Teeth Tomorrow: Michael Tischler and Claudia Patch

This conversation is for baby boomers who are really at the dental turning point. Maybe you’re ready to eat without pain or speak without feeling embarrassed. Most of all, you’re probably ready to smile confidently again. If any of those situations apply to you, Michael Tischler and Claudia Patch, the coauthors of Teeth Tomorrow, are here for you. Your smile and self-confidence are assets, but as you get older, they get severely compromised by tooth decay, tooth loss, and the health and psychological problems that often a company major dental issues. In this episode, Claudia and Michael lay out their unique solution that helps their patients with dental distress permanently and gives you a great smile that last a lifetime. Michael is the founder of the Teeth Tomorrow franchise network and the implant editor for Dentistry Today magazine. Claudia has been recognized as one of the top 25 women in dentistry by Dental Products Reporter. Get Michael and Claudia’s new book Teeth Tomorrow on Amazon. Find out more at TeethTomorrow.com. Michael Tischler: We were providing this acrylic hybrid option, which has really been the standard for most dentists for many years. That was what was accepted, it was often called all on four and it was made out of acrylic with a metal substructure. When we tried this, the success rate was so much worse than what I had done previously. At the same time, though, I had opened up a dental lab in my office to cater to all the dental services that we needed, it was a large practice, Claudia just joined us, and at the same time, two doctors in Barcelona came here. We believe things happen for a reason, and they kind of handed us this Prettau bridge. Claudia Patch: They weren’t even here for that reason—they just happened to bring it with them to show us because they thought we would find it interesting. We just held it in our hands. I felt like it was glowing, like a halo around it, because we saw the potential of it meeting our needs, and we trusted them and what they were telling us about the success that they had. Just to point out—there have been many research studies that show for acrylic hybrids, we’re not the only ones who were having about a 30% issue. That’s published in the literature. It’s just something that type of restoration was vulnerable to. A New Solution Michael Tischler: Yeah, it’s plastic. We saw this Zirconia Prettau bridge and we realized that this really has the potential to really be a solution for the problem that we saw. It looks similar and avoids a lot of the complexities of the previous solutions that are mentioned in the book, what’s called FP1—porous infused and metal bridges, removable, over dentures. And I really believed them. I put two and two together and I said, I’m going to take a chance here, and I basically reconfigured my dental lab to be able to mill cad cam, you know, with the computer design, this bridge, and we started supplying it for our patients. At that point, there were really no articles to back up its success. Maybe there was one, and that was 2012, maybe about 2013 or ‘14 there was one article by doctor Rojas that showed some success with it in a limited study. But I knew that this was going to work. I knew it from the experience of people that introduced it to us and in Europe. It had a track record. Claudia Patch: Also, a knowledge of the material. We were using Zirconia in other aspects of our practice in terms of crowns and bridges. It’s a very strong material and it has a lot of properties to it that are very favorable for its use in dentistry. It’s tooth colored, it could be stained and glazed, and having something like Zirconia which is so strong and comparing that to something like acrylic. I mean, it’s beyond apples and oranges—just totally different ends of the spectrum in terms of quality. Michael Tischler: Zirconia has what’s called such a high modulus of elasticity—meaning, it’s very rigid. It also was very cleans-able. We had opened up a lab in the office here and at this point now, this is about six years later. It’s been such a success, we’re the only lab in the US and possibly worldwide that is focused exclusively on making this full arch solution with Zirconia. With 25 employees, it’s grown rapidly. Everyone Else is Catching Up Charlie Hoehn: You’re the only lab doing this even though it’s that much more effective? Michael Tischler: Yeah, it happens to be at this point in time, we’re the first and only lab that’s exclusively dedicated to this full arch solution with Prettaus or zirconia, which happens to be the oldest type of zirconia that’s been used for this in the world. And we are the largest user of this product that’s made by this company called Zirkonzahn in the United States. It’s been quite a journey. Claudia Patch: It started a tidal wave, because once we started doing it, it didn’t take long until other labs started noticing it too and having some copycat type of products. But yeah, it’s really changed the role of zirconia in the US dental market. I mean, I never used to see the type of advertisements like we started seeing after you started promoting it. Michael Tischler: I was key opinion leader for implants for years before that, and when I made this move to hang my hat on this solution, it seems like a lot of people followed me. Now, over the last two years, we’ve had two articles published. I’ve always documented my cases, first of all. We documented our cases in the office and then we also had the lab data and the article that came out, and the journal Prosthetic Dentistry last year showed over 2,000 arches through different clients, 200 different dentists to US and Canada, with a 99% success rate. This year, we came out with another study in our private office here with about almost $200 arches with a thousand dental implants, mimicking the same results with a 98% success in implants and then 99% of the prosthesis, the bridge. We’ve really substantiated ourselves as the leaders in this and we decided to write a book and tell this story and that’s what Teeth Tomorrow, The Turning Point for Baby Boomers is about. We’re here to take this solution that we found that we’ve really honed surgically and prosthetically here in Woodstock, New York at our practice. Claudia and I have kind of merged our practices and separated our practices and merged in one way. We work together. We decided we were going to write a book that addresses this huge baby boomer need. Claudia Patch: Also, really wanting to educate patients about what all of the available options are because there are different ways that this can be approached and just provide an educational resource for people to be able to look back on. You know, this is an overwhelming amount of information for a lot of people, and we want them to really be educated. It’s a big decision in a lot of people’s lives. Probably one of the biggest decisions they’re going to make for some time. It’s putting themselves through surgery. It’s financial investment. We want them to be able to really understand what the different options are and choose the best thing for a lot of people. Wholeheartedly, either Michael or I would have this done for ourselves. In fact, we did it on Michael’s mother. It’s something that we really believe in, and I think that’s evident to many patients. But it isn’t the only way to go. We just want people to choose what’s going to be best for them. How Teeth Affect Our Lives Charlie Hoehn: In chapter one of your book, you talk about dental health and quality of life and what are the effects of people’s teeth failing? Michael Tischler: We’re primarily dealing with the baby boomer population, and there is about 75 million baby boomers. It’s one of the largest segments in the US population—these people are between age 55 and 75, roughly. Every day, there are 10,000 of these baby boomers turning the age of 65. At the same time as this baby boomer population is out there and in some ways increasing as they get older, towards the older spectrum, their dentistry is aging. These baby boomers need to make some big decisions here. These people are coming in from various marketing that we’re doing to advertise Teeth Tomorrow as a brand. It is a national franchise, we’re going to have 250 locations in the US, probably within the year or so, or maybe a little bit more. Right now, we have almost 50. These patients are coming in and they’re frustrated and they’re frustrated because they’ve spent a lot of time and money over the years. They’re in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. Some younger, some older, but that would be the median age I would say. They’re frustrated because they’ve spent a lot of time and money and they’re looking for a solution as they’re entering the later years in life. I have to say, we’re very compassionate about the fact that we don’t want people at that point in life to have dental frustrations. When you have dental frustrations, it really goes in so many areas of health, of financial concerns, self-esteem, and nutrition. Claudia Patch: Yeah, I think there are two main categories of patients who are coming in where they’re really struggling with failing to eat. There’s a tremendous psychological impact, because your teeth are not easily hidden. We need to talk, if you’re not smiling, you come off as unfriendly or not as likable—there’s a big stigma associated with poor teeth in terms of assumptions about socioeconomics. Michael Tischler: New York Times about a month ago talked about people’s employment are affected by having missing teeth. They’re less employable. Claudia Patch: Absolutely, I mean, there are so many jobs that if somebody has awful teeth and their teeth are let’s say, black or missing and just looking awful, if you’re out and you need to interact with the public or be on a job interview, it is impossible for that to not have some impact. Even if it didn’t, it still has impact on people’s self-esteem and how confident they are in themselves. Time and time again, we see people come in, and when they come in to the office, they are at like 70% of what they are by the time they’re done. When they finish and they’ve got like big smile on their face and just a restored sense of confidence, it’s really remarkable. There are some people where it’s not a psychological issue for them but a functional issue and that’s certainly something we see as well. They’re people who often times maybe have accepted whatever the situation is in terms of their appearance. But they can’t eat, they can’t eat comfortably, and they’re struggling with nutrition. That’s another thing that we see people come in with. Quite frankly, more people come in with the psychological effects, being first and foremost before function. Why Implants? Charlie Hoehn: The people who come in, what are their biggest hesitations with getting – how would you call them? Is it dentures, implants, what’s the correct terminology again? Michael Tischler: I kind of see them first because they come in and they’re put in my room for the initial assessment, and then I have Claudia come in. What I see is people that are frustrated and coming to us for a solution. They’ve done research. One of the things I feel good about is that on the website teethtomorrow.com, it really spells out that there are different options out there. We feel that dental implants are the best option. Then when we go through the other choices. We feel what we’re offering with Teeth Tomorrow on zirconia is really the ideal choice. Claudia Patch: There is definitely a psychological component and like I said, that’s the motivator for so many people to see treatment, there’s a psychological component to having teeth that come in and out, even having an implant supported, restoration, that’s high quality. But if it comes in and out, it doesn’t feel like It’s your own. What Patients Want to Know Charlie Hoehn: They’ve done their research at this point, they know it’s a huge problem, they’re ready for a solution, what kind of questions do they typically throw at you? Claudia Patch: There is a large component of patients who are seeking this treatment who are faced with really seeing that there isn’t another choice. They have to do something, but they’ve been held back by fear. I think in some ways, that fear is exacerbated because so many of them have had dentistry and then had problems with the dentistry. If you’ve had problems with your teeth and had things treated and retreated, you probably have some negative experiences under your belt, and there’s some anxiety about that. That’s one of the things that I think really holds people back. It’s also an unknown, you know, they’re assuming that it’s going to be a very painful procedure so that that’s also fear provoking, through, quite frankly, it’s unfounded but that’s counterintuitive. That holds people back. Dispelling Anxious Worries Charlie Hoehn: How painful is it, how long is the procedure, and am I going to have to keep coming back in? What’s it going to be like? Claudia Patch: We have a patient who I delivered their temporary screw retained temporaries today; he had surgery yesterday. He came in, I don’t know, should I tell what he actually said? He said last night he felt great, had sex with his wife, he feels fine. Charlie Hoehn: After surgery? Claudia Patch: I was like, okay, I haven’t had somebody tell me that before. He’s like, I feel great, I feel no pain, it’s like nothing was ever done. You know, that’s perhaps a little bit on the more extreme, but I hear that all the time. That people are really not having pain. He left just ecstatic and he just had the surgery yesterday and he’s feeling really well. I hear that time and time again. People get bruising and swelling, but they usually have less pain than they’re anticipating despite the fact that I have this same conversation with each of them. A Decision for the Future Charlie Hoehn: Whenever people have to make this big decisions, they are on the fence, what do you tell them to encourage them about their vision of the future? Claudia Patch: I ask the patients, “What is it that you want your future to be? How do you envision yourselves? And what do you want?” Because ultimately teeth are very important to me. I am a dentist, they are important to a lot of people, but they are not necessarily important to every single person and these are personal decisions. It is a big decision to make, and that has to come from within and what their desires are. We try to ask questions to make them think about what it is that they want so that we can work together to find a treatment that’s going to be most appropriate. Michael Tischler: Yeah, we like to say we are treating people not teeth, and we try to reach them and understand why they’re here, how did they find out about us, what do they do for a living. So the first thing I do is to try to get to break the ice with them psychologically and become friendly with them. They are interviewing us, and we are interviewing them. This is going to be a small journey. The treatment time for Teeth Tomorrow in general takes about six months start to finish. The previous options that we had with other implant choices involve a lot more appointments and a lot more treatment time, and that is one of the attractions that we had to this protocol that we have developed. Claudia Patch: And that’s how we originally got into working on those acrylic hybrids, because a lot of people were priced out off or could not commit to a year, a year and a half treatment time required for the other solution that is not removable and stays in their mouth. The acrylic version offered some streamlining in terms of time and cost, but obviously this was an inferior restoration. There are some issues with it because of that. Michael Tischler: So we developed these protocols for success over the last five years. We have taken these protocols and turned them into a franchise. A franchise is a repeatable process, and as we are growing this, we are able to teach these doctors what we’ve done as far as surgical positioning, techniques, prosthetic steps, and it’s reproducible. We’ve seen the same success rate with other doctors using our protocols, and that’s what Teeth Tomorrow is about. And that’s what this book describes. Financial Considerations Charlie Hoehn: What are the financing options for this sort of procedure? Can anybody get it? Claudia Patch: So first of all, yes. Poor dental health and access to care is of course linked to socioeconomic status, but what I think people fail to appreciate, the public fails to appreciate, is that bad teeth happens to good people. They are people who could do everything really right or maybe they didn’t do things right in their youth but they have been doing it right since and they still are suffering the consequences of poor teeth. So in some ways, that association is a misconception. That said, this is a financial investment. It is not inexpensive. But the value is there. People buy cars that sometimes they’re expensive, and a lot of those same financing options that are available for vehicles are available for this type of thing as well. There are some patients who can just put the full payment in cash, although that is the minority, but most people are looking at making payments over time and trying to find something that fits into their budget—doing a home equity loan, tapping into their 401(k). I mean there are different options that people can look into. I would say most of the patients who we have who proceed with any of these treatments, they’re not rich. Charlie Hoehn: Maybe give the listener an idea of how much this stuff can cost. Claudia Patch: Yeah, $25,000 to $35,000 an arch. Soup to nuts. Charlie Hoehn: Per arch, so upper or lower? Michael Tischler: Upper or lower. So the range overall nationally is around $25,000 to 35,000, and we understand that is a big investment. But we are instilling such value to it that what we find is that people end up coming back and eventually doing it. They realize this is an investment in themselves. It’s as important as in some ways major surgery to improve the health. Finding a Provider Charlie Hoehn: Yeah, so how do we find the right person to do this? Michael Tischler: Okay, so that is interesting. I would say to answer that question, 15 years ago or 10 years ago, you would go into an oral surgeon and they would place the implants and then a general dentist or another doctor would restore. The paradigm now more and more with the advent of CAT scans that are available and training that is available is that there are very qualified dentists that are oral surgeons that are periodontists—but there are also some very well qualified general dentists that do this. I would say, looking at the credentials and training, experience. So one of the things we did as we grow Teeth Tomorrow is we have vetted these doctors so that their credential had full arch training on some level and now they have been also further trained by our techniques. Everybody who is part of the Teeth Tomorrow network has to come to the office here in Woodstock in our training center and really learn our protocols and we supply videos for them to follow and they come back and they watch surgeries. They bring their staff. So it is a holistic training environment for full arch. And that’s what you want to look for, someone that’s got experience. What to Expect Charlie Hoehn: Yeah, it makes sense just like with anything. So if I am a patient and I got my upper arch and committed to going with you all, what should I expect during and after the procedure? Michael Tischler: Well it starts surgically. There’s a couple of appointments to prepare for this. We’ve got medical clearance, they are giving a bunch of informed consent forms, they are really informed on what is happening. So they arrive at the surgery, and the average surgery takes a morning, depending on what’s involved. It is never more than that and they basically go home and they basically go home and that’s what makes Teeth Tomorrow so advantageous for the patient. Because a lot of protocols involve the patient staying a good part of the day and then they leave with teeth, but the temporary teeth that they leave with are really not ideal because they’re not made in a dental laboratory. Charlie Hoehn: They’re terrible, yes. So I had to spend weeks with temporary teeth and it was humiliating. It was like wearing Chiclets. Claudia Patch: Right, so that is really the thing. There is a temporary and then there’s temporary, right?. So there are temporaries that are embarrassing and there are temporaries that are beautiful and a huge improvement over what somebody started with and with the protocol that we have in place now, I mean about 50 plus percent of upper arches and a good 80 plus percent of lower arches, that temporary, we nail it. It looks great. It looks great enough that that’s going to be the model for the final, and we really believe in the protocol. I can go into all of the specific advantages of that, but in terms of the patient experience, I touch base before about how it is not as painful as people expect. During the time that you are healing, you are healing. There are things that we want you to do that are going to not just be doing whatever you want when it comes to your teeth. We are going to be making sure that you’re cleaning the device properly. We want our patients to be on a soft diet. This doesn’t mean that they have to just have smoothies and soup for three months but we do want them keeping it light because the implants are still healing. So they are not going to quite forget that they’re in treatment, although I have had a lot of people say like, “I don’t realize that it’s there,” quite frankly, I want everybody to follow my instructions. But this works even when people aren’t following every single instruction. Michael Tischler: Yeah, I mean I think what makes the Teeth Tomorrow providers unique is that we have this protocol. Carl Misch, my mentor, I mentioned before used to say, we’re really replacing millions of years of evolution. When people’s teeth fail, nature and the universe or God has developed roots on certain teeth that support stress. We now have the task to replace that. So I think that’s the first thing you have to take in perspective, and that’s what we do. We engineer these cases correctly and put adequate implants in. So I mentioned this term ‘all on four.’ We feel that four implants in both arches either form the upper and lower is not really an adequate amount of implants. It is just our belief. It has worked, we feel, having implants of six on the top and five on the bottom is a better paradigm. So you want a doctor who understands a system, and that’s what we have at Teeth Tomorrow. We feel that this is the best system out there from a surgical standpoint and a restorative standpoint, and we have proven that with the articles and studies we have and the longevity we have. Impacting Lives Charlie Hoehn: Can you share your favorite case study in the book. You’ve got over a dozen case studies of people you’ve helped, what’s your personal favorite? Claudia Patch: She’s my age and she came in, her teeth, they were black. She had a history of drug abuse and was trying to restart her life. It was a really beautiful thing to see her going through that process of getting her life back together and then having this be part of her journey and then seeing her success and her continued success and commitment to changing her life since she become sober and also since she had the dental work done. That was a really touching story for me just because she’s a really nice person. It’s awesome to just be able to be part of impacting someone’s life. There are people that I hear from honestly on a daily basis that thank me for improving their life and that’s incredible. Michael Tischler: Letters come in, I mean it’s amazing. Claudia Patch: So it makes a big deal for a lot of people. It is a huge change for them because they have been self-conscious about their teeth, probably for all of their life. Find a Teeth Tomorrow Office Charlie Hoehn: That’s wonderful. So say a person’s listening to this episode and they’re like, “Man this is the exact solution. I want to talk to Claudia, I want to talk to Michael,” how can our listeners connect with you to follow what you are doing and potentially talk to you? Claudia Patch: So we definitely would recommend people check out our website which is teethtomorrow.com and take a look, do some research, better understand it, or get the book. We go over all of the details there in depth and we have an office that everybody is so well versed in this. Michael Tischler: We’re a national franchise. We have offices in California, Florida, the Midwest, Texas, and all over. Claudia Patch: Yeah, although we see people from out of state all the time and we love that vote of confidence that people have. Michael Tischler: Find that nearest Teeth Tomorrow provider, and they’re recapitulating the services that we offer here in the same training. So that would be my recommendation. We find a lot of these patients research things quite in-depth online and they’re comparing other alternatives of other national chains, and there’s only a few. We actually have on our home page of teethtomorrow.com a checklist. It’s about 16 questions for what is the final product, is it Zirconia, are there any published studies, what are the appointments numbers. We find that when people go through that Teeth Tomorrow questionnaire, which they can print out and bring to their dentist for a reference, they’re going to really choose this option. We whole heartedly believe that the Teeth Tomorrow brand and protocols are the ideal way to replace the same teeth or teeth that should be replaced. Get Michael and Claudia’s new book Teeth Tomorrow on Amazon. Find out more at TeethTomorrow.com. Listen to more authors on aging with confidence: Retiring Well: Michael Reese Happiness Is a Choice You Make: John Leland The post Teeth Tomorrow: Michael Tischler and Claudia Patch appeared first on Author Hour.