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So Barb, an overdue congratulations are in order.
Oh my god, what did I do now, Elvis?
Didn't you all recently announce the Simply Arch studio?
Yes, we did.
That's awesome. You know that's right up my alley there.
Of course I do.
And just for anyone who hasn't seen the announcement, what is this Simply Arch thing?
All right, so Simply Arch is our dedicated full arch lab. So it's high quality, full arch cases are a big part of what we do. And we wanted a team and a dedicated workflow and a production environment built specifically around them.
So basically just no distractions.
Exactly. Just a bunch of full arch nerds doing full arch things.
Oh God, a bunch of nerds sounds terrifying.
It's never terrifying of it.
And does a new studio Also mean new toys.
Yes, and of course we recently brought in Xterra Mill as part of the project.
Hell yeah, nice.
Yeah, and then of course came the cam decision.
Here we go, the old cam decision.
You know, Elvis, we tested a couple options and of course we landed on Hyperdent.
Like Hyperdent, just as easy as that.
As easy as that, pretty much. The quality off the machine was excellent. So that means also no hand finishing and the milling times were excellent also.
You're right, that does make the decision quite easy.
But honestly, what really stood out to us was the testing and implementation process.
How so?
You could immediately tell these guys live in a world of high, complex milling challenges.
That's got to build a lot of confidence.
You know what? It really did, and it really does. They weren't just showing us how the software works. They were advising us on the best way to build an entire workflow for our lab. You could tell they've done it 100 times, guys.
That's a whole new different level of expertise. Well, congratulations on the new studio, Barb.
Thank you. Hats off to my dad for the studio. So it means a lot to me.
Aw. Welcome to Voices from the Bench, a dental laboratory podcast. Send us an e-mail at info at voicesfromthebench.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Greetings and welcome to episode 449 of Voices from the Bench. My name is Elvis.
My name's Barbara. Happy November.
Happy November. Happy day after Halloween. How are you? I saw pictures of you online at night. What were you a tie dye hippie?
Yeah, actually. I got lunch for everybody and we had, you know, a really good time. I love Halloween. Makes me happy.
A lot of people dress up at the lab.
Yep.
Yeah, that's great.
How about you?
We did it at our lab too, but I was at chair sides all day. So I didn't get to participate. I kind of felt sad about it, but work has to happen.
It. That's right. All right, so what's happening this week?
All right, Barb, what happens when you bring together the people pushing digital dentistry forward? A lab that turned an old Walmart into a dental technology powerhouse and a company that believes the secret to success is doing things a little differently? Well, you're about to find out as we bring you the first set of conversations from no Dental Supplies NOAH Labfest thanks to our friends at Hyperdent. This is where Barb and I caught up with some great people making things happen in our industry. First up, we are talking with Dylan Policini, who's the director of digital solutions at Bonadent Dental Laboratories. He talks about his journey from photography to CAD/CAM, the evolution of digital dentistry, training the next generation of technicians, and how automation can help us put skilled people back to doing skilled work.
Nice.
And then we sit down with some old friends, Erica Damana and Tom Husing from Adite, again to talk zirconia, strategic partnerships, hands-on technical support, and why following the competition isn't always the best way to get ahead. So join us as we chat with Dylan, Erica, and Tom. Voices from the bench. The interview. Early morning, day two of NOLA Lab Fest. Barb rolling in. It's a little bit late, but that's okay.
When I passed the room, there was like 4 people in there.
Oh, and that, yeah, this is going to be a slow start. But we're super excited. We have someone from Bonadent here, Dylan. Policini.
Policelli.
Policelli. I knew I was getting it right.
Policelli.
Good morning.
Morning.
What's the most common mispronunciation do you get?
Oh my God.
Brian wants to say that. Anything.
Hey Brian, good morning. Thanks for the play.
It's live. That's what happens when you're live.
People just roll in.
Excuse me?
They butcher it about every way you can imagine. Yeah.
Pupitudni.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Puccini.
Polo-jelly. Polo-sally.
Yeah.
Any way you can mispronounce it?
18 years. That's insane. You don't see that very often, someone putting that sort of, other than Barb, putting that sort of time in one lab. Have you always been at that lab?
Always been at that lab.
That's where you started.
That's where I started.
Tell us that story.
So I want to hear about it.
I kind of tripped and fell into the dental industry.
Yeah, I love that. Me too.
I hear that a lot.
I never, my plan was never, I never foresaw myself.
In the greatest industry in the world.
That's right.
What did you want to do?
I went to college. I got a degree in photography.
Photography.
I bet that helps now, doesn't it?
Helped then too. Yeah, absolutely. So I graduated in like 2008 and yeah, of course I wanted to be a photographer, but I didn't want to. I like nature photography, art. I wanted to be an artist, right? And you know how that goes. So when I got out of school, I needed a job. I didn't want to do weddings or anything like that. That's not my style.
Taking pictures of kids by trees. That wasn't your thing.
You know, if it reacts to a camera, it really wasn't my thing.
Oh, interesting.
Yeah. So I moved home. I needed a job. And so I had a few friends who worked at Bonnet Dent and they said, oh, you know, you should apply here. Give it a shot. I think you'd be good at it. So I did and there was an opening for a second shift model room job.
Of course.
And I applied for it.
Second shift, what is that starting at?
About 2, I think it was like 2 to 10 or something. Two to 10, 30.
Yeah.
And well, I didn't get that job.
Oh no.
I said, what the frick? Never not gotten a job in my life.
How do you not get a job in a dental lab? Poor models.
That's what you said, right?
I've never not gotten a job in my life. How bad was your test model? Geez.
I'm thinking it was because I told them I was maybe interested in pursuing my masters and maybe they didn't see that I had a future in dental.
Yeah. You got to lie about that kind of thing. I really want a poor model.
I guess I'm just an honest person. I don't know. So I got a call later that day. My cousin who worked there, she said, hey, I heard you applied upon then. You didn't get the job? I said, yeah, what the frick? So I got a call the next day and I had an interview in CAD CAM. And so this was like 2009.
So did she give you like them a little nudge and be like, why did you not hire them? So they called you back.
They called me back and I got hired into CAD CAM, which was a blessing in disguise.
So maybe they thought you were brighter or not to be negative about model, but maybe they were thinking, you know, you were just.
I think they interviewed a few people and they said, this guy's not going to stick around.
Yeah.
I mean, if.
Someone came in to interview and told me you wanted to do something else eventually, I'd be like, I don't want to waste my time.
Yeah, that's true.
You want longevity.
Ultimately, that was a blessing in disguise, not getting that job because I got hired into CAD/CAM in 2009.
It was early adoption, right?
We were using lava.
Procera.
I still have our Procera scanner in my office. I'm waiting for the Bonadette Museum to put it out and display.
Is that the red dot that moved away?
Yeah, the piccolo.
The piccolo, yes.
I still have it in my office. They found it like Outback and said, no, I need that. Give me that.
Don't throw that away.
That's not going away.
So honestly, the skills I learned in photography really translated to early design and printing and all those things. And I was able to really, help contribute to the CAD CAM team and 18 years later.
So did you like move up or you, I mean, like how did you transition from there to where you are now?
So I started, I started just loading mills, loading the lava mills. doing some scanning. We had an Envision Tech printer in 2009, so I cleaned some prints.
Is that the big? It looked like a cotton candy machine.
Kind of, yeah. You know, with an orange top.
Just threw it away at the new lab, my man.
That's why.
The 48-point inspection with the little...
The light bulb that cost $1000 every time it went bad. And it only lasted like a couple of hours.
And we were using, we were Lava and Dental Wings was our main softwares.
Dental Wings, yeah. And so Bonadent went with Dental Wings.
Early on.
That's interesting.
Before 3Shape. And shortly thereafter, probably about 2010, 2011, we got 3Shape. And that's when design really ramped up for us and I was, I love design. I still love design.
Did you design how to do it? So you were one of the first ones that learned?
Yeah. Wow.
Did you just take right to it?
Yeah. And I love it. And it's still my favorite thing to do in the laboratory is design.
How did you learn it?
That's where your artistry probably comes out.
I had my manager, Joe Nigro. He taught me everything in there. That's awesome. And really it was just a matter of learning the software because I think I was used to digital photography, composing on a computer screen, dealing with just different compositional aspects, symmetry, all that. So that worked well for me. sculpture, it's basically computer sculpting, right? So we started off with copings and full cast crowns, and eventually we were like, well, can't we do this with these lava crowns and so we went from it we went from there with it.
Could Lana then have the lava mills?
We did.
Oh man I just I've never seen one but I hear they're huge.
They were they're very large and very expensive and but you only loaded a block that was about you know.
The size of 1/4.
Yeah I think they were 20 millimeters by 20 millimeters and then they had a 40 millimeter block a little bit after that you could put like a 3 in a bridge on.
So why was the machine So big.
Look at your phone.
Back in the day.
It just keeps getting smaller and tender and interesting. And eventually Pucks came along and we got a couple rolling mills and.
What's it like now? it's like put us inside Bonadent. It's such an amazing laboratory.
Do you work at the Walmart?
I do. I love that story. What does that mean? They bought a Walmart.
Yeah.
So what department?
So I'm about in the, it's actually, believe it or not, the cat cam is right around where the electronic department was, where the video games and all that stuff was. Maybe like right behind that was the shoe department and we might, the milling area might occupy some of where the shoe department was back then. And it's funny because I used to go to that Walmart as a kid, but then Wow. That's so strange that they did that.
Yeah.
It was, you know, when they were building super Walmarts and they just left this building and built a new one.
That's hilarious.
Almost right next door.
Yeah.
And eventually, Bruce bought the building and transformed it into an incredibly beautiful laboratory.
Is there any reminiscence of Walmart?
I was in our purchasing warehouse and I was looking up at the ceiling and the pipes that were running across I could see and it was still like written on it's at Walmart on the pipes on the ceiling.
Because how long ago did they buy that? I mean, it's been a while.
It was probably about 2012, I believe, 2012, 2013, something like that.
So you were at their original location and then moved into this?
So they had a location in Auburn, which is, so we're in Seneca Falls, New York, but they had their original location was in Auburn. When I started, they had a location, they had already moved to Seneca Falls. So I was in their original Seneca Falls location. before they purchased that building and revamped it.
What was it like when it was like, we're buying a Walmart and everyone's like, what?
It was exciting. And we could see the construction going on and Bruce, everything he does is beautiful. And we knew it was going to be a beautiful building and it's clean, it's immaculate.
Speaking of Bruce, does he ever pop in? Does he still go to the bench or just pop in?
I don't think he's on the bench, but he's still involved with the company. Really.
Awesome. I don't think you ever can get away. You know, when you fall in love with dental and you own a business, even though you transition, you still.
Want to just go back. say good morning to everybody, every department, walk through it, good morning, good morning, good morning. And then he'd sit down at the bench and...
Diatrim.
Dentures.
Really.
Dentures.
And now how fun.
That's awesome.
Wow. That's pretty inspiring, actually. So what's your role there?
So my role is Director of Digital Solutions. So I now oversee all of our digital workflows for not just New York, but all of our locations. I do training on all aspects of CAD/CAM. I do R&D for whether it's hardware, software, milling equipment, printing equipment, materials.
How do you find time for all that? I mean, just R&D alone in your location's got to be a full-time job. Do you just multitask?
I mean, how do any of us technicians find time to do any of the stuff we do? You know, I think that's the age-old question that I've heard a lot in this industry.
So how many locations are there?
So there's six locations.
Oh, wow.
Yep. So we are.
One of them's in Florida, right?
Two in Florida. Two in Florida. So we're in Melbourne, Florida, and Bonita Springs, Florida.
Yeah. Okay.
We have one in Augusta, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Greenville, South Carolina, and New York.
Wow. And you get to travel at all these, to drain and check things out.
It varies, but I think the goal is to try to really have me in each location at least once a year.
Okay, that's not too bad. I was thinking once a month.
That would be a lot. It's, you know, I do what I gotta do, right? But there's a lot of ways you can still train without having to be right with those people, and we utilize that as well.
So what have you implemented? I mean, during your time, you must have implemented pretty much everything that's digital.
I mean, yeah, I mean, I remember even I was just telling a story to somebody when, back in probably 2012 or I don't quite remember the year, we went to CAP, right? And we started off No anteriors in CAD/CAM, right? Just posteriors.
No anteriors.
The zirconia wasn't that good looking back then anyway. So we start, we went to anterior design and it just all built out from there. And I remember going to CAP and training on Iser. Iser Bridge.
Wow.
Was the cap like first?
Where was cap? Was that in Florida?
It was in Boston.
Oh, OK.
Yeah, that's Rob. Yeah, Rob Gazelle. Yeah.
OK.
And we went there to train on. It was called the Iser. Iser Bridge.
I don't remember the name, but I don't know.
It was like the first full arch zirconia bridge design.
OK. Yeah.
You know, now we're, you know, it's, whatever we need. Printing equipment, milling equipment. Flex partials now, right? Printed flex partials. Basically.
Would you go with the carbon one?
Currently, yep, we're with the carbon.
Same. How's that going?
It's going good.
It'd take a while to get it to be where it was flexible.
You got to find the sweet spot, right? Basically the thickness in your design. You got to find that sweet spot that allows good flexibility but good durability at the same time.
It's not breaking as soon as you go.
Right. And in the lab, we try to flex it a lot more than it would ever flex in somebody's mouth. Yeah, those heels ever going to touch in somebody's mouth? I don't know, I doubt it, but we'll make them touch in the lab.
Absolutely.
So, did.
You, are you offering that as a separate product or did you just replacing all your flexibles with it?
We, so we're still in the midst of that.
Trying to do analog as well as digital.
Analog is one of the most time consuming and I never did it myself, but I hear all the horror stories about processing analog flexis. And so the initial idea was, hey, we can make this easier. But people still want analog. So we want to meet the demands of our customers. Yeah. I don't know.
I always felt that doctors, I mean, they just want the product. They don't care how we make it, honestly. And eventually I think we're going to just switch.
I think eventually, right? I think materials are still trying to catch up. You know, they're still evolving. And so, you know, we'll just.
I'm going to let Big Labs, like Knight and Bonnet, figure it out first. Once you guys perfect it, let us all know, then us little people will jump on board.
Do you guys have, since you have so many locations, do you have specialties in each location or does every location do every product?
Each location is a full service laboratory.
Wow.
Yeah.
So you'll beta test in R&D and then they move all of the equipment to the different location and everybody launches it.
Yep.
Sweet.
Exactly.
That's pretty awesome. What are you?
Looking at now? What's your next?
What am I looking at now? It's a lot of automation, right? Trying to streamline workflows in the laboratory, trying to connect those workflows that you can automate right now, but it's kind of almost, if you're not developing it yourself, it's very much kind of a Frankenstein workflow and connecting those dots to make it a full end-to-end kind of automated workflow is one of my focuses right now.
Wow, that's a lot. I mean, AI is. It's a little scary, I think.
It's interesting, and also finding ways to still utilize, the goal is to utilize our skilled people to do skilled tasks, right? And not just be button pushers, you know, next, next, next, and model builder. So, you know, that's how we can try to hopefully scale those operations.
Don't you guys have an on-site training program like where you hire new techs and you bring them through?
We do. And we just completed one recently. So we call it Create Your Future. And we bring in younger generation, whether they're just out of high school, just out of college, and we put them through a six to eight week program where we teach them every aspect of the laboratory and then kind of Wow, 6 to 8 weeks though.
That's a commitment.
So that's like all day paying them just to learn and get ready.
Yeah.
That's pretty awesome.
I love that. And we, yeah, we just wrapped one up and we just, you know, placed about 5, 6 new employees and they're doing great. Yeah.
Interesting. So you bring it and do it as like a group.
Yep.
And is it all done at one location or?
Yeah, we have a nice little training room. in our facility.
So they get to learn ceramics as well as digital design, all of it.
Everything. Wow.
And I send employees there, but you got a promise to send them back?
And then you just zero in on what they do best. That's awesome. We'll see.
But yeah, it's fun. It's fun working with them and teaching them. Finding their strengths, really, right, is I think is the key and placing them in a position to succeed. Nice.
Do you still do like the test before you hire like curve the sober?
Don't you remember the old go well math test? Of doing that, I'm not in a lot of our interview processes, but with these guys I definitely I did clay with them, and I've actually just started doing it myself, and it's like the most. Therapeutic. It's therapeutic. my God. And I love it.
So what is it? You give them a block.
Yeah, a hunk of clay and ask them to, you know, carve, you know.
We'll give the tooth the tooth, match it.
That's right.
All they get is a picture, like a 2D picture.
They get 2D picture. We also have those. Yep.
Do you remember those, Elvis? They're like this big.
Yeah, I have a collection of them in my closet. I don't know why I do, but...
Well, you can give them to your new hires and ask them to replicate it.
Interesting.
And I enjoy.
Where do you get a block of clay from?
Amazon, Amazon, Amazon.
Where you pretty much get everything.
Yeah, sure.
And I've been just going home and doing that and doing it with my children. And it's like, it's, I don't know, it's therapeutic. It's something I don't know how it took me 18 years to discover it, but I love it.
Yeah, I do too. I've done that a couple times, but it's pretty challenging when you.
Don't know what you're doing?
True.
Except with your hands and your brain.
Right. And you don't have to carve the anatomy most of the time on the computer screen.
Yeah, they'll give it to you.
I enjoy that part of it.
Cool.
That's amazing. So what do you think of LabFest? Is this your first year?
This is my first year at NOLA LabFest.
What brought you here?
My bosses.
Nice.
Yeah. They said, you're going. I said, awesome.
Yeah, sweet.
Never been to New Orleans before. It's been a great event. It really has been. And it's a beautiful city and a lot happening and meeting a lot of new, good new people. And so I've enjoyed it.
Yeah. Anytime dental technicians and the whole community gets together like this, you can just feel it, the synergy in the air. It's pretty awesome. It's pretty electric.
It is.
Except for this morning. I think everybody's still sleeping.
This place is pretty light.
I think we should have foresaw that today. I don't know how we didn't see that.
I think we started like 1/2 an hour ago and there's nobody. Yeah, there's people starting to roll in.
And that's what Sean said. I think it's going to be light tomorrow.
Yeah, they shouldn't have handed out the swamp juice.
I know, exactly. Let's do a shot at 8 A.m.
These things need to start at noon. We all could have slept in.
Exactly.
We appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming on. Congratulations for such a great career, man.
It's rare. You know, it's just, like I said, I tripped and fell into it and I enjoy it. It's great. It's fun work. The work is fun. Yeah. It never gets boring. No.
I have to even think to myself, I don't even realize it, but now that I'm back at summer, I think I have you beat by 18 years by like a year.
That's okay.
I started in 2008.
That was 2009.
Okay.
Yeah.
Wow.
And I'm still at that, back at that same lab.
And loving it, right? And working hard.
Depends on what day you ask me. Yeah. All right. Awesome. Dylan, thank you so much, man.
Yeah, enjoy the rest of the meeting. Yeah, thank you. Thanks.
Bye.
Hello.
Thanks for being nice.
That's a good one. You got to get a little closer to your mouth. Hello. A little closer. Up higher. Oh, you got the cord like this?
Oh, oh, I see.
Yeah.
This one.
There you go.
OK, better.
Better, better, better, better, better. There you go. Perfect. Yay. What's happening, y'all?
Not much. Good morning.
Good morning.
Eric and I are thrilled to be on here with you.
Yes, we are. We're day two, early morning. There's about 8 people awake here today.
Four of them are us.
Yeah.
I'm ready to hit it.
Yeah. We're so happy. Adite sits down with us.
Well, we're so happy to be here with you, actually.
We appreciate it. Last year you sponsored us. You got us here last year. We're happy to talk to you. What's going on with Adite?
Adite's on the move.
We're on the move. We're on the move.
On the move where you live?
Let's introduce them first. You got to flip your tag around.
Erica, the marketing director for Adite North America.
Welcome.
Thank you.
And we all know Tom Husing. Tom Husing.
I don't know if we all know him, but.
A lot do.
We've always heard about you.
On a few of your podcasts.
Yes.
I hope good things about us. Yeah.
So fill us in.
What's going on?
No, we're just on the move. See you at the top. We're moving forward. That's the bottom line.
I hear a lot of good things about Adite on social media.
And we just talked to Mike Wandling. That's exciting.
Mike. Mike.
He's a dude. He's a good.
He's a good dude.
Mike shines like gold without. He just shows up like that. And we're very pleased and proud. to be a part or have him be a part of our art tech group, which is our group of KOLs that we have globally. And he's such a nice, respected KOL.
Master CDT.
Master CDT.
It almost makes you wonder what's wrong with him. He's so humble.
He's so humble. He's very passionate about what he does.
What happened to you? So Eric and I had a call, and Michael will hear this probably, but then after we have calls with people or something, Eric and I'll stay on and have a call. And it's on a Teams, and so we're like...
Talk trash about them.
I get you. No, but we kind of just want to do a quick, our next step. Yeah, sure. And after that call, we just kind of looked at each other and said, wow, we don't usually talk to...
People are so great.
So humble and great and just.
How did you choose him? How did you find him?
Obviously he uses. I will tell you, Mike uses Adite. He liked our, and we have since moved on from 3D Prosur to 3D Prosur Ultra. But to go back, we had talked to him at Visions. Was it last year or the year before?
I believe it was this year.
And Mike had expressed interest in working with Adite. And that's not always as easy as it sounds. I mean, yes, it's easy. However, it's finding a place for the person to...
Where do they fit in?
Where do they fit in? What shows? Because when you get KOLs, You generally have to keep them busy and wanting to.
I'm sure every KOL wants to do every show, right.
Exactly. That's what I'm trying to say. And I don't mean it bad. It's just, you know, and you.
Got to pick and choose.
We talked to him about visions and he really, really was into our 3D Pro Zir and really liked it. And that's like our flagship zirconia. That said, Eric and I talked about it. I said, Eric, I want to try to utilize Michael. We both agreed.
Yeah.
And I don't want to pretty much anything I do. This is right here. The person we talked the most probably out of everybody and make decisions. Yeah. And he, as we went on, we never really found squirrel. Please, you can play with it.
It's yours.
Very good.
I just want to fix the voice from the bench chain.
We just kind of found that he would be a good fit. So fast forward, we weren't really doing anything, but we had the opportunity then in June, we had introduced our 3D Proser Ultra.
And what's different?
It's stronger, it'll center faster, same translucency, 57%. but it's just stronger. It's a 1250 MPA, centering times faster with it. You can do a faster fire with it, et cetera. So we talked about it and we said, Michael, we had a call with Michael and I said, I'm going to send you some alternative tests. As it turned out, he liked it even better, which is always nice compliment. Look, it's hit and miss sometimes too with furnaces. Oh, it's firing. Michael out-of-the-box. I think anybody that knows Michael respects Michael when he says, You're not going to question him either. He's kind of silent, but deadly. Ninja, so we've since had two webinars with him on it. He's probably our best attended webinar, right?
Because you're marketing, so you develop the webinars and all of that.
Yeah, I coordinate everything with our, I work with our KOLs, I onboard our KOLs, and really just make sure they're placed in the right positions and do all the promotions around everything. Yeah, so that's cool. Social media, those posts, I like those. It's huge.
We actually, in compliment to Erica here, we have a monthly newsletter and it's in the 50% open rate.
Wow, that's a lot. Normally it's like 23.
Well, the average is 23. Like 25, yeah. We're getting every month, it goes out on the same day every month, first Wednesday of the month, I believe.
Yes, it's called 88 Pulse.
Yeah, Erica developed it and.
How do you find content for that? That's hard.
We have so much content. It's actually, yeah.
That's a good problem.
You can put it all in it even.
Right. So like each month it's packed with, you know, we do product announcements, we do event announcements, promotions for our webinars, our education, where you can find us at these shows. Exactly. So it's everything you need to know about ADI going on in the month.
Yeah. So that's all Erika. She's put that together, and I'm very pleased and proud of it, actually, because there's not too many people getting a 50% open line. So.
You want to reach...
It's all about touches.
And with social media, it's so hit or miss. Like, if you see it on the algorithm, like it's always changing.
And it's interesting. We posted a picture on Friday.
Yesterday, yeah.
I'm sorry, Friday.
I get it. I do too.
I don't even know what day it is.
My weekends go into the days. Days go into the weekends. Duff Eric and I at the exhibit here, we found that we get more attention with that than we do with putting a product up there. It's really so like we were digging. And we found that out two weeks ago. We were at the AID in Nashville. And we did it. And we looked at it and we thought, wow. So we're digging into that to figure. I don't know if it's going to take Eric and I holding the product every time or something together. Maybe. We'll see. But then it's interesting, isn't it?
Well, think about the time you guys came on the podcast. It was about the people.
Yeah, it's about the people.
I mean, zirconia is zirconia, and once it's good, it's good, but you want a company behind it that actually exists.
Exactly. So you kind of want to see, I guess, the people want to see the faces behind it. And I don't know. So we need to capitalize that on that a little bit, I believe. We have to figure out. But Erica's smart with that. She'll figure it out.
You'll be seeing more of us.
And then yeah, you'll be seeing us hold a bottle of resin or something.
Can we get a calendar maybe?
We just got a bottle of calendar. Next year calendar of all of us. That's a good idea. Actually.
How about a centerfold in LMT?
Just like all of a sudden, you got to go to ADAC. And that's it's funny that you say that. And I know you say it jokingly.
No, I've wanted a centerfold LMT for years.
But I say it as.
He's going to get one one day.
I think part of the secret sauce behind ADA, and I'll lay it out because no one can execute it. I don't care what the competition does. I don't care about the competition. They're minimal to me. And we do it different.
I think it's important not to base your company, your lab, anything on the competition. I see this all the time. It's like, oh, they lowered their price. We have to look. No, you can't do that. Oh, they're starting to make that. We need to make that.
You have to set up your company to fly at a higher altitude.
Well, you just said you do it different. Describe that.
Like, what is your? I will do, somebody will come to me, oh, you know, so-and-so's doing this. We have to do this too. No, we don't. We have to do the complete opposite. 100%. Because that's all they know. And we know more. We'll do it differently and we'll disrupt the market. And I think that's been a big part of Adite's growing. And other than great quality, our service is excellent with our products.
That's important.
That's just my thought on the business. You really have to differentiate yourself out on the market and you can't be like everyone else. You have to move forward. ADAC's grown very well. 2024, I was lucky enough to be over there and be up on the Shinzen Stock Exchange. Have you been over there? Oh yeah, I go over there. I'm going over there week after next, actually. Well, first week in November, I think.
So, how long is that flight?
It's 25 hours. Have you been?
I have.
That's a lot. And then I land.
More than once or just once?
I went one time for our Global Partnership Conference in 2024.
And that's it. We just had another global. But in 2024, then we went, our IPO, we went public. I was fortunate enough to be up on the stage, ring the bell with, for the. That's exciting. It is the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. So we're not just another little company coming out of China to do business in the United States and take advantage. We're a global company.
When did it hit America?
My goodness. It was before me. Yeah, 2017.
2019, 2019, I don't remember that buzz. And everybody's like, oh, you can't use this. It's out of China. And it had Chinese writing on it. And everyone was like, whoa, look at you now. Come on. That's a great point.
Well, you know, look, if you have a great quality product and the company backs it up, Why not? Look at the...
Didn't you guys give Sean Nowak an award?
Yeah, we did. I saw him on stage. That was at our global. That's because he's one of our top dealers and he does, he's committed and we're big, we're not big on partnerships, we're big on strategic partnerships. That's what matters.
What's the difference?
The partnership is this, how much, how low, how well that, you know, strategic partnership. You're both aligned, you grow together, you grow NOAC, Adite's going to grow. You grow Grow 3X, Adite's going to grow.
Was NOAC one of the first distributors to believe in the product or.
Sean was on early, he's just been very good at it. And we have a lot of strategic plans with it and it just it's very strategic so that the partnership you guys see it Barbara you see it at the lab all the day a partner you know what a partnership is but you know what a strategic partnership is too yeah and it's night and day and I am such a big believer in that I don't need partners I need strategic partners like-minded people.
So we don't all fly it.
You gotta fly at a higher altitude You have to. I'm sorry. It's just how I believe. I just, yeah, well, don't look out the window. Don't look down. Don't look down. So I think that we're doing good things. Our global conference in June was excellent this year. We had, it was over in China at our global headquarters. And but to go back, it's 25 hours for me to fly over. Then I land in Beijing and I take a three to four hour ride.
On a train or on a car? Wow. Wow.
It's a lot.
They don't have an airport.
They do, but there's challenges, you know, just different challenges getting in and out of there. So.
How long do you stay over there?
I think this time I'm going over the 2nd through the 10th, and then I'll either go again at the end before the end of the year or next year, early next year. So I go over quite a bit. I don't mind.
Do you like it? I mean, obviously, but I mean, I mean, just the culture and...
They're very good to me and I'm very good to them, you know. So it's yeah, I do. Do you speak the language yet?
You understand more than you get.
Yeah. So we'll just leave that. That's decent.
Yeah. So do you guys have, when a lab wants to use Adite, do you have like a technician that works with them to get their temperatures and everything?
It's a wonderful question. So we are the company that will go into the red and I'll send the technology director out to help you settle on the right temperatures. Look, you both know this very well. Every furnace is different. It just is. And yeah, well, I'm using this furnace. Yeah, okay. So let me do it. Let me bring them out. If it's too light, we'll work it out. We'll get it dialed in. First thing he does is go in and calibrate the furnace because nobody does. Well, it's a good place to start though.
At least you know how you're at ideal. Yeah.
Don't want to say what you just said, but it's.
What you just said.
Nobody calibrates those things. What do you do? Those little lightsaber things.
I believe he does. I believe he does. He carries them. And you know, we want to make it, we want to get it right for you. And that's why we do that. And it's worth it in the long run. You know, we do what we have to do today to get what we want tomorrow. We want a happy customer that we can serve.
Yeah, sure.
Simple. I mean, if people want more back to the simplicity of business, business might be different in a better way.
Well, that's smart, because it used to be you'd come to a show and you'd go home with 13 pucks. And then you're like, I guess I'll try it. And it's like, well, that didn't work. And then you've totally dismissed that company right off the bat. It doesn't work.
It's kind of funny, too. We don't go into a lab and even the account managers that come over, we don't go into a lab and immediately start discussing price. And we don't go in and start talking about volume. What does all that matter if you haven't tested the material and like it? 100%. Otherwise, you have to test it and see if you like it. And then those discussions will come into place. So we kind of turned around the workflow on our part of how we want To do that, we're grateful to give the sample and have you try it, but we also want to better predict our success by sending the technology director out to do it. I love it. Agreed.
Can you send Mike Wanmaleen out?
Yeah, what is it? What do they do, KOLs? Do they go and do that, or are they basically just speaking for you?
In special cases, we'll send one of our tech KOLs out special circumstances to do a hands-on for the day with our biomic stain and glaze, something like that.
Mostly education.
But mostly education, webinars, things like speaking events. Chicago.
What are you guys doing in Chicago?
Yeah, that must be. I'm going to let Erica go.
Yeah, we've got some exciting things happening in Chicago this year. We have a new space we're going to be utilizing.
You know, you're the third company to tell me they have new space. Did LMT like shift things?
They must have. I don't know.
I think they're dropping, people are dropping out of it.
Well, it's an IDS year too, so that kind of changes things.
Up a little bit. LMT once you're out.
I've heard this.
Oh, it is. We've been waiting since I've started. So this is my 4th Chicago with Adite. And each year we beg and plead, please give us more space. So we finally have a larger space for our seminar room. And we have some big plans for it. I'm actually going down or up there to tour it next week. And I'm excited to see the space.
So you're going to the hotel?
Yeah.
I have to I have to see it so I can plan again, Barbara.
But it's not just like a big square, right?
So, obviously, it's a new space for us, so we we've never been in it, so I need to, you know, see how we can figure this, what can we send, what equipment, like we're Hoping to have it as like something we can turn into an open house where we can have all of our equipment set up and people can come through and walk and see it in person. It's been a challenge in the past because our space has been so small that we don't have the capacity to bring everything in. But ADI now has a full workflow of all products and equipment and materials.
You have a stage in there and speakers in the room.
We'll probably have speakers in the room as well as all of our.
We're going to try to do as much as we can. It's not one of the big big. But it's larger than behind the cobra.
Exactly. That's where we were.
You were behind the co-check.
Yeah, but it worked out well. But it worked out well. Yeah, I mean, you made it work.
Oh, yeah, we always had packed rooms, and now it's going to be even bigger.
So we're doing another meeting. We're not doing Chicago Midwinter this year. Instead, we're doing the.
Yeah, that all happens at the same time.
There's so many shows.
Yeah. So we're doing that and we're putting a lot into that this year.
Yeah, we're doing a four hour workshop there on our scanners.
Yeah. So that's going to be great. So we I'm very excited for Chicago. Should be a good and then the IDS, of course. That'll be where I go.
I hope I can go this year or next year. I just like to experience it.
That's what I said until I experienced it.
Maybe we don't.
This year I'm wearing tennis shoes. I told Elvis every day.
That's the only thing she's changing is tennis.
That's a good that's a good tip.
Yeah. Trust me. We have we're but we're very excited. We see a bright future and we great customers. We have great customers. Not It's just, I'm very proud and pleased to be working with the customers that we work with, and it's a pleasure to serve them. I mean, I get the picture, they do well, we do well. It's simple as that, and so that's where my... Focus is. That's where Erica's focus is.
Yeah. So where's the new room so people can hear this and find you? Because they're going to go to the coat check.
And be like, where's it? I know, they're going to have to completely revamp all of our marketing around it. I believe it's Hall G. So if you pass like the registration area and you're heading to the escalators to go down to about.
E. It's off to the left.
It's off to the left.
Yes, right on the right on the end, I believe, by the escalators.
Right, you'll see it.
I don't know.
I'm not sure what who was there previously, but that's where we'll be.
That's a good spot. Yeah.
Awesome.
You catch everybody up before they head down to the pit.
Yeah, the pit.
So you still have a booth at the pit?
Yeah.
Same spot there.
So you've rounded up and you still have that.
Wow.
For you guys.
Gotta take it to another level.
We'll send the people your way.
Let's do it. I appreciate you. Thank you, Melvis, for doing that.
Yeah, thank you.
Of course. I hope we appreciate this. Thanks for coming on.
Yeah, this was fun.
Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.
Enjoy the rest of the meeting.
As with you. All right. Have a good one. Thank you.
A huge thanks to Dylan from Bonadent and Erica and Tom from Adite for taking the time to hang out with Elvis and I in New Orleans. It's always exciting to hear how labs are evolving, how technology is changing the way we work, and how companies are finding new ways to support the people behind the cases. From the early days of CAD CAM to automated workflows and stronger zirconia, the dental lab world never sits still.
I wish it would for just a week. Just a week.
Yeah, and neither do we, of course. Thank you to HyperDent. It was amazing. Thank you for helping us make these conversations happen. Thanks to Noak Dental Supplies for hosting another great LabFest. And everybody that came out, it was really, really a great time.
It really was. Already looking forward to next year. But luckily, next week, we have more conversations from LabFest. Right. All right, everybody.
That's all we got for you. And of course, we'll be there. Happy November.
Bye.
See ya.
Nobody trick or treats in an apartment complex, so. The views and opinions expressed on the Voices from the Bench podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the host or Voices from the Bench LLC.