Audio file
Episode 426.mp3
Transcript
Hello Voices from the Bench community, John Wilson here and I wanted to share some news about the evolution of the Program Mill lineup. Most importantly, Ivaclair's new Program Mill 7. What stands out right away is the reduced air consumption this mill requires, but what you'll notice first is that impressive new touchscreen. For us, the biggest advantage has been increased spindle power. You know, my laboratory's known for these larger cases with complex geometries, and I can tell you that extra power really makes a difference. Next time you see your Ivaclair representative, be sure to ask about the Program 07 and tell them John Wilson sent you. Thank you.
All right, Barb, we've officially made it to Mallorca for Exocad Insights.
Yes, I know. Somehow, we're gonna power through it, Elvis.
I know, it's tough, but as promised, I finally tracked him down. Feel it! Felix, how are you?
I'm great, I'm great. Hey guys, I'm really happy to finally connect.
Yeah, absolutely. So, you're here as an Exocad dealer. What is your take on the meeting so far?
Honestly, it's been great. Great turnout, a lot of familiar faces. Always nice to see what Exocad is working on, and we're very excited to bring this new features to our customers.
Is there something that stood out to you?
Well, one for sure is the Exocad Hub. It's a new cloud-based service, and also really excited. We're still digging into the details, but as you can tell, there's a lot of things that still need to be worked on. We'll definitely use it in our milling center when it's ready.
Nice. That's really great. It sounds like a common rollout strategy for Imagine. Would you agree with that?
Yeah, for sure. Any of these new products that come out, especially from Exocad, we like to use them in our own production facility before we release them. much easier to support our customers and for ourselves to use those features as well, it's very beneficial to them.
That totally makes sense. So for you, what's the real value of being here? Other than the beach being across the street.
Other than being in Mallorca.
Yeah, I mean, obviously it's great to see everyone in person, especially our partners. We don't really usually get to have conversations with them, so it's good to see them without the e-mail or video calls.
Oh, for sure.
So Elvis and I totally agree. We do love face-to-face. Love these meetings.
Yeah, for sure. It's good to take a step back for a minute, see what's going on. Not just do the day-to-day stuff that you do at work.
Yeah, plus it's not too bad of a place to do it, Anne.
Yeah, not bad at all. Not bad at all.
All right, let's get back to it.
All right, man. It's good to see you, Felix. I'm really looking forward to getting you on our full episode interview.
Here in the next couple weeks. One hour, one hour.
Yep, I appreciate, guys. I'm looking forward to it as well.
Thank you. Enjoy Mallorca.
Welcome to Voices from the Bench, a dental laboratory podcast. Send us an e-mail at info at voicesfromthebench.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Greetings and welcome to episode 426 of Voices from the Bench. My name is Elvis.
My name is Barbara. Still.
What's happening? Still Barbara? How are you?
Not bad. What's up?
Well, just excited for this nice holiday weekend we have.
Yes.
Extra day of not working for some people, because for those that aren't in the States, this actually is launching on Memorial Day, where, you know, most labs are closed. I'm sure night's closed, right?
Oh yeah, we're closed.
Yeah, are you still going into work?
No.
Oh, good for you.
I considered it, and then I said no.
I know how many a holiday is where you want into work.
Yep, exactly.
But in case you do go into work on this holiday, but you still need a break. In 2 weeks, you can join Barb and I at the FDLA Southern State Symposium and Expo in Orlando, Florida. It's happening June 5th to the 6th. We're going to be set up at the great booth of the GPS Digital RPD, and we hope to be recording all of you great, amazing attendees, the vendors, and hopefully some of those great speakers And you know we will.
Because we're grabbing you.
Don't look Barb in the eye. That's my favorite saying.
Right, you will be in our chair.
So head over to FDLA.net to see the program and to register. So this week we actually wrap up the conversations we had at another regional show the Dental Laboratory Association of Texas Conference or DLAT.
That's right.
You know re-listening to these conversations is just a reminder of how good of a job that board does of putting together a really nice show with a good vibe and great content.
No doubt. I completely agree.
Yeah, so again, thank you to the board for having us at your show. But you know, something that doesn't get mentioned enough is at that same time, the Orthodontic Resource Group, or the ORG, also has their conference in the exact same hotel.
Awesome.
So this week, we actually get to talk past guests, Tiffany Prater from Destination Orthodontic Lab in Sydney Ribera, who is just getting started in the field. They talk about the industry, what the ORG is up to these days, winters in Texas, and how creative they get to get with their acrylics.
And then we get to catch up with our very own Marlin Gone from Argen. Marlin's been on a few times and it's always great to get an update from one of the only companies that still works with labs and not directly with the dentist. He talks about their new zirconia, what it's like traveling, presenting in all kinds of countries where English is not their first language, and how much nesting can affect a crown shade, which I found was pretty awesome and brought that back tonight, Dental.
Pretty fascinating.
Yeah.
So join us as we chat with Tiffany Prater, Sydney Ribera, and Marlin Gohn. Voices from the bench. The interview.
OK, I see now. I didn't want to break it.
No, you won't break it. So this is exciting. We're at the DLAB meeting 2026 and past podcast guest stops by. When were you on? How long ago?
That was February of 2020.
Wow.
Before COVID? We were in Chicago.
It was Chicago? Yeah. Wow.
That's crazy long. Six years. Six years.
Yeah. Tiffany Prater.
Prater.
Prater.
I still say it wrong too.
What you brought along with you.
Sydney, I'm Sydney.
Sydney Ribera.
Yes.
Ribera.
Yes, with a B.
With a B. And you are interested in getting into ortho. Yes. So tell us what the heck?
Why? so. I originally went into school for hygiene and I mean, I saw that she was posting stuff about her lab and my parents were like, hey, why don't you go try that out? And that's where I've been ever since.
So there's a bigger story here. Yeah, you babysat.
I babysat Sydney. I've known her since she was two.
I'm 21. I'll be 22 this year.
So how does that work? Because you're only 24, right? I know.
I don't know. That's so weird. No, I worked at the daycare that she went to. So me and my best friend, her name is Piper, we worked at the daycare together. Piper had worked there longer. So she had gotten to know Sydney and her parents. And Sydney's mom was pregnant with the second one. Her name is Reese. That's her sister. And so Piper was in Sydney's class. And then when Reese was born, I was Reese's teacher. I was in like the baby little like newborn class. And so we would just babysat all the time. Like Piper and I kind of rotated on weekends and. They kept coming back. Yep.
Were you doing any ortho at this time?
Oh, no. I was 19.
Okay.
So, were you just assisting?
I wasn't doing that. I was still figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a dolphin trainer, but I knew that wasn't realistic.
That's funny.
Don't give up hope.
I'm not. Maybe that's my retirement plan.
Yeah, I was going to say, you can still figure out what you want to do.
But here we are, 20 years later. So Tiffany, how's your lab doing?
It's good.
Destination.
Destination orthodontic lab.
I knew that.
Yeah, it's been, I mean, steady. Everything's changing. I moved, so I bought.
How do you know that?
Facebook, Instagram.
I was going to say.
Trash day is Wednesday. No, I'm just kidding.
It actually is.
Oh my god.
No, I bought a unit in a building three years ago. Yeah, congratulations. That's like a condo situation. There's 6 units in a building. Purchased it, did a build out. all the things at the time I had employees, I had corporate account, all that stuff made sense. I don't have employees anymore. I don't have the corporate account. I just have private practices, which is preferred?
So why did you downsize all that?
It just kind of happened like the people that I had, like one left for hygiene school, one left to go to college, like those kinds of things. At the time, things were starting to go more digital. So I didn't really need people. And I just kind of made a decision. I don't want to have to hire again. I hate training. I'm not good at it. It's not fun. And I genuinely enjoy bending wires and doing the acrylic. Like I don't want to babysit people doing it. So I have just kind of made a decision. So I got the build out done. Everything's done at the lab. And I actually just listed it for sale a couple weeks ago.
So, what are you gonna do it now?
So, once it sells, I will use the money to buy land, build my forever house, and build a little she shed for the lab. There you go. I don't need anything big. I don't need anything crazy. I don't wanna see neighbors get out and just have peace and serenity.
So, you're obviously not gonna teach.
No, she's been coming to the lab. I was going to say I come and go when she has time.
So you just got into it, I just love to watch it and the art of it.
Yes, I kind of got into it a little bit with dental assisting as well, because I was dental assisting at an ortho lab too. Or not an ortho lab, an orthodontic practice. Yeah, so, and I had my, so I also had braces. Yeah, thank you. So I had a dentist that was kind of interested in sending stuff too. So that was kind of cool to have to have some support there a little bit. But yeah.
So have you worked in an ortho lab yet?
Just hers.
She's been at mine. So she comes in when I'm there and have the ability to use her equipment and to practice.
So you already have your hands in it.
A little bit, yeah, just a little bit.
And then so now you're here looking for equipment, you said? What are you looking for?
A laser welder. I want to get a laser welder. And I kind of like the wire bending machines over there. Those are really cool. But yeah, we'll see. I might wait on those ones, but I still am interested.
So are you thinking you're going to open your own place?
Yes, I really do want to. I want to, I don't want to like open some big ortho lab though. I want to keep it low key like through private. I like the idea of doing it through private practices and stuff like that. Nothing too big yet, but I just want to be able to work from my own space and work for myself too.
So I just heard of an ortho lab for sale.
Yeah.
The building.
Yes.
Not the accounts or anything. So yeah.
So you're selling the building, keeping the clients. Yeah.
I just don't need the space. That whole building is about 4,000 square foot in total.
That's big.
And I just.
And you're the only one.
I'm the only one. I barely use a fourth of the building. And so yeah, I just like. I think it was one of those things, like I did it, I proved to myself I could do it, and now I'm like, okay, I'm over it. So ready just to get out and do something. My son will graduate in three years, and then I really have the freedom to go wherever and do whatever.
It'll be nice to have the land to yourself, the area to yourself. That's one thing I take for granted is moving from Nebraska, the ruralness. I kind of want to move back to a small town. I'm ready. Oh yeah.
So how did you end up in Texas?
That's true. Yeah. But my parents are from Nebraska. So they moved to Texas when they were like out of college. Just like we don't even have any family or anything down here. Just random. Yeah. And so they moved down here. I think they've lived in Amarillo a little bit all over Texas. But I was born and then when I was like 10, I moved back to Nebraska and then came back for her. Yeah. To learn from her. Yeah. A little full circle moment.
Yeah, it really is.
So, if you're not learning over the shoulder, how do you become an ortho tech? What is available for you guys? We don't talk to a lot of orthos, so I'm just curious.
There is quite a few videos on YouTube: Cade Tippett does a lot, Steve Zara does a lot. There really isn't formal training anymore the only thing I think that might still exist is if you go through the Air Force, they have a lab training program, and that might even not, I don't know, but a lot of it's just been like, she'll come into the lab, I'll show her stuff, and then she's got pliers at home. She's also got an adorable little baby.
I do.
That way, it's easier at home to practice instead of being in the lab where nothing's baby-proof and there's no toys or whatever. So she'll come learn some stuff and then take that home, practice. And so then she'll come in when I can get her in there. Yeah, right. My life has been insane this year.
And then you go over it with her and tweak it.
Yeah, just kind of show her like, this is what I would change, this is what I would do. And so the last time she was in, she was pouring acrylic, just getting the feel for that.
Really, I feel like really the only thing you can do is your own research. If you're not learning from someone else.
Yeah. Well, and it's, you have to do it yourself. Exactly. You can't watch people. Like this is one thing. You have to be hands-on.
I can watch people bend wire all day. I don't think I can do it.
Yeah, right. Yeah. And the truth is now where the lab is at, so much is digital that most of it's metal printed stuff. Yeah.
Crazy. Like ortho is the most digital. dentist out there because they got into Invisalign and all that, they got all that equipment, do you still even get impressions?
Very rarely, very rarely. I get, I mean, 95% of the work that comes in is digital.
Can you print models? Can you do everything on those models? I know a lot of people were talking about you couldn't laser weld on a printed model or something.
You can laser weld, you can't solder.
Solder, maybe that's what's gonna happen.
I have a laser welder, that's why you pretty much have to have a laser welder at this point, unless you wanna duplicate models, and that's a pain. Yeah, I laser weld on the model and then I will take it off and sometimes lay a little bit of solder over it just to smooth it out. And it just makes me feel better too. Some people don't. They say it's unnecessary. I still have a mental block with it. We're not ready to just trust that.
Tiffany touch.
Yeah.
So do they have just like little small desktop laser welders now?
They do. They do, yeah. But they also have some big ones too.
What's the difference?
I feel like.
Besides price.
The features. The features that.
Power.
Power is definitely one. Yeah, kind of, it depends on what you're also laser welding. Like some of those smaller ones are for like the permanent jewelry. I was just going to say the jewelry. little stuff. The one I have is not the biggest, but it's bigger. And I bought it because it's got a screen. You don't have to look into the little binoculars because I can never look. They just, I just. It doesn't work for me.
It's kind of like a microscope.
Yeah, right. So I have one with a screen so I can just watch the screen as I'm laser welding.
Oh, that's cool.
It's fancy.
Yeah.
So am I remembering a story right where Texas had to freeze and you had to live at the lab?
Yes.
Yeah.
It's funny you say that because that's going to be a story. I'm teaching a class today and I have a picture. I have a picture just to kind of make a funny joke about it and it's a picture of the lab in a air mattress and my son is on the air mattress but yeah in 2021 February it was Valentine's Day yeah all of Texas literally froze like the entire state and we did not have power at my house for It was almost 48 hours.
And what was the temperature?
It had to have been.
So it all started on Valentine's Day. It was a Sunday. It was just snow flurries, you know, whatever, nothing major. That Monday morning, the wind chill was negative something.
That's insane.
I don't do negative nothing. Like I live in Texas.
That's why you live in Texas.
And your lab is named after Florida?
Exactly. I love the beach. And so we I woke up that morning and it was kind of deceiving because the sun was out. It looked beautiful, but you stepped outside and that wind and my poor son, he's like, I want to go play. And I'm like, you can go out for like 5 minutes at a time and you got to come back in. Well, then the power went out right before lunch. And we knew that there was the possibility they had talked about these rolling blackouts. And so it went off and it didn't come back on. And I'm like, okay, you know, like, so I could open the garage, manually. So we got in the truck just to keep the heat going. It got cold.
I was going to ask, how the hell do you stay warm?
It got cold. So we were able to. That's something I will never not have a four-wheel drive vehicle.
Right.
Were the roads bad?
Yes. So they got icy.
And my son's hungry.
It wasn't a lot, but it doesn't take much to.
When there's ice, it doesn't matter.
So we managed to find the Taco Bell that was open. So we went and got some food, got back to the house. And at this point, all of my family didn't have power. So my brother, like any of the houses we would have gone to get away, didn't have power either. We just were at home trying to stay warm. I told Jackson, I was like, we might just be sleeping in the truck tonight. Like, my neighbor across the street got home from work. He was in the oil field. He was gone for two weeks, comes home and he's like, my power's out. How long has this been going on? I'm like, all day. Well, he had a fireplace in his living room. So all the immediate neighbors We went to his house. We put up blankets to like keep the heat in the living room.
Yeah. Smart.
We all slept like on the floor, the couch, wherever.
Fireplace is not big in Texas.
Not really. Not every house has them. And so I was, I fell asleep in like snow bib, beanie, every, like I was so cold. We woke up the next morning, the fire had gone out. I was miserable. I was like this. How long are we going to have to do this? It sounds very dramatic, but when you're not used to that kind of stuff, I was kind of freaking out. And so I just so happened to get on my phone to check the cameras to see if the cameras had ever come on at my house, like if we had ever had any power come back on. But when I did that, the cameras at the lab were working, which means it had power. And I was like, oh.
See ya.
So I went home and I packed an air mattress, some clothes, some food that we could heat up because I had a microwave there. I have a hot plate for the Pressure pot and so took stuff over there, blankets, whatever, and we drove over there and we only made it because of the four-wheel drive truck, like that. It was kind of a sketchy day out. We stayed there for two days because the power came back on, but then it took a while for the house to heat up. Sure, you had everything you needed too. We had Wi-Fi. I got to catch up on work. That's awesome. So my son watched all the Avenger movies like he just played over.
It was just like, let's just hang.
So we made.
How did you remember that?
I don't know. I mean, it's funny to people in Indiana because these other states, they get 1/4 of a millimeter of snow and it shuts it down and we're like, Yeah, I'm still going to work.
That's how we are in Nebraska and Colorado. So I think it's funny.
Yeah, we're just not built for that. Our houses are not built for it. The roads aren't.
Yeah, you don't have the infrastructure to carry. Yeah, we have mountains of salt just ready to go.
Yeah, we do.
Yeah.
So did you the roads are clear family to stay.
I did. I told people, hey, the lab has power. If you want to come, like, we'll figure it out.
Do it.
But nobody. Well, nobody wanted to leave the house. My parents didn't want to leave. because they were afraid of pipes bursting. And that was the next problem. once things started to thaw out, a lot of homes had a lot of water problems. I thankfully didn't. My pipes did freeze, but I had the newer, that flexible stuff, whatever it's called. And so mine didn't bust, but there was some houses that did. There was a lot. That was the year of ice, snow, all the things. And then in April, we had softball-sized hail hit my house. And so I had to replace my roof.
Wow.
Jesus, dude.
Texas is interesting.
How was the lab? The lab survived the hail damment.
Yeah. It was in that metal building at the time, and so it didn't, in fact, I don't even think the hail hit there. It's not that much farther from my house, but where the softball-sized hail hit literally was just like in my neighborhood, and it lasted for a little bit.
Wow.
Yeah.
So, Sydney, are you going to her lecture?
Yes. Yeah. Yes, I am.
What time's it at? Is it 2?
It's after lunch.
What are you talking about? Yeah.
The title is, does your lab have an expiration date?
It does. There's a reason why this is a topic.
And our ORG board, we have our Zoom calls once a month. And over the summer, we were talking about class topics. And it was something I had been thinking about. And so I just threw it out. And honestly, hoping someone more qualified would talk about it. And nobody did. And so. You got elected, Yeah, Phil was like, hey, would you want to talk about this? And I'm like, I can, that's fine. And so I agreed to it. But I also agreed to it thinking we would be in our normal rooms that we have. There's these two rooms that we usually are in towards the front, thinking I would be in the smaller of the two rooms where maybe like 20 people can come. Well, the class is happening in a big room over here where there's like 90 seats. And it's like lecture style. It's going to fill up. I'm a little nervous. Not like a stage, but like there's a podium, I'll be down at the bottom. And I don't, Public speaking is not my thing, but he'll do great.
Yeah.
So yeah, we'll see.
Well, it must be if they got you in that room and that bad boy.
Well, I think it was just by default. Yeah. Intentional. So, but I keep telling myself I did have to do, my grandmother passed away in January and so I did her eulogy and so that was public speaking. So this has to be easier than that, right?
If you break down crying during this, we have another issue. Talk about the ORG. How is it? I mean, it's good. Yeah.
This is actually, we broke a record this year with our attendees.
Nice.
Oh, we had, what is it?
That's the orthodontic, what's?
The orthodontic resource group.
Yeah.
And they're here too, right?
Okay. So we partner with the DLOC because we're just not big enough to do our own thing yet, but it's beneficial for both. You know, it helps both.
Because it started with Chris, right? Yes.
So it started as the AOLP. That's when I saw y'all in Chicago. We had a booth in Chicago just kind of spreading the word about it. And then COVID happened and everything changed. And Chris kind of essentially just decided it wasn't what he wanted to do anymore. So Lance took over as president. And then after he was president, I was president for two years. And now Brandon is president from Cottonwood. And then I think Catherine's up next. She's the vice president right now.
And eventually Sydney.
Right.
Yes.
We always need volunteers.
I see that happening.
So, but it's been good. We had a great turnout this year. We had seventy-five attendees, and then in total with speakers and vendors, we're at like 100 and twenty-five or twenty-six, so that's pretty big. That's the most we've ever done, and it's going good.
Just keep growing.
Alley back there is sold out. We sold out all the booths.
What else does the group do other than this meeting?
Not yet. It's something we want to do. It's just in order to do it, you have to have more people and money. Unfortunately, everything costs money, and so we've kind of been working on building up our memberships. just our sponsors and vendors. And then we've talked about eventually we would love to be able to do our own conference and do it in other places, not always just do it in Texas. And so that's the goal. I don't know how long it'll take to get there, but.
That'll be pretty cool.
I think so. But yeah, as a whole, that's kind of the main thing. We've talked about some other stuff just to, you know, have more value to being a member to the ORG, but it just takes work and time. Yeah, of course.
Is it just for Texas or is it country?
It's all over. We've got, I mean, there's people here from all over the United States. We actually have a guy here from Ireland this year.
Wow.
Last year we had a guy from Australia. Just for this? Yeah. That's awesome. I guess. I don't know.
Well, this is one of the only ones.
This is the only orthodontic conference. You know, like you go to these other.
In the world in the United.
Oh, is it in the I was thinking in the United States.
Wow.
These other dental, like Chicago, it's for anybody, but there's not really ortho-specific classes. So we are the only conference that offers ortho-specific stuff.
That's pretty fantastic.
I didn't realize it's the world.
It's pretty cool. Yeah.
I mean, to our knowledge, I don't know of any other groups that have done anything like this.
Sure. Well, it's something to be proud of.
I'm just saying. For sure. It's been really cool to watch and be a part of it.
I would definitely, definitely do. I know, yeah. It's so rewarding giving back to the passion and the profession. And I don't know, Elvis and I, we do a lot of political things and it's just really rewarding. So that would be my recommendation. Go for it.
Yes.
What's your favorite thing to do in ortho?
I would just say the Holly retainers because we'll pour an acrylic specifically because of the designs and I think it's really fun to show your creativity through that aspect of it. But.
When you say that, what do you mean? do you have to draw it out or visualize it?
You can, yeah. Well, I guess you would have to visualize it because it's not like you can really.
So a lot of the big things people pick are like tiger stripes or rainbow or tie-dye. And so you just kind of learn how to do that. And if you. Priscilla that owns JBC, she has her own acrylics and they are the best of the best. And she's at her booth, just sits there and shows you how to do pretty much all the designs in one step. And so a lot of people, back in the day, like if you wanted polka dots, they would do the base color and take it off, drill out a hole and then put it back on the model and fill those with that. Anytime you do that, the fit's going to not be exact. Like stuff gets up under it, whatever.
There's just so much room for error.
Yeah. And then you've got problems with bubbles in those little areas. And so if you use her acrylics, you can do it all in one step. And it's a game changer.
It's yeah, it's pretty cool.
Does anybody ever just want to clear?
They do, and I get so bored. If they pick standard pink or clear, I'm like, come on, let's live a little. No one's going to see this. It's in the palette of your mouth.
Do something funky.
Yeah, See, I used to do a lot of Dallas cowboy designs and we get an American flag every now and then. I enjoy when people pick designs. A lot of lab owners hate it because it takes more time. But I charge for that.
I was going to say it's almost like a tattoo, right? Sort of like a charge.
So yeah, if you're not charging extra for it, I would hate it too. But if you're charging for it, then it's just more money and it's fun.
How do you advertise that? Do you just be like, I'll do whatever you want? Or do you have a chart of I can do this?
There's a color chart. So I use Easy RX. For all of my digital stuff, and on there they've uploaded JVC's color chart, and Priscilla has every color under the sun, and there's glow in the dark, clear colors, glitter, all the things. And so that gets uploaded into the EasyRx account so doctors can pick that. And then I have a physical one that I ship to the offices to show patients. And I tell them, I'm like, if they want to design, if they can come up with it, I can probably do it. They just, you know, you got to be descriptive and tell me what you need.
But at some point you got to be like, I can't do your dog or something.
Well, that's the creative part.
I mean, if you wanted to try, it would take a lot of time. And there are some people, like, especially in other countries, I see some of their videos and it's incredible the stuff that they can do. Yeah, I don't not so much specific like don't send me a picture of your dog and expect me to draw that because I can't do that anyway on paper. So that kind of stuff. But it's more like, I don't know, you can do logos like you can print off little stickers and put them in there or.
I sent her one like a while ago of the it was like a fish in the ocean. I thought it was pretty cool.
Yeah, I've done There was a girl that she used to work for me and she got retainers and her sister had passed away and her sister's favorite flower was a sunflower. And so she was like, is there any way you can do a sunflower? And I'm like, yeah, let me just kind of figure out some stuff. And so I started doing some research and just from going Priscilla and some of the stuff she's talked about, she actually uses nail polish to do like very fine lines. Like there's a spider web. And good nail polish is already FDA approved because you think about it, it's going on your fingers, it's going in your mouth. So it's safe to go, you know. And so I found these nail polish like markers and drew a sunflower in this retainer. And then you just put a layer of clear acrylic on top to seal it.
Interesting.
It took some time, but it was fun.
But you can also just take a picture and embed it in there. You could. Yeah, you could. I bet you that's popular.
It is, but I would rather, I enjoy doing them more.
I was going to say, don't you take a picture and post it.
Yeah.
All your fun art.
Yeah. There's a lot of stuff on Instagram and Facebook. Yeah.
What's the craziest thing you think you've done?
Oh. I would, I mean, the sunflower is probably the most intricate.
Yeah.
I did have a fun, there was a girl that I know that's a hygienist that she was like, whatever you want to do, like free rein. I was like, okay. And so I did her upper retainer. I did like the pastel colors. I did like this tie-dye rainbow background. And because she was a hygienist, she loved like the tooth fairy kind of stuff. So I printed like a tooth fairy logo looking Thing and put it in there and then did clear on top. I thought that was awesome. It was fun. She loved it, didn't she?
I can see how you would enjoy that. Yeah.
Look at this stuff. Like this is the kind.
Of stuff you feel. Oh my, it's like an aquarium.
Yeah. And that's just like an idea that you could do. Yeah. It's fantastic.
How long would it take you to do something like that?
Me, long time.
Tiffany. It takes some time. And you, I mean, you do have to work kind of fast. Thankfully, like if you're using Priscilla's acrylic, you've got good working time. Because with acrylics, you know, you have to get them in a pressure part pretty quick. Otherwise, the porosity is a problem. And so with hers, you have some good working time. Like she actually lets her set up out on a table and there's no bubbles.
How did you find her? Did you meet her at the show?
Yes, but I met her before the first conference I ever came to, which was about 10 years ago, because I started the lab in 2016. And I think I heard about her through Cade's videos. I found Cade's videos on YouTube and he talked about JBC and she's in Texas. And so let's support the Texas businesses. And it's like next day shipping. And so I found her through that, met her at a conference that year. And she's got this little acrylic starter kit. So it's like all these little bottles of every color. And You fell in love. I did. And so my parents loaned me the money to buy the kit so I could get that and get that started. I paid them back eventually, but.
Last week I paid off.
Hey, it still counts.
Yeah, I still pay them off, 20 cents a week. Yeah. But yeah, that's how I came across her stuff. And she's been, she's a pillar in our industry. She's full of knowledge. She owned her own lab.
I would talk to her.
You should. She's really young.
Yeah, everyone has only good things to say about it. I feel like everyone only uses her. I feel like she.
For the most part. And a lot of people, once they switch to her acrylics, they don't go back.
They don't look back.
It doesn't get much better than that.
Yeah. So.
Well, good luck today.
Thanks.
Great to meet you. Good luck as well. Yes, I'll be back.
I'll be back.
I'll be back on the podcast next year.
All right.
When you're first in ORD, ORG. You can come back, talk about the lab you are.
Yes, I hope.
We would love that. Yes, me. Good luck to you.
Yes, thank you.
Great to be a mentor. Thanks, guys.
Yep, right.
Yes, we'll be back with an update next year.
Awesome. Look forward to it.
You're not recording this, right?
No, he's taking this part out.
Oh, yeah, of course.
25 seconds gone.
It's going to be an easy fit. Well, here we are, second day of the DLAT DLAT with Marlin Gone. Welcome back, sir.
I went and grabbed him and I said, you will come.
How's life in Oregon?
Yeah.
Busy.
Busy.
Busy. Yeah. We, the big thing is we're coming out with the new GT, gradient translucency is what it stands for. Mark got that yesterday. Well, it's different. Not only is it blended different, instead of like all zirconia are layers. and the straight lines. This is blended.
Okay, how is it blended?
We've got this new machine that does it. And if you go to Argent.com, we've got a video on that. that shows how it's blended in there. So you don't get those straight lines. I mean, that's one of the things when any of the multi-layered, you'll see lines if you look close at it. These have no lines.
Well, you put a light, he took his phone and he put a light under this beautiful bridge and there were no lines. And there was translucency. You can see the translucency.
Well, that's the thing. Any zirconia on the market, ours included, all incisals are white. You might paint on a little blue shading liquid that gives an illusion. It gives a little illusion of translucency. This is the only one on the market now that has a true translucent incisal. So it's put it up to the shade guide and it matches the shade guide.
How the hell do you find a machine that creates this?
Or did you make it?
I mean, you are Oregon, so did you guys make it or?
No, they, I'm not really sure. I think they bought it in Germany.
Germany is where it's at.
Yeah, I think they were over at IDS and something. They had an idea that met with the company and have it. I'm not.
So are you guys manufacturing it in California or is it really?
All our zirconia is manufactured there. Every bit of it. We've got, you've been there, the Miralani one and we've got Oberlin. Oberlin, we produce all the metal, our implants, and our zirconia discs. That was our original building. Then we've got Miralani, which is production. So the SLM, the metal, and we milled the crowns there.
Are those names you just, are those towns that you mentioned?
Those are streets.
Streets, okay.
In San Diego.
How close are the two buildings?
About 4 miles.
Oh, okay, interesting.
Yeah. So.
Yeah.
So did you guys launch this Zirconia in Chicago?
We showed it in Chicago. They have about 10 shades ready now. I think they're going to release that in certain sizes. it's not like I just got back from China and regulatory.
We're going to talk about that in a minute.
Regulatory is completely different. What was that look?
That was an eye roll.
Super strong.
And a side.
Yeah, no, it's a little bit more relaxed over there. Is it? Really? Yeah.
I would have thought the other.
I would have thought it the other as well.
Anything that you send in there, oh yeah, they want to know how it's made and everything about it.
But once it's there.
Yeah, they're making it there, you know, it's not quite it.
Don't they have an FDA sort of thing in China?
They don't care. A little bit. I mean, I was in one lab that used 70 platforms of implants. 70? That's what they milled. 70 different platforms.
I didn't even realize there were 70.
Now I did. Neither did I. And I asked them, I said, how many platforms do you use? And they said, 70. They had 10 screw machines and a dozen mills. They moved their own screws, tie bases, the size of tie base, whatever that they.
And the lab manufactured it themselves.
Yeah, they were doing just for themselves.
I've heard the labs are amazing, honestly.
Two to 300 bars a day they mill and over 1000 implants.
Wow.
All domestic.
So all staying there is what you're saying? Yeah, they've got a lot of people in, so they need.
To take care of everybody thinks about the work coming over here, but they got to do their own work.
Even with the digital, they still had 360 employees. Their denture department was the size of this room.
And that's just one lab you visited.
That's just one.
Damn. But they are, are they doing printed dentures, milled dentures?
They're doing everything.
Analog.
Both.
Wow.
A lot of analog.
Yeah, really.
Interesting. because it's, the thing you want to make it look natural. So rotating it to do whatever. But they were printing a lot of dentures, a lot of transition dentures. They, one color. Here it is. It was like interesting. Yeah, a little different.
Yeah.
It's been a few years since I've been there since I got back a little over a week, 10 days before they shut the country down for COVID.
The first time.
Yeah. That was the last time I was there.
Wow. Were you the one that brought it over here?
I certainly hope not, because it was 2 1/2 years before I ever caught it.
Same here. Yeah.
That you know of. Yeah, that's right.
Wink, wink, wink.
Yeah, that's right.
So, what is you go over to China for Oregon?
Oh, sure. To do what? Put on programs. I was at the university hospital in Guangzhou that alone had 60 dentists for the presentation along with another 60, 70 labs.
So what do you, labs?
Just go over basically almost the same thing go here. They have, listen, it doesn't matter where you go in the world, they all have the same issues. They're not making up new issues.
Yeah.
You know.
You had a really great point yesterday when we were talking and you were in a lecture and you asked if anybody had teeth that fell out, crowns that fell out. And just what they don't know, that they don't know what they don't know.
That's right. No, I brought that up.
Talk about that.
60 dentists in the room and said, how many have crowns pop out? Should have seen the hands fly out.
Yeah.
You know, and go, would you like to know why? Yeah. I want to know. So I went over, do you try them in? Yeah.
I would hope so.
Make your adjustments? Yeah. All right. Now what do you do from there? Do you just cement them? They're going, yeah. I said, you use a saline solution to clean them. And it's that. What? Deer in the head.
Holy. I thought it came from the lab clean.
Yeah, the mouth, So, but then you go over it. It's like, what cements you're using? Are you using a primer or a bonder?
No idea.
They just don't know it. And I mean, I spent 15 minutes going over different cements and bonders and stuff.
Interesting.
It was.
And they wanted to know why they're popping out.
It's not like you're there talking about Argon.
Well, I talked about our products and stuff. They buy it over there.
Oh, do they?
Oh, yeah. They, you know, not only.
Interesting.
They buy everywhere. They buy high-end stuff because some of the, clientele wants a better zirconia. Now, the Chinese zirconia has come a long way since it came out. I mean, you can look at it and see that. But, the Arga name carries a lot of weight. And so it comes out and showing the difference. It's like the GT. I showed that and.
Blew them away.
Oh, they just wanted it. they wanted it right then. it was like, hey, we got a dealer, here's who you talk to. So that's where it goes.
So Argen doesn't sell direct over there. It goes through a dealer.
We have a division. Well, we got it. No, we've got a representative over there. She actually lives in China and Taiwan. So cool.
So back to the, go ahead.
When you're speaking, is someone translating it?
Oh yes. Yeah. And all the programs I do, I have to give it to them early.
So they can translate it.
Translate it and they'll have one that what I'm doing and you know, and some of them understand the English.
Sure. But that must make what an hour long presentation 2 hours. About that.
Does it throw off your rhythm at all or anything? No, it's kind of, at one time, probably about 10, 12 years ago, I did a program, South China Dental Show, and I had two translators, one in Cantonese and one in Mandarin.
Oh, wow. Yeah, I guess so.
Because there's, I mean, dozens of different dialects over there. So, you know, a mix of this and that. But So I did two, I had two translators. I would say something and had a slide and I'd stand there and look at it. Well, that went on okay for a little bit. And then they started arguing between us.
Oh, no, you're kidding me.
No, it was funny as this.
Well, what about?
Well, you know.
No, that's not how you say it.
That's exactly. And I had another guy that had a lab over there that I knew he was way up in northern China that was sitting in the front. And he's sitting there, he's going, neither one of them.
Right.
And I went, all right. So that hour and a half program took about 3 hours.
That's crazy.
Oh yeah, no, it was different. You know, you may think it's a little different, but They want to learn.
Yeah.
And that's just it.
And everybody should be able to learn, honestly. Right.
Yeah. It's quite a bit different. So, but with our new zirconia showing it over there.
Back to that, I want to know the strength and the specs and the...
It's 12150. Centering time has not changed. OK. The strength is 1250 cervical. down the blend is between 1100 then sisal's 850.
Which is still well above so it's.
Four it's a 4y and 5y yeah so it's a good blend and it's you know you saw that bridge I mean, that bridge is just beautiful. All it had on there was just plain glazed liquid.
So are you placing it to be more of like an anterior high aesthetic or a hybrid?
You can do anything with it.
Yeah, that was a full arch you had yesterday for sure.
You can do singles with it. You know, that was the thing. We did this study and what's the main disc that you buy in your lab? Do you know what size?
What size?
I don't know.
We found that you can do at least 70% of your work with a 12 millimeter disc. Posterior crowns, the majority of what you do.
It's the full arches that you have to angle and stuff, right?
Full arches, you're up in the 20, 25, 30 millimeter. But you can buy 12 millimeter disc and do literally 70% of your work and then it jumps up to like your 16 millimeter disc.
When you say that, what's your point? Is that you only need one disc for 70% of what you're doing or? We buy the wrong size.
You buy the wrong size is what people do and they'll complain about the translucency, the color that they're getting. They got a 10 or 12 millimeter crown and they're milling it out of 20 millimeter disk.
So all of the shading, it's in the wrong place.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Exactly. So it's like, you know, you take it. Should have sold you more, right? So if you got a 12 millimeter crown, you got a 16 millimeter disk. Depending if you nested low, you're going to have very little translucency. Nested high, you're going to have too much translucency.
Probably most labs don't know that.
The majority of labs, now here's the thing. The majority of labs, they'll nest them right in the center. They're going to split the difference. Well, you're splitting the difference, but see, when you got, let's say that you've got a 12 millimeter disk and you got 6 layers. That says all layers are 2 millimeters. All right. So now 2 millimeters. Now you got a 20 millimeter disc. So you got 6 layers.
They're wider.
They're wider. So no matter what you're going to do, it's not going to be right.
Interesting.
So nesting has a lot to do with it. And on top of that, you look at, you're wearing out your birds. It takes more time.
Because you got to get rid of more material.
You got to get rid of all the stuff you're not using. So the time you get done milling, you've overworked your machines, you've overworked the birds, and you paid for something you're not using.
So crazy.
Yeah. I mean.
But AI nesting is going to take care of all this, right?
Well, it's still not going to make your disk right size. It will nest it correctly.
Yeah. correctly would be the right size disk. Interesting.
So that was a.
So how the hell do you teach that? Or do you teach that?
Just what we're doing right now, you just talk about it.
That are using the mills that don't know which size to choose.
Yeah, a lot of people, they figure that they worry about the interior. It's only a posterior crown. posterior crowns are just as important as your anterior crowns. Maybe a lot of labs will use a just a pre-shaded. They wouldn't even bother with multi-layered. They just use a pre-shaded. It's a posterior. Well, how many times you see people smile and they've got amalgam fillings?
Oh yeah.
Or a crown in there that doesn't match. It may not. mean anything at the moment, but you see the difference. The ones that are concerned with the statics, they do care.
And why wouldn't you just take a little extra time to make it that much better?
It's not only it's extra time, it saves you money by using the right size disk.
So is it a good general rule that if... The length of the tooth you're doing, you just want to get it in the closest to that size.
The closest, you know, within two millimeters.
Yeah.
So if you've got a 10 millimeter crown, mill it out of a 12. You're still okay.
Yeah.
But if you've got a 10 millimeter and you're milling it out of 20.
You're wasting.
Yes.
And it's the wrong shade from the get-go.
Yeah, it will not really match.
So interesting.
Damn, am I going to take some information back for Monday?
No one's ever mentioned this.
Yeah, I just made it up.
What you need to do is you need to take a trip back to Knight Dental.
There we go. That'll work for me. I'll go sun fishing with your son.
Yeah, seriously. Because we're using all the organ in our high-end division, and that would be really good for my nester to know.
Yeah, well, on top of that, the last time I was in there, I went ahead and calibrated and.
All the ovens and we've got our **** together.
There's a ton of ovens.
We are calibrating. We are. We're doing really well.
Oh, good.
For sure.
Yeah, well, I purged them and calibrated. I only brought two boxes of calibration and didn't realize, say, yeah, you got 10 ovens. I'm using two to three trays in every room.
Yeah, I've been there.
Yeah, that's cool. But so this, I think this zirconia is one of the better things we've come out with. I mean, I still think our mill gold crowns have been the biggest thing.
Nailing it. People still do a lot of mill gold crowns.
A lot of them.
Yeah. Are there any regions in the US that do more than others? That just sounds odd. I haven't seen this gold crown.
We do quite a bit in Indiana area. We do work with the PA and they do a ton. of full cast posterior implant crowns. It blows, I don't know why, but it's just like they want to one and done it and never see the person again.
That's right. Yeah.
And they're huge.
No, I mean, I always say with the gold crowns, if it takes you more than 5 minutes to finish it, we need to do some setting adjustments because it comes rubber wheel, polish, you're done. You don't have to go through anatomy because it's milled. Yeah.
But you're still SLMing. Is that right? SLM.
Yeah, we're still doing a lot of SLM.
For PFMs, right?
A ton of them. I would not. I tell people.
Again, I'm shaking my head.
You like it? You know, that's fine. I would not do a metal lingual or a metal occlusal in SLM.
Why?
They're built upside down. And so it's rough when they break off the nesting supports. they've got hundreds of nesting supports on this little thing. So you got to finish that down. Well, when you finish down, you're out of occlusion.
Makes a really good point.
Do people do that though?
Oh, yes.
Unfortunately, yes.
I haven't seen a metal rest or a metal occlusion in years.
Oh, no. We see them all the time.
Do you think Argen does every PFM in this country? Because I don't know where else you go with them and who's casting anymore.
China.
Not many go to overseas for it because of all the tariffs and everything they've got now. So that's a lot of stuff to come back here.
I don't think I've talked to many labs that just don't send those off to Oregon to do.
I don't even, we don't even do PFMs.
At all. Or somebody asks.
Very little.
You go, no, go away.
I don't touch that stuff.
Switch it over to Zirconia.
I know our lab sends all of them. Like I said, we do a fair amount.
I don't know why.
Wow.
No, still a lot of PFM. You know, it's a thing. I mean, with PFM, I mean, I've told everybody this before, with zirconia, if you see a spark, you have a crack.
Yeah, for sure.
That's all it is.
Eventually.
Yeah, and they keep growing. PFM is a little bit more forgivable. And what happens is doctors will end up having it that They've had to cut one off.
A zirconia.
Zirconia.
Yeah, they never want to do it again.
They never want to touch it. It's like, oh no.
I have this theory that in like 20, 30 years when we're all replacing these things, everyone's going to be ******. I wish we never did this.
Funny story is I had a cantilever bridge and I had to root split. So I had to get it taken out. And the dentist across the street told the assistant, Get me a couple packs of burrs.
Yeah.
And I went, wait, hold it. I'll be right back. Ran across the street. I grabbed some ultra thins, put them on mandrel and I come back. I said, no, use these. He says, what? I said, trust me, use these. And just little cuts. And he says, okay, cut it. And he goes, thing was, you know, four millimeter connector was cut quick.
Interesting.
Yeah.
They don't spark and they cut quick. And he goes, Why haven't they told us about that? I said, Because they're not lab techs.
So true. touché, man.
That was it. I cut mine off and it was nothing. Interesting.
You made his life easier.
Oh yeah.
Forever. I'll guarantee you he doesn't go back.
No, that's just it. But yeah, that was the thing. It's certain little things that been around for years, still work on zirconia and those ultra thins don't spark.
Interesting.
So you can put three or four of those together and use them to grind. Interesting. There's no sparking.
See how much we've learned.
That's my point. What else you got? What else is Argen doing? You guys just started doing bars, right?
Oh, we do all kinds of bars and anything from thimble bars to, you know, hater to dabble.
Maybe we should ask what you don't do. What doesn't Argen do?
No, we print mill dentures.
You do indentures, I know that.
You do frameworks, right?
We do partial frameworks.
Those are printed.
SLM. And we've got automatic polishers for it.
Sure.
You know, it's everything's...
Do you have like an army of people that fix your mills if they go down?
Oh, they ought to have.
I mean, you've got to have.
A lot of equipment, man. We've got We've got two different ones and one at Overland one in Miralani.
I mean, that's just keeping things.
Just keeping things going. They keep the buildings and everything. Something needs done.
I betcha.
You know, they take care of it. Oh yeah, now that's, you know, we got engineers and everything else. So it's a big company. And you know, you think more you grow, more you need. So, and every time you come out with something, Got to have somebody who supports that.
Anton's still doing good. Family's doing good. Still family owned. I love that. I really think that's important. So cool.
And still only selling to labs.
Yep.
That's huge.
Yep.
Smart.
It is. I mean, and it's a little tough right now because there's a lot of dentists that have a lab.
Yeah, but that's cool, man. As long as you're employing A technician, I'm for it.
Did a great job. We have a thing that has to be independent. I mean, it has to have its own entity.
LLC and everything. Oh, interesting. Yeah.
Cool.
Yeah.
What's that for you guys?
No, that's keep kicking ***. Yeah, they just how they made the business, you know, it's working with labs.
Says a lot that it's still true to this day. So many others don't. yeah. Awesome. Marlin, thank you so much, man.
You're welcome.
Always good to see you.
Send me some zirconia and plan a visit because I'd like to check it out.
All right, we'll talk to Nicole and we'll get down there.
Well, you'll be at FDLA, right?
I don't know if I'm going this year.
I was going to say you could just swing by.
Yeah, we'll see. That's you know, that's like most shows. This one's still doing pretty good, but most shows have. really slowed down quite a bit. I mean, let's face it, used to be you got show specials and you got all your credits when you came to the show. Now you can show specials, get online, talk to your sales rep. I'll hook you up. Yeah, it's not the way it used to be. So FTLA is doing really good. It's always one of the shows I enjoyed, but I think they're going to have the the two sales reps there this year. All right. Well, then we'll do it another month. Well, I'll do it another one. I think, you know, tarpon season starts somewhere around May, June.
Yeah. There you go. When I get back from Mallorca, we're doing it.
There we go.
All right. Thank you. Appreciate you.
Have a good one.
And a huge thanks to Tiffany, Sydney, and Marlin for sitting down with us at the DLAT show. We don't talk to a ton of ortho technicians, that's for sure, but we've got mad respect for what you guys do and we hope for the best for the ORG and what it can do to make the industry better. It's always great to catch up with Marlin and see what Argen is up to as they always seem to be working on the next best thing or the new best thing I should say. And of course, thanks again guys to the board at the DLAT. We cannot wait to come back. We've already been invited back. Thank you very much. Next year, April 1st through the 3rd in an even bigger hotel. So we'll launch that soon.
Bigger and better.
Bigger and better.
All right, everybody. That's all we got for you. And we will talk to you next week.
Happy Memorial Day and thank the people that have Made us free, I should say. Mm-mm. Screw that. And grill some chicken. All right. Grill some chicken. Bye. I'm just chilling. We're watching Survivor 50, and then we're going to relax.
Who the still watches Survivor? Oh, yeah, old people. 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.