Ultradent's endo sales team recently wrapped their annual meeting in Salt Lake City and finalized an exciting, new program. This new program is a unique continuing education model for endodontics that will change the way endo CE is offered in dentistry.

Nicknamed "CE in a box" because of its modular, organic nature, the program will roll out in earnest in the second half of 2008. Instead of relying on larger, logistically difficult continuing education events in big hotels, Ultradent is taking endo-related continuing education into the neighborhoods where dentists actually practice.

There are no registration fees for these CE events. They are designed for smaller, intimate groups of dentists who gather in the local dental office of a current customer and listen to a 45-minute presentation on the state of endodontics in 2008, followed by the opportunity for hands-on learning using Ultradent's line of endodontic products.

The endo sales team also decided that because of this new CE program and the evolution of the roles we play in the field, our title will change from Endodontic Product Specialist to Endodontic Consultant. In my opinion, this title change reflects what we really do out there, which is present endo solutions from Ultradent - and if nothing moves the dentist, we STILL remain available to consult on numerous aspects of endodontic practice by a general dentist.

We rolled out the CE in a box programs to our entire sales team at their July regional meetings. It's going to be a potent, powerful way to spread the Ultradent message of minimally invasive, logical, and affordable endodontic solutions for the everyday general dentist.

People who are truly “great” bear a huge responsibility. Those of us who are “normal” benefit from their generosity, their ideals, and their contributions to the world. Then we get to go home at night and eat spaghetti without worrying that anyone is scrutinizing our every move. We’re permitted to blow up at our spouses for leaving their dirty socks on the floor and we can skip church if we come up with a good enough excuse. We leave the society shaping to the “great” people who fill their weekends with hard work, business travel, and philanthropy instead of renting DVDs like the rest of us. No wonder greatness is so rare.

If you come in contact with just one truly great person during the course of your life, consider yourself lucky. I do.

Today, I sat in front of the only truly great man I’ve ever met. With tears in his eyes, Dr. Dan Fischer recounted some of his personal history as he addressed his employees in the wake of a character smear. Amazingly, he was able to point out positives mingled with the pain caused by this situation.

Someone like me would brood all weekend about even a minor insult. Not Dr. Fischer. In the midst of the attacks on his character, this great man is determined to stay the course. We have 150 guests in town for a conference this week; Dr. Fischer stood before them today to summarize the allegations and give his side of the story. He then told these guests how LUCKY he is, choosing to focus on the number of hugs and supportive comments he received from his employees earlier in the day. He said his staff behaves the way true brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters should. Then he said, “Now let’s get back to dentistry.”

I’ve always admired how Dr. Fischer sticks to his core values. Today was just another example. From his initial involvement with these young men (the “Lost Boys”) and women abandoned by the FLDS, Dr. Fischer knew that he would be subject to public scrutiny; he always knew events like today’s were a possibility and yet, he persevered. That’s true courage. He has nothing to gain personally from giving millions to these FLDS outcasts in support of their education and mental well being. There was no benefit for sticking his neck out in Washington D.C. He presses forward with the cause, even after these personal attacks, because he knows that helping children is the right thing to do. He paraphrases Hubert Humphrey, who said that the moral test of government is how it treats and protects its most vulnerable citizens. That’s real integrity.

So, here’s to Dr. Dan Fischer: a truly great man who could use a hug. Won’t you please post your good wishes for him in response to this blog?

Oral cancer. These are two words that every dentist hopes that they will never have to say to a patient throughout their entire career. Oral cancer kills one American every hour of every single day. There have even been a number of famous people that have become victims of oral cancer, which include Babe Ruth, Sigmund Freud, Bill Blass, and Jack Klugman. We as dental professionals know that when a lesion is found in the mouth that may be squamous cell carcinoma, there is a 50% to 70% chance that the patient may not live past the next five years.

When you look at other cancer awareness programs, some organizations have done an absolutely outstanding job at creating a very high awareness to all of us for certain types of cancer. Every woman knows how to do a breast cancer self-exam and routinely go for mammograms and everyone over the age of 50 knows that it is time to go for a colonoscopy. These types of self-examinations and screenings have helped to save many lives over the years.

An established self-examination for oral cancer would be a huge help in finding abnormalities or incipient oral cancer lesions early on. This kind of self-examination, much like a breast examination or a skin examination, is easy to do, does not require any special equipment and will help familiarize people with their own mouths. The primary benefit is early detection of any unusual lesions in the patients’ mouth and the secondary benefit would be consumers becoming much more familiar with their mouths which would help stimulate them to receive treatment for oral health issues that they usually ignore.

There is a brand new Website that has been developed for consumers that show people how to do a self-examination for oral cancer. Being that so many American consumers still do not have a regular dentist, there is also a find a dentist section. Dentists who are committed to oral cancer examinations and early detection of oral cancer can sign up to be listed on this web site at www.oralcancerselfexam.com There is an annual fee of $199 to be listed on this site for 12 months, with discounts if the dentist signs up to be listed for multiple years.

By the way, a recent dental patient survey done by the Crown Council revealed that the #1 finding of the survey were patients saying, “Tell us more about oral cancer”. CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently did a story on oral cancer. Consumers are ready to get more involved with learning more about their mouths and certainly want to be involved with oral cancer prevention.

I strongly urge all of my attendees of my courses to use some type of oral cancer screening device, whether it is Vizilite Plus or a Velscope. Those that know me know that Vizilite Plus has been the choice in my office for a number of years because of its cost effectiveness, ease of use, and its TBlue stain that comes with this kit. The TBlue staining system that comes with Vizilite Plus is an essential piece of the screening if anything is found and no other system has this. Vizilite Plus will help screen your patients and will help you find suspicious lesions much earlier than you normally would. After that, either a brush biopsy like Oral CDX or a traditional biopsy should be used on the lesion for either histological examination or total removal.

Getting the patients on board to fight this dreaded disease is crucial and well overdue as well as instituting early detection screening into your practice as soon as possible. Patients are looking for dentists who take oral cancer seriously. Let’s all work together because if we as the dental profession don’t take this lead, no one will. It is completely up to us. Show your patients how committed you are to detecting and treating oral cancer. Go to www.oralcancerselfexam.com and sign up to be listed on this Website today!

It’s a different experience, working for Ultradent. Before I came here nearly two years ago, I worked for two large, publicly-held companies. I worked for the first one for 15 years and the second one for just 1 year. I was accustomed to the protection offered by multiple divisions, standardized choices in healthcare, and decisions made by committee or people across the country or even in different countries. Things typically happened very slowly.

Then, after so many years working for the stock holders, I suddenly worked at Ultradent, where decisions ultimately rest with one man, rather than a board or a committee. Things happen fast – decisions get made and actions are taken, rather than endless meetings, discussions, and permission-seeking.

I admit, I thought twice about working for a small (relatively speaking) company owned by a single man. What about the safety and security provided by a large organization with offices all over the world? But here at Ultradent, we the employees can make choices as to what we believe is best for the customer or the patient, rather than what is best for the stock holders. I feel a more direct link with our dentists and patients because of this; there’s no ‘hidden customer’ (the stock holders) fighting each decision that might cost money with no clear ‘upside.’

Most of all, Ultradent has more of a personality than so many stock-driven companies, the personality of Dr. Fischer. He is able to lead his company, rather than follow the directives of the board or the whims of the stockholders. He can make decisions because they are the right thing to do, and not worry about how the board will vote on the decision.

I have worked for bosses I loved and with people I cared for deeply throughout my career, but Ultradent is a little different. I no longer work for an amorphous and not always benign corporate ‘parent.’ Now I work for Dr. Dan Fischer, who is around most days cheering all of us on and getting to know everyone who works for him, though there are more than 800 of us now.

What a great opportunity I’ve been given to work here!

First, I beg forgiveness of the great Spirit of Hawaii for mangling her (his?) treasured salutation "Aloha!" with an attempt at a cutesy pun like "Endoloha!" But after wrapping up my second co-travel/ridealong with Kay Kusumoto, Ultradent's Hawaii TAM, it is my desire to shout to the towering white clouds racing across the blue skies above Waikiki: "Uhhhhhh looooooow ha!" What a lovely place. What lovely people. Hawaii -- and the dentists, hygienists, staff and professionals that comprise its dental community -- embodies everything Ultradent tries to stand for in the dental profession. Namely, loyalty, friendliness, open-mindedness, zeal, youthful fervor, a love of the craft, and so on.

Kay Kusumoto and I presented a "CE in a box" program at the office of Dr. Ilyk and Dr. Ito in a high-rise in downtown Honolulu. The group consisted mostly older dentists with a lot of experience -- and many of them were still using traditional endo methods like hand filing and lateral condensation. The very next night, we were honored to present our message to a group that was quite the opposite: young dentists, who were ALL using engine-driven endo systems of one kind or another. Both programs were successful in converting some of the attendees to the minimally invasive, anatomically sensitive endodontic methodology presented by Ultradent. But more than that, the two events were instrumental in building bridges of understanding with these kind-hearted, generous, warm friends in the dental community.

I raise my pineapple in salute of Kay Kusumoto and her clients and friends on the islands of Hawaii. To all of you, I shout a hearty and hale "MAHALO!"

By being so far the only "international blogger", I will take you on my last exciting business trip to Africa. I went to visit our local partner, Divyesh SHAH, in Nairobi/KENYA.

First of all, what a surprise to encounter on a construction road hundreds of Chinese workers. China is investing heavily in Africa: natural resource, iron, gas oil, old car batteries; They provide in return infrastructure/schools/hospitals to the country. This way, more than 5000kms of railroad was build this year.

As Mohammed Tarik was driving full speed his rusty old van to the conference place, we manage to reach there with only 20 minutes delay in spite of a huge traffic jam in the center of the city.

70 Kenyan dentists were expecting the lecturer; me (oops) Pole (sorry) is one of the only word I know in Kenyan! The attendees were so curious, by asking so many questions about our whitening techniques and procedure... they really made my day. I got to learn a lot from those dentists who were so generous in SHARING their experience; Kenyan population suffer a lot from fluorosis due to the high fluoridated water. Enamel Microabrasion techniques with Opalustre was THE main interest!

Gorgeous people who truly have no complex with the color of their teeth: they always wear the banana smile on their face!

It has been such a pleasure to work for Ultradent Products, Inc. and Dr. Dan Fischer for over 12 years.  Not only does the Ultradent family have outstanding Core Values, but most every employee of this fine company has a "passion" for what they do.  The "passion" we all possess comes from the energy created by our leader, Dr. Dan Fischer.

Dr. Fischer is also a very giving man; a real humanitarian.  He definitely shares the wealth with thousands of humans across the world.

I am fortunate to take that passion and knowledge shared by Dr. Fischer into the dental schools to be absorbed by fabulous faculty members and students alike.  Our future dentists are like sponges soaking up all they can to prepare for their future of improving oral health globally.  It is so much fun to see them anticipate the arrival of the Ultradent rep bearing samples of great dental products that they will use on their patients, or even better, the Opalescence they will use to whiten their teeth, or perhaps whiten the smile of a family member.  The dental students and professors always express their appreciation of Dr. Fischer's continued support and generosity.

Not only does Dr. Fischer donate product to promote education, but he also donates to the many dental missions that our dental students and dental professors participate in each year.  Tens of thousands of dollars of preventative and restorative products have been donated to these groups traveling to all parts of the world on humanitarian dental trips.  Just to name a few in my territory...

Humanitarian trip by Dr. Eric Sung and GPR residents from UCLA School of Dentistry to Peru
Dr. Brian Novy and dental students from Loma Linda School of Dentistry dental mission to Nicaragua

Dr. Marc Geissberger, Dr. Noelle Santucci, and 40 other doctors and students from University of the Pacific School of Dentistry to Peru

Dr. James O'Meara and students from Creighton University School of Dentistry go to the Dominican Republic

And the list goes on and on, year after year.  I have never heard a no when I ask if we can donate product to these caring groups of dental professionals.  That is such a great feeling, and I personally say "Thank You" Dr. Fischer.

Just think what this world would be like if more people were like Dr. Fischer.  I have been in dentistry my whole adult life...that's a long time.  I have never witnessed such caring, sharing and giving from one man; a great man, a great dentist, a great father, and a great employer.

Thank you Dr. Fischer for every wonderful thing you do, to help so many in need all across this world of ours!  The dental schools thank you as well.  It just doesn't get any better than this.

Victoria