For years, Dr. Oussama Founas and his partners looked for avenues to implement CAD/CAM dentistry into their group of uniquely branded, patient-focused Dentologie practices, but nothing really clicked. The goal was to leverage in-house milling to improve profitability and the patient experience across the DSO, but most systems just had too many touchpoints — and that meant too many opportunities for error.
The key, Dr. Founas says, is to find a solution that eliminates as many touchpoints as possible and keeps appointment times down. They found the glidewell.io™ In-Office Solution did exactly that, with the fastmill.io™ in-office mill producing beautiful BruxZir® NOW crowns that could be delivered straight from the mill, with no need to wait for sintering or post processing.
“It just worked with our workflow,” says Dr. Founas, who is Dentologie’s chief operating officer and co-founder. “And they’re a lab, so who better than the world’s largest dental lab that makes these materials day in and day out to know what the materials should look like at the end of the day? The service was there. The material was there. The organization was backed. For us, it was very logical and just made a ton of sense.”
Dr. Founas began to implement the technology across Dentologie’s practices about 3 years ago, which now includes nearly 15 offices in Chicago and Seattle. With its efficient mill and advanced fastdesign.io™ software, glidewell.io has brought many benefits to the Dentologie group of practices, from improving the patient and employee experiences — both core focuses at Dentologie — to increasing profitability. And as Dr. Founas continues to scale (he has plans to add more practices in other cities in the coming years), Glidewell will continue to play a factor in that growth.
Smooth implementation
Dr. Founas was the first to incorporate glidewell.io and slowly brought it to other Dentologie practices over an 8-to-12-month period. He took this approach because he wanted to make sure he could explain the benefits of in-office milling and how it all worked. He also wanted to give clinicians time to prepare their practices for the integration.
“It’s been a smooth process,” Dr. Founas says, and one of the elements he’s been most impressed with is the fastdesign.io software. In the roughly 3 years he’s been using it, there have been more than a dozen updates — all of which have brought improvements.
“It’s been amazing to see the software get faster,” he says. “A lot of companies will tout having AI because it’s a buzzword, but this one is actually practical and pragmatic. It actually makes the design faster and marks the margin quicker.”
Before glidewell.io, crown appointments took about an hour and a half, with more time needed if quadrant dentistry was involved. That process is now more efficient.
“What the mill did really well that worked with our system, and I’m sure it would work for others as well, is that it is designed optimally for quadrant dentistry,” he says. “The workflow for your appointment might be to go ahead and prep the tooth for the crown, scan it, get it milled, and while it’s milling do the fills. This is something dentists have thought of doing with other brands, but the blocks always required baking in an oven.”
Glidewell’s pre-sintered zirconia monolithic blocks don’t, which is a huge time savings. And with the newer BruxZir Esthetic NOW option, you only need two burs to quickly achieve an “insane high polish,” making it quick and easy to provide beautiful restorations.
“When I deliver my cases, I kind of get that high,” he says, “like all right, I need to keep doing this.”
Significant savings
The DSO began to experience significant savings once all the offices were milling instead of outsourcing, Dr. Founas notes. “We’re talking about 2.5% to 3% that’s going straight to the bottom line, which is huge if you’re running an organization at a scale like ours.”
Dr. Founas and partners also knew it was important to add value to the technology because it’s such a useful tool. To do that, they charge a small fee for dentists to use certain blocks, for example.
And patients and dentists certainly see the value. Once doctors get a few same-day crown cases under their belts with Glidewell’s in-office mill, they’re hooked — even those who may have been hesitant at first. They see how easy it is and want to know how many crowns they can deliver in a day and how much chair time they can actually save. That, of course, translates into financial gains for the practice as well.
“From a profitability standpoint, this technology only makes things more efficient and better for you,” Dr. Founas points out.
An easy sell
Getting doctor buy-in across the DSO wasn’t difficult. Because every practice is part of one brand, Dentologie fosters “a culture that is oneness.” Dr. Founas says the dentists who are brought on board are very adaptable and even welcome change. They’re always ready to try new technology to see what it can do for their practice.
Of course, making doctors comfortable with new technology and eager to adopt it requires training. Dentologie worked with Glidewell’s trainers to get every dentist and team member ready to confidently take on same-day crowns. Glidewell offers extensive training opportunities, including a full day of in-person team training, a large library of webinars that are easy to access online, ongoing support during the integration process and beyond, and even advanced classes for clinicians who are ready to do more.
Another critical part of adoption is what dentists see from their colleagues, Dr. Founas notes. New dentists joining the group want to be like the most productive doctors. And who are those dentists at Dentologie? The ones who mill the most.
Exceptional service
“The level of service Glidewell is known for is another reason it made sense to integrate glidewell.io,” Dr. Founas says. And the Glidewell team has lived up to its reputation. He can call or text his contacts whenever he has a question, and he knows they’ll respond right away. That level of personalization and service is rare.
Dr. Founas experienced firsthand how Glidewell responds when there is a problem, and he was impressed. At one point, his mill needed to be serviced, so he had to send cases out to Glidewell’s lab. While this is a free service for glidewell.io docs, Dr. Founas was frustrated that he couldn’t deliver same-day crowns. Glidewell’s solution? Send him another mill. That way, if one ever went down, he always had a backup.
“I knew from there that we were set, that this was the right partner because if anything comes up, we can talk about it,” Dr. Founas says. “And it’s been significantly more on the good side of things. That just speaks to the kind of service you’ll get there.”
The time is now
“The move to digital dentistry isn’t a future question,” Dr. Founas says. “It’s happening today. If you’re not there yet, you’re already behind. Now is the time to change that.”
Patients have certain expectations when they visit the dentist. If you don’t invest in technology or offer the services that are starting to become commonplace, such as same-day crowns, you might lose them to another practice.
“Investing in solutions like glidewell.io also serves as a recruitment tool to attract top-tier team members,” Dr. Founas says. “They see that you’re staying up to date with the latest advancements and know that will translate into other areas of the business as well.”
“Our focus is on the patient experience and the employee experience,” Dr. Founas says. “If you don’t get the employee experience right, the patient experience can’t get there.”
A bright future
Dentologie will continue to grow with a focus on creating exceptional patient and employee experiences. Dr. Founas and partners have plans to expand into two more urban markets in the next year or two. The DSO will continue to strive to be the brand defined by the patient experience, offering high-end technology like glidewell.io and unique touches like a new app that allows patients to easily schedule appointments and keep track of their “dental world.”
Investing in glidewell.io has improved efficiencies and enabled Dentologie practices to offer same-day crowns without adding extra steps and time to appointments — elevating the patient experience while also providing beautiful, long-lasting restorations patients love.
“We wanted to add in-house milling to improve both profitability and the patient experience because you can win on both ends if you do it right,” Dr. Founas concludes.
To learn more about what glidewell.io In-Office Solution, which also includes the fastscan.io software and fastmill.io mill, can do for your DSO, visit glidewell.io/promotions/about-io-dso.