Innovation in Dentistry: Why it Matters to Your Practice

You're listening to The Dr. Phil Klein Dental Podcast from Viva Learning.com. Welcome to the show. I'm Dr. Phil Klein. Dental Advisor reviews hundreds of product and equipment ideas each year and combines laboratory research with clinical evaluation. This provides essential feedback to manufacturers and dental professionals to ensure successful implementation into practice. and its role in dentists deciding to use scientifically and clinically proven materials. Our guest is Dr. Sabiha Bunek. She is the CEO of Dental Advisor and maintains a private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her unique and multifaceted career as a clinician and researcher provides a valuable vantage point to bridge the gap between science and real-world clinical applications. Dr. Bunek, it's a pleasure to have you on Dental Talk. Great to be here, Phil. Thanks so much for having me. I want to congratulate you on your seven-year tenure as CEO of Dental Advisor. Very impressive. Are you enjoying it? I'm loving it. I've got a great team, especially our team right now is the best we've had in years. We're going to be celebrating 40 years for the Dental Advisor here next year. Wow. And we've got a top-notch team. We're investing in people now, and it's really brought us a long way. Yeah, and the team is so important, and that applies to the dental office as well or anything you do. in an organization. When you're working with the right people, it just makes it so much more fun. So to begin this podcast, we're talking about innovation and you are absolutely the one to talk to about this topic. You are in an environment where you're evaluating other companies' innovation, specifically in the dental field. So my first question is, Dr. Bunek, in your experience, what are the criteria for products to be considered innovative? I think first, the product needs to solve a problem. that we may have in our workflow. I mean, it might be a problem that is something that we're aware of that's existing, or it might be something that's brought to us maybe by some research someone has done. There has to be a problem that exists that this solves. If you look at years past, you know, Dr. Richard Price, right, Phil? He did all those studies with the Mark system, looking at light curing, and he brought so much attention to how if you don't hear something properly. that you're going to get restorations that's not fully cured and that could lead to sensitivity. You have cements that aren't cured that could lead to debonds. And so we all started to try to change the way that we're curing. So he brought light to an issue that we didn't even know we had and the importance of light curing. And you can look at innovation as of recently, if you looked at Ivoclar's Blue Phase Power Cure, right? So that is a light curing unit that now has solved this problem. It's kind of like when we're driving. I get two things when I'm driving outside of my lane. I get an alert, then my steering wheel moves. So it alerts me and then it corrects my driving. So this curing light does the same thing. It will vibrate if you're off, if you're not staying in your lane, and then it'll add time to your curing time if you have shifted your angle and you're not going to get the full cure. So things like that are innovative. In the past, we've looked at syringes that now are causing less waste when we didn't even realize waste was an issue. but you're getting the same amount of uses. And, you know, these companies have just brought these great innovative products to our hands. So we're super lucky. So that's one thing. The other thing is that they also have to pay attention to, you know, the experience of the end user. I mean, it could be a great innovation, but does it really go with my workflow? Or do I have to put it in a refrigerator for 10 minutes and then bring it down to room temperature and then stick it in an incubator? I mean, whatever it is. In fact, I was going to ask you that question. So there's innovation, but then there's also commercial feasibility. How does it work in the hands of a practitioner where it makes sense? It's economically feasible. So do you also evaluate that or do you look at that before you even take on a project? You might say to the company, you know, this does solve a problem, but based on the way the instructions are or what we have to do to get this thing to work, it doesn't seem like it's ready for dental advisor to send out to its evaluators. You know, this hits on a great thing. I mean, one of the things that we do best is when we work with companies pre-market. you know i think i have the luckiest job in the world because i get to work with all these different manufacturers and i see their personalities as you know are they really into research are they really into just getting this out because they need to get eight products out that year and you know it's just we see such a big array of the way companies do it, but the most successful companies in my eyes are the companies that work with us pre-market. So that means even before things are FDA approved, they're going to take their claims. It could be their research and they're going to have us use it in our lab. As soon as we can validate their claims, now they're onto something. We might do focus groups that look at packaging and we can give them tips on instructions or, you know, maybe the button shouldn't be here. We've looked at all these different products and we found that, you know, in the past having The button in this area really doesn't do well with people or just maybe it doesn't disinfect well, whatever it is. But yes, we can add so much value when we look at the things in pre-market. The earlier, the better. So your team has so much experience in this. How do you actually test the products for the dental market? Right. So we've got a couple of different legs. We've got our biomaterials research center so we can test. you know the strength what a compression all the different numbers that most dentists don't care about but we do um and then we have a clinical evaluations so we have about 350 clinical evaluators in the country and they're located in different areas let's just say we got a product from a company it's a bonding agent we would send it out to about 30 or 40 of our 350 consultants they would look at it for two months and then they'd fill out a clinical survey, and then our editorial board would decide what kind of rating it gets. And so we give everything a rating. Our biggest thing that we do, Phil, is we take the research that we've done in our biomaterials lab, and we tie it in with our clinical evals. And one of the things that we do is we even test things before they go give them to our clinical evaluators. So we know the standard of where things should be. We're not going to give them something if it doesn't look good in the lab. So we test things in the labs first. If it does well, we will give it to our clinical evaluators. We have relationships with manufacturers. So if things aren't going so well, we'll talk to them and we'll say, hey, this isn't going so well. We'll give it back to them, come up with the redesign, help them out. I'm a practicing dentist as well as the CEO of the dental advisor. So I love new products. I love to go out and talk about new products. And so it doesn't do us well to have a whole bunch of bad products. So we really try to work with manufacturers to get the best products on the market. And I do feel like we're almost like the watchdog of dentistry. And I think your dental advisor branding. Just the cachet behind your company's name gives dentists confidence that they're using products that at least they know have been tested. And your laboratories really must have improved over the years, right? The sophistication of your lab equipment. Absolutely. There's something that we don't have. We're here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and there's certain tests that maybe someone wants with those, you know. really, really, really expensive machine, we can go use it at the University of Michigan. You know, they've got research centers that we can use some of their high-tech stuff. I mean, the resources that we have available are amazing. And we work collaboratively with a lot of universities as well. I actually have a patent on a few products that I developed when I was younger, in my younger days, when I had a lot more energy. And I used, I went to Penn, the Laboratory for the Research of Structure of Matter, LRSM building. Okay. In Philly. And they had instrument machines there. And they had an incredible lab team that helped me use these machines, electron microscopy. And it was phenomenal. So we were able to test fatigue and metal failure. And we knew where the breaking point was, no pun intended. When you see that part of the research, you really value it, right? They fail the bond test. early on. And those are the products that aren't going to, they're not clinically proven for success. Even if they feel great in the hands, it's like they've got to pass the certain standard level for these different tests that we do. And it's so important. And so I think that really opened up my eyes going from dentists to getting more involved with the dental advisors, just to see what goes on in the back. I love. know getting my hands wet with some of the research with our team too it just it's so amusing to me and it really the best products are the ones that work clinically in your hands and do well in the lab right and that's and that's that's the key thing there are a lot of claims being stated by manufacturers and let's hope that most of the manufacturers have integrity and these claims are validated by research But they're not all backed by research. And some companies are saying things, wishful thinking, you know, they're hoping that it works out or they used it in a small focus group and said, hey, this worked out great, but there's no real laboratory evidence-based testing behind it. And as a clinician, we're all busy with many, many things and we don't have time to dig too deep. We really want to rely on a company like Dental Advisor to do that homework for us. Third-party testing is invaluable. And when you look at the companies, I always wonder if there's certain companies that don't do that testing. You know, is it there's something they're trying to hide? Is it, you know, but we're in the know of a lot of things. But it's great when companies are like, yeah, bring it, you know. Exactly. Go ahead and test my product. Let me know. And we've got even maybe a couple different formulations that you can look at. Tell us which one that you're doing, getting the best results for in the lab. I noticed each year Dental Advisor awards an Innovative Company of the Year award. How is this determined? So basically what we'll do is for that year, we'll search through all the products that we've looked at. It might be just clinically or it might be in the lab. And we're looking for products that really just turned our head. If you look in the years past, we've had companies, every company that we've chosen had products that without a doubt, they're innovative. They were innovative for that year. And there's so many products that come out and they're Me Too products. But then every year for the past, I don't know how many years, there's always one company that stood out with innovation. You know, they might have a one shade composite or they might have a very unique syringe this year. we gave it to ivoclar and if you look at the products that they've come out with they are one of the top companies i know that we've worked with in research and they put so much into research and development and following that product along till the very end so you know you look at something like the power cure which i mentioned earlier we looked at it probably about 18 months before it even came out to market did the research did it with their composite looked at it with you know competitor composites too just to see how it worked and Then, you know, we validated their claims. It did great. It cured the composites in that amount of time. And it did very well. And it had so many other great characteristics about it. But then we look at it clinically. And now the evaluators are all giving it a five plus. And everybody loves this product. So now this is great innovation, right? This blue phase power cure solves something. But you look at the other products, too. They're VivaPen. They've redesigned that Viva pen. There's no other pen-like in the market that you can use to put an adhesive into your cavity preparation. You know, and I think it's fitting to say that Ivoclar has been one of those extraordinary companies that have successfully provided quality evidence-based dental continuing education, which is our business. We work very closely with them. And this education helps dentists better understand and utilize their products and their innovative products. And of course... The best thing about this is that this is all supported by a strong backbone of quantitative data. And that's important because that ultimately supports clinical performance over time. When you give these products a number, what are some of the positive things that the products have that raise that rating up? And what are some of the compromises or negative things of that product that ding it where the number goes down? Yeah. So, I mean, every product category is going to be different. You know, we're looking at different things when we're looking at cements versus a composite. Our rating system is based on a one to five plus rating system, and the five is the best. It's important to note we don't publish one and two. We might be critiqued for that, but the reason we don't do it is because we're not in the business to promote bad products. We're trying to help these companies get better products. So if they get a one or two, we go back to them. Many times they've come back to the drawing table with better products that have gotten awards in the past from us. So if you don't see one and two, that's why. So let's just say it's a composite, right? So some of the higher rating ones are going to have better handling. They might not be sensitive to ambient light. You know, we've all used composites where we're working and all of a sudden it gets exposed to the air and the light and it just starts to harden and crumble. So that's not going to do very well. It's important to look not just the dentist. How well does this fit? Does the dental assistant most of the time is extruding the heavy body from the, you know, VPS material that we're using? Is it hard to extrude? I can't tell you if it is or not, but, you know, making sure that. Whatever the product is, if the assistant's the one putting it away in packaging, you know, is it slim, sleek? Does it fit well? If it comes in a ridiculous case and it's got multiple units, you know, parts to it, it's not going to rate well as far as packaging goes or, you know, so we're looking at so many different things, but it's not just the dentist in mind. We also, like I said, we look at how easy is it to clean? You know, does it have a lot of little holes and vents in it? You know, light curing units where it's just we're looking at those things because they're important. Yeah, especially today. Yeah. Today's day and age with infection control. That's a huge factor. As a dentist, what do you think is the most important factor in product development? I think getting another set of eyes to look at your product. Right. So if I'm making this product and I get tunnel vision, you know, then it's just going to be in that tunnel. I'm not going to see all this. It could be small stuff. Like, for example, today I was working, I told you earlier, and I was working on this football coach who broke to his front two teeth. He's got to go on his recruiting. trip right so i'm sitting there for two hours doing two class four composites on eight and nine and i mean at the end of my two hours and i'm sitting there and he's upside down by the end of it i'm like hey shelby who's my dental assistant i sit him up i'm like let me know what you think right i know enough to know that i've looked at this these two restorations for so long that i'm going to miss something unless i have another set of eyes and that's exactly how i feel about manufacturers Once they get to the point where they realize that they need the extra set of eyes, whether it be a company like ours, like the dental advisor, or maybe it's a university or another company that does something that can help them just with another set of eyes. I think that tells me so much more about that company. And that really, if I look in the past and history, that really is one of the factors that leads to success. I mean, it's like writing a book, writing an article. It's nice to have an editor to come in and say, you know, this is a great piece you wrote, but. You're missing the wow factor with this last paragraph. You need something else here. What's the best way for a dentist to get access to these evaluations as a practicing clinician? We have a website. It's dentaladvisor.com. There's a lot of clinical evals that are free to the user. We also have a subscription, which gives you access to everything. But if you go to a trade show and you look at all the products and all the signage, you'll see our logo anywhere. So if you're kind of looking for a stamp of approval. without even looking at the full evaluation. As long as you understand that there's, you know, a five plus rating system, you'll look at these different products. Sometimes even on the packaging or in the catalog, it'll have a logo. It says DA and it'll have the plus rating next to it where it might have DA and it says top award for the year, which means in that category of composite, it got the top composite. But I would say the website would be the best way to get access to what we have. And also, you know, a lot of the reps for these distributors are using them. bring a product to recommend to a dentist. But you can also ask your rep if that's who's helping you make those buying decisions. You know, what is a dental advisor? Has a dental advisor done research on this product? What does a dental advisor say? And I think it's important for every dentist who's practicing clinical dentistry to at least look into that. If they're excited about a product, find out has it been evaluated? Maybe it's not dental advisor. Maybe it is, but I know dental advisor. is one of the top and most respected companies that do this, but there is importance in getting a third party's viewpoint as far as how this... product performed your webinar is very well attended you do a webinar i think it's once a year on top products of the year on viva learning yeah we do when it's in february so we talk about it's a two-hour webinar that we do with viva learning and we get thousands of people registered it's amazing and they're from all over the world but we go over in detail the top products that we gave an award to and and why and so and we'll tie in our research and i think that's probably one of the best webinars on the live event we had thousands that showed up and then we had Tens of thousands that watched it on demand. And congratulations to Ivoclar for winning that award in 2022, Innovative Company of the Year. I know the folks at Ivoclar and they deserve it. They have a great company and they really, really work very hard on education, which is, again, our business here is education. And they sponsor events and they sponsor podcasts and webinars. And that gets distributed to hundreds of thousands of dental professionals across the world through Viva Learning. So thank you very much. Dr. Bunek, I appreciate your time. Thanks so much, Phil. It's been wonderful chatting with you. We should do this more often. Absolutely. We will. Thank you so much. Thank you.