Good morning and welcome back to the Dental Lab Podcast. I'm Bob Brandon, the general manager here at Keating Dental Lab, and today we are honored to have Dr. Josh Wyatt from South Tampa Dentistry. Dr. Wyatt, good morning.
Hey, good morning, Bob. How.
We're rolling right along here. We're super busy and couldn't be happier.
How about.
Oh, the same. You got that end of the year rush people using their insurer, and so we're we're slammed as well. So hopefully it continues and I know it will. And then insurance starts over, and January is always a busy month, so I don't see it slowing down.
That's right. It's it's a great trend and we're just so thankful to have an awesome client like you. It really means the world to us. You're all the way out in Tampa, Florida, and we're out here in Southern California. And man, your trust And the way that you do business, the way that you run your office is just extraordinary.
Why don't you tell us your story? Start with, where you went to college and dental school and when you graduated.
Yeah. So going back to that trust thing, by the way, that goes both ways, man. Like you guys have been wonderful for me. So it's not one sided by any means. Like you guys take care of me and do fantastic work. So I'm glad we found you and the relationship we have is much appreciated.
I went to University of Alabama for undergrad. Grew up in Arkansas. Arkansas doesn't have a dental school, so I ended up in Pittsburgh and graduated in oh nine. Moved down to Tampa, just sound Tampa. Sounded cool. Didn't wanna go back to Arkansas. Didn't wanna stay in Pittsburgh. It was too cold.
So picked Tampa. Worked at Coast Dental and then worked at a big group practice for about two and a half years and, Was fortunate to have some great guidance from the dentist there who really taught me kind of the business side and also dentistry obviously, but also a great assistant named Jam who had been with him for his entire career, like 26 or 27 years.
So I was lucky to. Learn a lot and ask her a lot of questions learn from her. And then in 2012, opened South Tampa Dentistry. T d that's what I like to say. I'm your favorite. T d
Oh man.
yeah. And then grew, man, we Been really fortunate. The people that started with me in 2012 were still with me, and we've gone from three employees to 70.
Just kinda opened a couple offices along the way and recently formed a DSO called My Dentist Group in January and opened a call center. So up to seven offices and. Have a great team and enjoy what I do. My favorite part is chairside, like just visiting with patients. Work with my hands, problem solving, and that's the best part of my day.
Wow. I am astonished. I know you as a chairside dentist and I know how busy you are because we see all your cases. I had no idea that it's seven offices and 70 employees. That is phenomenal. Congratulations.
Thanks, man. Yeah, it's two years ago I hired an operations manager maybe two and a half now, but just getting that. And getting set and relying on help. I I was fortunate to talk to Dr. Work the owner of Heartland, and he gave me some advice. And it's I have it printed here on my desk as uh, It wrote this in a magazine after I talked to him and I printed out and I looked at it and says, you'll be happier and more successful if you can learn that.
Leadership is about being authentic and open as well as being clear with your team regarding what you're trying to accomplish. And I've done just that and I've created not me. I've created a good team, but the crew team has created the success that we've had and lots of help along the.
Yeah, absolutely. And Sean here, he always says, surround yourself with great people and great things will come. And that's our philosophy here too. We have a core group that's been with us, almost, 15, 17, 19 years and, our business has flourished in the same as yours.
And yeah, I think, patience and customers really, they notice when there's a lot of turnover.
Right. I.
So tell us about your primary office, what it's like how many patients you see a day because, you've told me privately in the past, and again I'm just I'm so amazed that you can do what you do at the level that you do it for so many people.
Ah, thanks man. We're a bread and butter. Ppo low fees, I guess low is relative these days. But I always repeat honest, affordable quality dentistry and I drill that into the docs heads that work with me. But. My main practice, we have two docs, south Tampa Dentistry. Dr. Mark and I work alongside one another.
So I finished my shift today at one. He starts one. I think works till six on Fridays and then we alternate. I work the mornings, he works the afternoon. The next day. I work the. Afternoon, he works the morning. And we're really just a bread and butter practice. I don't do extreme cases.
I stop doing veneers. I don't do Invisalign. We do occlusal filling single unit crowns and place a few implants. And that's that's the gist of our practice. We're. Old machine and have 14 people in an 1800 square foot building. And
wow.
yeah, it's challenging. It's challenging, but patients seem to love us and we love them.
I I think I looked and people find us on Google and we don't do any advertising and we see a tremendous amount of new patients a month, and I think we're up to like 2,400 Google reviews and, honest, affordable, quality dentistry is our bread and.
That's a brilliant message. It's something that everybody can understand, and I'm here to tell everybody that it's not just talk. You walk the walk because I see the preps. I see the scans. I see the material selection and I see the photos, your postop photos and everything, and it's brilliant, absolute brilliant dentistry that you guys are providing.
Oh, thanks man. I appreciate it. You guys make me look good. I give you good preps. You send me good crowns, so it's
It's definitely a two-way street. I tell everybody here in the lab that, I actually break it down into thirds. The doc's gotta do his job right on the first third. It's the preparation design, it's margin, isolation, it's capturing the margin, it's taking a good, accurate scan.
It's giving us all the information we need to be successful. Not only that, but then, you or your assistants have to make. A high level provisional that's gonna keep the tooth in place, while we make your crown. And, then the lab is responsible for the middle third and we do our job.
But then you actually have the hardest job is doing the delivery as well. .
Yeah, but the delivery's easy with the first two. Going back to taking the impressions, it's ensuring that it's dry. And then, We use, we have a trio here at South Tampa, and if there's hesitation that, eh, can the lab see that? Then there, there shouldn't be any hesitation. You gotta re-scan it.
So a great scan is vital.
Absolutely. And you're so smart because we find that a lot of customers use the technology as a shortcut where, they're just kind. They'll scan it and then they won't bother to look at it and scrutinize it to the level that you and your team do. And I sincerely appreciate it.
And, I can see that, some areas are stitched over and, rescanned and again it's your attention to detail on this first phase that allows us to really be successful. And I thank you for that.
Yeah. Thank you for making me look good when I insert 'em
And we've seen some impressions, obviously, not many, but we still see, we still get impressions from you guys and tell us your thought process or rationale for either scanning a case or taking a physical impression.
So for single unit crowns, we scan I, I tend to do a feather margin for descon preps, which are probably 90%. And actually PFCs the. The KD z I believe you guys call 'em. We do feather margin and we take we take scans for single unit, for bridges or for any anterior work. We do full arch trays.
We'll do an opposing algen in and then a full arch pbs. I've just found it's just better. I'm not sure. I I haven't jumped the, I haven't tried a full like a bridge in a while, but maybe I should maybe we can talk once we get done with this call about some advantages of scanning a bridge.
But we scan the single units, which again, are bread and butter and PBS multi-units, and full arch with a strong.
Yeah, absolutely. And I love it and I think it's perfect. I think, the way you just described it and. Your methodology. It works perfect. And I think more dentists need to hear what you just said because it works. It absolutely works. So how did you first come to know Keating Dental, or how'd you find us?
Do you remember?
I won the March Madness dentaltown thousand dollars. You know what I did? I did. So that's how I first heard of Keating and
Who won? Who won it that year? Do you?
Oh, I don't even remember, man. I just, I, this would've been because I still didn't use Keating, to be honest with you. I was happy with my lab and, Sean sent me the check and he sent me some flyers and I was happy with the lab I was using.
And then I fast forward maybe two, three years later, I ran into Sean. I met him in person at the Dental Maverick conference.
And we hit it off like he's good friends with one of my dentists up the street who I'm also good friends with. And I still didn't use them and then probably a year after that, so I'm, years tend to run together.
Now. I feel like I've used Keating for, I, I can't even tell you like, like I said, they run together, but maybe a year after General Maverick, which was probably six, maybe years ago. Five, some, somewhere on there. Started using you guys for primary stuff and have just been pleased and send
Yeah that's a great story, . I didn't know all of that, but yeah, the dental Mavericks and is it John Canary? That's your friend up
Yeah. Yep. Yep. John Karen, he's a, he is a good buddy of mine. He's open in a big, big practice here. So yeah, he's a good dude. He I talk to him. We text back and forth daily and trying to grab lunch once a month.
Cool. Did you ever go golfing with him?
No, I don't, I I have trouble with the slow sports, like just sit and steal.
So I,
to. I'm with you.
Yeah, I just, I know he's, I know he enjoys it, but yeah. Not my cup of tea.
So tell us a little bit, and I know you've alluded it to, what's it like working with Keating and most of our stuff with you and us, it is on autopilot cuz you're sending us scans. But, talk about the communication and how we problem solve some.
Yeah. That's a great question because we have like you said, we're an autopilot and of course there's communication. What I've noticed with having associates is Other doctors just don't wanna pick up the phone and call the lab themselves. And I think it's so important for the actual doctor to pick up the phone and call the lab, say, Hey, let's troubleshoot this because it's not it's so easy to blame the lab.
So my relationship with Keen, I remember it may have been. Two or three years ago, we had a little rough stretch of about a month where we were just having trouble. I don't know. I don't know if it was our TRIOS machine. I don't know if it was you guys', occlusion, I don't know what it was, but we got on the phone.
I remember you had me send you temps and you scanned the temps and we troubleshooted it and. That was that man. I think that's how we got to autopilot cuz we got on the same page and anytime there's an issue now which to be honest, I don't know the last time like we've had that. It is how we got to where we got
yeah, that, yeah, I think that was about a year and a half, two years ago. And the purpose of me requesting the temporaries. The provisionals from you was, I wanted to then scan those in so that we can create a file and see the difference between the dimensions of our final restoration and your provisionals.
So what that allowed us to do was then save those settings, and from that point on, create the restorations with those proximal and occlusal offset dimensions that you were using on your.
Gotcha. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. But I, we probably put in a hundred units last month right around there, and very minimal adjustments and definitely no remakes.
I can't thank you enough. This is predictable dentistry and this is what everybody should strive for and it's certainly what we strive for and I use that term autopilot. A while ago, but it's the work and it's the communication and it's, getting on the same page really, between your team and our team so that we can have a consistent and predictable final result.
I.
Tell us a little bit know you probably come in contact with a lot of newer, young docs with, your other seven offices, but give us one piece of advice that you would give a, a student that's gonna be graduating this next spring.
Ask questions. Ask questions. Like I get the impression that when docs graduate, they have the thought process that the hard work is done. And in reality, the hard work is just beginning. Real world dentistry is not what you learn in school. When I remove a crown that has recurrent decay, it's always a huge shoulder.
And what was I taught in dental school? Huge shoulder prep. But those are always the ones that get the cavities around them. So ask questions learn. Have a relationship with people. Develop a relationship. For going back to Dr. Workman, for me to ask him questions and for him to answer me is.
It's crazy. I still ask questions to my old boss and I've been gone 11 years. So my piece of advice would be develop relationships with people and learn, ask and not just dentistry. Develop a relationship with your IT company. It's no different than with your lab. You're gonna have issues and you're gonna have questions and you have to.
You have to set that expectation of being able to listen, being able to learn and ask the questions. You don't know everything. I still dunno. Everything. There's
No, nobody does. Yeah.
right
Yeah.
but you can't have that mentality that you do and that some have. And try try a feather margins, orcon, try it, see what happens.
Take a postop x-ray and look at the tissue in six months when they come back and see. Un irritated it is. And how strong that SRC material is. And that'd be my
zirconia is tremendously biocompatible. It's a beautiful material.
It's amazing. I love it. Yeah. Called a 30 year margin
That's awesome.
Yeah.
no asking questions is so important. Again, just because, there, there's very few people in this world that do really know everything and we can all learn from somebody. I tell everybody here in the lab, we're lifelong learners. I learned two things this week from older technicians from, New York state that, it was gold.
Just absolute wonderful pieces of advice. And, if we don't ask questions, then we're never really learning.
Yep. It's true.
So tell us before we sign off, I know you, you're super busy and everything. What do you like to do in your free time? What what keeps you.
Oh man. So I have two young kids and they're currently both the same age for the next week 11 months apart. So I've got two seven year olds that occupies most of my time. And then I bought a I bought a Hydrofoil last year. Dude, they're fun, man. They're they're I can't actual fleet, I think they call it foiling, where you elevate.
I can't do that, but I just use it as more of a wakeboard with a motor to ride up and down the Tampa Bay Channel and then, I put a little motor, a little bigsby motor on the back of my kayak too. So tons of water in Tampa and I like to take the kayak out and go outdoors. Do outdoorsy stuff is my spare time.
And exercise is is key. Exercise is tremendous.
Oh, absolutely. It refreshes you, it gives you energy . Getting outside. The hydrofoil man, that's sweet. I was on. One, probably three or four years ago. It was great time. Great technology.
They're fun. And then about three weeks ago, I bought a cold plunge. It's like a cold ice bath. It doesn't, it has a cooling machine so it doesn't have the ice. And I've been getting in that and it's been an experience. I did 48 degrees last night for five minutes.
oh my gosh.
And as a Florida person, cold water, man, it's, I'm doing it for mental toughness.
Is the real reason I'm doing it because I'm such a baby. My blood has become thin with the cold weather, with the warm weather. And but. Oh, dude, it's that cool punch is a beast, but it's quite the accomplishment when, you feel good after you do it, and it's supposedly good for your joints, muscles, and all that as well.
Yeah, I could see it.
spare time.
I could see it definitely reducing inflammation, but for me that may induce a heart attack though. know. I know if I can handle 48 degrees for five minutes.
Oh yeah, I I did 55 degrees for about eight minutes and that was that was a little much. I don't recommend that. I don't recommend that. So I think I'm gonna stick to 48.
even at 58, they even at 55 degrees. I'm putting on my seven millimeter wetsuit,
Oh yeah, no, for sure, man. Yeah, so I I took the hydrofoil out. I've had the cold puncher about three weeks, and I took the hydrofoil out over Thanksgiving and I get in the water. I'm like, wow, this is really warm. This isn't cold at all. Yeah.
So that's working. That's
I didn't have a, I didn't have a wetsuit.
Oh
But yeah.
Very cool. I want to thank you so much. Thank you again. Thank you for your trust. Thank you for your support. All of us out here in Southern California at Keating Dental Lab, we sincerely appreciate you and all you've done for our business. And I wish you and your family well and all the best during this holiday Christmas season.
And you take care of Dr.
Hey, thank you guys too back at you man. I appreciate you guys for sure, and make sure you give Sean a hard time for me.
I will . Absolutely . Thank you.
right? Take care, Bob.
Cool.