The floods in the Midwest, the gas shortage in Atlanta, and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ike have obviously made business difficult for many Americans this year.

Even the Ultradent family was touched by these occurrences. We are fortunate to have three fabulous, classy ladies representing Ultradent in the areas where Hurricane Ike hit last month: Ana and Jennifer in Houston and Thais in Louisiana. Luckily, none of them experienced any structural damage to their property, though they were inconvenienced by power outages, fallen trees, and long lines for gas or groceries. In fact, Ana (who has a gorgeous little baby) wasn’t able to function without electricity, but was able to fly with her baby to Guatemala where she grew up. How’s that for “waiting out the storm”?

We do know from our reps’ reports that many of the dental offices in their areas have been damaged or destroyed, with some dentists having to set up temporary practices in other cities. Our thoughts and prayers are with these fine professionals and we would like to offer support.

If your office has been impacted by Hurricane Ike with loss of your dental materials, we would like to help get you back on your feet -- even if you haven’t been using our products to date. We hope this will contribute to helping you reestablish a functional practice. Please call 1-888-230-1420 and press #1. When you mention source code “Ike 08,” our customer support staff will be available to discuss the ways we can provide assistance. Please forward this information to others who may require assistance as well.

We are certain it will take time for life to return to normal and we encourage other industry leaders to do their part in helping us support our colleagues.

Most sincerely,
Dan

I am so proud of our Colorado reps, Monica and Penny. They performed at an exceptional level to enroll 188 participants for the lecture I delivered in Denver last Friday. There were 170 preregistered attendees and 18 “walk-ins.”  Wow! Congratulations guys!

The audience was excellent.  In fact, as the program developed, several became engaged with quality questions.  As I’ve reflected, I believe that even our economy can have some positive influence on this. I believe Ultradent is in a great position with our minimally invasive and affordable-dentistry message to provide messages/solutions to dentists that most dental companies are not able or prepared to deliver.

Teaching dentists quality alternatives to expensive indirect dentistry has always been meaningful and so much of what we are about.  Sharing with them how they can place larger, quality direct composite restorations via the use of non-compromising adhesives like Peak and PQ1 can be eye-opening to them.  However, with money tightening up in this downturned economy, it now becomes an even more important message and one of further opportunity.  

Additionally, general dentists are beginning to question everything they refer out to specialists.  They are realizing that the more they can do in their own offices, the less the downturned economy will impact them.  At the top of this list is endodontics.  We have the easiest and fastest system and yet one that is very effective and minimally invasive.  This is an opportunity and especially right now.  We also will probably see more orthodontics done by general dentists, however to a lesser degree and not as rapidly as what can occur with root canal treatment. In fact, there is a chance the economy could turn around before there is a significant impact in orthodontics.  

At any rate, for those offices who have already been negatively impacted by this economy, we hope that we can help turn things around. Dr. Stace Lind recorded some very helpful podcasts about increasing office revenue through endodontics and bleaching. Please listen and then let us know what you think.

Thank you,
Dan