Message Boards
Today's Active Topics Today's Active Cases Browse Forum Categories My Recent Activity My Messages Private Groups My Marked Threads My Subscriptions
Today's Active Images Today's Active Polls Most Active Topics Global Townie Map Advanced Message Board Search Message Board Terms of Use

Howard Speaks Howard Farran, DDS, MAGD, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine

View Comments (11) More by this author (315)
 
Walk Like a European
– by Howard Farran, DDS, MAGD, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine

I’ve had the opportunity to lecture in about 40 different countries around the world. When you travel abroad and talk to international dental peers as much as I do, it becomes glaringly apparent that there is more than one way to skin a cat. For as different as every country is from one another, so is the dentistry they practice.

The United States makes up only five percent of the world’s population. There are one million dentists around the world, and about 140,000 of them practice in America. We Americans are a very cynical bunch of people. We don’t trust the government. We don’t trust big business. We live by the expression, “Love many, trust few, but paddle your own canoe.”

Europe, on the other hand, is very different. Europeans pay higher taxes and they have more social benefits for health care, retirement and social security. They even seem far more trusting of government and big business.

One of my all-time favorite dental shows in the world is the International Dental Show (IDS), which is held every other year in Cologne, Germany. More than 400,000 dentists representing 210 countries show up here every time. The first thing you notice about this show is how vast it is – but equally as striking is the fact that there aren’t any lectures there! If Europeans want to learn about a dental company’s goods and services, they’re going to talk to the company owner, and the scientists and manufacturers who have spent their entire careers making that product. In America, that’s blasphemy. In America that’s frowned on, because anyone who owns a dental company is “just some huckster who’d throw his grandmother under a bus and lie, cheat and steal just to make a buck from dentists.”

But think about that. Aren’t you just trying to make a buck? I mean, you didn’t go through dental school because you wanted to fix teeth for free, did you? You don’t trust manufacturers but don’t you trust yourself?

At the IDS there are no dental speakers. There are just scores and scores of exhibits, most of which have 20 or 30 chairs in front of them where the president, the director of research or one of the company’s scientists will present information about their products and services in about 20 minutes.

Isn’t it weird that most Americans would rather listen to dentists talk for an hour about something they don’t really know a whole lot about? You could walk up to some of these dental lecturers, hand them a piece of chalk and ask them to draw the organic molecule of an acrylic and they would just melt away. Do you really think these guys know the differing properties between all of the different bonding agents from more than 50 companies?

See, I trust dental companies. I trust them because if it weren’t for the advances they’ve brought to the profession, we’d all be exodontists. I trust guys like Dr. Dan Fischer at Ultradent. I have known Dan for 25 years, and he’d rather get shot in the foot than tell a lie. He has spent his entire life building Ultradent. It’s his pride and joy. I have been to conferences at his headquarters in South Jordan, Utah, about five times in the last 25 years just to learn what is going on with Ultradent.

3M is another company I’ve visited several times just to learn about its products. 3M has about 20 organic chemists in white coats walking around, scribbling stuff on chalkboards that looks like something out of an organic chemistry nightmare class I took at Creighton in the 80s! Companies like 3M and Ultradent will spend three to five years and millions of dollars just to launch a new bonding agent. I don’t need to sit in front of some speaker who can barely keep up with all the bonding agents from Ultradent to Den-Mat to 3M. I want my information from the horse’s mouth!

The fact that American dentists won’t listen to 3M’s white coats is really a sad commentary on American dentistry. It is kind of like at your local state dental convention where the people renting the booths are paying for the majority of the show, yet they aren’t even allowed to take credit cards and sell merchandise on the floor.

Dentists often ask me, “Why are dental manufacturers allowed on Dentaltown.com?” Guys, I did not call it Dentisttown, I called it the all-encompassing Dentaltown. If I took away all the Ultradents and 3Ms and Den-Mats of the world we’d all be left on a rug with a rock and a stick. It is the highspeed rotary files that make us look awesome during endodontics. It’s the apex locator that helps us bull’s-eye the apex of the root canal. It is the bonding agents that reduce sensitivity and give us great bonding strength. Take away the dental manufacturers and you are a third-world dentist sitting on a rug chucking teeth with pliers and screwdrivers.

You need to engage dental manufacturers. Dental manufacturers need your feedback. They need your ideas. Economics is supply and demand. Manufacturers create a supply of what you demand. If you think a bonding agent is too thick or too thin, let a dental manufacturer know. If you think there should be another color or shade of a composite let them know. If you have an idea on how your patients could be better served, let the manufacturers know. The reason dentistry has advanced so much in the last 100 years isn’t because of dentists’ education in math and physics – it is because of incredible technological advancements by dental manufacturers. Embrace it (or maybe you’d like your rug and pliers back).

Howard Live
Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, MAGD, is an international speaker who has written dozens of published articles. To schedule Howard to speak to your next national, state or local dental meeting, email colleen@farranmedia.com.

Dr. Farran’s next speaking engagement is September 17, 2010, at the Greater Springfield Dental Society in Springfield, Missouri. For more information, please call Colleen at 480-718-9914.

Seminars 2010
September 17, 2010 • Springfield, MO
Greater Springfield Dental Society
jean@clubmanagementservices.com
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
Dentaltown Magazine September 2025 Read Current Issue Read Archived Issues
Sponsors
Townie Perks
Townie® Poll
Who or what do you turn to for most financial advice regarding your practice?
  
Site Menu
Message Boards Magazine Continuing Education Podcasts Blogs Classifieds Dental News Events Townie® Poll Ebooks Townie Choice Awards
Company Info
Contact Us Advertise With Us Howard Farran DDS, MBA Policies and Agreements
Site Help
Sally Gross, Member Services Specialist
Phone: +1-480-445-9710
Email: sally@farranmedia.com
©2025 Dentaltown, a division of Farran Media • All Rights Reserved
9633 S. 48th Street Suite 200 • Phoenix, AZ 85044 • Phone:+1-480-598-0001 • Fax:+1-480-598-3450