It’s the CariFree Feud!

Traveling for CariFree affords me the opportunity to meet dentists and teams from about every nook and cranny this country has to offer.  Basically, if there are teeth you’ll find dentists; and where you find dentists, you’ll find CariFree.

As of late, I’ve been attending the trainings hosted by Six Month Smiles.  Their accelerated orthodontics program has been consistently filling rooms with progressive dentists at every turn.  Any patient with compromised homecare (due to the appliances present) makes them a great fit for CariFree, but what has made these meetings far above-average has been the “type” of practices we meet there.

I salivate at the thought of an office that seeks out techniques that not only improve patient care, but offers them the ability to accomplish their esthetic-goals in way that is refreshingly appropriate for adult patients.  These trainings are the cats-pajamas and filled with offices looking to do just that.

Over the years, we’ve learned that patients basically want two things:

1.)    They want to look good

2.)    They want to feel good

While these goals might seem obvious, it has been an absolute pleasure working with offices that are actively seeking ways to fuse these concepts.  By coupling CariFree and Six Month Smiles, we’ve been able to provide patients with a very unique outcome:

The healthy-smile they’ve always wanted …through techniques they didn’t know were possible.  

Not a bad service to offer, huh?  I look forward to the next meeting in NY and the reunion meeting in October. Say hello when you see me!!

Chris “Mutans” Moriarity

Sales Executive

Hello again,

I know as practitioners and advocates for our patients, we share a common goal to offer them the best care possible.  We want to get our patients as healthy as they can be in the shortest amount of time. 

When we are putting patients on a 3-month Treatment program to begin shifting the biofilm to a healthy state, there are certain things your patients can do to help that process go along as quickly as possible.  The key is FREQUENCY.  I want you to keep this in mind as we are making treatment recommendations.  It’s definitely not about putting together a program for patients that consists of random products that they may not use, it’s about figuring out a routine and using the most important products more frequently.  The more your patient is willing to do throughout the day to keep a healthy environment in their mouth, the quicker treatment will go.  For example, your patient could use the Boost Mouth Spray or Xylitol Gum throughout the day in addition to the 3-month Treatment Kit.  By doing this, not only will they be getting the benefits from the Treatment and Maintenance Rinses morning and night, but they will also be elevating the pH in their mouth regularly during the day, such as after eating and drinking.  The more frequently we increase the pH above that critical point at 5.5, the better opportunity we have to keep the bacteria in a healthy balance, but we will also work toward winning the demin/remin battle, preventing net mineral loss that leads to white spot lesions and eventual cavitation.

Please let us know if you have any questions you would like to have answered on the blog because most likely if you have the question, so do lots of other practices as well!  I look forward to hearing back from you.

 Have a wonderful day!

Kendall Clark

Training and Implementation

Where does time seem to go these days? I cannot believe it is already the middle of August.  A busy day can often lead to forgetfulness or tasks left unfinished. This got me thinking how busy I know your dental practices must get, and finding a moment in the day to place an order is easier said than done. Let us help you be able to focus on what you do best, dentistry, while we worry about making sure you have the CariFree products your patients need. By setting up the hassle-free option of automatic shipping, you are in essence putting some ease in your day. 

Automatic shipping serves as a personalized, convenient service we provide to you. You let us know the date, item(s), and quantity you would like shipped out, and we will handle the rest. Additionally, include up to three different products in your automatic shipment for a 20% discount! 

If you have any questions concerning our automatic shipping options, please feel free to contact Cody or me at 866.928.4445.

Enjoy that summer sunshine!

Christa Wise

Accounts Executive

In an effort to recognize those practices going above and beyond to bring the CAMBRA standard of care to their patients, CariFree would like to feature one of our practices committed to helping their patients get healthy.  We feel as though, as we blaze this new trail in risk assessment and medical management in dentistry, that the more we, as colleagues, can share our experiences, our successes and failures, and the impact this is having on our practices and patients, the more we all stand to gain.

This month’s feature practice is Dr. Robert Green of Windham, Maine and his hygienists Judith Davidson and Kara Blair. 

Dr. Green began by sharing with us that he really likes the CAMBRA philosophy and what it offers his patients, and enjoys the additional tools that can be used for diagnosis.  He likes that they can now have an explanation as to why their patients suffer from decay, especially for their most frustrating cases.  It is a new approach to help patients get out of the trouble they have been in for years.  Dr. Green remembers having heard Doug Young speak a few years back, and was hooked on the idea from the beginning!

In spite of his commitment to CAMBRA care, he and his team have not taken this on without their fair share of challenges.  While success stories are nice to hear, don’t we all learn more from the areas where we really have to apply our education, background and clinical experiences to work toward a positive result?  As Dr. John Kois would say, when we have to “put on our Columbo jackets” and really assess what is going on and more importantly, why?

For Dr. Green’s practice their struggles have been less clinical and mostly organizational.  They have had to get creative with regard to how to package the concept, how to present the information to patients, and what to charge.  “The company does a great job of giving recommendations, but then you have to take those and customize a plan that provides the right fit for your patient base and the aptitude of your dental practice.”

For them, it ended up making sense to take a look at the time it would take to talk with patients about the program, and then put a value on that in terms of what to charge for the products.  When talking with patients they have come up with an elevator speech, limiting the conversation to the most important points in the easiest, quickest amount of time.  The more they talk about it the easier it is, and now they have it down to a science!

They charge for the CariFree system, risk assessment and CariScreen testing as well as treatment and maintenance products as a whole program for one year.  Starting with the CariScreen swab and Treatment Kit for high risk patients and then at 3 months they are reassessed and go home with the Maintenance Kit.  They are reassessed every 3 months for the next 9 months.  Any additional Maintenance product costs are worked into the prophylaxis or periodontal maintenance fee. 

They have also found that patients actually want to purchase the products when they understand that it will save them tons of money long-term.  Their seriously at-risk patients are on board from the beginning.  Their lifetime experience with decay and failures with more traditional attempts to control it make this concept a no-brainer.  However they have a harder time helping patients that have never had decay but get high readings on the meter to understand the risk management concept . . . being proactive to prevent consequences.   For those patients they suggest that at a minimum they start using the Maintenance Rinse.

As with many health recommendations spanning all practices of dentistry and medicine, compliance can be challenging.  There are patients who have dropped out or stopped using the products.  They usually find this out when the patient comes in for a 3 month assessment and the reading has gone up.  Then, the patient will admit to being non-compliant once they can see the consequences of their actions.  Luckily Dr. Green doesn’t allow this to discourage him as he knows that providing CAMBRA as a treatment options means that he has done his part.  If his patients don’t follow through and do their part, the accountability lies with them. 

They do have patients encounter some staining from the foods and beverages they may be consuming while using the treatment products, but they have learned that it is best to prepare their patients for this possibility in advance, and find that it definitely doesn’t happen to everyone.  If they see staining on a particular patient they provide a coronal polish at the end of the 1^st month on Treatment Rinse.

When they first began with the program, explaining the inevitable false negatives readings was very frustrating as they felt it caused them to lose their credibility.  Now they simply ask each patient, “when was the last time you brushed?” Knowing when the possibility for false negative readings is high has helped achieved more accurate readings.

When we asked Dr. Green to give us some examples of patients this has helped his first response was “Ask me in 2-3 years.  Right now it is too soon to tell.”

We found this response awesome!  It is a testament to his commitment level to work through the struggles he described above and persevere to provide the best care for his patients.  On second thought he shared a couple of unique cases.

He began with a particular patient in the armed services who came to him after having orthodontic treatment with a mouth full of white spot lesions.  Dr. Green immediately started him on CariFree treatment before he left for boot camp and then wrote letter to his dentist in the military letting him know his caries risk status and the therapy they had been able to provide thus far!   Talk about a committed dentist!

Another of his patients is high caries risk, has periodontal disease and is also a heavy bleeder.  They put him on the CariFree program, and they have seen a significant decrease in inflammation.  While they can’t say definitively that it was the CariFree products that created the result, it has only been since he began using them that this change occurred.

As Dr. Green began to think a little more globally, he realized that the program really has been successful, despite their challenges.  They have gotten their most caries prone patients through Treatment and on to Maintenance.  He has put his trust in the science behind CariFree, and tells us he hopes that it will be enough to get his patients healthy!  They are seeing patients every 3 months and re-assessment.  They are working the program, and it is a program that they are proud of!

Way to go Dr. Green and team!  You are an inspiration to every practice taking on this huge paradigm shift in the way we treat dental caries and your patients are lucky to have you.

Hey everyone!

I wanted to take a moment and talk about CariFree’s new and exciting partnership with Six Month Smiles®.  Before we get started, just in case you aren’t familiar with this new technology, here is a quick explanation: 

Six Month Smiles® uses nearly invisible clear braces to gently straighten and align teeth in an average time of just six months.  This is a great progressive technology which allows adults to obtain the smile they have always wanted without going through years of ortho.

It is so amazing to live in a world where technology and science are ever changing and improving.  This is especially true in the dental field.  It is becoming more and more progressive everyday!  If you are familiar with CariFree, you know we are big on prevention and we seek to partner with other companies that share this common goal.  Both CariFree and Six Month Smiles® are a way to practice minimally invasive dentistry and they really go hand-in-hand.  You want to be sure the smile you are perfecting for your patients also stays healthy.  We are looking to take a more proactive approach and prevent disease before it starts. 

I would encourage you to check out our partnered webinars coming up this month!  On August 24^th, Dr. Kim Kutsch, CEO and founder of Oral BioTech, will be speaking on the topic of CariFree and then August 31^st, Dr. Ryan Swain will be speaking about Six Month Smiles®.  They will both be talking about the benefits of using CariFree and Six Month Smiles® together. 

Click here to register; can’t wait to have you on the call!

Thanks,  

Kendall Clark

Training and Implementation Executive

Hello again!

I’ve just returned from Dallas, TX where I was attending my sixth Productive Dentist Academy meeting.  The goal of these meetings is simple: create a high-producing practice that revolves around taking the best care of your patients as possible. Or as Dr. Baird says “Doing Good, while Doing Good.”

The corner-stone of the PDA curriculum is risk assessment.  Working with each patient to assess individual risk factors not only identifies the patient’s dental needs, but establishes the frame-work for a relationship that will last a lifetime.  We’ve been a natural fit for the many of the offices that complete the program. As they learn to implement CAMBRA (Caries Management by Risk Assesment), CariFree provides the patient with the tools to combat the bacteria that often keep them high-risk.

We work these offices to keep it simple. High Risk = CariFree

“Does that make sense?” echoes Dr. Baird (Any PDA grad will appreciate that!).

I look forward to meeting the next group of PDA grads in October and working with these offices to get a few more tools in the tool belt.

Chris Moriarity

cmoriarity@carifree.com