she was all like admin taking care of the fire, taking care of like our accounts and stuff like that. And I'm like, okay, how do I rebuild a lab? And I start going and I'm like, okay, I need this. I need to do all these things. So like, we just took off running in separate directions and just started tackling everything. We literally have a combined to do list and we just mark stuff off when we're done with it, because there's a lot. But how did you know, like what cases you lost and what clients you had to get in touch with and like, how did the clients react to? Obviously everybody should be very understanding. But yeah, well, we actually have a really, really good lab management system called Great Labs. So I was it's all cloud based. So I was able to log in as soon as I got home at 3:00, at 4:00 in the morning. And I just looked at everything that was in lab, and I printed a spreadsheet of every doctor, every case. And then we I had to make 37 calls to doctors and tell them, like, this is what we need to get restarted on your case. You know, it's going to be at no charge. All the things with it. We actually only lost one doctor so far and they were a newer account. And yeah, they needed their stuff. Just turned around at a really fast pace and we knew that taking on them, which we were able to do for them because we honestly before the fire had a 3 to 5 day turnaround, five days for frameworks. Everything else was three days in lab. That's pretty sweet. We could meet that. But unfortunately, whenever you're having to have a week and a half to week break until things get in, that just for that high volume lab or office, it just didn't work for them. So I did try to reach out to them last night, so fingers crossed I can convince them to come back. But honestly, a lot of our doctors are understanding. We do have a handful of doctors who one required a letter to their patients just essentially saying it wasn't their fault, which I understand. But unfortunately, the lot of our large client offices are, you know, looking for compensation of chair time and things like that because they now have to go through multiple stages and all of the things. And although we are doing that at no charge, that's also they have to eat some of that too. So we are looking at trying to include that in our insurance claim to try to keep those people happy. They are seriously asking for compensation for extra chair time due to your fire. Yes, yes. I you know, I don't mean to interrupt you, Elvis, but. And ladies. But that's bullshit. Yeah, but I mean, I guess I can see where it does. You know, you got to bring the patient back in. You've got to restart the case. From a doctor's perspective. Only you know where it might be. But I mean, I would just explain to the patient. My dental laboratory had a fire and this is what happened. And we need to be, you know, understanding and let's redo. Well, it is a lot of our bigger accounts, though, that had multiple cases in lab like we've we had an office who had 20 cases in lab. We had another office who had like ten, 15 cases in labs. So like those bigger accounts, you have to get that many patients back in. I totally understand where they're coming from. And if we can get it included in our insurance and it doesn't, you know, it just it is what it is at this point, which I that's our model right now. Yeah, that is our model. I will say there was one office though that even tried to take it so far of well now the patients have to request off work even. And I was like, I mean, I will I'm going to try to get you reimbursed for your chair time and you can do what you want with that money. But I mean, how far do we go? Do we? Then we need to supply babysitters to like that. Like you just have to put a stop at it. Like we're trying to do things and make things right and be ethical. But at the same time, like, you also have to have some, you know, compassion and and sympathy a little bit. Thank you. Yeah. Like, we talked to a lot of people and we haven't talked to anybody that's lab burned down to the ground. I mean, that's pretty catastrophic, to say the least. So how did you guys merge labs? Like, how did that go? How did it go with your employees? Did they give you, like, a wing on their lab and you set everybody up? Like, tell me about that. Yeah, that's essentially what we did. Like, they, uh, the building is big enough. Um, they were a very, very large lab at one point in time. So this building is massive. Like, they even did training for, like, the local schools and things like that. Yeah. So they had the space. And so we just grabbed a wing and started setting up and doing all the things is a little harder, just because it does add quite a bit of commute and mileage for, for our team members. So, you know, we're just trying to say come in when you can. Don't worry about traffic. Like, well, you know, we don't don't want to uproot their lives too much, but unfortunately there's there's a lot of hours being done right now just to even get us back on track with our typical turnaround times and things like that. So we are very, very grateful for the team that we have because they're all they're all feat in like making the sacrifices they need to do all the things. What about the employees? I mean, they probably lost a lot of personal stuff they kept at the lab. I mean, I'm sure everyone's got their things on their benches. I mean, I'm I have my whole life at my bench, pretty much. Yeah. So a lot of our technicians did have things at their bench. Um, we lost one of our employees, lost some, like, artwork from her kids and stuff like that. Um, jackets. Just a lot of personal things were left there, but we're trying to figure out how to compensate that and figure out what we can do for all of them. At this time, we haven't really. That's kind of like on the back, the end of the list right now. And honestly, we need to be able to get inside the building before we even, you know, can see like there. I did go in and grab like our OSHA binder because they needed something. And like that was inside my desk. And so it did. But it had like, the whole outside binder survived, of course. Yeah. The, uh, the outside was completely black, but when you opened it, like you could still visibly read it and stuff, it was just so much smoke and soot damage. So that had to save you, like five days worth of work. Yeah. Seriously, I can't even. Yeah. And I'm really hoping when we get in there, I'm really hoping that the MSDS binder also survived because it was right next to the OSHA. So fingers crossed for us, guys. I'm not restarting that until I can get in that building. My fingers are crossed for you because that's a lot of work. Like anybody that deals with OSHA and all of the SOPs and the MSDS, like that's going to take you a good month. To read them every day. All day. So yeah, my fingers are crossed. So when do you think you can get back in the building? Uh, once the investigation is done, which they said could take weeks. So the roof also has to be stable and repaired. Uh, for us to be able to have come and go access right now, there's literally signs on the doors that say, do not enter. This is an investigation. Yikes. Take it from me, Elvis. You cannot mess with an investigation. It's like military man. I mean, can you look in and see what's kind of. I mean, through the windows or anything? Uh, it's all black. Like, our, um, shades are, like, all black and melted, so, like, literally, there is a picture of our lights, like, you know, the LED lights. That's there's strings hanging off of the ceiling because of it melting like it is very bad. Did any office ask you if there's a chance their model could still be in there? Did anybody ask that? Yes. Oh my gosh. I have an office there. We had a repair in lab. and there is a doctor who is like, my patient just really wants their denture back. And I'm like, I cannot. If you're even if you're if your denture made it out, I cannot ethically give this to you and let you put it in your mouth like we have to remake you a new one at no charge. Like he's like, I understand that, but the patient's adamant that they really just want their partial. And I'm like, I literally the fire department told us they were like, you cannot give these partials or dentures to the patients because of how much chemicals were in the air. It is not safe to put that in your body. Like, I don't understand why these doctors think even that the doctor that we, um, um, sublease out to. He was like, I just need to get my cases out of there. And I was like, you, you have to start over. There's nothing you can do. And he obviously is very upset about it. But I was like, I, I cannot ethically give those to you. Like, I would feel so bad if I knew that patients were walking around with dentures and partials that have chemicals. They're so absorbent, like, why would you even think that's okay? It's not okay. That's unbelievable. Well it's not it's very believable with some offices actually, but still. So first thing you did is you put in a huge order. Just get your normal stuff. I mean, did you just get. I don't know. I don't even know how you would start. Yeah. So luckily, whenever Mike retired, I took all of our dental, like, everything that I ordered that we like, you know, restock and everything. I have a spreadsheet of everything. We order, where it comes from, how much we order of it. Like, I have a whole spreadsheet of that. So I literally went, took our spreadsheet, copied it, and placed an order. So it was really it wasn't that smart. It was very smart that I did that. Yes. It literally saved me hours, maybe, if not days of work. But, um, yes, it it was actually pretty easy to make a really large order. And everyone at Henry Shine was like, our rep was like amazing and helped me on a weekend like we we had we placed the order first thing Monday morning. Mhm. Like and it was we had stuff arriving Tuesday like and it was just like okay. And our team came in and started putting stuff away. We started figuring out okay where are we going to do shipping. Where are we going to enter cases like ordered computers, all the things like by the end of last week we were. Somewhat running and like hopefully by the end of next week we will be like in a more calm position. We have our technicians coming in this weekend to like get caught up because we had a ton of cases coming to us already and then we lost 128. So those ones are coming back to us. So it's like double the work right now. Yeah. So we don't want our podcast listeners to it's only been what, two weeks maybe three tops. It's been two. It's been two weeks. It's been two weeks. Yeah. I didn't realize it was so fresh. So you guys are like right in the thick of it. Yes. Seriously we are. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. When did you start working on your first case? Like three days after, uh, that Monday, Tuesday and Tuesday. Tuesday we had a repair. Tuesday. That was the first thing we built out was a repair. It was Tuesday. We built out $52 on a Tuesday. We're typically building out like 6 to $7000 a day. Yeah, I did a dance, a happy dance. Yeah. We did. Uh myron's just have been letting us like, on that Tuesday and stuff, like, whatever they had because they used to have a Frost department and then they switch to Crown and Bridge primarily. And then we their guy retired. Yeah, their guy retired. So they already had a lot older of equipment, but still something that was functional. So we were able to do like our re lines or repairs and things like that for our local offices. So we were literally day two, jumping in and going ahead and doing what we could. So did you have drivers out? Do you do local pickup and delivery? We do. Yep. We do a 50 mile radius. So we have lots of locals that we go and we just pick up and do our deliveries. And so I'm just wondering how that dynamic works. So the drivers would go out there and I'm sure by then everyone's heard the story. And. There's nothing to deliver anymore. It's all gone. It must have been pretty tough. Yeah. So primarily that last week she was just doing pickups for, you know, to get our schedule back up and running. But now, obviously, since we are now two weeks in and we were able to really do a lot this week, she's been doing deliveries and stuff for us. So. And all the employees sticking with you driving over to the new place. Yeah. All but one is sticking with us. But she's here helping us on like a temporary basis just because it's a really, really, really long drive for her. So when we go back to a closer building, she'll come back to us. But I can't fault her for not wanting to drive. She is, um, an older, retired. She's retired. And just like a part time extra help for us. So what do you guys think is, like, best case scenario, after this all goes down? Do you think you're going to rebuild in a new location? Do you think they're going to rebuild that building? Like what are your thoughts on that? You don't have to be, you know, perfect in your thoughts. But I'm curious. Well, we actually already. Amber and I are very much like already all in on this. So we already have a plan. So we are Li states that they have 60 days to get the building back to where it is, or we have the opportunity to cancel our lease. So there's no way that they're going to get that building back in 60 days. 0% chance. Yeah I would yeah. Yes. So you might want to release this. So yeah. Yeah. So we have anything that fast. Well and not only that but like so for the the investigation has to finish. And then the insurance companies have to talk to each other because it was a leased space not a bot space. So there's just a lot of stuff. So there's no way it's going to be back in 60 days. So we have found a spot that's right down the road from us. So we're going to go see that on Monday. If we can get the lease signed and things like that. We've already got a general contractor we're talking to, they stated. City and permits approvals take anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks. And then a general basic build out is about four weeks. So we're probably looking at like February March timeframe that we will be back up and running in our own space. In your own facility. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. I imagine you're probably pretty excited to start over in a new place. You can build it out however you want. This is probably the fastest rebuild in history. Yeah, I mean, I yes, we get a new lab and we get to kind of put it how we want to. From a functionality standpoint of what makes sense for, you know, a typical lab flow. So that's great. It really did flip everyone's world upside down. So wish it didn't happen. But yeah we are definitely looking in. So we really are going to be diving in at the next few weeks of like what is the safest things? Because one of the things that the investigator had said was if so, the building wasn't large enough to require, um, sprinkler system. But he said if you had a sprinkler system just in that one room, you would have had minimal damage because of it stopping it from that one room. Like, yes, you still would have had, you know, damage, but it wouldn't have been a complete loss. So Amir and I are really going to be diving into the net newest systems and safest systems for our employees that will make this new lab space, you know, something that can last another 30 years. Or more. Yeah. So they know what room it started in? Yes, it started in the boiler room. Uh, yeah. Imagine that. Uh, that's like the worst room in the house. So. Wow. Do they think it was the boil out unit? Yes. Yeah. Interesting. So are you guys able to visualize your perfect lab and exactly what you want, where and when and what and what new equipment, and you're just laying that out right now in your heads. Yeah. Yeah. Like, we're playing around with, like, blueprints and like what that layout looks like. What makes sense? Like, all the things that has got to be, like, so much fun. That'd be like. All right, so if I'm going to lay out my perfect dental lab, I do say that the fire was horrible, but it enables you guys to be able to, like, redo everything. Like, that's got to be kind of a little bit, um, fine. Um, if we weren't rebuilding a business in the process, I would say, yeah, it would be fun. But right now it's just really stressful. It's really stressful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm on the other side looking in, so I can't even imagine. Yeah. For you, it's probably really fun for us. Yeah. We are excited about having new things and and getting it to back to where we think that, like she said, the functionality and the workflows makes sense. So that is like the exciting part. It's just the getting to all the steps and yeah, the things like we've just have been working so much since the fire that it's like we, we just need a vacation after this in a row. We're going to Cancun now. Where are you going? Anywhere. I said Cancun by anywhere. I don't care if it's down to the local pub right now, okay? Like I just need something. And that kind of segways into it. So how do you keep yourself mentally healthy right now? Is there something that you to do? Obviously your friends. Um, we have each other. We have each other, uh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, the business alone is stressful. Yeah. So before the before the fire. This is Amber, by the way. My husband had a very bad motorcycle wreck, um, August 14th. So he broke both of his legs. So I've been kind of in and out of work from August 14th and up until the fire, essentially. And I, I mean, I'm his full time caretaker, so I have to he's literally in a bed he can't walk or anything like that. So I had all of that going on. And then the fire happened and I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't take anymore right now. Like, so we have each other. We have each other. I will say that we are trying to push each other to prioritize mental health like I did our teen shares company actually Like jumped in and they are helping take a load off of like things that they can do to try to help us. I scheduled an appointment with a counselor just to like, try to help because it is a lot. We get home, we make dinner for our children, and then we get right back on to our laptops and finish work so well. I mean, that was a really sincere question, because when I was in Germany and I talked to Jade Connors, um, we were talking about how to balance mental health, and that's just being a technician like you guys have, like, you know, 150% over just doing your job. And I think it's a very pertinent point to realize that we have to keep ourselves mentally healthy. And so that's why I asked that question. It was sincere. Yeah, we definitely are like pushing each other for that. Like for what? You know, appointments with mental health and you know whether it's getting on temporary anxiety type of things, whatever we can because we are definitely feeling it. So yeah, and you just have to keep talking to each other and keep balancing each other and make sure you're checking in with each other and be like, hey, you know, how are you doing today? Like, you know, I don't feel real good. I'm like effing crazy right now. So I think just about it, just listening to you, you know, you're both obviously heroes. I mean, you're been amazing, but I think you also have to acknowledge that you have been badass and you have a lot on your plate. And, you know, how do you kind of balance it. So good for you. Just keep each other in chat, keep talking to each other. Therapy's great. But yeah, it's a big no. Sorry, Elvis, but you know, you know, everything I've been through, so you know, it. It kind of just, you know, knocks a little bit of my mental, you know, help. No. I think it's amazing how quick you. I mean, it's there's time to grieve and there's time to keep things moving. And from the parking lot with the fire. You started moving forward, and that's amazing. You got to do both. Well, because we have multiple people depending on us, you know. Not just a not just our families, but like we have employees that are depend on us. They need the paychecks, they need those things. And then outside of your employees and you have your patients and you think about them like needing something to function just to be able to eat something. So that's our livelihood. So like, we didn't have a choice to sit down and, you know, really reflect on what happened. Like we had to get in motion because many people's lives depend on us. So I know you're in the midst of. Yeah. Hold on. Dogs. Elvis's dogs are giving you guys a shoutout right now. Okay, so I know you're in the midst of all the insurance thing, but looking back on it and maybe to help other people that might go through this, did you feel like you had the right insurance. Would you have had anything different? So. Insurance? Yes. I feel like I have the right insurance company. Um. Insurance amount? No. So you would like, raise it to, like, probably a million? Correct? Yes, absolutely. Because you have to consider all of the price increases that we've reflected over the years, the extra quote unquote, expenses. So, like the things that we had to outsource the the mileage, the doctor's payouts. Then you have to keep in mind the other third parties that were affected that are filing claims on your insurance, and then you have to factor in your complete new build out. And there is so many things that go into this that just life as we know, is just so much more expensive now. And I thought that we had enough, and I'm just a little worried that we are not going to be at that enough stage. So, um, I definitely would increase it to a million, 100%. Yeah, whenever I can. That is going to happen, to be honest with you. So as an employee owned lab, or at least, you know, you guys are all invested. Are you going to sit down with everybody and say, hey, like, this is where we're at, this is what we need. This is what we need to do. Like, how does that all, like, go down? Yeah. That's essentially so Amber and I have been taking the just because we're the ones who run the business the like initial decisions. But when it comes to like for example, we have to do overtime this week. Like there's we don't have an option but we give as an employee. We say, hey, this is our only way of, you know, getting back to where we are. How do you guys want to do this? Do you guys want to come in from X amount of time to this time? Do you want to come in in stages? Is it better. So like we really tried to include them in all the decision makings. Like we may say this is the result that we need. But then as a team. As employee owners, we come up with a solution together of what's going to work best for everyone's personal lives, as well as the business life. So good. I think that's the only way, right? You have to sit down and say, what do you think? What do you think? And I'm sure everybody's like, hey, I'll come in this weekend or I can come in really early or stay really late. And I mean, I think that's very collaborative of you guys. Yeah, we are there. I one thing I've learned from the corporate world is there's just not enough managers or owners who really care about people's personal lives, in my opinion. And so I that is one thing that I since day one, when I walked in, I was like, everyone's personal life matters 100%. Like, we will do everything we can. If you have something major going on in your life and you need some time off, we'll take care of you. But also, I think that it plays into a role of because we are so employee mindset and in family mindset. It allows the employees to also be super loyal to your company and be like, I will do anything for you because you do anything for me. Yeah, yeah. It's reciprocal. Like honestly, and I think I love that about the way that business runs is that when employees are engaged, they're a part of it. Like they they've got skin in the game. I don't even mean employees. I mean just business partners, slash employees, slash technicians. But everybody's in it to figure out how we can be successful. Yeah. And it sounds like you guys are on the right path with that, because it's not always easy working on a weekend. But you can come in early, you can work late. And then I get my Saturday and Sunday and I'm out of here. Yeah. We all know that the dental lab community is pretty amazing, and pretty much pretty much everyone's willing to help other people. How can the community help you? What do you need? Uh, you know, we were kind of thinking of different things, I think. Like, really, the biggest thing is I would love some people's different inputs on, like, what systems they like. And because that would be a huge mental load taken off of Amber. And I is having to do all the research on what works best and what doesn't. So and I'm talking super granule right. So like what's the best air purifier system. What's the best compressor. Like we like I'm going to have to do research on all of these things. So like even if anyone has any type of knowledge or opinions on this works best, this doesn't that works well for us. Like that would be super helpful. There is a couple offices that we're using from an outsourced lab until we can get things in. So like we don't really need to like offset our work. So really it's like people's knowledge of the business, right? And like just helping us from that standpoint so that we know what it is that could. Could prevent this from happening, or helping us in the future to be the better lab. Because we work with a lot of labs, we out. We are an outsourced lab that accepts all work from all sorts of different labs. So anything that we can do that will make their lives even better for their offices. Like, it's really just that sharing knowledge piece that we really think would be like super beneficial. That's a really good point. I mean, you can find 500 opinions on 3D printers, but you can't find very many opinions on air compressors. Right? Or like your chisel that you don't even think about. Like we had to do some research on, okay, we need a new chisel. Like what do we get? Because the one that we had, we can't get anymore. So like, what's the best thing out there now? So we had to do some research on that. And just the knowledge that everyone would give back on just that one simple answer. If they could do that on like everything, that would be great, because there's so much, so many things that we don't think of or know a different way to do. So that's definitely the number one thing. I would say that it'd be nice to ask your questions, and then we can put a link on this note. Show notes. This week's show notes. And, um, people can look at it and answer and help you guys. Oh, we would totally. Yeah. That would be so wonderful. We could come up with questions for sure. I'm sure you have a million of them. We probably already have it from here. Yeah, well, Danielle, Amber, I mean, it's sad for the reasons we've got to meet you and had you on this podcast, but it really sounds like you two are the two to tackle this issue and come back even stronger. I mean, yeah, I have no doubt you're going to be even better. Thank you. Yeah. We're just we're just hanging on, and it is what it is. So we're just literally taking it one step at a time. But I will say, I mean, if anything, this is definitely shown that together we can do anything so absolutely amazing. Well, I think it's kind of cool that this this will launch this podcast is like a week away. So hopefully everybody can hear it. Put your questions together and let's all come together and help you guys. Thank you so much. As you know, our dental lab industry is badass. So yeah, absolutely. Trust me, we take care of our own. Yeah, I really, really appreciate you guys allowing us the opportunity to tell us, you know, tell our story and get it out there. Well, Danielle, Amber, thank you so much. So I know you probably don't have a relaxing weekend, so just have a weekend. So that's great. We will thank you so much and good luck and let's do a follow up sometime. That sounds great. Good luck you guys. Awesome. Thank you. Make yourself too crazy. Ask for help. We're here. Yep. Have a good one. Bye bye. A huge thanks to Daniel and. Coming on our podcast, talk about something that was still extremely fresh and actually very amazing to the both of them. It's terrible what happened to you guys in your lab, but we are incredibly impressed with your ability to just jump right back in, start making restorations again in just a few days. A big shout out to Myron's Dental Lab for opening their doors to you guys and allowing you guys to continue service. Seeing your patients. And shame on any office that didn't give you guys any slack for getting your work back on time, which is kind of crazy. I can't even believe that clients would still be that. Hmm. But yeah. Yeah, whatever. I'm not going to say a bad word, but you know how I feel. So please check out this episode, Show Notes for a list of items that they would love to hear your opinion on, good and bad. They're looking to rebuild and we can help them rebuild better than before. Good luck ladies. You guys are really, truly amazing. Absolutely. All right everybody. That's all we got for you. And of course we'll talk to you next week. Bye. Yeah, I'm the Lord of peace. What did you think? I said I'll be on the water. This. I guess you can barely hear me now. Now, you just blew our eardrums out. Now we hear you got. Oh, hi. Hi. The views and opinions expressed on the voices from the bench podcast are those of the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the host or voices from the bench, LLC.