Is it me?

[kcdt]

Or do the conversations get weird on FB if you address real world techniques?
Like somehow considering the everyday bread and butter somehow sullies the Olympian heights of the boutique...
All those clutch the pearls responses to just saying something as it is

 

[JohnWilson]

FWIW.....

Try not to get too sensitive Ken, we all seem to wear our heart on our sleeve, we all seem to think after all of these years that we have most of the answers. Oh yeah maybe thats just me talking

Seriously I think you have to be in the mindset that if you put a bunch of type A "know it alls" in one place you will bound to clash. Heck maybe I am stupid but isn't that half the fun of the internet? Not talking about bitching and complaining but actually disagreeing and discussing? I will say that as I age I have learned a level of tact that often the younger superstars lack. I think from time to time they need to be taken down a peg or two but the true and most respected way to do this is not to throw your hands in the air and give up or resort to being rude but to continue to debate and discuss.

At least thats the tact and path I try and take, hell if we are on a flipping dental site talking about teeth in our free time it must mean we love what we do? The time I spend online today sharing and giving away what I have learned over the years is not to show superiority but it is in my sincere hope that perhaps someone reading it won't have to struggle as hard as I did coming up. Its still fun for me but this trade is changing so fast, its my fear that the kids just getting started really won't be viable in the near future and making a real and meaningful living doing average work will not be possible.

 

[TheLabGuy]

Feel free to send your words of wisdom my way anytime kcdt FB, is such a double edge sword, worse thing ever invented for anyone under the age of 25 in my book....go figure it was a Dentists son who invented it.

 

[kcdt]

FWIW.....

Try not to get too sensitive Ken, we all seem to wear our heart on our sleeve, we all seem to think after all of these years that we have most of the answers. Oh yeah maybe thats just me talking

Seriously I think you have to be in the mindset that if you put a bunch of type A "know it alls" in one place you will bound to clash. Heck maybe I am stupid but isn't that half the fun of the internet? Not talking about bitching and complaining but actually disagreeing and discussing? I will say that as I age I have learned a level of tact that often the younger superstars lack. I think from time to time they need to be taken down a peg or two but the true and most respected way to do this is not to throw your hands in the air and give up or resort to being rude but to continue to debate and discuss.

At least thats the tact and path I try and take, hell if we are on a flipping dental site talking about teeth in our free time it must mean we love what we do? The time I spend online today sharing and giving away what I have learned over the years is not to show superiority but it is in my sincere hope that perhaps someone reading it won't have to struggle as hard as I did coming up. Its still fun for me but this trade is changing so fast, its my fear that the kids just getting started really won't be viable in the near future and making a real and meaningful living doing average work will not be possible.

Thanks John. There's some good stuff to unpack.
I agree about analogue work for average stuff in fixed.
I'm up in the air about how long we have removable.
Right now it's all we can do to keep up.

 

[JohnWilson]

IF I was 25 and looking to stay viable I would go through a denturist program. I would then exploit this for another 20 years and hope legislation didn't change. I would sell nothing but the highest end restoration and have a little bed and breakfast for my patients to come and stay with me for a week while we did their prosthetics. We would bond on more than just teeth and really make an experience of it all.

Life would be grand

 

[rkm rdt]

IF I was 25 and looking to stay viable I would go through a denturist program. I would then exploit this for another 20 years and hope legislation didn't change. I would sell nothing but the highest end restoration and have a little bed and breakfast for my patients to come and stay with me for a week while we did their prosthetics. We would bond on more than just teeth and really make an experience of it all.

Life would be grand

You'd have to serve them porridge until Friday.

 

[bullit]

IF I was 25 and looking to stay viable I would go through a denturist program. I would then exploit this for another 20 years and hope legislation didn't change. I would sell nothing but the highest end restoration and have a little bed and breakfast for my patients to come and stay with me for a week while we did their prosthetics. We would bond on more than just teeth and really make an experience of it all.

Life would be grand

A Dental Spa !!

 

[kcdt]

IF I was 25 and looking to stay viable I would go through a denturist program. I would then exploit this for another 20 years and hope legislation didn't change. I would sell nothing but the highest end restoration and have a little bed and breakfast for my patients to come and stay with me for a week while we did their prosthetics. We would bond on more than just teeth and really make an experience of it all.

Life would be grand

Wow. That's a thought.

 

[kcdt]

Feel free to send your words of wisdom my way anytime kcdt FB, is such a double edge sword, worse thing ever invented for anyone under the age of 25 in my book....go figure it was a Dentists son who invented it.

I feel like there's not a lot of real world there.

 

[Affinity]

God forbid you ask if the Dr cares about open margins.. As long as there are a bakers dozen powders in the buildup..

 

[Gru]

 

[JKraver]

IF I was 25 and looking to stay viable I would go through a denturist program. I would then exploit this for another 20 years and hope legislation didn't change. I would sell nothing but the highest end restoration and have a little bed and breakfast for my patients to come and stay with me for a week while we did their prosthetics. We would bond on more than just teeth and really make an experience of it all.

Life would be grand

If denturism came to FL it would be life changing for me. I would be set.

 

[FullPartial]

FWIW.....
Its still fun for me but this trade is changing so fast, its my fear that the kids just getting started really won't be viable in the near future and making a real and meaningful living doing average work will not be possible.

John could you expand on this please. Are you speaking across the board or specific areas like zirconia crown design, where saturation of unskilled techs is lowering wages? Being a young gun I'm interested in what the veterans see in this industry both positive and negative.

 

[JKraver]

What I see is the manual labor required for dental lab is decreasing as more and more goes digital. So more units will be done by fewer hands. Get really good or get out. Corporate labs will own the cheap to mediocre market.

 

[JohnWilson]

If I had a crystal ball, of course I have no clue just speculating with some info I see.

Corporate dentistry and INSCO reimbursements are dictating that the restorations we are making are now a commodity. Technology has allowed for ACCEPTABLE restorations , Fit, Function, and durable. With this automation and the advancements in technology just leaping forward it will be more common place to fabricate ALL of the quadrant style restoration in house or DIRECT with our Vendors. I hate to say it but in the next 5 years it could wipe out a lot of what we are doing today>

Implants and combination cases as well as FMR's will be your best source of viability. Denture work and new technology will encroach on this segment too but not as fast. Reductive technology will be replaced with additive technology with new printable materials. Expanded duty techs working in house will become the norm, digital case planning for FMR cases and TECHNICAL restorative treatment coordinators will become the norm in bigger practices. Very few artisans and ANALOG techs will be able to operate a solvent laboratory. The average Crown price will continue to fall as IOS becomes 100% the norm.

Its bleek guys, I am not a doom and gloom person but I am a realist and the writing is beginning to be written.

 

[rkm rdt]

I miss the good old days.
back when everyone sent to China.

 

[JKraver]

If I had a crystal ball, of course I have no clue just speculating with some info I see.

Corporate dentistry and INSCO reimbursements are dictating that the restorations we are making are now a commodity. Technology has allowed for ACCEPTABLE restorations , Fit, Function, and durable. With this automation and the advancements in technology just leaping forward it will be more common place to fabricate ALL of the quadrant style restoration in house or DIRECT with our Vendors. I hate to say it but in the next 5 years it could wipe out a lot of what we are doing today>

Implants and combination cases as well as FMR's will be your best source of viability. Denture work and new technology will encroach on this segment too but not as fast. Reductive technology will be replaced with additive technology with new printable materials. Expanded duty techs working in house will become the norm, digital case planning for FMR cases and TECHNICAL restorative treatment coordinators will become the norm in bigger practices. Very few artisans and ANALOG techs will be able to operate a solvent laboratory. The average Crown price will continue to fall as IOS becomes 100% the norm.

Its bleek guys, I am not a doom and gloom person but I am a realist and the writing is beginning to be written.

I thought you said you didn't have a crystal ball. That is the future of this industry. I wont train my children in my trade.

 

[Affinity]

John could you expand on this please. Are you speaking across the board or specific areas like zirconia crown design, where saturation of unskilled techs is lowering wages? Being a young gun I'm interested in what the veterans see in this industry both positive and negative.

If I were younger, I would for sure be trained as a dental assistant also. The dental jobs of the future will mainly happen in-house. Dental surgical assisting or even just general dental practice operation. If you want to make a living in dental you need to work either directly for the patient, or get as close to the short end of a dentist that you can, ..you may have to fend off other office staff.., and beg that you are one of the peasants that gets a nickel out of them. The future of dentistry is bright, if youre a dentist. Someone please give me a rainbow, Im really not that jaded!

 

[J Pierce]

If denturism came to FL it would be life changing for me. I would be set.

You would be set James!! You could work until your hair turned blue also!!!

 

[grantoz]

fullpartial you need to rethink what you say about techs you think are unskilled just because they are cadcam techs its not a lower skill but a different skill.i have heard a few young denturists say similar things you guys do this at your own peril .Ive been a tech for 35 years and a denturist for 21 years and anyone who calls themselves a young gun in this industry is just young and no gun .you guys need to embrace new technology ios scans milled and printed dentures etc or otherwise you going to take samari sword to a machine gun fight.