Smile Transformation Using Injection Bonding: A Great Option for Your Patients

Welcome to The Dr. Phil Klein Dental Podcast. I'm Dr. Phil Klein. These days, it seems like more and more, dental patients continue to seek alternative treatment to traditional dental services, steering away from some of the typical things we do like porcelain crowns, veneers, and traditional orthodontics. In light of this, injection molding is fast becoming a popular treatment alternative. To tell us more about it is our guest, Dr. William Vuillemot, founder and CEO of Smile Bond Systems. Dr. Vuillemot, often referred to as Dr. Bill, is known as the father inventor of injection bonding. Dr. Bill, it's a pleasure to have you on Dental Talk. Thanks, Phil. Pleasure to be here. So to begin this podcast, first tell us what injection bonding is all about. You bet. Injection bonding is a method, process, or technique. whereby a patient can have a brilliant gleaming cosmetic smile enhancement and the restorations will be in every manner or aspect similar to porcelain crowns and veneers so in other words the size shape color feel will all be exactly the same except the material is just a composite bonding rather than porcelain and this is possible because of the advancements in composite bonding technology these days. I've been doing this for 20 years, and with each passing year, the materials just get better and better. Right. So you're bonding this composite restorative directly to the enamel, right? Yes. The enamel is prepared a little bit, roughened up a little bit, I assume, and then it's etched? Yes. Let's just briefly talk about... we'll walk through the workflow so the dentist takes photos and impressions of the of the patient's chief complaint and then they're sent to the lab our lab is called smile bond lab and what we do is we duplicate the initial model and then we do a workup and so the second model is a corrected model and we'll correct all the problems like rotations overlap damage wear and tear And so we'll correct this to ideal natural form. Then we fabricate a custom bonding shell. It'll capture all those attributes of the ideal or the intended design. And then, yes, just as you're saying, the dentist will prepare the teeth, etch and bond, fit the shell over, and then hydraulically inject the composite bonding material onto the teeth, cure and finish. Why is injection bonding? so in demand by patients they don't really know about it they're not going to walk in and say hey Dr. Bill I'm ready for my injection bonding so how does that interaction work with the patients and why do you feel that the patient is demanding this so urgently so the insights I've gained from 20 years and many hundreds of patient interviews is that I'm going to say millions of people are walking around and they're very dissatisfied with their smile. And for some people, it may be just a minor nagging annoyance, but for others, it's really a severe impact, negative impact on their self-esteem. Some of the younger patients have maybe suffered for a few years, but I've consulted with some patients that have been ashamed of their smile for decades. And that's so sad to me because they'll say, hey, I hide my smile. And I don't show my smile in pictures, that kind of thing. So it begs the question, well, okay, if you're unhappy with your smile, why haven't you done anything? And so because they have these patients I interview. have gone to dentists and for some reason they have been unable or unwilling to proceed with what I call traditional offers. So what are the reasons? There's three main reasons. One is cost, of course. That always comes into play with any discretional purchase. So if we're talking cosmetic smile enhancement with porcelain crowns and veneers, you can easily get $10,000 in North in terms of a fee, depending on, you know, skill of the team and location of the practice. So that's a huge barrier. It cuts out a huge portion of the population that might otherwise want their teeth restored. Now, the second reason is fear. And I was really surprised by this, but I would rank it equally with cost as a barrier. People are terrified of the idea of having their teeth drilled on. And we know that some porcelain veneers are... very non-invasive but for the most part some preparation is needed and very little is needed with with composite bonding I've had people that could afford whatever fee I threw at them but they weren't going to have anything that required grinding the third reason the barrier that keeps people from moving forward with treatment is time and so as we know orthodontics takes time and And some people have already been through it or don't want to go through that again. And with ortho, even at the completion, sometimes even though the teeth are straight, they still need a cosmetic. restorative phase. The bottom line is that patients can have basically an equivalent restoration to porcelain crowns and veneers, but they can have it for much less cost. The fee I'm usually quoting to do this for eight teeth, the upper smiling teeth is about $5,000. And it's done in much less time. So one treatment sitting of two to three hours, they can sit up and view their brand new smile. Most of the cases, I'd say over 90% of the cases I do, do not require anesthetic. So there's no pain. So on our website, smilebond.com, we've got a smile gallery. And those patients are grinning from ear to ear. Number one, because this is the first time they've ever seen their face with the smile of their dreams. They finally, after... with dentists for year after year, they finally found a way forward and they can smile because they're not numb. Yeah. Well, let me ask you this. How long do they last and how durable are they to, you know, the normal forces of mastication and grinding? Absolutely. That's the number one question. And I hear that from both patients and dentists alike. And what I will say is I have no misgivings or qualms whatsoever about durability. In the early days, I was very concerned about it, but as time has gone on and as the properties of the materials have improved, I do them without any misgivings whatsoever. So I have patients. I have testimonies, case histories, records going back 20 years. I see these people in my practice in hygiene. I see 5, 10, 15-year histories, and patients are just thrilled. They want us to tell other people. share their experience. And so one thing I'll throw out is my go-to product is a Shofu product. It's called Beautifil Flow Plus. And the best compliment I can give Shofu is I discovered this by accident. One company stopped making a composite I was using, so I was in a tizzy. I was desperately searching for something. And when I found the beautiful Flow Plus, it actually was better. And it's been my go-to product now for 10 years or so. And it's tough as nails. It's extremely durable. So, again, with proper informed consent, case selection, and with building. a post-op clear aligner retainer, I have zero problems with durability. One other quick thing I'll say is one advantage to composite bonding restorations is that they can be repaired. Right. How thin is this veneer that's going over the tooth? Well, it kind of depends on what the desired outcome is. If a wholesale color change is desired, we're going to be thickening up. You know, there's going to be a little bit more volume. So even in the body of the tooth, there might be more volume. But as we go up to the incisal edge, we're almost always adding length. We're adding anterior guidance. So we're improving not only the form but the function. And so just imagine if you were to. pull out the dental anatomy book or look at a set of ideal models. We're literally just recapturing and reduplicating what's there. And how far down towards the gingiva does the composite go? Where's your margins? Absolutely. Again, that just depends on the desired outcome. So for a patient who isn't going to change color, and quite often I find that with gentlemen, they're not... so concerned about going up to a bleachy color, but they want the form and the shape improved. So often these restorations will end in the middle or cervical third and just be blended right into the enamel. So when you have adult crowding in the mandible, it could be pretty severe for some patients. Is this a treatment option for those kinds of patients or they need to get to an orthodontist? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, they absolutely should consider orthodontic option so remember with regards to injection bonding it's not a replacement for these other therapies it's not a replacement for porcelain crowns and veneers it's not a replacement for a good orthodontic protocol it but it is a viable alternative so to answer your question yeah I'm usually talking Invisalign or brackets and wires to improve that alignment. But many patients will simply outright refuse it. So then I kind of lean on them and I say, well, if I'm going to do bondodontics here, if I'm going to trim some buccal tissue and trim some lingual tissue and add bonding and make them look like a picket fence, you know, make them look like you just had braces, I'm going to have to grind this away and it's going to be gone forever. So I really lean into it. with my informed consent. And some patients will relent and say, okay, I'll hold off and I'll do the orthodontics first. Others will say, no way, just do it. I've seen pictures of how it looks and let's just leave the roots where they are and improve the crowns. So what's the best way for an office to get started offering IB services? I'll go over four points with that. And the first advice I would give is learn from experience. You know, this is a great process. It's in huge demand with patients, but it has to be learned. It is there. There is some sensitivity to the technique. So when I first started, the demand was so incredible that that's why we started our smile bond business so that we could train other dentists in the process and try to make it available to more patients. We've been there, done that. We've made all the mistakes so so that you don't. Dentists don't have to reinvent the wheel. We just say, go ahead and take our programs and learn from our experience. The other point I would make is start with the technique because we've talked a little bit about the what. It is today what IB is, why it's so important for both dentists and patients, but you have to be able to deliver. So I would advise watching the online program. We also offer some on-site courses both here in Michigan, and we've even gone into dentists' office to help. But make sure that you can do the technique first, and then we can get into... marketing and consulting to attract patients to the practice. The other thing I would say is walk before you run. So do very simple cases first, and we advise we can help with that. Cases can be very complicated. We've done cases where we incorporate changes to horizontal and vertical dimension and full mouth cases. using injection bonding as a tool, but never ever start with those. You want to start with the simple ones. On our website, we're going to give away five free trainings. Normally, we charge $9.95 for a basic technique training program. And then the average delivery kit is $9.95 as well. So we're going to say for the first five docs that want to sign up, we're going to go ahead and just give the training for free, and we'll offer half off on the first case they send in. So the code is called BRIGHTSMILE. So just either on the website, on the provider page, you can enter that in. Or you can email smilebond1 at gmail.com and give us the code and your contact information. Or our phone number is 833-688-0020. Yeah. Let me ask you the question, Dr. Bill. When you're doing the injection of the composite into the template, how do you maintain good optimal contact between the teeth approximately? Very good question. And so rest assured that these are... These restorations, these final restorations are extremely hygiene friendly is what I call it. So I'll complete a restoration. And I know that at some point in time, they're going to be down with my hygienist and they would not stand for any problems from a hygiene standpoint. So that's all covered, Dr. Phil, in the techniques programs. I can't really go into it here. Time just doesn't allow. But just suffice to say that. The way the technique is laid out, each tooth will be able to be flossed individually, and the margins will blend right in both interproximately and buccalantly. Okay, and there's not a tremendous amount of post-finishing work necessary after the injection process. I'm going to say it's about 50-50 is the way I would describe it. So one really cool thing about injection bonding is that the design is done for you. I did many of these freehand before, and that can just be... Such a frustrating experience trying to do a cosmetic design, laying up the teeth all freehand. I did it for years. And when I came up with the injection bonding process, it was like, oh boy, I never want to do that again. So about half of the treatment visit is going to be prepping the teeth, making them ready, doing the isolation techniques and doing the injection bonding. And then we take a break, sit up, stretch, and then we sit back down and then we finish. So yes, this does take. time, concentration, and focus. So as long as you're good at, as long as you get good at finishing margins and taking care of any, a little bit of flash that, that goes through, these will turn out beautifully. Yeah. And so to wrap up this podcast, I do want to thank you for your time. What was the name of the actual restorative composite that Shofu makes that you use that you found, you said as hard as nails and it's, it's. Fantastic program. This is my go-to material, and I highly recommend it. It is called Beautifi. It's spelled just like that, B-E-A-U-T-I-F-I. plus a beautiful flow plus right and um yeah show food you know we're working with them a little bit they're sponsoring some of our programs so our favorite uh shades are they're allowing us to co-brand so we we call the the bleachy one is called dazzle and that's the one that people pick the most and then the next one is called pearl Dr. Bill, thanks very much for your time on Dental Talk, and we really appreciate it. I think this is a great option for dentists to know about. Certainly there are patients that would be very happy to have this service for a number of reasons, as you explained so well. So we thank you again and enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks so much. You're very welcome, Dr. Phil. Thank you for having me on.