A Life Changing Experience for your practice Louis Malcmacher, DDS, FAGD

After 20 years in private practice and as a consultant to many major dental manufacturers, I have seen a lot of development in the dental materials field come and go. Many have stayed with us and have really been a life changing experience for us in our dental careers. I like life changing experiences, not only for my practice, and myself but also for my patients. Clearly, the entire tooth bleaching explosion has changed patients’ attitudes and feelings toward dentistry with a new appreciation for how easily their esthetics can improve. Millions of people have had their teeth whitened and this in itself has fueled the continuing cosmetic dentistry boom. There is, however, one piece of the teeth whitening experience that we can improve on.

Patients, like all of us, want instant gratification. Many patients would like to have their teeth whitened right now, today, instantly, and efficiently. People don’t usually think too far ahead. How many times have you heard from patients say that, “You know, I’d love to bleach my teeth but I need it done for a wedding I’m going to tomorrow. Can you do that?” The answer we are able to give them today is, “Yes, absolutely!” With the new Rembrandt® One-Hour Whitening Program, you can bleach a patient’s teeth over a lunch hour. If they want it done today, you can actually do it today and they can walk out of your office one hour later with approximately a nine-shade change. That is a fantastic, 21st century life changing experience for both you and especially your patient.

The core of the Rembrandt One-Hour Whitening Program is the Virtuoso™ Sapphire™ Light, a plasma arc light, which in addition to its bleaching capabilities with the Virtuoso Lightening bleach material can also cure composite resins in three seconds. Being able to use this Virtuoso Sapphire Light for a number of different procedures makes it very versatile and therefore very cost effective. I often teach in my overhead control lectures the adage, “Sometimes you have to spend money to make money”. You will recoup your investment on any piece of equipment that gives you the ability to perform dentistry faster, better and easier for your patients. Saving time also means you are going to save money. In the June, 2000 edition of The Journal of the American Dental Association, Dr. Gordon Christiansen writes about a study that Clinical Research Associates did on the time efficiency of curing lights and I quote, “The study found that the typical dentist cured resin for about $48,000 worth of time in one year - about 30 eight hour days”. He continues by saying that if you don’t switch to a faster curing light, “Continuing on as you have may cost you up to $40,000 a year”. Those statements speak for themselves in terms of the overhead control. If you want to get a feel for how time efficient your regular curing light is, consider this. I often do this little experiment with the audiences of my lectures. Stop reading now and count out 40 seconds to get a feel for how long that really is. Then multiply that by three or four times, since one-40 second cure with a halogen light needs to be applied to each surface of the tooth. With any decent size restoration, you’re well into at least a couple of minutes of curing time. Now compare that with a three second cure on each surface of a tooth and now you really have a feel for the amount of time savings you will recover for each bonded procedure you do.

The Virtuoso Lightning Gel is a specially formulated 35% hydrogen gel, which gets extra activation once the Virtuoso Sapphire light is applied to it. After the proper retraction, the gel is placed on the teeth, left there for a few minutes and is then activated with the light. You can actually see the whitening process happen through the translucent gel. It really is an amazing process to watch. I get excited every time I see this happen on a patient because I know how pleased they will be with the final result.

Compared to the other whitening systems in the market place, The Rembrandt One-Hour Whitening Program makes the most financial sense. First of all, you keep 100% of your fee. This is a distinct advantage over other whitening systems. Simply put, after five or six whitening cases, you will have made back the cost of your initial investment. In truth, you have probably made the investment in the light back far before you’ve even done the six bleaching cases because of all the time saved in composite resin curing. After that, 100% of your whitening fee goes into your practice’s bank account. With other whitening systems on the market, you pay a sizable amount of money for each whitening procedure that you do. For example, with these other systems, if you charge $550.00 as a one hour whitening fee and need to pay $250.00 to the company for providing that service, you have now produced $300.00 an hour. In addition, take off your normal overhead expenses and your actual production figure is even lower than $300.00. That significantly reduces your ability to make a profit on these procedures to the point where it is not worthwhile. You would be better off doing a crown in that hour. When it is done this way, it is too time intensive to be able to see any kind of reasonable profit. With the Rembrandt One-Hour Whitening Program, you keep your entire fee of $600 to $700. If it takes you an hour to do that, then you have just produced $600 to $700 more, which is a very reasonable amount. The potential for profit with the Rembrandt system is many times what it is for the other systems.

Another big plus with the Rembrandt system is the synergy with the Den-Mat® Company Consumer Division. Den-Mat aggressively markets the Rembrandt line of products in major national magazines on a regular basis. In fact, the Den-Mat Company creates over 12 billion impressions per year for the Rembrandt line. That means that consumers see the Rembrandt name constantly. If you offer the Rembrandt One Hour Whitening Program in your office, patients relate that name to what they see in the consumer market place. The Rembrandt line of oral care products is known to be the higher end, high quality products that whiten peoples’ teeth. That creates a very unique and state of the art image for your practice in the consumers’ mind. This is the image that the dental profession should strive to create and Den-Mat has done an excellent job of doing that for us. Your practice should jump at the chance to be associated with a name that consumers recognize as being a high quality company. They then transfer that perception to your office and have more confidence in what you do. There is no question that this then drives treatment acceptance for the kind of cosmetic dentistry that people want.

Den-Mat has received considerable feedback from dentists who have adopted the Rembrandt One-Hour Whitening Program. Comments like the following are typical: “We have already completed 12 Rembrandt One-Hour Whitening Chairside patients in two weeks,” reported Dr. Ball of San Jose, California. “The patients experienced 7-10 shades of lightening and loved it.”

The Rembrandt One Hour Whitening Program is a simple, easy to use system that delivers to patients the ability to whiten their teeth in one hour. It will establish your practice as a 21st century, state of the art, advanced esthetic center and has many treatment and financial advantages for you and your patients. It gives patients what they want, and creates a life changing experience for both the patient and you, the dental professional.

Louis Malcmacher, DDS, FAGD, maintains a general and cosmetic private practice in Cleveland, Ohio. His group dental practice has maintained a 45% overhead since 1988. Louis is also an internationally-known lecturer and author, known for his comprehensive and entertaining style. He works closely with dental manufacturers as a consultant and clinical researcher in developing new products and techniques. He can be contacted at: 27239 Wolf Road, Bay Village, Ohio 44140; phone (440) 892-1810, fax (216) 321-5399 or by email: dryowza@iname.com.