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AUDIO - HSP #261 - Pinhas Adar
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VIDEO - HSP #261 - Pinhas Adar
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• What is believable aesthetic dentistry?
• Why we should never be afraid to share information
• And some favorite brands
Master Ceramist Pinhas Adar has over thirty five years of experience in all phases of dental laboratory technology. He has studied with the Masters and did his internship with Willi Geller and has spent these years studying the secrets and principles of Smile Design and the impact of the psychological effects on consumers and has applied this knowledge in his own practice with extraordinary results. He specializes in the many facets of porcelain esthetic restorations on both natural teeth and osseointegrated implants.
The topic of esthetics is very subjective and varies from one person to the next. Mr. Adar has made it his quest to understand the variety of products available in dentistry and particularly the preconceived ideas of the patient before selecting the right treatment options along with the proper product selection that works the best for that particular individual. He has discovered during his own pursuit of fulfillment that having an exuberant passion for, and always seeking to better the field of esthetic dentistry creates a vibrant state that unlocks a consistent peak performance. His strength is to teach and set a new standard in dentistry. He enjoys working with others to achieve an exceptional quality of esthetics and takes pleasure in teaming with others that are seeking the same intense passion thus benefiting from their enthusiasm.
http://www.adar.net
Howard: It is a huge honor today to be interviewing a legend in the crown and bridge ceramic world, Pinhas Adar. I want to read your bio. It's amazing. You're a master ceramist who was born in Russia, studied initially in Tel Aviv, Israel at Ort Yad Shapiro, and then did his internship with Mr. Willi Geller in Zurich Switzerland. He returned to Israel to complete his master's degree in dental technology. He has over 30 years of experience in all phases of dental laboratory technology, specializing in many facets of porcelain aesthetic restorations on both natural teeth and osseointegrated implants.
Mr. Adar has lectured and presented live television programs in the United States, Europe, Israel, the Far East, Australia, as well as a multitude of programs nationally on the multidisciplinary approaches and optimizing aesthetics. He has the unique privilege of working and teaching with many leaders in the field of aesthetic cosmetic dentistry in interdisciplinary settings and many different cultural backgrounds.
He has the distinction of being the first ceramist to address an international meeting of the American College of Prosthodontists. He has contributed chapters and texts on posterior ceramic restorations and porcelain laminate veneers, published by Quintessence Publishing Company. He contributed text to multidisciplinary book the Art of the Smile published by Quintessence, as well as numerous magazine articles. He has produced educational DVDs for the dental industry on different topics entitled, Porcelain Laminate Veneers, Crowns from Vision to Reality, and Trial Smile.
Pinhas, it's an honor for you to be here today with me.
Pinhas: Thank you. It is my pleasure and privilege. Thank you for thinking about me. By the way, how did you get hold of me? I mean, how did you hear about me, or …
Howard: On Dental Town, many people have talked about you. If you went to Dental Town, we have a little search. You know that little magnifying glass search thing?
Pinhas: Yeah.
Howard: If you just type in your name you'll find every time anyone's ever mentioned your name.
Pinhas: Really?
Howard: Yeah. By the way, for our viewers, that little Google search box, when you have a website … We have 4 million posts. That's a …
Pinhas: Wow.
Howard: … $50,000 box from Google that we plugin to our mainframe and … so it's just like Google. It'll search those 4 million posts in, like, .03 seconds or something crazy. Hey, I want to tell you, we're both the same age, even though you look about 10 years younger than me. I must have had some hard Sammy Davis, Junior years to … when I look at how young you look. You and I have really seen a lot of changes in dental laboratories in our lifetime. I mean, when I got out of school, they said there were 14,000 dental labs in the United States. Now they're saying it's only about 6000.
When I got out of school, CEREC 1 was not very good, then CEREC 2, but now CEREC is up to, you know, the numbers range from 8 to 13,000 units in America. Where do you think Crown and Bridge Laboratories is going, because my theory … I want to hear yours. Where do you think Dental Crown and Bridge Laboratory was when you got out of school, where is it now, and where do you think it'll be 10, 20 years?
Pinhas: Howard, you know, my humble beginning, I started when I was 14, so I started a long time ago. I had high mileage, as well. I've seen a lot of stuff. Nothing really changed dramatically from psychological aspect of the dentistry, because those days when I started, people were in fear. The fear at the time was people were afraid to teach other people, so they were hiding their skills, not to share, so they can have job security. Right now, I mean, there's so much information the Web. You can learn anything you want, basically. The things change and progress and technology, obviously, changed our life, but technology shouldn't threaten us to be replaced by them, because we still have a human feelings, human emotions, and that's what really sells.
Technology's great if you capitalize on it. How many people have smartphones, for example? I mean, most, even homeless people, have smartphone. Right? How many people use the smartphone as a smart device? I've seen so many people just get addicted to it and watching the, I don't know, the news or Facebook, or play games. Technology and dentistry, it's the same thing. It can either build you up and create leverage for you, or will destroy you by fear that you're going to be replaced and that's what's happening.
There's two classes. Basically what I think, there will be a fast, productive, like a Walmart of dentistry which is fast, insurance-based, and managed care and laboratories that going to that trap and go after fast and quick and cheap, because how cheap is cheap? You know? I know Glidewell once is the largest lab, I guess, in the world, and he made a video that says that most laboratory technicians will be replaced by machines. I don't really agree with him. What I agree with him that it will create leverage for laboratory businessman who understand business, and use the technology properly. He said that his fees that he charges, $100 maybe today, it will be 50% less in five years from now.
There will be two types of dentistry, one that kind of dentistry, the other one will be fee for service. That part is maybe about 5%. I don't think it's a huge market, but it's a huge market in [inaudible 00:05:50] because lots of things will be replaced. The crowns that you see fast, fast, fast, those things, even now, I see them replaced. I've seen CEREC. It's a great system, as you mentioned. It's growing. It's awesome. It's better than it was when it first came out, like you said, but those restorations, they'll be replaced, even now. What's the problem? Is that a problem only because it's CEREC, or it's a human error, because we still need humans to operate the machines. Right? Dentists have to be capable of doing the artistic part of the human touch. They have to spend the time or train someone to do it.
I don't know if I answered your questions, but it's a global answer I gave you, so hopefully we can break it down and help some people with the answer.
Howard: What you first started talking about was that there's more transparency, that 30 years ago people were … tried to keep it almost like a trade secret.
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: Now there's more transparency. I would say that's true in all nine specialties except for orthodontics. Orthodontists didn't want to communicate on Dental Town like oral surgeons, endodontists, and periodontists did. They wanted their own website, Orthotown, and you can't get on there. I can't even get on there and I'm the owner of the website. You know?
Pinhas: Wow.
Howard: It can only be orthodontists. Most of the specialists realize that they want to share their knowledge with you knowing that you'll do all the simple cases, and then to pay them back when you get the difficult wisdom teeth you can't pull or the difficult root canal, you'll refer to them. All the other patterns I recognize in my half century on earth is that it's a pendulum swinging from right to left. Right? You know, it goes too far to the right, then it goes too far to the left, and back and forth. It seems like all the errors were when people just thought it was a trajectory. Take the stock market from '93 to 2000, and everybody just kept thinking stocks were going to double every couple years. Then it crashed.
I sometimes wonder if the pendulum is starting to come back on CAD/CAM, because I see … You're supposed to be patient focused, and I see some offices where they get a CAD/CAM, and they just think they're not going to use the crown and bridge lab anymore, and then someone will come in with a broken tooth, and they say, "Well, we don't have two and a half hours to do that right now, so we're going to reschedule you." I'm like, "You bought a piece of technology and now you're rescheduling a patient to fit your technology?" I mean, I have a CEREC and sometimes I use it and other times I don't. I mean, it's moderation is the key to everything.
Pinhas: Absolutely.
Howard: Yesterday we did 12 crowns, and only two were CEREC, and 10 went to the lab. I mean, didn't have time to make 12 CEREC crowns, and also multiple units, I mean, I still don't see how CEREC makes sense if you have a person with two, three, four individual crowns in their mouth. I mean, that just doesn't seem logical to me.
I think most business people in the United States have always analyzed the market that half of Americans buy on lowest price, and the other half pay value-added for market differentiation. I think the labs are going to do fine for those people who really want the value added, especially if cosmetics is big.
Pinhas: Absolutely. I mean, you can look at it two ways and so many people call me and say, "Hey, what does your lab work cost?" That's a typical question. How much do you charge, or what is it … My particular answer is always, to the dentist, is, "For you? I don't charge anything. It's zero." Most doctors get shocked. Like, they say, "What do you mean? Do you work for free?" I say, "Absolutely not, but you don't pay nothing, but for your patient, it's a different story." I give them separate estimate because typically when you have fee for service, it's you trade time for money, the skills, the talents, intellectual property. There's lots of things added value that some clinicians may not put value on them.
I want anybody who listens to this to understand one thing, that first of all, it's possible for them to have a different position in this marketplace. The fact that you watch TV and you talk to the negative friends and colleagues doesn't mean you have to be in their situation. It's possible for you to open your mind and reconsider what's possible for you, because I've been doing this for over 36 years, and people told me, "Look, you're crazy. I mean, nobody's going to pay you that much." Absolutely. If you think that way, you're right. You never know what patients' abilities to pay, and I'm not going to say every patient's going to pay for it. Either you can have a cost for great quality, or it can be very costly bad quality. There's a difference between cost and costly, because I've seen so many cases that people spend the money on big cases.
We do lots of implant cases, for example, hybrid, [inaudible 00:10:44]. I know that you did some interview with one of our client and friend, John Heimke about Prettau. There's so many different varieties out there, people selling them from 3000, 2000, and there is a range of 10,000, 20,000, so in a lab fees service, so I had to tell the doctors to say, "Either it's going to be a costly, which is costing you more, or it can cost you something that is going to be great, makes you proud." Where do you want to be? That's the question you have to ask yourself.
Howard: You were born in Russia and lived there until you were nine, so you could probably write a book on the difference between communism and free enterprise, and the thing that is always in error is to see a single market where everybody has the same price, the same car. I mean, Henry Ford, that was his single biggest mistake. He only made one car. It was the Model T, and he sold 10 million of them, but then General Motors came and said, "You know what? We'll do the Chevy, and we'll compete on price against the Model T, but for $100 more there'll be a Pontiac. For $100 more there'll be an Olds. For $100 more there'll be a Buick. For $100 more there'll be a Cadillac."
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: That five price point market segmentation closed down Henry Ford's Model T assembly line, and no one seems to talk about that lesson. They always say, "Henry Ford invented the assembly line," which he did not. General Motors was probably more innovative than Henry Ford, and there's always going to be market segmentation.
I call this Dentistry Encensored, so I like to ask the most uncomfortable questions I can, because that's what humans don't want to talk about. They all want to be nice to each other. Tell me if this hunch is true. I've had many dentists at many bars over the years tell me this, that when dentists sent their impressions to the lab, and the crown came back and it just didn't slightly … it wasn't perfect, they'd send it back.
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: Labs tell me they all have anywhere from … the average is about 6% send backs to redo. Then when they started making their own crowns themselves, and they started CAD/CAMming in their office, they started cementing stuff they would never accept from a lab. Do you agree with that, or do you disagree with that statement?
Pinhas: Humans are creatures of rationalization. Okay?
Howard: They can rationalize anything.
Pinhas: What does it mean rationalize? Let's dissect that word. That means that humans telling themself rational lies, to themself. Basically you create a standard. Let's say if CAD/CAM doesn't provide the quality that you wouldn't accept from a human being, you say, "Well, you know, it's a machine, so it's okay. For a machine it's not bad." It's not bad is bad. Not bad is terrible. You decide what standard you have to live your life, because the way you do things one place, you do things the same way on the other place. It's a habit. If you raise your bar, and the biggest strategy of life, it's not that people cannot aim high and succeed, they actually aim themself goals that are very low, and actually meet those expectations.
With crown and bridge it's the same thing. They create their own standards and say, "Okay, well, that's great. The machine made it. Look at that. I did it fast. It's cheap. I cut down the lab fee." The rationale is telling all this crappy stories to themselves, and they are bad business people thinking that way, for several reasons. One, because it's going to fail, that's one, so you're going to lose confidence, some other doctor's going to see them and say, "Oh, my God, who did that?" You know? They're going to redo that case. For a patient, it's not a good service because they're going to redo it. It's going to cost them more. Right?
You have to think about the patient. Don't think about the machine or what kind of corners you're going to cut, because we are in a business of helping human beings. We are in a business, a people business, so we have to treat people as people, not as a commodity or as a number, or how much money I can make from them. That's a thought process, and it's a mental game, really, but you have to really have your values straight, because if you compromise once, you're going to keep compromising, and then, really, when you go back, go to bed and sleep, you know you didn't do your best. When you feel that way, that's your lifestyle, then you're going to go down the wrong road, because then your self-esteem deteriorates. You're destroying yourself, really.
I mean, okay, you cheat one person. You screw him up. Okay, fine, but then what happens to you? The biggest damage happens in side you. You don't even know. It's a slow process. Twenty years from now you are not going to feel good about yourself. You may have lots of money, but you're not going to be fulfilled, because you did those things. That's my opinion, but …
Howard: Okay, my next most uncomfortable question. You're a handsome, good-looking guy. I mean, you are. You're an attractive man, so … and you do high-end, cosmetic dentistry. Here's a dilemma that many dentists talk about all the time, and that is, when you see girls … I live in America, so mostly American girls. There's nothing natural about their look. I mean, they have fake eyelashes, they have breast implants, they have makeup and, you know, all this crazy stuff, and then when they go into veneers, a lot of dentists are prepping back the veneers and basically they do veneer preps and it's just dentin on 10 teeth.
A lot of dentists tend to say, "Well, you know, everything bonds better to enamel, why aren't we doing minimally prepped veneers and bonding on enamel?" Some of the cosmetic gurus say, "Well, now you're thickening the tooth," and it's like, well, doesn't breast augmentation thicken the breast? Doesn't DermaFill and Botox and, I mean, do you really think on an attractive woman that prepping veneers, staying in the enamel, and thickening the buccolingual distance of the tooth, do you think that's a cosmetic negative, or do you think it works? What would you do if it was your own daughter and she said, "Dad, I want 10 porcelain veneers." How deep would you prep it?
Pinhas: Absolutely. It's a great question, because it's a dilemma. Patients don't know what damage you create in their mouth. They don't know what's the enamel, what's dentin, they don't care. They want to look good. As a professional, it's your responsibility to educate them, not really dictate for them. I mean, you can refuse to treat them. That's one. Somebody else will. You have to educate them in a way that it's three dimensional. What do I mean by that? Let's say we have a case where we can plump out and make it fuller smiler, like you said, without much preparation. In many cases, we can do that, but how are you going to visualize that is basically take a impression … I mean, I don't believe … I mean, computers are great. You can do imaging and stuff. That's a good first step, but if somebody wants to bite, you don't really have to create imaging and stuff. What you want to see, is if it's possible.
The way you do it, you have a steady model where laboratory or the dentist himself waxes up as a smile design, builds it out the way he thinks it should look like, then they would create silicone index of that and then fill up with acrylic and try it in a mouth. It's a process that takes maybe about 5 minutes, 10 minutes at the most, once the wax up is done. Once they try that, then have an idea how those plumped up smile's going to look on her lips, behind the lips, how it functions, how [inaudible 00:18:07] smile. Is it adaptable? Do they like the look, the big look? If that's the case, great. Then you don't have to touch so much teeth and get rid of the enamel. You can actually do prepless or minimal prep.
That's how you evaluate if that's a good prepless case or not, because sometimes if you build it out it'll look ridiculous, and I know some people like big breasts, but big teeth, you know, you have to function with them. You have to talk with them. You know? I've seen people who have uncomfortable teeth sticking out like that, so you have to check that in a temporary stage before you even prep the teeth. Then that will become your mockup or your guide to how much tooth reduction do you need, because quite often you can start prepping it through that mockup and, in some cases, you don't have to touch the tooth, which preserves the enamel.
Howard: You know, every major religion says, "Treat other people like you want to be treated," and I noticed that dentists always do orthodontics and bleaching on their daughters, and that …
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: … so many non-daughters get veneers.
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: If a dentist wanted to talk to you or see your work, how does he [crosstalk 00:19:15] …
Pinhas: By the way, Howard, do you know why they don't do the veneers on their family?
Howard: Why?
Pinhas: Why? Because they don't like the lab work. They use the cheap lab. I'm just kidding.
Howard: How does someone talk to Pinhas himself? How do they get a hold of you? If they wanted to see your work, what … because I noticed you have two websites. You have adar.net and then you have …
Pinhas: Yees.
Howard: … adarsuccessacademy.com.
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: Explain to my viewers the difference between two websites.
Pinhas: Anybody who wants to see, I mean, obviously a website is the easiest way. They can access adar.net, and there's a three basically directions you can go. They're for patients information. They can also access the smile gallery, implant gallery, and they can see the pictures of some cases that we've done, before and after, some of the processes. People, whoever, if it's a consumer or dentist, check our website, they look at what's possible, what we do, but the other thing is, they have to see the value of the difference, because, you know, so many people don't see the difference. It's crazy. That's how I qualify dentists or a patient. I show them different scenarios, different outcomes of different laboratories, and I say, "Hey, do you see a difference?" That's the first questions I tell. I don't explain to them what I do, what I'm capable of. It doesn’t matter. They don't understand anyway. That's my first question. Even the dentists.
The, the next question is, what do you see? That's my question to them. What do you see? I want them to verbalize so they can see and have an emotional connection to what I show them. Then the next question, the third one, is always, what is your preference? Basically I eliminate myself, because most people, when they're talented and they're good and they provide great service, they tend to talk a lot, telling about how great they are, how much they can do, and they say all this detail and everything, and it goes over their patient's head. My communications basically is, "Let's clarify that we see the same thing." I want to connect their heart, because most people live their lives based on the stories they believe about themself. Right? My job as a communicator is really to distract that story, asking the right questions, and then dispute it, create dispute between the stories that they tell themself, and then inspire them to what's possible. That's my process. That's how I know if I can work with somebody, it's the right teammate or not, patient or dentist.
Howard: Then what's on the adarsuccessacademy.com? That's for dentists or lab techs or both?
Pinhas: It's both. It's both. It's actually has more than both. It's also for a public, because me and wife, Debby, who we mentored by Les Brown, he's one of the number one … Are you familiar with Les Brown? Les Brown is a motivational speaker.
Howard: Oh, is he a friend of yours?
Pinhas: He's my mentor, yes, yes. We've been [crosstalk 00:22:10].
Howard: E-mail me, howard@dentaltown.com and e-mail him and introduce us.
Pinhas: Okay, yeah.
Howard: That would be great.
Pinhas: He does motivational speeches, but he also teaches how to speak, how to present, and so we've been mentored by him, and so our effort with Success Academy is to help many different people in different levels, because everybody's stuck in some ways. Some may be successful in one thing, but failure on the other. They may have a good, lots of money, but they're overweight and almost dying. You know? Or they have …
Howard: You were talking about me at that time, right?
Pinhas: No, no, no, no.
Howard: No, no, I can tell.
Pinhas: I haven't seen …
Howard: I can tell.
Pinhas: … your body. I haven't seen your body. No, but, you know what I'm saying? You have to have a several success strategies for different parts of your life, not just one. What we teach is those principles, and the strategies how to get there. For dentists, it's basically on dental topics, and we have communications, a skill sets, mindset, and a toolset, what to do with all the knowledge, because if knowledge was the only thing everybody needs, Howard, you know what? Everybody will be rich, skinny, and happy. Right? But that's not the case, because the information is no longer necessary, because we all have it. It's what you do with the information, how to be more focused, how to not be distracted, especially this time and age. I mean, it's so crazy. We'll get distracted like every three minutes, and it takes about 11 minutes to gain concentration, so we all walking like zombies.
If you look at the airport, you see people walking with their smartphones. They call it smartphones. They're walking like zombies. They don't know where they're going. Anyway, Success Academy has really catered to many different laboratories as far as skill set for dentists, as well, and then the public for relationships and also the …
Howard: It's also the cell phone is one of the fastest rising causes of accidental death. People are texting as they're walking into the street, and they're getting …
Pinhas: Absolutely.
Howard: … zapped by cars. My first failure in life is, I wanted to become a butcher, but I didn't make the cut. Talk about your DVD program. You have Porcelain Laminate Veneers, Crowns from Vision to Reality, Trial Smile, tell me what those are all about.
Pinhas: At one stage in my life, you know, I was traveling. I had, like, 50 hands-on courses a year, 50. I was, like, gone every other weekend, different hotels and teaching skills. What I found that people that come for seminars for hands-on workshops, they go back home and sometimes they use what they learn, sometimes they don't, depends on them, but they forget most of the stuff that they learn on the weekend because life takes over. They're busy in their job, so they don't really implement. What I thought about, well, what about if I create something that is valuable for laboratories, dentists, or assistants that they can actually watch their own time, step-by-step, that can help them to upgrade their skillset. You have to work with the DVD, watch it, and do it, not just watch it. It's not a love story or anything. It's just a skillset.
If you practice and practice, if you do only 0.3% a day, typically you end up being 100% better than you were when you started. So that's was my idea, [crosstalk 00:25:24] …
Howard: What was that, 0.3 …
Pinhas: Percent.
Howard: 0.3 a day?
Pinhas: Yeah, will give you 100% …
Howard: In 300 …
Pinhas: … in one year.
Howard: In 365 days?
Pinhas: Yes, yeah.
Howard: Oh, I love that. I've never heard of that. 0.3% a day …
Pinhas: That's all you need.
Howard: … will give you 100% in a year.
Pinhas: Yep. If you want to be 100% more in a year, just do 0.3% daily, that's it. It's a habit. It's compounds, and it's … That's what I've done. I mean, I'm not a genius. I'm just …
Howard: You know, I … my mission is to help the homies. That's why I started Dental Town in '98. We put up 350 online course, and they've been viewed over a half a million times, because there's 205,000 dentists registered on Dental Town all around the world. I was looking at your DVDs. One thing you might want to do is you could put them on Dental Town and sell them there, too, or …
Pinhas: That'd be awesome.
Howard: … you could put up a teaser. How long are these DVDs?
Pinhas: Some of them are two parts, so it could be like hour and a half, maybe two hours. The Trial Smile, I think, it's about, maybe one hour.
Howard: Yeah, e-mail. I'm Howard Farran, the guy in charge of our online continuing education is Howard Goldstein in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, but if you e-mail him, hogo, H-O-G-O, @farranmedia.com or @ dentaltown.com, you might think about that, because I would love it if a lot more dentists from around the world watched your stuff.
Pinhas: Absolutely, absolutely.
Howard: I want to ask you another uncomfortable question with Dentistry Uncensored. Sometimes when you're in Britain, London, dentists will jab you. I was lecturing at Ireland, and they were saying, "Man, what is it with American women, the whiteness of teeth? I mean, American women just went too white." But, when you drove around the world, there are other countries that are really into super white. Like Jordan comes to mine, and some of the Middle East countries. What countries do you think like that amazingly white, and what countries look at that as, like, "Well, that just looks too fake. I want something more natural. I want something darker tones," or do you see the whole world going to bleach shade whites?
Pinhas: I think it's a mindset switch, because when I first started lecturing on veneers, like 30 years ago, and I was overseas in Europe, for example, Germany, Switzerland, the comments were, like, "Oh, those stupid Americans. They don't know how to do crowns. They do this fake fingernails, I mean, stupid white teeth. You know? Like, all white." Today, actually, one of my mentors, Willi Geller, from Switzerland, he does mostly white teeth, himself. What happened, you know, there were pretty stubborn at the time because they were younger, but now he's about 70-something. He knows aging process is inevitable, so people try to stop the aging process. How do you do it? I mean, it's subjective. How white is white? That's the question. How white is white?
There's translucent white. There's grey white. There's all those 50 shades of white. Right? What's natural, anyway? I mean, as you say, people have makeup. They have hair color, and all the other stuff they do. There's nothing natural. Natural is what you believe in. It's how you see yourself. Our job is not to force or dictate to a consumer what they should have. It's, like, if you want to have a white car and you go to a dealership and say, "Hey, Howard, I think you should go with the black car. You know? It looks more natural." Like, I mean, it's your car. You get what you want. Right? You want white, you get white. There is a variation of white.
What gave a bad name to white teeth is when it's artificial looking, and there's more happening now with all those implant cases with the zirconia, because zirconia is very reflective. Even dark shades they reflect, because it doesn't … it's a very bright product. With that you'll see one of the patients, the way I know that, because when they've done this Prettau bridge, for example, it looks horrible, and she couldn't even smile. She was embarrassed. I asked her, "So how do you feel about it?" She said, "Well, you know, I'll tell you, I didn't really like it, but I was embarrassed. It didn't look like teeth. It was really bright."
When we redid that Prettau and we gave her some little layering and more natural white, I asked her, "So how do you feel about the new set?" I mean, and she said a word that I like. She said, "Now it's a believable white." See? Believable white versus … She called the other one, she said, "Runway white," runway like a flashlight. You know, it was so bright. I mean, that's the thing, I was listening to my patient and she mentioned that that's how she described … There is no right or wrong. I mean …
Howard: Okay, I'm going to …
Pinhas: … it's subjective.
Howard: … ask you another uncomfortable question. We're talking about just high-end aesthetic people, you know, I'm thinking women. Maybe that's a bias I have because I'm a man, but when you're thinking about a high-end aesthetic end to your case, all the data I read is about 85% of the anterior crowns are made out of EMax. If you were trying to do a really high-end aesthetic case, would you do old fashioned feldspathic stacked porcelain, or would you do EMax? Can you really get a really high-end restoration by milling a monochromatic block?
Pinhas: I mean, we have a ways and strategies to do … what to do with monolithic, and if you look at our website you'll see some of the monolithic stuff we do and [crosstalk 00:30:51] …
Howard: Which website would that be, adar.net?
Pinhas: Yeah, and it's the smile gallery or Prettau implant gallery. You can check it out. We have a certain things. You have work harder, the monolithic, to look really natural. It's harder to do that, but it's possible, and it's … picture somebody, and the results don't lie. Right? To me, I think, I still prefer to have a minimal layering on nonfunctional areas. For example, on EMax or zirconia, we have a little cutback on the buckle, on the … like a window cutback where we layer ceramic and create an illusion of more depth, so it has a little bit more [inaudible 00:31:29] to lighting. It looks more natural, more deep, not just monochromatic. [Crosstalk 00:31:33] …
Howard: That would be feldspathic stacked porcelain?
Pinahs: It's actually …
Howard: Or …
Pinhas: … a EMax ceramic. It has to be compatible with, you know …
Howard: Okay, so it's …
Pinhas: … basically EMax.
Howard: … EMax?
Pinhas: It's not feldspathic. Yeah.
Howard: Okay.
Pinhas: If you play to feldspathic ceramic on EMax, it's going to crack, so you have to have their own coefficient and expansion so it fits with the EMax. There are several companies who have ceramic [crosstalk 00:31:52].
Howard: But if someone was just going to have just 10 upper veneers, would you rather go stacked porcelain, or would you rather do CAD/CAM?
Pinhas: The way I categorize my decision making, because I do all of them, if I have too much reduction, let's say it's 0.5 or 0.6, it's very thin, what I would do if it's naturalness is very key for the patient … because I ask them, I will create a trial veneer. Sometimes I create trial veneers for shade selection for them, just to make sure that we can go a different direction, because you can have a, let's say, a bleached shade go artificial or believable, whatever you want, so I'll show them, before we even do it, so they select. A thin space I prefer. If it's natural, I'll do feldspathic because I can layer all the layers from the base out.
Now, if somebody's a grinder and, you know, we don't have much space, the teeth color is fine underneath, so the substructure looks fine, then I will do EMax, because it's stronger. Even though it's monolithic, I use, maybe, MT shades, basically, or HD, or something more translucent [ingots 00:32:59], and I do thin veneers, and that's fine too, but it's stronger than feldspathic. If I have lots of space, lots of room, and we can create volume and build it out or the teeth prepped quite a lot, and we have minimal thickness, I will go definitely EMax, because it's stronger, or it fits great, and it can always go back in the oven, because one of the problems with feldspathic ceramic or veneer, is once you try them in the mouth, you don't like it, you cannot go back in the oven to modify it. You cannot add ceramic to it, unless it's low fusing, so it's just harder to manage that. With EMax it's easier.
Howard: When I was little and we went on vacation, we'd all … me and my five sisters would pile into dad's and mom's station wagon and he liked to go to amusement parks like Six Flags or Disneyland, but he always liked to go to places where they made stuff. We went to Coors and watched them make the glass bottles, the beer. We went to a car company, everything, I, kind of, picked that up, and I remember taking my kids, way back in the day, it was to Bob Ipsen's place, DenMat, and I was surprised, when they were making the porcelain, they actually had these big dryers and they'd throw these boulders in there, and these boulders were just spitting all day long, and the dust was the feldspathic porcelain.
Pinhas: Yep, yep.
Howard: Is that still how it's made?
Pinhas: Yep, that's how it's made. They grind it. They mix it up. They put the pigments in there. Yep, that's how it's done.
Howard: And these guys would fly to quarries all over Mexico and America, looking for specific rocks and …
Pinhas: Yep.
Howard: I mean, that was just, what a …. That was just crazy.
Pinhas: It's fascinating. Yep, yep.
Howard: I think in your lifetime the biggest change you saw was the collapse of the PFM. What percent of the crowns you made in 1980 were PFM and what percent of them are now, in 2015, PFM?
Pinhas: Yeah.
Howard: What would you say?
Pinhas: I would say today I haven't done PFM for almost 20 years.
Howard: Oh, my, so you were always ahead of the times?
Pinhas: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, 20 years I've … I mean, I like PFM. I've done it. I was good at it, but so many challenges, time consumption, I mean, right now it's the easiest time because we have CAD/CAM which does a great job with fit and milling and leveraging human capacity, basically, because they can do faster and accurate, but then we have trained partners and employees that do amazing job the way we trained them to give the human touch. We have a both world, but we can do it more of it, so it's more … We offer, like, a different price point, so it's more affordable now. You know?
Howard: Okay, you're talking to several thousand dentists right now, and I want all the dentists to listen closely to what you say, because this is a very important question. You're on the other side. You know? We send you the impression. Would you, as an artist, would you rather have a polyvinyl siloxane, polyethyl impregum impression, or would you rather have an oral scan e-mailed to you, because there's oral scanners out there now, and a lot of dentists are saying, "I can't tell if this is bleeding edge technology or a leading edge technology, and just because it might work for my end, how is those oral scanning impressions working at your end, and in your heart, what would you rather play with, a digital deal or an old fashioned analog material impression?"
Pinhas: I think if it's only single units, I think digital is fine. You don't even need to have a model. I mean, I think with technology we can get an tweak the strategies so it's [inaudible 00:36:35], because you try several times and you'll see how it goes, because you have to tweak some strategies in the computer, make sure the fit is the same way that the doctor likes, or whatever. You do that, single units, no problem. You don't need a digital scan.
We can execute a crown without even a model. That's one. But if you have multiple units and you have contact points, and all the other stuff in multiple [inaudible 00:36:57], I would rather have either a digital impression where we can print the models so we can check it, because we have to work something. Then if you have a big arch cases, I definitely prefer to have a model so we can articulate and look at the different things and work on something that's solid and double check it, before it goes to the mouth.
Howard: What oral scanning impression systems do you think are there today? What are your favorites, name brands?
Pinhas: I mean, iTero still does a great job. I think lots of people use that. Lots of oral surgeons have iTero because they can even take like implant impressions, same day, when they place the implants, and send it to the lab, and then two weeks later they have a temporary made.
Howard: That's owned by Danaher?
Pinhas: iTero? I believe so, I'm not sure. I know …
Howard: Is …
Pinhas: … it's a Israeli company.
Howard: Is it in Israel, iTero?
Pinhas: ITero is Israeli. They started from there, yes. It's [crosstalk 00:37:55].
Howard: Are they in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv?
Pinhas: I think it's near Tel Aviv. Near Tel Aviv, yeah.
Howard: You like iTero, and do you know …
Pinhas: iTero's good.
Howard: … about how much that costs?
Pinhas: I think the price has come down, maybe 20-something thousand.
Howard: [Crosstalk 00:38:07]?
Pinhas: Yeah, 20 plus.
Howard: What other systems do you think are there today?
Pinhas: You need to look at if it's a closed system or open system, because I think a CEREC is a closed system, and they have … there are ways to upload the files and so on. You have to have a CERED user to be on a database to get the files. I would say if somebody wants to use digital, to consider the openness of the system. I think that's important for me, because otherwise you're stuck with one product in certain labs.
Howard: Dentists like black and white, yes, no, up, down, left, right. Exactly where from a single unit to a multiple unit would you, like, full arch, upper and lower and prices. I mean, is it two units, is it three, is it a bridge? What …
Pinhas: I think, more than one unit, to me I would like to have impression.
Howard: Full arch? Two units?
Pinhas: We do lots of quadrants. If you're good at quadrants, it works for you, great. I prefer full arches. The reason is, because if you try to modify something, let's say a premolar is a lingually inclined. You don't know that, what the other side looks like, so you need to have a both side to, kind of, compare, and then you can be more smart. Are you building it out or pulling it in, what the other side looks like, so you need to see where the other players, your teeth, look like, before you do even two units. I mean, that's to me, but some people don't care. It just …
Howard: Exactly what impression [inaudible 00:39:35]? I'm an old guy. I'm 53. I've been on polyether. I've been on impregum, which is 3M, because they bought SP. Do you like the polyether impregums, or do you prefer the polyvinyl siloxanes? What do you like to work with?
Pinhas: We have both type of clients that use either. What I tell my clients, typically, is use whatever is good in your hands, because what happens is, if you're uncomfortable with the product, you're going to have more pulls, more bubbles, more … You don't know how to manipulate the product, don't switch, unless you have a problem. I'll tell clients, don't switch. If it works, don't change. Now if you have a digital option, you can do both. You can do one impression the way you normally do, and the one digital, and then we have both. We can expedite the process. We can start scanning, start designing, milling, everything else. By that time, the crown is ready. The model will be ready and can double check on it. I like that. That's me, but …
Howard: That's really, has to be the answer, because in Japan, they take alginate 10 times more serious than we do. They keep it refrigerated. They have really high grade alginates, and some of those guys do beautiful crown and bridge work with alginate. Is that true or false?
Pinhas: True, that's true. Yes. Alginate is a great material for impressioning, but you have to be respectful about the properties and temperatures, moist, mixtures, all the other stuff.
Howard: Americans really never got into the culture. Like if I go in a dental office, 9 times out of10 the alginate's stored in a closet. It's like, you go to Japan, it would always be refrigerated. You know?
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: It's far more serious. Some people still just put a scoop of alginate in there, then add water under a sink. I mean, they're not even measuring it. In Japan it would be … the temperature would be controlled, the water … and they pay for high-end grade. I want to ask you another uncomfortable question. When you go to lectures and you see the fancy prosthodontics lecture, it seems like they're always doing face-bows and articulators, but the people in the audience, a lot of them will groan, "I don't even know where my face-bow is. I have an articulator from dental school. I don't use it." Talk about, when is standard of care a face-bow transfer and a semi-adjustable articulator, or et cetera, and when is it just overkill?
Pinhas: I think …
Howard: [Crosstalk 00:41:58].
Pinhas: … there's a place for everything, but going back to the lecturing and other parts, I mean, typically … I've been lecturing for many years and I know most of the speakers out there, and I know what their real dentistry's like versus the staged dentistry for show. There is a two realities, and that's what I …
Howard: That's a …
Pinhas: … tell my …
Howard: … big reality difference, isn't it?
Pinhas: Yeah, yeah. I tell my audience always, I said, "Guys, you know, this sounds great, but is it real or is it just for you guys to show what's possible?" I mean, it's nothing wrong with it. I mean, if you showed them what's possible and then you tell them that, "Hey, the way I do it in my office, this is this way, and it works." Because lecturing has become a business. You know? People make money. I mean, that's what you charge for lecturing, and they have to show their best stuff. They don't pay you to show bad stuff. Right? The audience need to be, not intimidated, so they have to ask questions, engage with the speaker, say, "Hey what do you do on daily basis?" Because if you visit some of the clinicians that they do daily, it's completely different. I'm just telling you now.
Howard: Oh, I know. I know. You and I both know that. Some of them have been showing the dame case, on stage, for 25 years.
Pinhas: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes, yes.
Howard: I think podcasts are so … have exploded so big because they're multitasking. Right now they're all driving to work. That's why we do an hour, because our market …
Pinhas: That sounds …
Howard: … research says, "I got an hour commute." Tell these thousands of individual dentists, when do you need a face-bow transfer and send it to you, full arch impressions, on a semi-adjustable articulator, and … or when would you want that?
Pinhas: I think it's a case that's more complex, people who we open verticals, they have a joint problems and so on. I mean, we have to be careful when we open the bite, so face-bow may be a good suggestion for those kind of cases so we can plan the case, open the bite properly, mount them properly in articulation. To me what was the biggest and easiest way to transfer information is, digital photos, a lot of stick bites, you know, with the midline, with the eyes parallel to the floor with the stick bite. It's simple, it's easy, and that way you don't have a [inaudible 00:44:14] and a midline. I mean, this is for cosmetic reasons, but if it's a functional reasons, face-bow, I think it helps.
You manipulate the jaw. You open. You have devices in the meantime to open the vertical, and then you transfer that to wax up so you can mount them in the right articulation. There's so many different articulation that are good, you know, SAM, Panadent, and Artex, and there's so many of them. Each doctor has their own, so you just have to make sure the lab knows how to use it, too.
Howard: Remember, 95% of our views on the podcast are sound only, and my job is to estimate what questions someone might have just heard. Explain the stick bite one more time in detail, because you were showing me a lot of facial things that they didn't see, because they're just hearing. Explain the stick bite again in detail for a sound only dentist.
Pinhas: Okay. For sound doctors, basically stick bite is a bite registration where the patient bites. Then you take a little stick, a wood stick or any stick that you have, and then you position, before the materials sets in their lips and their mouth, and look at their eye levels, and kind of parallel that to their eye level so it's not [inaudible 00:45:23]. Then take a picture of that face, make sure you have a release from the patient, obviously, before because of HIPAA. Take a picture of that and send that to the lab so they can see the patient's face, how the stick bite relates to their eyes. When they do the incisal [inaudible 00:45:38], the midline, they can relates to something that they see in a picture. That's to me was a biggest and the easiest.
Howard: For you, Pinhas, if you got 100 cases coming in that were a full mouth, complex reconstruction, what percent of those would have … the doctor would have sent a face-bow?
Pinhas: I would say today I have probably 50/50. I would say …
Howard: So half?
Pinhas: Yes, half.
Howard: Half would send …
Pinhas: Yep, yep.
Howard: Are those more likely to be prosthodontists?
Pinhas: They're prosthodontists. Some of them are not. They actually go to Kois training programs and they learn those things with their articulating systems. Some will go to Spear. There's different class of dentist, and occlusion, it's like a cult, if you didn't notice. Right? I mean, there is this occlusion philosophy and that occlusion, and there is a newer [mascular 00:46:30]. I mean, there's so many. If you put them all together and start arguing, it's going to be a war.
Howard: Let's talk about that, because when you and I … I want you to go into this after the occlusion. I want you to go into … take us to schooling, take these dentists, take us to the wood chipper and give us a spanking on how much reduction we don't give you, how much you need. That'll be my next questions, but I want to stay with the occlusions since you opened the box.
I have always thought, since the first day of dental school in 1984, that occlusion is more like voodoo and religion. I mean, when we talk about reduction, there's science for that. You can say, "Okay, for this material I need a millimeter. For this material I need a millimeter and a half," but when you talk about occlusion and you say, "Well, show me your data. Show me stuff published. Show me facts and gravity and math," there's not a lot. The arguments on Dental Town about occlusion are literally bat shit crazy. I have a bias against all the occlusion CAM set. You're probably all a little bit crazy, and you probably all don't have a lot of science to stand on. Do you agree or disagree with that statement?
Pinhas: I agree. I think there is a lot to it, but again, what you believe in, that's what you're going to do. Right? I mean …
Howard: Because when you chew, your teeth never even touch. There's a bolus of food in-between your teeth. Then some of the occlusion people, you can tell they've never done one single case of orthodontics because, I mean, look at orthodontists, the orthodontists blow out the Curve of Spee, the Curve of Wilson. They flatten everything out. They pull teeth. These kids go onto lead normal lives their whole life. I don't know. I probably …
Pinhas: Yeah, it's …
Howard: I probably just got a lot of people to delete the Howard … my podcast. They said, "Oh, my God, blasphemy." It is crazy.
Pinhas: It's the same thing we talked about white teeth, big teeth, you know, how white is white, how big … what occlusion is right? I mean, I don't know. It's subjective, I guess. Everybody has their own belief system, and you can argue with it. You know? You can argue about it. I just don't waste time. I just listen to them and I learn from both sides.
Howard: I want to capitalize on you, the other end of this impression. If you kicked over a bottle and a genie popped out and you said, "I have three wishes for my incoming impression," what would it be? Would it be not enough reduction, more reduction? Tell us what we should work on and think about so that when we send you impressions, you can do a better job?
Pinhas: I think it's not more reduction or less reduction, it's a proper reduction at the right places. See? That's a different. Because I've had so many doctor prep a lot of to structure, but in the wrong place. When it matters, it's very little. You have to have the vision of the outcome. Basically you have to have a vision of the final product. Once you have that, you reduce the tooth according to that outcome, not what you think or hope the outcome's going to be. That's why the wax-up or planning the case is so important, because in some areas, you may not need to prep the tooth because you're building it out so much. Some areas you have to prep much more. That's what I believe every dentist should learn, to create a vision first.
If it's single tooth or multiple teeth, doesn't matter. You have to know, if you're building the tooth out, don't prep the buckle as much. Right? Makes sense? That's the only thing. You can go based on one principle and then we need about a millimeter to one and a half millimeter. It depends on the product that you're using. Typically one and a half is good, but now if you have dark teeth, sometimes we have to block it out different ways. There's many tricks we can use, either we'll take the prep tooth, you can internal bleach. You can do lots of different things to the tooth before you send it out, make sure you can block out the darkness, or use different product as a restoration choice. Don't use translucent product because what happens to many people, if you don't show the lab the tooth preparation, and they use, let's say, EMax that is translucent, then that darkness will show and shine through, and then the patient will have a grey tooth.
You have to be careful. The laboratory needs to know what the structure looks like, so send them a photo of a shade top or a stump shade, so they are on the same page. If they detect there is a problem, they're going to call you and say, "Hey, doc, I cannot do EMax. Is that okay if I use Zirconia?" Because you cannot switch product for the dentist. You have to make sure they know you're going to switch it from the EMax. If they prescribe EMax, give them Zirconia, although it's going to look the same, it's a different product, so make sure you know.
Howard: A lot of dentists have a lot of simple rules of thumb. A lot of dentists are saying, "You need Zorconia on molars, and then you use EMax on second bicuspid forward," and they call it, maybe, an aesthetic health compromise. Do you think Zirconia, did you agree that molars should be Zirconia and bicuspid forward EMax, or do you … I mean, can you do EMax on a first molar?
Pinhas: Oh, yeah. I mean, I've done EMax on first molar. If you have enough reduction and the patient doesn't have habit of grinding, that should be no problem, but typically that's exactly the case. I mean, lots of people prescribe molars Zirconia, sometimes monolithic because it's stronger. They've been doing it so long. Sometimes we do minimal layering on nonfunctional areas for the aesthetic on the buckle. That's about it. Blending EMax to Zirconia, that's the tricky part, because EMax has more depth, more translucency, and Zirconia has more reflective. It looks more brighter. No matter what shade, it is brighter. You have to know how to [crosstalk 00:52:10].
Howard: If you were doing a full mouth and you were doing EMax second bicuspid forward, you wouldn't mind EMax on the molar if they weren't a brux or a grinder, if they didn't have a lot of occlusal …
Pinhas: Yeah.
Howard: … and problems, you would just EMax the whole case?
Pinhas: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Howard: What would you cement that with?
Pinhas: Typically a dual cement, something that you can bond either light and soft curing so it's … Ivoclar has nice composites. 3M has a nice composite. I think Bisco has it. There are different products. I mean, and again, that's the question of, doctors say, "Oh, what should I use? What product?" Use whatever product works for you.
Howard: You think that's a lot of Zirconia's appeal is that you don't have to bond it on, you can just cement it? Do you think that's a big part of the appeal of BruxZir? Do you think dentists are in love with it because it's actually that much significantly stronger than EMax, or that they can just cement it? I mean, obviously from our end it's a lot easier to cement a crown …
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: … than to bond it.
Pinhas: Yes. Cementing in it's probably number one reason, because nobody likes to do bonding, do cement. I think Fuji, SAM, GC has a product that … it's a composite type of material for cementation. It's a self-curing. I mean, it sets by itself. That's easy to clean and you can use … I mean, I know, EMax doesn't recommend to use that, but I've done some, and some doctors of mine have done it. It's in my mouth, as well. It's still in the mouth, so …
Howard: GC, when you talk about GC, it stands for General Chemical, and they're out of Japan …
Pinhas: Yes, [crosstalk 00:53:44].
Howard: … and the North American subsidiary is GCC, General Chemical Company. They're based out of Chicago. You're in Atlanta. Are most of your … That's a big city. By the way, I was wondering, is Phoenix and Atlanta about the same size? I mean, because I just flew over to … I was in Greater New York. I came home via Atlanta, and I was looking out that window. Man, that is a big town.
Pinhas: Yeah, it is.
Howard: Are most of your dentists' clients in the Atlanta-Metro area?
Pinhas: No, no. I mean, Atlanta have a very unique relationship with … I mentor lots of clients of mine, because dentists need other needs beside the skillset. They need the mental mindset, mental toughness, basically. I train them with that. I have clients all over the U.S. and Europe, Israel, overseas. Communication is so easy today with Skype, digital transferring of data, iPhone, videos, and so on. I mean, it's much easier. I have clients all over the place.
Howard: You said Atlanta you had a special relationship with what?
Pinhas: Because I have some clients that ask me to mentor them, to be more profitable, more effective with their patients, with skills of communication, so I took some challenge on myself this year and went after a few clients, and I say, "Okay, I'll be onboard if you're onboard." I have to interview them before, make sure that they're the right client, because some people want to change, but they don't want to do nothing about it, so I have to see their commitment, exactly what their objectives are, and then the whole team, I train all the whole team, not just the dentists, because dentists without the team, it's not a success. You have to be on the same path.
Howard: Are those mostly Atlanta Metro dental offices, or …
Pinhas: Yes, yes.
Howard: Yeah?
Pinhas: Because I cannot travel to do that for now, because I'm so busy with my lab, and we're scaling, but with mentorship here in Atlanta, it works. It's great.
Howard: Man, I cannot tell you how much I wish you would make an online CE course about that on Dental Town. I mean, you'd have people watching it from here to Kathmandu. I mean, it's such a huge distribution, 205,000 dentists. Think about it. Maybe sometime you do that you'll film one of them or …
Pinha: Yeah, definitely. I'll definitely love to do that. Yep.
Howard: What if a dentist, besides going to adar.net or adarsuccessacademy.com, can they e-mail you? Can they phone call you? Do you …
Pinhas: Absolutely, yes.
Howard: What is your e-mail? I see you have two.
Pinhas: Yes. There are two. My personal one, it's my first and last name, P-I-N-H-A-S-A-D-A-R @ mac.com (pinhasadar@mac.com), and the company e-mail is, adar, A-D-A-R, .net.
Howard: What would be the e-mail be to adar.net, just info@adar.net?
Pinhas: Info, yeah. Info, yeah.
Howard: Info@adar.net?
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: What about my homies listening to you in Georgia? Tell them about where are you at in Georgia? I mean, where …
Pinhas: I'm in Marietta, Atlanta. My headquarter is actually in Atlanta, but I have a home office and I have other collaborative relationship with other labs that I train, so we have grown our business based on collaboration with other existing labs. I trained them for over 30 years and we're partnered that way.
Howard: What would you say … I only got you for three more minutes, so I have lots of young kids, and a lot of them are thinking about wanting to go into the lab business. What would you tell a young kid today who is 20 years old who said, "I'm going to start my own lab." What would you tell them? Do you think that's a future if he were 20, that he could start a crown and bridge lab and do that until he was 70 years old?
Pinhas: I mean I think it's a great business. I believe anybody can succeed, but you have to have certain qualities, and if you're 20 years old and you don't know much about the lab business, I think it's better to learn from somebody who does, so get mentor. I think everybody needs a mentor. I mean, I have my mentors. I have many different mentors that helped me to be who I'm going to become. If you want to go somewhere, just learn from somebody who's done it, not somebody who talks about. Second part I would say, you have to ask yourself, why do you want it? Because when things get tough, you may quit. Just make sure you want it bad enough. You have to be hungry. You just have to be hungry. It is possible, but you have to be really [crosstalk 00:58:07].
Howard: Then my last question, I only have two minutes left with you, man, isn't the dental laboratory training so different in Germany than it is in America? As an American, I have to tip my hat to Germany. I think the Germans do it better. Is that right or wrong? Do you agree or disagree?
Pinhas: Yes, definitely the Germans have the best master schools where they train the technician, not just about cosmetics or white teeth or ceramics, they train them on technology, all the process, all the aspects of dentistry, not just one particular ceramist or crown and bridge. It's dentures, bars, interlocks, veneers, function, occlusion, everything, so it's very comprehensive. That's why they call them masters.
Howard: Not to overgeneralize, but is it safe to say a dental laboratory technician in Germany could be described by a Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, and an American-trained dental laboratory technician would be best described as Chevy, Pontiac, Chrysler?
Pinhas: Not really. I don't think so, but you know, the fact that you're good mechanically, it doesn't make you a good … the best ceramist or the best aesthetic eye, because you may be good in function, but you may not be the best ceramist because you are not artist. Mechanics you can teach people, and that's what CAD/CAM does, too. CAD/CAM is mechanical. It's a machine. It's a automated machines that do a great job, almost like Germans do, right, without the humans. No, I don't think that's what you need. I think what you need to do to succeed in this business, if you want to be really outstanding, is to be in a people business. Understand people's minds, their heart, and deal with their heart, emotions, because, as you know in sales, it's not about what you know, what you say, it's like how much you care. Right? You have to connect with people, and help them with their problem.
I call myself … Somebody asked me, "What's your title?" I said, "Well, I'm a PPS." PPS is a professional problem solver. That's what I am. I'm not lab. I'm in people business. I help people to get what they want with whatever they're [inaudible 01:00:16]. [Crosstalk 01:00:17].
Howard: I am out of time, and I'll tell you what, I think it would be so cool to be running into a dentist five years from now and saying, "Dude, you were the one who turned me into Pinhas Adar." I mean …
Pinhas: Awesome.
Howard: … I think you're an amazing man. I hope you get some of your videos up on Dental Town just so that more people get to know you. You're a legend and you're amazing, and thank you so much for spending an hour with me today.
Pinhas: Awesome. Take care [inaudible 01:00:41] and all the best. Hopefully we'll meet again person-to person. All right? Thank you so much.
Howard: I just flew over your house Sunday coming back from …
Pinhas: Why don't you stop by …
Howard: I was up there …
Pinhas: … for dinner?
Howard: … waving at you.
Pinhas: I didn't see you. I was in Israel.
Howard: Oh, really? Okay. Have a great day, buddy.
Pinhas: Thank you. Send me that information about your Web guys so I can send them and then we can do some DVDs on your site, as well.
Howard: I will. Absolutely. His name's …
Pinhas: Awesome.
Howard: … Howard Goldstein. He lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and yeah, I would … Dentists, it was Zig Ziegler who said, you know, "Humans need deodorant and motivation every day." You need …
Pinhas: Yes, absolutely.
Howard: … it every day. Many careers are tough, but dentistry's a tough career, and dentist always need … They need technical information, but they need inspiration. That's why I do my show daily. I do it seven days a week, 365 days a year, because I'm always thinking …
Pinhas: That's amazing.
Howard: … if they can just listen to something, they're free. If they can listen to something and just get a little fired up about anything, that just helps them turn life into a long, successful marathon instead of little short term sprints, then stop, then a little sprint, then a jog. I like to get amazing people like you. In fact, if any of your mentors, if someone could be a mentor of yours, I want a podcast him too, because I think dentists need a dose of daily inspiration to pump them out to get through the day.
Pinhas: If you'd like we can do a program on that if you like, and then you can tape it and then your viewers actually can listen to it. The strategies and techniques you can do to work on yourself daily before you get to see your patients, how to mentally prepare yourself, how to be more resilient, more compassionate, because those are the keys to success. It's not the machines you buy, it's how you think, and how you …
Howard: Absolutely.
Pinhas: It's amazing. We can do another show like that if you like, so think …
Howard: Absolutely.
Pinhas: … about that.
Howard: No.
Pinhas: Yes.
Howard: When you're ready, you let me know.
Pinhas: I'm ready any time.
Howard: All right, buddy. Set it up, Brian. Thank you so much.
Pinhas: Thank you so much.
Howard: Bye.
Pinhas: Bye.