Sun and fun were plentiful. My enjoyment of said sun and fun were as limited as my sleep. I swear I walked as much in three days as I do during a month.
The biggest news came from 3Shape’s Trios. It was announced that Invisalign would start accepting scans from Trios. It is expected in the 4th quarter.
The booths from Trios and iTero had the feel of a football pre-game warm-up with tackling drills. Each had their “time to beat” stations where you could scan models. The win clearly went to Trios. The best time I saw from iTero was about 1-½ minutes. The best time from Trios was about 20 seconds.
The intraoral scanner market is about to get interesting, but BMOL has you covered. We are certified for both iTero and Trios and can receive scans directly from the scanners.
iTero edged out Trios with news coming out of EasyRx, a cloud based prescription system. iTero scans can be loaded and “scrubbed;” Trios is still boxed out. Whether you are attaching scans or sending in models, EasyRx is a powerful program that will save you time with a slew of benefits. “Writing” prescriptions is as easy as clicking on your personalized templates. HIPPA compliant, it saves prescriptions for seven years.
BMOL is now EasyRx powered—you will now be able to submit cases digitally to us and track the work flow in real time! Be on the lookout for brochures and your personal log in on our website. Each doctor that joins can use our templates (coming soon), or I can craft templates specifically for your practice. Khashi Rahmani, Business Development Coordinator for EasyRx, wowed me with his online presentation and in person. He gave me his business cards to pass out with the brochures and said for you to call him. He will wow you as well and be happy to provide a quick demo of how EasyRx can help your practice. AAO Conference pricing will be available for my customers through the end of the month.
Other people were going to SeaWorld and Universal. I spent Sunday morning with a couple of Canadians bending wire. Clear Bow might not be as exciting as Harry Potter Land, but with the excellent things I have been hearing about this product from other labs and doctors, it was time for this old dog to learn a new trick.
The videos on Clearbow.com do it far more justice than I can, but I could see it is a superior product. It has all of the aesthetic nature of an invisible retainer with the durability, functionality and benefits of a Hawley. It is guaranteed to not break or stain. I just had to learn how to adapt it.
I’m set in my ways. It’s tough. So, of course I made it harder on myself by ignoring the detailed instructions in the video and tried to bend my samples and adapt the bow the way my brain was telling me was the “right” way. In Orlando, Jason from Clear Bow set me straight and I shrugged out of my jacket, flipped my tie over my shoulder, and got to the bending and adapting. The Clear Bow way. Jason’s way. By the end of the session, he was telling me it looked like it came from his own lab.
Clear Bow sample appliances and brochures will be out soon. I am just waiting for my samples of the slimmer bow and wire to make a version of our standard 3-3 with soldered C-clasps.
A major theme that came up often in talks with practice management systems reps like Dolphin, and the other tech people, was the “under usage” of their products, not using them to their full potential. I have been guilty of that as well. Yes, I have the fancy 3Shape scanner, but I made it a point to have a long talk with the reps about the software. The scanner is great, and I can clean out your storage spaces of those old plaster models, but it is the software that will be driving the future of the lab.
I will soon be launching the “Digital Services Department” of BMOL. The future of orthodontics seems to be being shaped by technology. We will be there to support your digital endeavors.
Some of the smaller booths caught my eye as well. Leone is rolling out their new POP screws for Schwarz appliances, there is a new hex screw for RPE’s on the market, and I stumbled across QwikStrip, knowing that my own IPR session is coming soon. Put the rotary tools away and check out www.qwikstrips.com.
Then there was that mess that Orlando calls a security check, a bumpy flight racing a storm system (we lost the race), and then the fun of arriving late, at midnight, to search for my car for 15 minutes before I remembered I was on the wrong level.
Exhausted, with my legs aching, I was happy to sit down at my bench today and bend wire.
Would you like more info and updates from things that I come across? I know other labs and suppliers send out email blasts, but that is just not something that I am comfortable doing. Personally, I have no interest in hearing about products from China Joe, massage chairs or Russian brides. You may not even like getting this letter or it may just be finding its way into the round filing cabinet.
As a former journalist, I love to write, and as weird as it might sound, disseminating information is a hobby. Would you like to hear more about what I pick up and come across? I will keep it to news and views. Of course, I’ll be plugging my lab and our products, but I will keep the advertising to a minimum. I might even be entertaining.
I will start off with simple letters like this one and then hopefully expand it to a quarterly newsletter and online blog.
Send me your email address if you might be interested. You do not even have to be a client of mine. There should be a “follow” form on my website within the next week.
Thanks,
Chris Gajewski
(The Lab Guy)
PS. Comments, questions and story ideas are more than welcome. I start off each morning sipping freshly ground Kona coffee and checking my emails. I can respond either directly or address it in an upcoming article.