Episode 47 - Dr. Bill Simon

 

One of the things I really enjoy about doing The Technology Evangelist Podcast is the unexpected turns many of the conversations have.  It's fairly common for the conversation to take off in a direction I hadn't anticipated and those conversations are often some of the best.  That was definitely that case with Dr. Bill Simon.  I've known Bill through his work with the Chicago MidWinter meeting and we've gotten to have some nice conversations in the past... but nothing like we had for the podcast.

My original plan was to discuss how meetings and continuing education are changing in dentistry, but what I got from Bill was more... much more. His journey in the profession has had more twists and turns than a road through the Swiss Alps, and it made for an amazing conversation.

Starting out in any profession can be daunting, especially in the field of dentistry where the stakes are high, and the learning curve is steep. In this brief summation, I'll delve a bit into the journey of Dr. Bill Simon, an incredibly successful practitioner, who shares his experiences, challenges, and insights for younger professionals navigating their careers in dentistry.  If you are a younger dentist and are looking for someone to mentor you through the profession, I *highly recommend* contacting Dr. Simon!!!

About Dr. Bill Simon

Dr. Bill Simon has spent years building a successful dental practice in Chicago. With a background in both biology and dentistry, his journey is chock full of valuable lessons learned from both successes and obstacles. His experience makes him a credible figure in the field, and his insights are particularly helpful for new dentists. Add to this that he also works to mentor younger dentists needing career guidance.

The Early Decisions: Choosing Dentistry

Like many of us, Dr. Simon's career began with a tough choice during high school—whether to pursue accounting, a field he excelled in, or follow his passion for biology and helping people through dentistry. He recalls, "I decided to go down the biology route, thinking it would provide more opportunities to work with and help people." This decision ultimately shaped his career path, leading him to dental school at Southern Illinois University. As a little sidelight, I love SIU's mascot, the Salukis!

Learning Through Challenges

One of the most significant hurdles Dr. Simon faced early on was navigating the complexities of dental practice ownership. After graduation he decided to work in a practice owned by an older dentist. Shortly into his professional career, he was stunned to receive a letter from the dental board telling him the office owner didn't have a license and he found himself under investigation for aiding unlicensed practice. This experience taught him a crucial lesson: "You don't learn a lot from your successes; you learn more from your challenges and failures."

When faced with the decision to either buy the practice, clean up the litigation, or leave, Dr. Simon chose to establish his own practice just four doors down. "I built out a two-operatory clinic in the dark of night. The next week, I opened with my entire patient schedule filled," he recalls. This daring move not only salvaged his career but also laid the foundation for his future success.

Resilience in Crisis: The Fire Incident

In 2002, tragedy struck when Dr. Simon's practice suffered a fire. He vividly describes driving down the highway, hearing the news on the radio that the street to his office was closed due to a major fire. "I pulled up to find fire trucks outside my building, and we were essentially burned out of our space," he recounts.

Despite this setback, Dr. Simon showed remarkable resilience. He and his team adapted quickly, sharing space with other dental practices and continuing to serve their patients. This experience taught him about the importance of networking and community, as he connected with other dentists who had faced challenges and were willing to help him continue to see patients and recover from the disaster.

It also shows a lot about Dr. Simon as an employer. During the process of working from multiple locations his dedication to his employees fueled their dedication to him and the practice. What for many might be a business ending tragedy, fueled their desire to support each other while continuing to help their patients. They came out of the situation even stronger... as an office and a team.

Key Takeaways for Aspiring Dentists

• Follow Your Passion: Choosing a career path aligned with your interests can lead to greater satisfaction and success.
• Learn from Challenges: Embrace failures as learning opportunities; they often teach you more than successes.
• Be Resilient: Adaptability is crucial in overcoming unexpected hurdles.
• Build a Network: Connecting with others in your field can provide support and resources in difficult times.

Conclusion

Dr. Bill Simon's journey is a testament to the power of resilience, adaptability, and passion in the world of dentistry. His experiences remind aspiring dentists that while the road may be fraught with challenges, it is also filled with opportunities for growth and success. For those looking to embark on a similar path, remember to embrace your journey, learn from your experiences, and connect with your community.

Oh, and we did actually discuss continuing education as well. His insights will give you a look at where the world of professional conferences is headed.

Want to hear the whole story from Dr. Simon? Listen to the complete episode (Episode 47) of the Technology Evangelist Podcast for deeper insights!

The Pearl Oral Health Index Delivers the First Radiographic Census of the American Mouth

 

Today's post is to let you know that Pearl has released their Pearl Oral Health Index.  I normally try and give a bit of a sneak peak in my intro paragraph(s) when I post things like this, but today is different.  There's a lot to be gleaned from this info.  So instead of a lengthy setup, I'll just let you get right to it.  Scroll down and you'll see some pretty incredible insights.

• The Index analyzes 737 million teeth across 15 million patients and 26 million dental x-rays
• Reveals America’s cavity problem is 4.5x worse than government data indicate
• Identifies and quantifies the impact in America’s “dental deserts” where the tooth-loss gap exceeds 40 percent

Pearl, the global leader in dental AI solutions, today released the Pearl Oral Health Index, unlocking key insights across age, location, gender, and more in the most comprehensive radiographic census of American oral health ever produced. Using its FDA-cleared AI platform to read dental x-rays at scale, Pearl analyzed more than 26 million dental x-rays across 15 million unique patients, and 737 million individual teeth. This represents a dataset so vast it has, for the first time in history, made the collective reality of the American mouth legible. The data both reveals and challenges assumptions about who gets sick, who gets treated, and why.

Until now, dental research has largely relied on small-sample surveys. X-rays, which are the single richest source of oral health information, have been locked away in tens of millions of isolated patient files, impossible to aggregate or compare. Pearl is the first dental AI platform to read, analyze, and measure them at population scale.

“For the first time, we can see what's actually happening inside the mouths of America, not through a survey, not through a sample, but through the raw radiographic truth of tens of millions of visits,” said Ophir Tanz, founder and CEO, Pearl. “The picture is dramatically different from what the public data has told us for decades. There is more disease, more inequality, and more variability in care than anyone realized. AI didn't create this problem, but it finally let us measure it.”

Key Findings

The X-Ray Gap: America's cavity problem is at least 4.5 times worse than federal data suggests

The CDC's NHANES, the gold-standard U.S. government oral health survey of just 25,000 participants, uses mirrors and probes in mobile clinics and estimates that roughly 21 percent of American adults have untreated decay. Pearl's AI, reading radiographs of 15 million participants, finds the real figure is at least 4.5 times higher.

• Decayed teeth per patient: Pearl 6.07 vs. NHANES 0.7. This reflects an 8.7x gap in detected decay.
• Missing teeth per patient: Pearl 2.16 vs. NHANES 2.0. This near-perfect match gives credence to Pearl's methodology, since empty sockets are visible to both a probe and an x-ray.
• Restored teeth per patient: Pearl 7.01 vs. NHANES 6.0. Like missing teeth, restorations are generally visible to the naked eye, so the near-alignment here likewise supports Pearl’s methodology.

X-rays can reveal demineralization at 30–60 percent mineral loss, which is well before a cavity is visible to the eye. The difference is not a methodological quirk; it is the cost of measuring the nation's oral health with instruments that were state-of-the-art in the 19th century. Of note, everyone in Pearl's dataset was already in a dental chair, meaning the true spread in the general population is likely even higher.

Young adults have the most neglected mouths; older adults have the most managed

• Ages 18–24: 52 percent or more than half of all dental disease in young adults is untreated. These are the most neglected mouths in the dataset.
• Crossover between ages 35–44: Fillings finally overtake untreated decay. This is when most people evolve from neglect to managing their oral health.
• Ages 75+: The number of teeth showing signs of decay, loss, or restoration rises to 19.14 out of 28 teeth, meaning over two thirds of teeth have had an issue. Only 28 percent of that damage is untreated. By the time a person hits 75 years old, their mouth is not healthier, but it is more managed.

The Geography of the American Mouth

Where a person lives shapes not just whether they get sick, but what happens when they do. A look at the states with the best and worst oral health include:

• Lowest disease burden: Hawaii (9.63 teeth showing signs of decay, loss, or restoration; lowest calculus at 45.0 percent; fewest extractions).
• Highest disease burden: Delaware (14.22 showing signs of decay, loss, or restoration; calculus 62.6 percent).
• Highest tartar buildup: New Jersey (67.7 percent of patients). This is a 23-point spread vs. Hawaii on a single hygiene indicator.
• Highest rate of extraction: Kansas, where nearly 1 in 10 affected teeth was extracted rather than restored.

The Dentist Lottery: A 4x gap in what two offices on the same block may diagnose

Across 282 dental offices each seeing 200+ adult patients, the 10th-percentile practice finds 3.1 affected teeth per patient, while the 90th-percentile practice finds 12.4 — a 4x gap. Within single zip codes, Pearl identified a 9.2 percentage-point average spread in D-Load (the share of decay left untreated) between neighboring offices, with the top 10 percent of zip codes showing spreads of 17.8 points. Pearl's AI analyzed every x-ray; what varied was how practices responded to what it found. This is not a disease gap, rather it is a training, awareness, and diagnostic consistency gap.

Dental Deserts: Patients in zip codes with zero dentists lose 40 percent more teeth

Pearl matched zip-code data against the National Provider Identifier (NPI) registry of 180,974 U.S. dental practices and 295,509 dentists. In zip codes with zero dentists, 20.8 percent of affected teeth have been extracted. In zip codes with 51+ dentists, only 14.9 percent are extracted, which marks a 40 percent higher rate of tooth loss in so-called dental deserts. Patients in these communities are not going untreated longer; when they finally receive care, they lose the tooth entirely, which often comes down to affordability. In many cases prevention and treatment comes at a higher cost than extraction.

The Access Signal: American women are 28 percent more likely to visit a dentist than men

In the U.S. dataset, women make up 56.2 percent of patients and men 43.8 percent. Under the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS), the split is exactly 50/50. Once men and women are in the chair, their clinical numbers are remarkably similar (e.g. female’s untreated rate of 31.4 percent vs. male 33.9 percent). The real gap is not in the mouth — though men do have a higher rate of calculus (1.99 vs. 1.67), or teeth with tartar build up, whereas women tend to have more fillings (7.97 vs. 7.37) — it’s in who makes it through the door.

Two Countries, Two Dental Systems, Two Completely Different Mouths

The data shows that when disease is found, Americans restore and the British extract:

• U.S. patients average 2.16 missing teeth. U.K. patients average 6.36 — roughly 3x more.
• In the U.S. the share of affected teeth extracted sits at 14.5 percent whereas in the U.K. that number’s ~31 percent.

U.S. fee-for-service insurance incentivizes restoration; in the U.K., NHS budget constraints make extraction the more accessible option when a tooth is severely compromised. Neither is objectively superior. But the radiographic evidence shows the two systems produce fundamentally different outcomes in peoples’ mouths.

Why This Matters Now

Oral health is among the last corners of American medicine to be digitized, standardized, and studied at scale. The Pearl Oral Health Index closes that gap in a single step. By applying a consistent, FDA-cleared AI detection model to this volume of x-rays, Pearl has produced the first objective, comparable, population-level picture of what is actually happening inside millions of mouths and how various dental systems respond to it.

The Index's findings have immediate implications for public-health policy, insurer quality metrics, dental-school curricula, and patient expectations. And it establishes a new baseline against which every future change, including new therapies, new policies, and expanded access, can be measured.

About the Data

The Pearl Oral Health Index draws on two complementary datasets, both covering adults 18+, all 51 U.S. states (including D.C.) and the U.K., using a 28-tooth universe (excluding wisdom teeth) across April 2024 to March 2026:

FMX Series Dataset: 1.49 million patients with complete full-mouth x-ray series analyzed by Pearl. This is the authoritative source for DMF (average 15.24 of 28 teeth affected, composed of 6.07 decayed, 2.16 missing and 7.01 filled). Its missing-teeth figure matches NHANES almost exactly, validating the methodology.

Expanded Encounters Dataset: 14.8 million patients and 26 million tooth-level dental encounters, powering state-level analyses, gender comparisons, tooth-by-tooth vulnerability timelines, and 4.26 million longitudinal tooth transitions.

You can access the full version of the Pearl Oral Health Index here: https://hellopearl.com/oral-health-index

About Pearl

Pearl is a dental AI company committed to enhancing how patient care is delivered. Founded in 2019 by a team with decades of experience developing successful, enterprise-grade computer vision solutions, Pearl introduced the first-ever FDA-cleared AI capable of reading and instantly identifying diseases in dental x-rays. With regulatory clearance in 120 countries, Pearl's AI assists dentists in making precise clinical decisions and effectively communicating with patients, thereby transforming the dental care experience worldwide. As dentistry’s global AI leader, Pearl is committed to the ongoing innovation of robust, accessible AI tools that improve patient health outcomes and build greater trust in dental medicine. To request a demo, please visit hellopearl.com/demo

Osteoporosis and Periodontitis: Two-Way Epidemiological and Mechanistic Evidence

 The profession is learning more and more about "the oral-systemic connection".  For lay folks, that basically means that the mouth and body are connected.  The human oral cavity is an advanced organ system  (part of the digestive tract) and can affect the rest of the body in many ways... and not all of them are good.  Lots of research is being done on ways that the mouth can impact the health of the entire body and, conversely, how the body can impact the health of the oral cavity.  Information is being assembled constantly.

In fact, I recently interviewed my friend Dr. Ed Zuckerberg about this very topic on "The Technology Evangelist Podcast".  The episode is Episode 46:  Dr. Ed Zuckerberg on the Oral Systemic Connection and Periodontal Disease Research and is available to stream by following the link.  Ed is one of the profession's most knowledgeable experts on this topic and the episode is fascinating.

However, today's post isn't just about the episode.  As I said above, lots of research is being done on this broad topic and some of the findings definitely bear bringing your attention to.  A recent article published in The Journal of Periodontal Research takes a look at the link between osteoporosis and periodontitis.  

The article titled "Osteoporosis and Periodontitis:  "Two-Way Epidemiological and Mechanistic Evidence" states:

 Strong epidemiological evidence shows an association between the two diseases, in which osteoporosis patients have an increased risk of periodontitis, specifically in postmenopausal women.  

As most of us already know, osteoporosis and periodontal disease are both disease processes that can affect a wide variety of people and can cause significant problems.  Not the least of which is loss of quality of life.  Our medical science is growing exponentially and because of that people are living much, much longer than in previous generations.  However, I'll state that life without quality isn't the goal we all have in mind.  That applies both to the general population and those of us in healthcare.  Osteoporosis and periodontitis are highly prevalent, chronic inflammatory diseases that constitute a major global health burden.   We need to find better methodologies to deal with them.

This study concludes:  Our review found abundant clinical evidence that osteoporosis is linked to a notably higher risk of severe periodontitis, likely due to estrogen deficiency affecting bone metabolism. Clinical data on how periodontitis impacts the prevalence and progression of osteoporosis remain limited, although some studies suggest an association between periodontitis and osteoporosis, especially in postmenopausal women.

This is definitely a subject that the profession needs to be aware of.  I advise giving the study an objective read and to bear the info in mind as you perform your patient interviews and examinations.  The study can be found with this link.  

VELscope Mantis has Arrived - the Latest Light Aided Oral Cancer Screening Device

 

Here is some big news.  Starting today the VELscope Mantis is available for purchase.  I was notified about this recently and thought I'd let you all know the day it was available for ordering.

Today's post will cover details on  the newest device from VELscope to help provide state of the art oral cancer screening.  However, before I get to the new Mantis, I want to spend a little bit of time explaining why I think using a special light to help with oral cancer screening is such a great idea.

For years now I've had a big interest in oral cancer.  It's one of those problems that I feel oral health professionals should do all we can to help find at it's earliest stages.  I've used light assisted means for performing oral cancer screenings for at least the last 20 years and I wouldn't practice without it.  

Areas of concern can be difficult to identify using only white light.  Oral cancers can appear in many colors and they can be very difficult to see.  A doctor often sees a small discrepancy and has to run through a diagnostic checklist in their mind.  "Is that area whiter than normal?  Is that purple area a little bit darker than the surrounding purple tissue?"  That's just a small example of what is taken into consideration.

The advantage to using light assisted screening is that when viewed under a certain wavelength of light and with the proper filter used by the device, areas of concern appear black to the clinician.  This makes areas of concern much easier to identify.

In the simplest terms, injured tissues in the mouth are much easier to identify under certain wavelengths of light.  I tell my patients that the light is not a diagnostic device, it's a screening device.  I explain that it doesn't tell me if they have cancer, but it does tell me if there is any area of their mouth that is in some way traumatized.  The trauma could be from an accidental cheek bite, a burn, or any other type of injury.

The light allows me to better evaluate things.  If an area I notice might be due to trauma, an exam two weeks later will look different as it is healing.  If it looks the same or more injured, I then refer to an expert.  Patients appreciate the extra care a light assisted exam provides.

If found at an early stage, oral cancers can be dealt with, but unfortunately when discovered in their late stages, five year survival rates are extremely low.  Also, even if the patient survives, late stage cancer surgeries can be disfiguring.  Those are just two of the reasons I'm such a proponent of light assisted screening.

Now, let's get to the info about the new Mantis from VELscope.

The new VELscope Mantis is named after the mantis shrimp, a creature with one of the most advanced visual systems in nature, capable of detecting ultraviolet, infrared, and polarized light beyond human perception. Inspired by its namesake, the Mantis enhances fluorescence visualization, empowering dental professionals to identify oral abnormalities earlier with exceptional clarity, precision, and depth.

The device has a rotating wheel that allows the operator to quickly and easily switch between lighting modes.  

Mantis integrates three visualization modes into one device.

• Traditional white light - Non-polarized white light visualization is the traditional method for examining tissue, providing a combination of surface reflections that highlight texture and topography, along with color variations that indicate the state of the underlying tissue.
• Polarized white light - Polarized white light visualization excels at showing subtle colour tissue changes by improving colour response and eliminating surface reflections than can be distracting and obscure underlying tissue
• Enhanced fluorescence visualization - The new VELscope Mantis builds upon its predecessors by increasing field of view and enhancing filtering for a brighter, improved image with increased yellow/orange spectral content.

For the best documentation, photos should be used and the new VELscope Mantis makes taking those photos incredibly easy.  

The device has been designed so that the user can attach an iPhone or iPod into the device and use the camera to take clear and crisp photos.  To make the photo process even easier, the Mantis can be paired with the photo taking device via Bluetooth.  The handle on the Mantis has a trigger button that can activate the camera.  The operator gets the area clearly into the frame, pushes the button on the Mantis device, and the iPhone or iPod takes the image.  Those photos can then be downloaded and stored in the patient's digital chart as part of the permanent patient record.  These images can then be used to compare at a follow-up appointment, if needed.  They can also be sent to an office if the patient needs to be seen for further diagnostic procedures or surgery.  This gives the doctor providing further treatment images of the area as it appeared initially and at further appointments from the referring office.

Mantis also comes with Cloud storage for the images via  SOTA Cloud.  While it's a nice way to backup the images, the service does require a subscription.  The first month is free, but after that there is a monthly charge.  You can find out more about the SOTA Cloud storage with this link.  

Light assisted screenings can save lives.  The scientific literature on light assisted screening is pretty clear on the advantages.  There are several devices on the market and I highly recommend getting and using one.  Your patients will appreciate the effort and will be grateful for the extra care you provide.  At the end of the day, caring for our patients in the number one goal of our profession.  Light assisted screenings is a great way to do that.

Could AI Erode Diagnostic Skills?

 

Since I'm The Technology Evangelist, it goes without saying that I am a confirmed gadget guy and tech lover.  iIve always been a lover of gadgets, even before I went into dentistry, and throughout my career I've always tried to evaluate and incorporate technologies that made sense into my clinical practice.

However, I've always tried to look at things as objectively as possible.  By that, I mean I always make an attempt to see the potential pluses and minuses that come with any tech that can affect patient outcomes.  

Along those lines I'm a big believer in AI.  For radiographic interpretation I like the concept of an objective third party that can help give you to find something you might not have noticed or to help a doctor consider that an area they notice might not need treatment.  When it comes to AI in the administrative part of dentistry, I'm hopeful that by being able to offload some of the more mundane tasks to machines, it will allow the front office staff to have more real patient interactions.  As we all know, dentistry is a relationship based profession and the more we can foster those relationships the better.

Yet, we always need to consider both the benefits and to potential detractors that come with incorporating new technologies and today's post is focused on that.

When I was in dental school, much of the first two years were devoted to sciences such as histology, microbiology, and biochemistry.  The hands-on classes often seemed to focus on things that, at the time, I felt were teaching me things I'd never use.  Things like pouring models or creating wax patterns and casting them weren't' things  that any dentist I knew actually did.  They were done by people that worked for the dentist (dental assistants and dental lab technicians) and I often wondered why I had to learn to do those jobs.

Obviously I was young and headstrong then because once I actually began to practice I quickly realized how knowing those things were the foundation on which I lot of what I did was built.  If I hadn't been taught those skills, I would have been less able to understand and do what I was doing.

Since that revelation, which happened pretty early on, I've always supported schools to continue to teach those things.  Even if you never plan on ever taking an physical analog impression, I feel that knowing the principles of it, makes you better at scanning.

Although the rest of this post is not specifically related to dentistry, I thought this was a topic worthy of bringing up here.  I recently became aware of a study done in Poland that attempted to compare physician's diagnostic skills before and after having access to AI systems designed to help in identifying pathologies.  The concept was to find experienced clinicians who knew what they were doing, see how they performed with AI assisting them, and then see how they performed without the help of AI.

The results were interesting.  Of course this is only ONE study and much more science needs to be done on this aspect of things before we draw conclusions, but the results do give everyone in healthcare something to be aware of and consider as AI becomes more and more integrated into our clinical workflows.

The study evaluated if clinician's diagnostic skills could atrophy after beginning to rely on AI.  The study followed physicians performing endoscopic procedures.  Each physician had performed at least 2000 colonoscopies during their careers.

The study covered nine months.  For the first three months doctors worked without AI and the number of precancerous areas was totaled.  For the next three months they used AI that analyzed the imaging in real time that flagged for the precancerous condition.  The AI tool was randomly available and unavailable to compare results during those three months.  The doctors never knew when they would be able to use AI.  The final three months were again done with no AI and the results totaled.

At the conclusion of the study, the data was analyzed.  It showed that in the three months before AI 28.4% of colonoscopies found at least one precancerous area.  In the three months after AI the number of precancerous areas noted was 22.4%.

Do the numbers indicate the skills of the doctors declined or did working with AI help them not have as many false positives?  I didn't see anything which mentioned that in the article I read about the study.  What I came away with was the belief that this needs a lot more study.  There's a lot of concern about AI in the world and we need to understand its impact much, much better.

I am not a statistician and I'm not a specialist in colonoscopies, but I find the results intriguing at the very least.  Obviously a lot more research into this needs to be done before drawing any conclusions.  I'd like to tie thing together now.  I feel that learning and really understanding the basics of a subject is the foundation you need to grow toward being an expert.  That applies to everything in life, just like my need to know how to properly pour an impression as a student.  This is also why I feel that AI is a tool.  These systems are currently designed to be data gathering systems.  They should not be making decisions.  Instead, they should be viewed as a colleague who nudges you and says, "what about this spot?"

Healthcare diagnosis is a complicated subject that frequently requires a nuanced decision based on many factors.  However as my friend Dr. Marty Jablow says about AI "don't check your brain at the door".  That's a great statement that I agree with.

The study was published in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology in October 2025.  I happened to come across a summary of it on Nature.com 

Coming Full Circle in 3D - Why Recycling Should be Part of 3D Printing and how DRNA is Making that Happen

I remember the first time I saw a dental 3D printer.  It was at the ADA meeting in Washington, D.C.  The year was 2015.  Back then as a die hard technology lover I knew that 3D printing existed and I understood the concept, but I understood very little else.

I was wandering the exhibit hall of the meeting, (which is one of the things I try to do at dental conventions), when I happened to see a booth that was displaying a 3D printer.  Like a moth to a flame, this super cool tech drew me into the booth and before long I was engaged in a conversation with one of the company's representatives.

I was shown dentures, transitional partials, and (I think) maybe even a surgical guide.  I was fascinated and mightily impressed.  The things I saw looked incredible and they fit on their corresponding models perfectly.  I learned the overall process and asked questions about resins.

This led me to the big question I had.  “How do you come up with a design for these things?” I asked.  The representative opened a laptop and showed me the design software the company had used.  Back in 2015, 3D printing was just starting to creep into the dental industry and there was no dental specific design system.  Instead I was shown software that was used for engineering design.  The screen looked like the cockpit of a 747.  I walked out of the booth and I knew that, while amazing, this tech would never make much progress in the industry unless the design process was fast and easy.  Dentists don’t have the time to spend 45 minutes designing something, they need to devote that time to treating patients.

Fast forward to 2026 and I’m happy to say things have changed a lot since that day in 2015.  In the 11 years since that meeting, 3D printing has seen considerable growth in offices.  I think the principal reason for that growth is in how much the design process has changed.  As AI continues to make rapid inroads into the dental industry, one of the areas that has been impacted the most is 3D design.

The design process has gone from a detailed and time consuming task that required a degree in engineering, to a process that frequently only requires the user to upload an intraoral scan and then click “next” until the project is ready to print.  The design process has always been the bottleneck in the use of 3D printing in the dental office and those design barriers are falling fast.

Dentistry is poised at the edge of a dramatic technological shift and the market is about to reflect that.  I predict in the next five years we will see a large change in how a great deal of dentistry is delivered.  What we’ll see is that the simple, everyday things are going to move to being fabricated in-office.  Things such as splints, occlusal guards, retainers, and surgical guides can now be easily printed, but more importantly they can also be easily designed.  

That means that as dental offices seek to deliver care faster and with lower costs, more and more offices will begin utilizing 3D printers.  This will allow offices to lower their lab costs on “bread and butter” cases while still delivering the precision the profession demands.

Many dental labs have already embraced 3D printing for a variety of applications.  That means that many doctors are already delivering 3D printed things to their patients so they already have confidence in the technology.  It’s only a small step to bring this into the dental office.

However, there’s one area that needs to be addressed.  Our world is dealing with an excess amount of plastics in our environment and as offices move into this realm, we need to do our part to help ensure the health of the planet we call home.

I’ll use my experience with my coffee maker as an example.  I’ve been a diehard coffee lover since my college days and that, of course, means I own a coffee maker for my home.  I’m not sure who invented the coffee pod, but whoever it was should have been awarded the Nobel prize for convenience.  I don’t think twice about dropping a pod into my machine and cranking out a steaming cup of dark roast.  Well, I should say I didn’t think twice about it… until one day when I did.  

One morning as I was placing an empty milk jug into the recycle bin it suddenly occurred to me that every coffee pod I was using was headed straight to the landfill.  I’m embarrassed that I hadn’t thought of it before that day, but when I realized how much plastic I was personally putting into the trash, I made the effort to search Amazon for a coffee pod I could buy that could be recycled.  That led me to a company that makes compostable pods and I’ve been using them ever since.  In a similar way that dentistry has moved to using amalgam separators to keep mercury out of the environment, we need to make a similar approach to recycling 3D printed scrap.

For those of you unfamiliar with the 3D printing process let me explain.  The resins used in 3D printing are liquid.  These resins are photo-polymerized by the printer in a manner that is similar to how doctors place composite resins.  The printing resins are cured in layers.  Because they are liquid and polymerized in layers, the printer software creates little bars of plastic under the printed project as it is created to keep it in the correct shape.  These bars are called “supports” and they are a necessary part of the 3D printing process.  To clarify, here's a screenshot of an occlusal guard in the design software.  You can clearly see the supports.

When the project is completed and fully cured, a human then removes the supports and polishes the completed printed project.  This process of removing the supports and polishing is easy and doesn’t take much time.  However the cured resin supports now need to be disposed of.  That means that every printed project is creating a certain amount of waste.

Now add to that the idea of “pods”.  We’re now seeing printers for dentistry that create small projects like crowns and veneers through the Keurig® concept of single use, resin filled pods.  These pods make printing incredibly easy, but in addition to the supports, the pods themselves are also made of plastic and need to be disposed of properly.

As more and more offices move into 3D printing, the amount of waste that will be generated from this amazing technology is going to be significant.  So what can dentistry do to properly and ethically deal with this problem that is looming on the horizon?

Just like my empty gallon bottle of milk, dentistry needs to recycle these leftovers.  Of course if you want to recycle plastics you’ll come across a problem.  Not all plastics are the same.  My gallon milk bottle is recycled by my local trash collector.  My plastic grocery bags need to be returned to the grocery store for proper recycling.  Printed 3D resins also require a specific recycling process and they cannot be disposed of in just any recycling bin.  

Fortunately there is a simple answer.  For over 25 years DRNA (Dental Recycling North America) has been in the business of helping dentistry properly dispose of waste.  The company provides amalgam separators, sharps disposal, and disposal of pharmaceuticals as some of its services. This year DRNA has launched a new effort that allows dentistry to recycle the waste from 3D printers.

It’s an incredibly easy solution, so allow me to explain how it works.  DRNA sends the dental office a shipping container.  Inside is a 2.5 gallon bucket with a liner and a return shipping label.  The liner is placed inside the bucket.  Any 3D printer waste, whether it is cured supports, resin pods, or empty resin bottles, is simply placed in the bucket.  When the bucket is full, the office places the bucket into the shipping container, attaches the label, and notifies DRNA.  The company ships a new 2.5 gallon bucket kit to the office while the office ships the full bucket back to DRNA.  The DRNA solution meets federal, state, and local hazard waste regulations, is an easy one-step process, and provides full documentation.  The entire process is  so easy, even I can follow the instructions!  

After integrating new technologies into my workflows over my entire career, here is my suggestion to the 3D printing companies.  Human beings are creatures of habit.  Once we learn a process for completing a task, we tend to follow the same process time after time.  This is especially true in dental offices which are incredibly procedure driven.  When making a change by incorporating a new workflow, it is much easier to make all the changes at once as opposed to developing a system and then making changes to it later.  Recycling with 3D printing needs to be a part of the office workflow from the very first day.  Partnering with DRNA and training the office that recycling is part of the process with their very first 3D printed project will ensure a smooth integration right from the start.  Let’s provide patients with the best solutions possible and do what’s right for planet Earth.  As an industry, we’re all in this together.  

Mid America Dental Sales Launches Watchdog for Wireless Sensor Tracking

Wireless sensors can be a blessing and a curse.  The blessings are:  they are easy to move and they don't require USB connections which can wear out over time.  The curse can be:  easy to move = easy to lose.

Let's face it, the cord makes it much more difficult to get the sensor folded up in a patient bib and tossed in the trash at the end of an appointment.  However, today's post might bring all of the concerns to an end.  Here's news about a way to wirelessly track your wireless sensors and even know if they've been out of their charger for longer than expected.

Mid America Dental Sales Launches Watchdog — RealTime X-ray Sensor Tracking for the DCAir Wireless Direct Conversion X-ray Sensor by FTG

Mid America Dental Sales has announced the nationwide release of Watchdog, a new realtime tracking and performance monitoring platform designed to protect and optimize the 4th generation DCAir Wireless Direct Conversion Sensor.

Watchdog provides instant system tray alerts the moment a sensor leaves its dock or isn’t returned, identifying the sensor, the room, and its last known location. While misplaced, or accidentally discarded sensors are relatively uncommon, concern about losing a wireless sensor is one of the most frequent questions practices have when transitioning from a corded sensor to a wireless sensor. Watchdog was specifically designed to eliminate that concern by proactively tracking each sensor’s location and status helping practices prevent loss before it occurs and providing greater confidence when adopting wireless technology.

DCAir Watchdog: Smart Tracking. Total Peace of Mind.

• Instant alerts when sensors are not returned to their charger in a pre-set number of minutes. 
• Pinpoint exact location via Bluetooth finder.
• Live dashboard showing every sensor and room location 

Paired with the DCAir sensor’s Direct Conversion technology — which captures photons directly for sharper, more detailed radiographs — Watchdog creates a complete imaging ecosystem that enhances clinical confidence and protects the practice’s investment.

Watchdog and the 4th generation DCAir Wireless Direct Conversion Sensor are available now through Mid America Dental Sales’ nationwide dealer network.

For more information, contact your local fullservice dental dealer or visit www.dentalsalesinc.com