CAD/CAM Showdown: Glidewell io & Same-Day Dentistry (E.286)

 

“If you’re not learning to design your own crowns, you’re missing the emotional and clinical transformation that’s redefining dentistry.” – Dr. Maggie Augustyn

Same-day dentistry isn’t a gimmick—it’s a shift in identity. It’s about reclaiming creative control, building patient trust, and rediscovering what it feels like to enjoy the work again.

In this high-impact episode, Regan Robertson sits down with Dr. Maggie Augustyn, Dr. Chad Johnson, and special guest Thomas Boran from Glidewell to uncover the truth about chairside milling and CAD/CAM dentistry.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why Glidewell io is changing the game for general dentists
• How designing crowns in-house transforms your relationship with the work
• When CAD/CAM actually delivers ROI—and when it doesn’t
• Why crafting restorations yourself gives an emotional and clinical payoff
• What materials and workflows Glidewell recommends to set you up for success
• How to decide when to DIY vs. when to rely on your lab

This isn’t a tech pitch. It’s a wake-up call for anyone burned out, backlogged, or disconnected from the artistry of dentistry.

If you’re ready to stop reacting and start creating, this episode is for you.

TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Hello listeners, today we have a really fun episode for you because we have my friend, uh, Tom Boran with us and he is a rep that I met, oh my gosh, at the A GD conference in 2023, maybe 2020. Minneapolis and we started talking about the Glidewell io, which I was already interested in. Um, so this episode is going to have a lot of CAD/CAM discussions surrounding the Glidewell io versus Dr. Chad Johnson with us, um, and, and PHE space. And of course, I, our wonderful co-host Reagan, Robertson, uh, to. Step in, in case

[00:01:05] Dr. Chad Johnson: Join us for the nerd talk

[00:01:08] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: In case it gets a little heated.

[00:01:10] Regan Robertson: Um, you get it Don. I’m here for the nerd talk. I’m here for the clinical talk.

[00:01:15] Dr. Chad Johnson: That was, let’s go. That was an a plus effort.

[00:01:17] Dr. Chad Johnson: Not bad. Good job. 

[00:01:18] Regan Robertson: You, you know, I’ll have, you know, I’ll have chat. GPT over here on the side. Any technical thing you start talking about. I’ll just, I’ll just be quiet over here.

[00:01:24] Dr. Chad Johnson: Heating, you mean like emax in the oven?

[00:01:28] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Uhhuh, because who doesn’t I.

[00:01:35] Dr. Chad Johnson: Right. Round one. Let’s get into, yeah.

[00:01:37] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Well, so, so here’s the thing, like when I, when did Sarah come out? Chad?

[00:01:43] Dr. Chad Johnson: Uh, 83.

[00:01:46] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Really? That long ago.

[00:01:47] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yes.

[00:01:48] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: When did, that’s when it started going into dental offices.

[00:01:52] Dr. Chad Johnson: Correct. Doesn’t that blow your mind?

[00:01:54] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: It kind of does. Yes. So, so I graduated dental school in oh four. Yes, And I didn’t really know that it [00:02:00]existed maybe until a little later. And I always thought that s dentists were like the coolest dentist and I was never gonna be that cool. Right. That was always gonna be above my pay grade. I was running a failed practice for a really long time. And, uh, the CEREC dentists, I was like the really nerdy girl and  the CEREC dentists were the football players, right?

[00:02:24] Regan Robertson: Like, this is a,  really good story here. I like this. Okay. 

[00:02:28] Dr. Chad Johnson: To, to be fair, all the cig dentists want to think of themselves as the football players on the team, but they’re also the nerds, you know, like, so, fair enough. I think they’re cool guys. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to knock ’em, but at the same time it’s just like we are dentists so

[00:02:42] Thomas Boran: Well, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like guys. Anyone pushing the, uh, benefit for the patient clinically, first and foremost, and then also looking to make an investment in their cells in the office. Uh, that’s right. All the cool guys, right?

[00:02:57] Dr. Chad Johnson: I suppose so.

[00:02:58] Thomas Boran: Yes.

[00:02:58] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Here you go. Tom is, is bringing in a, a little bit of, um, yeah. Welcome Tom, back to us here. Thank you for that. Um, and, and, but, but, so then I had like s people come into my office and show me and they brought like, you know, suitcases and suitcases and suitcases and suitcases and suitcases of, of equipment. Um, and it, and it was really cool and it was really cool and I thought that, you know, maybe someday I would, I would get that and then lo and behold, one of our friends, one of PDA docs that we talk to all the time. Um, Andy Droll and his wife Natalie. They started talking about the Glidewell io and they had two of them. They bought two of them around the time of Covid and they would not stop talking about how wonderful it was. So then there I was at the AGD and I’m like, let me, let me see what this thing looks like. And that’s how Tom and I met and I thought, you know what the heck? Um, now I finally have some money to do and I always wanted to do same day or same appointment crowns, and that’s kind of how I fell into it, but I didn’t really know too much about CAD/CAM technology. Right. How did you,

[00:04:13] Thomas Boran: You also, uh, you were coming out of the exam, so it was like, oh yeah, Bob goes off in a movie and you hear that piercing noise.

[00:04:21] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Yeah, I, I just taken A-F-A-G-D exam. So, so my mind was kind of, um, yeah, there were a lot of, and all kinds of things like that. Um, Chad, how did, how did you get involved in Crik?

[00:04:35] Dr. Chad Johnson: Um, the guy came to show me the demo, I believe it was, uh, November. It was October of, uh, 2012, and he, uh, he said, can I show you a demo? I said, “You can show me a demo as long as you understand one thing. I’m not going to buy this.” 

[00:05:00] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Tom, how often do you hear that?

[00:05:02] Thomas Boran: Well, it depends on what we constitute a demo. Uh. I can go, I can loop back to that. Okay. But I love, I love your response and Yeah. Uh, I,

[00:05:13] Dr. Chad Johnson: I was just being candid, you know. Oh yeah. We’ve heard it. So I told the guy, I was like, I, I said, “I’m not interested, but, um, fair enough. Come show it to me,” ’cause I’ve, I used it in school and um, and I liked where it was going but I don’t think that it was there yet and um, so when he came into my office, uh, he did, we did a demo and, uh, between the materials, which I had been using EMAX at that point, but I emax press from a lab. I. Not exclusively by any means, but I was more comfortable with that, using that material than some people might have been, especially whatever, you know, 13 years ago and, um,  the, the milling unit, uh, had improved, the software had improved and the hardware had improved to where I had from where I had first seen it in school and when I job shadowed in offices. So by the time. He shows me this in 2012. I was like, “Okay, you guys actually have made a lot of progress and um, and this is okay. 

[00:06:34] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Okay. Did you buy it user friendly?

[00:06:35] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yes. Within a month.

[00:06:37] Thomas Boran: Was it a blue cam or was it a?

[00:06:39] Dr. Chad Johnson: Blue cam, yep. Within a month I had it purchased. I was just like, oh, I’m such a sucker. So, um, on my birthday, November 8th, 2012, I had it delivered and, uh, started using it then and so like if you’re like, how do you remember the date is because it was, it was my, it was my birthday present, you know, like for sure that I paid. 

[00:06:52] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: How much did you spend?

[00:06:53] Dr. Chad Johnson: Um, at the time for the milling unit and the, uh, and the camera, if I recall properly, it was 119,000.

[00:07:03] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Okay. and that, that’s, that’s the milling unit. And does that include the oven too? 

[00:07:08] Dr. Chad Johnson: It included the oven, the milling unit, and the ac the acquisition unit in 2012.

[00:07:13] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: That, that’s a, that’s a scanner

[00:07:15] Dr. Chad Johnson: in 20, 20, $12 for sure. Uh, did you say scanner or scanner? No, I’m just playing around. Um,

[00:07:22] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: I thought you were on the serious side. I know. I’m just side well side.

[00:07:26] Dr. Chad Johnson: I can have fun. I can have fun. Um so yes, it included the, the blue cam scanner, which was pictures, not video. And so you had to stitch pictures.

[00:07:36] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Regan, can you ch can you check for us what $112 is in today’s dollars? Yeah. Was it a hundred and

[00:07:45] Dr. Chad Johnson: 112? Yeah.

[00:07:46] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: From when to when? From 2000 from.

[00:07:49] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yeah, I, from November, 2012, I mean, it was late 2012

[00:07:54] Regan Robertson: Worth in today’s dollars.

[00:07:56] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yes. I’m gonna guess 160.

[00:07:59] Regan Robertson: How, how hard, so,

[00:08:01] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: How excited were you?

[00:08:03] Dr. Chad Johnson: Super excited because, um, I was excited about like, as much volume as I was doing. I was like, I’m gonna save on my lab bill. I’m not gonna have to make temporaries. I’m going to get to do the cool dentistry, as you talked about, that all these cool guys get to do that. I knew, you know, a few that were doing this and I, and the C Docs community, um, online was awesome and. Constructive, like they were a group of guys that were forward thinking, so like. They weren’t, you know, you go onto a old school dental town and mm-hmm. They might be, you know, like everyone’s ripping on each other. You know, like, how dare you put that margin in there? I always only put perfect margins in for my name isn’t Dr. Blank and blank and then, you know, on CEREC Docs, uh, they were, they were just like, you know. What if you would’ve made sure that you prepped that line angle right there a little bit smoother, you probably would’ve had a better outcome but the color blend is amazing. You did a really good job on this. So it was very constructive and, uh, so, and then even having the training center down in Phoenix, you know, like at, at the Spear Education Center, like, so all of it, the whole experience was definitely. Um, rewarding, uh, to learn how to do at the time, the most biomimetic dentistry that you could do with ceramic. I mean, you know, this was bucking the trends. This was to some degree the apple of dentistry. You know, like it was the cool but expensive trick. Awesome. Um, change in how you practice dentistry.

[00:09:40] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Were there a lot of other dentists in your area that were doing the same thing?

[00:09:43] Dr. Chad Johnson: No. Uh, when I got this in 2012, I know of about four offices in the Des Moines area, which at the time there were probably, let’s say 300 dentists, $154,000. Yep. So I was right in that 150 to 160. So $154,000 would be what it would be priced at in today’s dollars, which mind you, is what? Uh, the cost, uh, in 2012 was for, um, for a milling unit, um, the acquisition unit, the camera and the oven, and I think it was 160 or 164,000. So that’s about right. Is that how much, 

[00:10:24] Thomas Boran: How many times. Sorry, go ahead

[00:10:25] Dr. Chad Johnson: . You

[00:10:26] Thomas Boran: You upgraded?

[00:10:27] Dr. Chad Johnson: Um, I have, I had blue cam, then I went to Omnicam, then I went to, uh, the Prime scan right now and I have two offices, so I have two Prime scan. Are you on the Prime mill or the MC xls? Uh, I still have the MCXL at my old office, which I absolutely love. And I have the Prime Mill period. Okay. Sorry to budge in. Uh, no, it’s a great question. I love how, if, if listeners can’t see it, I love how Regan looked like [00:11:00] I got what you said. I,

[00:11:04] Regan Robertson: I’m just hanging on, I’m just, I’m just hanging on now.

[00:11:06] Dr. Chad Johnson: That’s, and that’s okay. I look forward to, I look forward to the next milling unit.

[00:11:14] Regan Robertson: You’re walking yourself up. Yeah. Well self a Stewart.

[00:11:18] Thomas Boran: Clap. Clap, clap.

[00:11:19] Regan Robertson: Well, Maggie, I can’t hear you by the way. I saw your mouth moving and I think your microphone did its thing.

[00:11:26] Dr. Chad Johnson: Hmm. There we go. Nope. Nope. Is it a US Bport thing? Is it the ants?

[00:11:40] Regan Robertson: Ooh. It’s Chad and, oh, there you go. Now you’re back. Chad and Maggie have the most beautiful glowing microphones, and I just like to say mine doesn’t go out, but

[00:11:50] Thomas Boran: I feel so under gunned. I, I’ve got the, uh. The Top gun headset though. I mean, if I needed to put that on. Oh,

[00:11:55] Regan Robertson: there, it’s Logitech’s $24 one. I i, that is like my go-to at home for all these. It’s the, it’s the best priced headset for the, for the buck. Yeah.

[00:12:06] Dr. Chad Johnson: So Maggie, I’ll conclude like, my journey by, you know, so that way there’s reference, uh, to I was, so I’ve been using it now for 13 years and uh, I absolutely love it. I don’t know if I could do it without it, but, um, the. Improvement in other people joining the. The sphere of digital dentistry, it will be a good thing for dentistry. It’s a good thing, I think for Crich to have competitors and, um, for, for dentistry, for the price points, um, is amazing. And because, uh, kind of like our last podcast we were talking about not being able to identify. When you hear that, you know, that Serona historically was. Privately owned by a family that owned a castle in Lichtenstein. Like, it just didn’t make you, you know, feel as though you were really connected well with them and they throw amazing parties because you’re buying a machine for $160,000. Right. So I’ll, I’ll throw my own punches at the group that I love, uh, because it’s not anything personal to, against anyone, but, um, like I feel like over the last few years they could have leaned in more towards. Staying the best and they’ve left a lot of room for other people to catch up really quickly. And yet I’m okay with that. So like I’m comfortable with the, the CX sphere, and yet I am comfortable with the thought that there are other players coming alongside, which will make dentistry altogether better.

[00:13:40] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Is it because they thought that they had a monopoly that they just kind of, no.

[00:13:44] Dr. Chad Johnson: No, they had a monopoly. I mean, they didn’t think they had, they

[00:13:48] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: just assumed that they were going to maintain their monopoly. Correct. That Correct. They sucked the, the foot off the gas. And then, then, then comes Glidewell and they invent [00:14:00]something that nobody thought was possible.

[00:14:02] Thomas Boran: No,

[00:14:03] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: they invent, right, Tom? I mean

[00:14:06] Thomas Boran: the, I think the history though of in office, because there are some. Some pretty incredible, uh, doctors slash I would call them lab technicians that will invest in other design platforms, several scanners full on in-office lab. They can do zirconia or titanium bars, full arch, so they do have their own kind of in-office. Full functioning labs, um, in terms of kind of the daily single use. Mrs. Jones, number 30 really We saw E four D hop on the scene with That’s true Nexus design platform. So they really tried to give them their run for the money. And, uh, in about that same time period, uh, maybe oh nine 10 when E four D or D four D technology started in Richardson, Texas, uh, they were shine. Kind of a shine only, uh, distribution. So it was basically Patterson only sir distribution. So you had distributor versus distributor in that game of CAD cam where White Mill shakes it up is when we came up with our first in-office system, which is not the current Fast Mill. Uh, fast Mill’s been around for about five years now. Uh, we started to shake it up being really open from a scanner acquisition standpoint. Because our lab uses our same fast design software in which we accept files from every acquisition or scanner unit. So I think really the moving and shaking came with fast mill. Breaking up the ease of design, platform support, and a lab supporting you from a design standpoint with millions of units, not to mention zirconia, that really changed our business at Glidewell.

[00:15:51] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yep. So Tom, you have a a good point that, um, when the, uh, when E four D gave their effort, their best effort, they were. Um, they, they still were a little brother because I heard a lot of people that were, you know, I’d say, oh, you got the E four D and yeah, it was cheaper. Okay, so you got it cheaper. So, you know, how long does it take for you to do a crown? Well, we typically have them back the next day. Mm-hmm. And, and it’s like, why do, what do you mean you have ’em come back the next day? So it was definitely a little brother move. If someone said they got an E four D, I did not feel as though I had competition. The other issue is the open versus closed. Software slash platform stuff. So Crich wanted to have and still has a quite a closed platform and it was a big deal when they started releasing STL files. I mean, that was pretty awesome. So we could play with other labs and stuff like that, but they, they. Still to this day, I imagine would say that when they, um, they have a closed system, then they’re in charge of any problems that are happening from start to finish, which was [00:17:00]nice because then, you know, if there was an issue, um, Microsoft couldn’t say that it was, uh, an issue with, uh, your Chrome and Chrome Couldn’t say it was incompatible with Adobe and stuff like that. So you didn’t have those platform issues and, and yet, as soon as someone could figure out how to open platform, um, open source, you know, their stuff, then it was going to be a game changer that would take CEREC down.

[00:17:30] Thomas Boran: Yeah, I definitely like that, um, idea of being supported by one area. Sure. Where I do feel, if we had to look at the Glidewell system in general, where it does use several different scanners, um. That allows you to get good from an acquisition standpoint first, where most offices are starting in the lab, I believe we’re at 60% digital and we could do 10 to 15,000 units a day. So we pretty much, uh, we have a good. Pulse on the industry, what it looks like as a whole. So it’s a good indication of what the market looks like in general of what we see coming inside of Glidewell. And so if you start at one point with a, you know, scanner, acquisition wand, uh, several of them out there on the market, if you’re comfortable with that. Our system software supports it all. So now we’re open to those many users. So in terms of edging the market, we’re not worried about the, the design platform happening on your prime scan. We’re completely separate from the wand. The wand will be click and direct files or direct interface, drop point cloud to cloud, talk to our design software that would then in return speak to the mill. So I would consider open, even though we don’t have our own kind of, you know. Um, I guess system, platform that, you know, we have the support from the scanner standpoint that would go through the scanner manufacturer. It’s integrated. It’s integrated. Right, exactly. But I’ll tell you, supported from the mill side through Glidewell, which is nice ’cause you don’t have to hunt down a distributor or dealer or partner, another company. We are directly supported through our, you know, our own efforts.

[00:19:17] Dr. Chad Johnson: I think Maggie, I would’ve come more into this conversation, um, ready to swing and, you know, be like, Hey, I use the best and whatever. Except for Maggie, your, your experience and Dr. And Dr. Droll, uh, their experiences, um, and telling you about their stuff. Um. Was so positive that it’s just like, well, shoot. I mean, you know, you got, and so you introduced me at the last, uh, PDA conference that you were like, why don’t we, you know, talk with, uh, this lady about the, you know, the, the product and. I was really [00:20:00] impressed. Um, the, you know, the, the software was easy to use, but that’s a big cric thing. It’s just like our software is really straightforward. I mean, the in shrink in the way. Yes, it has come a long way because it used to be definitely, uh, high. High intensity of, you know, learning curve and, and you know, all, and even the capturing the powdering, everything like that, you know, like it was definitely technique sensitive. Um, but when I saw Glide Well’s product, I was just like, and especially for the price, I was just like, this actually is a good thing and it’s going to get it into so many more offices. So it was not just butting heads with Crich, it was like a different. Game. It was not like you were gonna play football players at football. You were gonna say, you go ahead and play football, we’re gonna play pickleball. ’cause a lot of people like pickleball and we’re gonna just do a different game. You know, and it’s not [00:21:00] right or wrong. It’s, it’s, the outcome’s still gonna be the same. You’re exercising, but, you know, like, uh, it’s just a different game altogether.

[00:21:07] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Yeah. But, but so what, what I, what I wanna. Kind of talk about here is when you looked at it, you looked at it through their lens of having experienced CAD cam for, I don’t know. Yeah.

[00:21:21] Dr. Chad Johnson: 13 years.

[00:21:22] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: 13 years, yeah. And it’s, it. It’s easy now because I’ve been using it since November and I’ve, and I’ve learned to do it and it was really sweet. My, my dental assistant walked in and I was designing a bridge and she’s like, man, you’ve gotten really good at it. I have, you know, I’ve designed and we’ve milled probably maybe around a hundred units, but it’s not like the learning curve is steep. Um. Or maybe it was just steep for me. I don’t know. But I don’t know if you’ve heard people say that some of this technology just ends up as an expensive coat rack, right? Sure. Implementing I. Cadcam technology into the workflow of a practice. And it, and actually, when I was considering buying it, I, I talked to some people and I talked to Paul, uh, Fostein, who is like one of the top authorities in technology. He’s the editor. Mm-hmm. Uh, uh, the editor in chief of Dentistry today. I mean, he knows everything there is to know about, you know, emerging technology. And he said, you know. If you like it, great. Just know that it’s not as easy as you think it is. And I’m like, ah, Paul, you know, I’ll make it, you know? And, um, but, and, and Paul’s like my godfather in dentistry and he was right. Incorporating that into the workflow of my day. And learning to be a technician as a dentist, as easy as it’s kind of sounds, have been two probably of the biggest pain points. However, resolving them and overcoming them has now made it feel like it’s Christmas every day. Like my, so my husband and Reagan knows this and, and Reagan’s kind of like Scott is a huge gamer. Like he just can’t get enough of video games and I don’t understand video games. I just don’t get it. Um, so

[00:23:29] Regan Robertson: sad for you,

[00:23:33] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: but designing. Grounds and bridges feels like a video game. I mean, like, I can’t get enough. It feels like magic when I see

[00:23:43] Regan Robertson: it happen. Yeah. Oh wait, I talked over that. ’cause you said video games and like a dog. I just went What Squirrel? You just said it feels like a, like, you, you feel like you’re getting that excitement from designing.

[00:23:55] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Yeah. There, there’s like some dopa um, I, I don’t, whether it’s holding a mouse or, or [00:24:00] like, I, I don’t, I don’t know what it is. It’s rewarding

[00:24:02] Thomas Boran: control. You’re controlling your outcomes, they say, is that that what video games are about? Well, yeah, they say, and you can fact check this Reagan, but they say, uh, surgeons that play video games make 25 to 30% less errors.

[00:24:18] Regan Robertson: Well, yeah, you have a lot of hand-eye coordination depending on the game that you’re playing for sure. Absolutely. There’s, I could go on for hours, but this isn’t a video game thing. I just, I wanted to celebrate for a moment that I think dentists are part engineer and part artist. And this feels like this is bridging both of them. And there’s something from an artist’s mindset, I’m an artist and, and it’s so difficult when you’re learning and you put your hand down on paper and you can see it in your head. You know exactly what you wanna create. And you can’t make that, that chasm in between mind, heart, and hand work. And this is closing that gap.

[00:24:49] Regan Robertson: Like it’s making it easy, it effective. So I, when you said that, I just saw your artist’s heart jumping out and being like, wow, now I get it. Like this is fun.

[00:24:58] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: And it makes you a better [00:25:00]clinician. Like all of a sudden you’re like, oh shoot, what was I thinking with these margins

[00:25:06] Dr. Chad Johnson: gotta sp up the margin

[00:25:06] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: and like, what was I thinking with this contact? Like, so the next time you do your margins better or the next time you like, you’re like, you’re really paying attention to that contact

[00:25:15] Dr. Chad Johnson: and it’s all, here’s the thing, we were talking last podcast about ai. And this is interesting how, um, when the AI I on my Cric draws my margin, my highest compliment is when the margin draws and it’s like, perfect. Yes, this computer got me and I made it easy that the computer could get me. Mm-hmm. I explain to my patients, I, I, I don’t really think of it as much, as much as a, a video game, but I, I just say, we’re photoshopping your tooth and people get that, you know, because it’s, it’s artistry. But then the thing too is if, uh, if you are, I. Crown is showing thin because you didn’t prep enough here. Instead of the lab technician for the last 50 years telling dentists that’s not enough thickness. And then we go, yes it is. And then we look and we go, just make the work. Oh, you mean, except right there. Oh, well now that makes sense. Like we, we have to own it. We can’t blame it on someone else. You have to own it.

[00:26:19] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Or like, it’s like, oh, I’m gonna need to reduce the opposing. I really don’t wanna take off that enamel. So the next, it was like either you go back and your repr or next time that’s right. These lessons you learn in real time and you learn very differently. They land differently on you when you’re using your own cad cam technology and when you’re designing your own crowns. But there’s a price to be paid. I remember. So we bought it in, we, we, we bought it like October-ish, November 2nd was the training. And then I remember I would spend like seven hours a week learning this stupid thing, pardon my language, but it, I was ready. Yeah.

[00:26:58] Dr. Chad Johnson: Frustrating. Throw this

[00:26:59] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: thing out the window. Um. It was hard. It was really hard spending that much time learning to use all the tools. Um, learning to understand, like thinking like a technician and a dentist at the same time. Um, that was really hard. It, it took an investment of my time around Christmas when I didn’t have time, and that was really frustrating. And there were times, um, I think I, I, I am sure I called Tom and I’m like, Hey, how many people returned this thing? Right? Um, because

[00:27:37] Regan Robertson: stop, don’t go, don’t go over that. ’cause that’s a really good question. Buyer’s remorse is real. And not giving yourself enough grace, time, space to learn something is also real and very common to the business owner. How many times do we think, okay, we’ll buy this and it’ll just click and it doesn’t. Click. Do you get a lot of calls, Tom, about that? Like, like, okay, I’m, I, I, the initial purchase Aura has worn off, like the adrenaline has worn off and now it’s reality and I don’t wanna be one of those dentists that puts it in the corner.

[00:28:06] Thomas Boran: Well, sometimes it’s so. Going back into it being rewarding, learning, it’s uncomfortable. You’re spending time to learn. It’s uncomfortable to, uh, sometimes make these big purchasing decisions, right? So the, um, you know, the remorse can get real. What I would say to that, it also speaks to your point, Reagan on. Dr. Maggie being an artist, you know, and wanting everything and tweak and trying to find out her perfect zone of what she wants to see outta the system. Where the majority of my users, when they see a one click design process, and that’s how it comes out of our lab, I. Man that, okay, this is great. This is, uh, from a economic standpoint, my teams can do it. I’m gonna validate the margins and it’s, it’s a two to four minute design process, and I’ve got somebody doing a hundred units a month buying their second and third mill within their first year. So what I would lend to with that buyer remorse, where I say we are insanely different, Mr. Glidewell, uh, truly has a. A vision to, to push the industry forward, to support as customers. If you’ve ever worked with Glidewell, the fact that we do so much and most of the time we get it right, when we don’t get it right, we make it right. And so we do have the opportunity when, you know, contracting or or doing business, we give you a 90 day mark. We want you to go to an advanced training. Because we’re not gonna nickel and dime you on on installation, training materials and all. We want you to have that experience because you bought into that experience because you saw a vision for your practice. And we wanna see that through. And if we can’t, for some reason, I mean, I’ve had the weirdest reasons. Um. We’ve made it right, and so that is few and far between because we couldn’t offer that no risk if 98.2% of the time it didn’t stick. So I feel good about that in terms of our company standing by it. Hence, you won’t see our units on eBay. I see $120,000 units from competitors on eBay all the time in older generations and such. So. Uh, we actually have, uh, you know, a boneyard, uh, if you will, that we try to keep. Yes.

[00:30:24] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Uh, that was cool. I actually recorded a Marco Polo Yeah. Like yeah. Of CEREC machines that, that, that Glidewell takes back. Um, was it as an exchange program or

[00:30:36] Thomas Boran: It’s a, it’s a trade in, so it’s a hefty discount.

[00:30:40] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Oh. So Chad, when you’re ready, I will take your CEREC machine because I wanna get a new one by new by November. I wanna get a second mill. So I will take one of your machines to trade in to get it. The

[00:30:54] Thomas Boran: second mill is nice. It gives you the o opportunity to do, uh, multiple units at a quadrant [00:31:00] designed side by side, opposing, um, you know, we see all things in dentistry and so, um, having the capacity, you know, does make a lot of sense.

[00:31:08] Dr. Chad Johnson: I will say for the Cric users, I do love my MCXL and we, uh, my assistants will joke. My assistants will joke or say that, uh, the milling, that the prime mill is better and it’ll be faster. And I say, no, the MCXL is better and it’ll be faster. And they’re done within a minute of each other. And we just joke around like, which one finished? And then they’ll say, look, my finished first. And I’ll be like, yeah, well the SRU is smaller on the MCXL, so big deal. And so that kind of stuff. I, Tom, I have a question, um, for, for people using your. System, um, let’s say it’s

[00:31:49] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: their system, actually,

[00:31:51] Dr. Chad Johnson: your plural, your system. Yes.

[00:31:54] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Um, could be all of

[00:31:55] Thomas Boran: our system.

[00:31:56] Dr. Chad Johnson: Y’all’s, y’all’s system, Y’s. Yes. Um, [00:32:00]so do you, uh, does a doctor have the opportunity to scan it and remotely have all the, the technical design stuff done? And then shipped back to Milit. It sounds like that’s a, that’s an option, right? A design as a service. Correct.

[00:32:19] Thomas Boran: We, we do have that and it’s nominal, so if you don’t want to touch the design process whatsoever, you basically send us a scan, list it, check the box as design as a service. From like $10 a unit if you’re doing a bridge and it’s complicated, cantilever, whatever that might look like in those scenarios. I don’t wanna touch it. $10 a unit, we’ll turn it around in about 20 minutes. Yeah, the uh.

[00:32:45] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: I, I can, I can give you an example of that. So I had, you know, a couple things going on at the same time. I, I, I did a couple endo extractions and two bridges on a guy and I was milling him temps. Um, and I just didn’t have the time to design it because I needed to [00:33:00] be with another patient jack production. And so I ended up, um, sending it to Glidewell to design those two bridges. And so they designed those two bridges and, and so, but milling those two bridges took about an hour each because they were two, three unit bridges in temps. Um, and, um, and so they designed it for me and then we milled immediately after I posted that on, um, my Facebook, that post got almost 30,000 views. Woo. Um, that, that entire clinical case, so we went from like really broken, nasty, uh, I shouldn’t say nasty, but um, uh, rot rotten teeth. Uh, if I’m quoting Dr. Wade Keifer into these beautiful, I mean, they just looked like permanent restorations. They fire him, uh, within, within several hours.

[00:33:59] Thomas Boran: So, Dr. Chad, we also have support. So if you’re hands on the mouse and you’re learning that same team that would design those units, design those units with you for free. Oh,

[00:34:10] Dr. Chad Johnson: that’s kind of cool.

[00:34:11] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Yeah. And they, they’ll pick up the phone within two, two rings.

[00:34:16] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yeah.

[00:34:17] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: You’re not waiting half a day to get somebody to call to, to call you. I mean, I am so impressed with Glidewell th that is not the norm today. Um, when you’re buying. Many things in dentistry that you’re spending 50, 70, 80, $90,000.

[00:34:34] Dr. Chad Johnson: Sure.

[00:34:35] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: That is not the norm. I mean, I bought A-C-B-C-T machine. I had some problems. They’re, they’re worked out now. I bought a scanner. Lots of problems with that. Um, that has not been the issue with Glidewell like Mr. Glidewell. Invest so much technology, so much money into the company, into the team. He’s so compassionate with the people that that work in that company. And when you are on campus, so once you buy the machine, you go back, you go back for training, and the first training, um, is at no charge to you. They pay for your flight, hotel, meals, everything. Um, you see. The leadership, you see, you, you, you, you can feel how everyone, they’re just happy over there. I mean, maybe it’s the Sunshine California, but you just, you, you don’t see that everywhere. Mm-hmm. It, it’s not plastic, it’s not fake. Um, it’s just a different company. That, that you end up, uh, engaging in that you end up starting a relationship with.

[00:35:43] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yeah.

[00:35:44] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: And, um, that’s also been really transformative. I mean, I don’t know anything about Crich. Right. But that’s just another, another hash mark. Um, for, for for Glidewell. Um, how would

[00:35:57] Thomas Boran: you describe your in-office trainer? 

[00:36:00] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Oh, she, she is incredible. So, so she was here for. For the first day, and she tested the machine, then she was here with us for the entire day. And then she, I have her cell phone number, I can, um, she’s very responsive. If she can’t get to me that moment, she will call me back or she will message me back. And then she was at the class when we went to California. Um, extremely personable. Um, so she was a lab tech herself. Uh, she, she knew exactly what she was doing. She was able to answer all of our questions. Uh, very easy to talk to. Um, just wonderful the fact that they will fly somebody to you. I mean, she was, uh, kind of between Texas and Florida. She was living kind of, she was moving when she would, when, when she came to see us. Um, they fly somebody to you to teach you how to. How to use the software in the mill.

[00:36:55] Thomas Boran: And then, uh, to speak to that too, we’ll also fly somebody to you to, you got hardware, so talking to software so things can happen. Dr. Chad, I’m sure you can attest to a, a bur lodge or something inconvenient happening. All of these systems will have something happen. Sure. Especially utilizing them. Yes, you will. We have a vested interest to fix your system. If you’re cutting six crowns a day, you send those to our lab, we push you to the front of the line and we overnight free restorations. Mm-hmm. Until we fix it. Mm-hmm. So we have a true interest of getting somebody out there. So, so you realize same day again. Right, right. So even though it’s next day, we’ve got you supported. Because we’re a different company and we have the lab behind us that really supports us, you know, as the big brother of this IO or in office division.

[00:37:45] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yep. That’s cool.

[00:37:47] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: And the patients that have started to find out about the same day crowns. Um, so the way that we have figured it out, again, we’re, we’re kind of new at this, right? We’ve been doing it for, for six months. We’ll schedule them in the morning, [00:38:00] um, and then we’ll scan them. And then at some point I go in, my team will design and I’ll go in and edit the design or audit the design, and then we press play and they’ll come in like after lunch to have that cemented. And, um, and once they have a taste of this, they never wanna go back to having a temp again. So they’ll say, I, I don’t care. I’ll stay here all day. As long as I, as long as I get my crown the same day. And then sometimes, you know, every now and again, I’ll, I’ll mill it and it’s got an open contact. And so again, you just go in for a few seconds, you fix it and you’re like, yeah, I’m staying another 40 minutes.

[00:38:36] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: No, not at all. So just press play again. And, and there’s no back and forth with, oh man, that didn’t fit. I gotta rescan, you know, just. It, it, it, it’s phenomenal having this. Yeah. Uh, and then we’re one of the few people again in the area that offer that service.

[00:38:53] Dr. Chad Johnson: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:55] Regan Robertson: Thomas, you mentioned earlier that Mr. Glidewell, you said he’s very passionate about moving dentistry forward and um, I’ve been really fortunate to be around a lot of dentists and the ones that typically have these types of machines are also very passionate and they’re very innovative thinkers. They’re disruptors and they’re willing to. To do something different. I’m curious because Maggie, you mentioned it too, there is a lot of things that patients have no idea even exists, myself included, and it’s been a long learning curve to, to really understand what exactly is available to us, not as just clinicians, but as patients. In all of your experience, have you seen practices like. When they’re educating patients, what is kind of a pattern you see of those that do a really great job? What are they doing that, that we can benefit from?

[00:39:45] Thomas Boran: Dr. Matthew, would you like to speak to how you have started to change your communications with patients? And then I’ll piggyback on that.

[00:39:52] Regan Robertson: The, the, what I’m genuinely curious about, we should leave all of this in. I’m genuinely curious because as a patient, I don’t know a lot of this exists, or if it does [00:40:00] exist, I don’t know what it does. I’ll tell you an example. Um. I had no idea. I think it’s called an Air Prophy Max. I think that’s what it’s called. I had no idea that this machine existed. Air Polisher,

[00:40:09] Thomas Boran: what’s it called? What glycine? Air Polisher. It’s, it polishes the teeth instead of the prophy cup. It’s, it’s like wonderful. It’s like going through the car wash.

[00:40:18] Regan Robertson: It’s sexy. It’s wonderful. It makes my life as a patient so happy. And, um, and my dentist bought one for our hygienist and I didn’t know, uh, didn’t know about it. And then it was used on me and I was like, everybody in the world deserves to know this exists because I can guarantee you pro fees will be scheduled a lot more if they knew how comfortable it could be with this beautiful device and this beautiful. Coist train hygienist and on and on. Uh, but that if that message doesn’t get out, if we don’t educate our patients on what this can do, then they just don’t know that it exists. And so I’m just curious, genuinely, um, you know, Maggie, have you shifted your marketing to, to talk about same day crowns and talk about the benefits of it? And then, and then Thomas, with all of, you know, the, the clients that you’ve served, have you seen them, uh, you know, switch up their marketing campaign or just hear anecdotally, you know, patients love this, or this is what I’ve noticed after they get over that initial learning curve, which. By the way, I don’t wanna scroll too much, but that’s amazing. You offer support, you offer the the do it with you, which reminds me of when, like, I got, I think it was like a CT scan, and they explained to me, oh yeah, it’ll get, it’ll get reviewed right now from somebody in Argentina or wherever, but it was like 24 hour service. It’s really cool. Like I had no idea that that existed either. So, um, so what are we doing to get it out in the market and, and show people like this is, this is moving dentistry forward.

[00:41:41] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: So, so yeah, we have some blogs. We have some videos. We have some social media posts that we talk to patients about. But there’s nothing better than just sitting down to a patient and saying, Hey, you need this crown. Oh, and by the way, unlike the last times you’ve had a crown done, whether it was here or somewhere else, there is no more temp. So you come in and we are going to finish this the same day. And at first they’re just like, oh, okay. Then they don’t really get it until it happens. Mm-hmm. And then once it happens, they never wanna go back.

[00:42:12] Thomas Boran: Yeah. I, I really feel what’s a, a bigger shift too, a lot of offices and not necessarily the. You know, productive dental offices, right? Uh, because you guys are the really, the top, you know, 1% of, of, of practitioners and, and, and the way you run your offices. But a lot of offices struggle with explaining dentistry because it’s the dental jargon to patients. So I feel a lot of this digital technology has shifted the game into visualization so when the patient can see it, they can believe it. Um, and, and speaking of doing more comprehensive dentistry, that’s gonna best serve. Our patients when they see it and they understand. Okay, well. I’ve broken off so much of my tooth, I’m gonna need a buildup. What’s a buildup? I, I, I called in and you said you were gonna do a crown. Well, here, let me show you on the scan why your tooth needs to be built up. And then this is what that actual prototype or cap crown is gonna look like. He starts almost dialing back. The communications of how we talk dentist to dentist to let me show the patient and you can show them a lot through visualization or even like design as a service. Uh, so I was in, uh, from a management service aspect, uh, personally invested in, in a private practice. And the um, my. Boss currently now, and really dear friend, I worked with him 15 years ago at a, at a lab called DIN Mat. Did product supply services. Yeah. And uh, he tried to sell me one of these IO mills and I said we do a lot of, we could do 30 40% of our production in soft tissue. We did a lot of laser dentistry, so I made those investments in the team. We did a lot of aligner therapies, so we had the iTeros, um, we were doing comprehensive cases, full mouth rehab, raising VDO, and we, I’ve looked at it and like we did seven crowns last month. I’m not, there’s not gonna, but understanding that the bio bridge was there, that we could establish the bi, we could smile, design. And if I could do, you know, with, with my dental team, one more. 20 unit case elective dentistry a month or a quarter. I’ve paid for this machine over and over and over, and we’re letting patients test drive their smile. So if they don’t like something, we’re giving them something they would exactly want. From a ceramic restoration. And so if I came to understand the system like I do now, having worked with Glidewell for about two years, I could see it, you know, anybody that just wants to control or the design or the artistic aspect of it, it’s gonna pay for itself. And that rewarding aspect of being able to go back and serve the patient, or if the volume like I was doing, the volume I’m cutting, you know? Three or four crowns a day, single units I’m in and out the volume, well then it’s gonna pay from itself from a cost standpoint. So it’s kind of finding you guys meeting where you, where you are at, and then that communicates and trickles down back to the patient on how they see how you communicate.Dentistry starts to change on what they interact or perceive your prescribing them because, uh, you know, seeing is believing.

[00:45:22] Dr. Chad Johnson: And along that, I feel like, um, for clinicians who are considering this, knowing how many operatories you have is advantageous to, for example, if you can park someone somewhere where while it’s milling, you can work somewhere else, as opposed to if someone says, well, I only have three operatories, and two of them are hygiene and one is for the doctor, it’s like, oh, this might not be the right thing for you. But if you have, well,

[00:45:47] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: no, this is the size of a microwave. I’m

[00:45:49] Dr. Chad Johnson: not talking about space. I’m talking about when you park the patient in the chair while it’s milling your

[00:45:55] Thomas Boran: column runs. Yeah.

[00:45:57] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Well, so I bring them back. I’ll send them out. [00:46:00] I’ll send ’em out. So I’ll prep him, I’ll send ’em out and I’m like, you’re, yeah, you’re gonna be a little sensitive. Just avoid that. It’s gonna be like you lost the temp and then two hours later just come back in. So I don’t, I don’t leave ’em.

[00:46:11] Dr. Chad Johnson: But the, that, that still changes the workflow.

[00:46:14] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: You gotta think it out. You definitely have to think

[00:46:16] Dr. Chad Johnson: it out. See, for example, my one office, I’ve got eight operatories. I can prep in one, I can move to the next. If someone else comes in for a limited exam, it’s like, huh, you need a crown on that tooth. Do you want to do it today? Great. We’re gonna wheel it over and, you know, start making it then. And I just park ’em in there while I go back up over in my other room so I can make that kind of capacity work. But I forget, not everyone has that. And so, um, that, that’s something, um, worth considering. That’s all.

[00:46:49] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: I mean, this, this has been really enlightening and I, and I hope that, uh, for audiences, um, who, who are considering CAD/CAM. Uh, one last thing that I wanna mention is, um, the way that I was introduced to, uh, scanning was through, uh, dandy. I didn’t have the money to buy a scanner, so I went through Dandy. Uh, since then I have bought my own scanners, but, so I was still using Dandy. When I got the Glidewell io my bills were like six to $8,000 a month. Um, my last bill with Dandy was $800. Now Glidewell gives you like a hundred blocks, um, when you buy the io, we haven’t gone through Oh, that, that’s cool. Cool. Yet. But like, like that’s, that’s how much I’ve saved in and they’re pre

[00:47:36] Dr. Chad Johnson: centered, pre uh, like, uh, for the people who are just like, okay, this is just, but I think it’s fair to say like something that’s a game changer, like a paradigm shift.It’s already oven baked, oven centered and stuff like that. So you’re milling with

[00:47:52] Thomas Boran: that’s the joke at the beginning, right?

[00:47:53] Dr. Chad Johnson: Yes. And, and you have, uh, and it’s a, a different new burr every time you mill the block and then you’re just playing, paying Glidewell the nominal fee for the block and stuff like that. Like, that’s pretty cool. Uh, and that’s a paradigm shift, uh, for people to think about if they’re going from zero systems to or from CEC to Glidewell or from Glidewell to cec. However, you know that there’d be a change in how you do that.

[00:48:20] Thomas Boran: That was the vision? Uh, yes. For Mr. Glidewell. It was to make it simple. You know, we’ve made everything computer machines, robots in the lab, um, so we can do so much from a production standpoint. Yeah. Uh, the simplicity of in-office was needed to really shake or disrupt those market factors with those with scanners that love their labs. Heck, our lab will return a crown in. Like three to five business days from a digital scan. Right? So being able to do it in office, you wanted it simple. So that led to the materials we actually make and manufacture the materials. So it being pre centered, um, doesn’t allow that extra step. Your assistant that needs to hop the room to go, put it in the oven, bake a rebate, re-centered, um, it’s just ready to mill and then be polished and then see. Mm-hmm. So yeah, I think simplicity is a lot of the charm and the materials advantage that we have.

[00:49:18] Regan Robertson: Um, any. Go ahead. Where can people, where can people meet you? I know that Glidewell has a gorgeous facility, uh, in California as well, and I’m sure there’s classes and things, but if they’re not in that area immediately, where can we see you next, and how can people get in touch with you?

[00:49:36] Thomas Boran: Me personally?

[00:49:37] Regan Robertson: Yeah. You personally or professionally? She large,

[00:49:42] Thomas Boran: so. Oh,

[00:49:42] Regan Robertson: oh, you mean like personally? Personally? No. So this isn in a dating cycle? Yeah,

[00:49:47] Thomas Boran: exactly.

[00:49:48] Regan Robertson: Uh,

[00:49:49] Thomas Boran: I, I go roundabout to many of the major trade shows, exhibits where we, you know, invest our, uh, kind of trade show event dollars. I’m usually on the road three. You know, three weeks a month, I thought maybe you were, yeah. Yeah. So I do the song and dance and I’m pretty used to it. The Glidewell facilities are re, you know, just remarkable. I. Get there if you can. It’s way better than just seeing me. Uh, that is in, uh, Newport Beach, uh, Irvine. So really, if you fly into Santa Ana, John Wayne County Airport, um, you Orange County Airport, you walk across the street and Glidewell is there on oh three, hit your campus. So very easy to get to or talk to me how you would like to visit. Um, and we can boom information and then I’ll help coordinate that.

[00:50:35] Dr. Chad Johnson: Did you say 30 acre?

[00:50:38] Thomas Boran: Almost a millions square foot of manufacturing, industrial office space and continuing education area. Wow. Mm-hmm.

[00:50:46] Dr. Chad Johnson: Trade 33 acres, three acres would be impressive in la, but no, I’m, you heard me wrong. It was 30 acres. 30 quirk. Do. That’s cool. Well, Tom, thanks for coming on today, buddy. Thank you for all your time. Such a pleasure.

[00:51:02] Thomas Boran: Love to do it again.