{"id":2252,"date":"2015-09-08T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/?p=2252"},"modified":"2020-08-28T12:03:46","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T17:03:46","slug":"ep-42-creating-integrated-holistic-practice-dr-matthew-steinberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/ep-42-creating-integrated-holistic-practice-dr-matthew-steinberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep #42: Creating an Integrated Holistic Practice with Dr. Matthew Steinberg"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Joining me this week on Practicing with the Masters<\/em> is Dr. Matthew Steinberg. Dr. Steinberg has been nominated three times by his peers for the honor of Texas Dentist of the Year awarded by the Texas Academy of General Dentistry. He has been on the teaching faculty of the internationally recognized Pankey Institute, the premier center for post-graduate dentist education and restorative TMJ and cosmetic procedures from 1986 until\u00a0present.<\/p>\n Dr. Steinberg completed a two-year residency program with the US Army in Ft. Sam Houston, in San Antonio following graduating in the top 10% of his class from dental school. He has been awarded distinguished fellowship in the Academy of General Dentistry, the International College of Dentistry and the American College of Dentists. This distinction is one that only 5% of dentists ever receive in their lifetime, and it that was just the beginning of his many paths to national recognition and accomplishments.<\/p>\n Dr. Steinberg joins us today to share his incredible journey to a comprehensive and compassionate, holistic practice. He shares why he has integrated advanced oral cancer exams and the latest in relaxation and anxiety-releasing product. With his help, you can create an integrated, holistic practice where your patients are family, and every experience with your practice is personalized and exceeds their wildest expectations.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. Allison believes that there are four pillars for a successful, fulfilling dental practice: clear leadership, sound business principles, well-developed communication skills, and clinical excellence. Allison enjoys helping dentists and teams excel in all of these areas. Each episode she brings you an inspiring conversation with another leading expert. If you desire to learn and grow and in the process take your practice to the next level, then this is the show for you. Now, here\u2019s your host, Dr. Allison Watts.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> podcast. I\u2019m your host, Allison Watts, and I\u2019m dedicated to bringing you masters in the field of dentistry, leadership, and practice management to help you have a more fulfilling and successful practice and life.<\/p>\n Dr. Matthew Steinberg graduated in the top ten percent of his dental school class and that was just the beginning of his many paths to national recognition and accomplishment. He received his undergraduate education at the University of California at Los Angeles, his professional post graduate education from the St. Louis University School of Dentistry Accelerated Program, and he did a two-year general residency program with the US Army at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio.<\/p>\n He has been awarded Distinguished Fellowship in the Academy of General Dentistry, the International College of Dentists, and the American College of Dentists, a distinction that only five percent of dentists achieve. He has also been nominated three times by his peers for the honor of Texas Dentist of the Year awarded by the Texas Academy of General Dentistry.<\/p>\n Dr. Steinberg has been on the teaching faculty of internationally-recognized Pankey Institute, which is the premier center for postgraduate dentist education in restorative, TMJ, and cosmetic procedures from 1986 to present.<\/p>\n His hobbies and interests include enjoying fine foods and wine, including cooking. He also loves nutrition and wellness\u2014which is one of the things we\u2019re going to talk about tonight\u2014still and video photography, tennis, yoga, stress management, and teaching the NuCalm Protocol.<\/p>\n Is there anything I left out, Matt? Do you want to say anything about family or\u2026?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, that\u2019s great. We\u2019ll talk about it as I go through our conversation. Yeah, that\u2019s great. Thank you.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, I am so excited to have you. I\u2019ve known you for I don\u2019t know how many years now and I’ve always enjoyed listening to you share about your passions and dentistry. You’re always just ahead of the curve and excited about what you’re doing. When you’re in, you’re all in, and it\u2019s just inspiring to me.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, thank you.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I know it\u2019s inspiring to a lot of people so I\u2019m thrilled to have you here. Do you want to start by telling us a little bit more about your story and how you got to where you are?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, like I was telling Allison before, she doesn\u2019t even know this story. When I was five years old\u2014this will kind of pave the way of where I’ve gotten to where I am today\u2014when I was five years old, I was living in New York City. My dad was, believe it or not, was a holistic physician back in the late 50s, 60s, 70s, and early 80s. My parents divorced. My mother moved to Los Angeles and took me to L.A.<\/p>\n So my dad was still left in New York. When he was practicing the type of medicine he was practicing, he was ostracized basically by the New York Medical Society because he was doing things like acid-base balance. He was doing colonics. I mean he was doing things that were out of the box for a general physician to do.<\/p>\n He was so passionate about what he was doing, he tried to find another alignment in medicine or in healthcare that he could put his hat on. So he went to chiropractic school. He became an M.D., D.C. He was both a chiropractor and a physician. He became a leading physician or a healthcare practitioner as far as total integrative healthcare. I mean, he was on Johnny Carson. He was on Merv Griffin. He was on all these shows because people truly believed in him. He was an outlier, there was no doubt about it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where I got my first inkling of what it really looked like to be a practitioner that really took care of the whole person. But when I was in dental school, that\u2019s not where dentistry was. It wasn\u2019t that way in the 80s or really in the 90s. In the early 80s, being a biologic or holistic dentist was just talking about amalgams mainly and doing hair analysis and looking for heavy metals. It wasn\u2019t really talking about the total person.<\/p>\n So I always had that in the back of my mind. When everything started coming together for me about probably ten years ago, I started putting all this together in my practice because what better laboratory do we have than our practices? I mean we have total control over what we do in our practice.<\/p>\n I started putting this together and people started responding to it extremely positively. So that\u2019s where I started putting this integrative medicine together, if you want to call it that, with dental medicine. That\u2019s where my practice is today and that\u2019s where it\u2019s growing. I\u2019m thrilled with what I\u2019m doing now and patients are thrilled.<\/p>\n So this is what I want to start teaching on now and teaching dentists how to establish this because I really feel and I was just at the Smile Source meeting this weekend. What they were saying is 25 percent of dentists are going to be in independent practice in the next seven to ten years. 75 percent will be in corporate. So if you’re going to distinguish yourself as a dentist and really survive and really thrive, you\u2019re going to have to provide remarkable services that your patients really recognize.<\/p>\n You\u2019re going to have to find ways to distinguish yourself from all of the other corporate entities out there that are going to be competing for the same patient base. So it\u2019s not going to get easier. It\u2019s going to get harder but I think the dentists that really migrate to what I call a functional integrative dental medicine mentality, I think will do extremely well. That includes doing restorative dentistry, I\u2019m not saying this is all you do.<\/p>\n Our bread and butter is working on teeth and occlusion. No physicians will ever take that away from us. We\u2019ve got to remember that. So we don\u2019t want to go too much over into the medicine realm but we need to balance both of them together so that we can thrive in both areas. I think if we do that, I think a dental practice is going to bring so much joy and happiness to the individual practitioner that they\u2019ll never want to retire. I really feel that it\u2019s going to be great. And it\u2019s going to be great for the teams because that\u2019s what they want too.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tell us a little bit about, I mean I think I know what you mean when you talk about integrative medicine and integrative dental medicine but can you tell us a little bit about what you mean by that and what that looks like inside of your practice?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yep. I was honored to be able to speak in the beginning of May at the 13th<\/sup> annual International Integrative Oncology conference. It was held in Reno. It\u2019s an organization made up of integrative cancer physicians. What that means is these are MDs that really practice traditional medicine but they also practice I want to say alternative medicine or Eastern medicine or meditation. They add a lot of things besides just drug. They’re not ruled by big pharma.<\/p>\n Of course, I already coined the name for myself of functional integrative and I\u2019ll talk to you about what that means before I went there. But going to this conference and seeing three days of these people getting on stage and talking with the passion that they have about how to bring people back to total health was amazing to me. Then when I got up and spoke about dentistry, they had no idea what dentists did.<\/p>\n I mean, most of them don\u2019t deal with dentists that deal with the oral systemic link or they have no idea. I mean most of their questions believe it or not were all about mercury. When these physicians think about a health dentist, they think about mercury. Everything is about heavy metals. They don\u2019t know about anything else.<\/p>\n So my goal when I was on stage was to kind of tell them what I\u2019m doing in my practice. The reason I established the name functional integrative is functional means total person. That\u2019s really what it means. Integrative means integrating your practice with other practitioners who share the same value system that you do and the same philosophy.<\/p>\n I like dental medicine better than I do dentistry now because I really think we practice\u2014where we\u2019re going now is really dental medicine. When I think of dentistry I think of just teeth and there\u2019s a lot more to what we do than it\u2019s just teeth.<\/p>\n One thing they told me at this conference and a number of physicians came up to me and said, \u201cYou guys,\u201d meaning dentists, \u201care going to become the primary care physicians in the future.\u201d I had at least three or four people, MDs, come up to me and tell me that. \u201cWe see that you could fit that role because you see patients every three months, every six months, every year. We see them when they’re sick. Either when they have stage 2, 3 or 4 cancer. We don\u2019t see them when they’re well. You have an incredible opportunity to change people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cDo you realize that?\u201d I said, \u201cI do, I realize that.\u201d He said, \u201cYou have the opportunity, your model is so beautiful. They come in for a hygiene appointment,\u201d a tooth cleaning, they didn\u2019t say hygiene, I said hygiene, and I hate that word: tooth cleaning.<\/p>\n But they said, \u201cThey come in for teeth cleanings. You\u2019ve got them captured for an hour. That\u2019s a great hour that you can have them to really talk about your philosophy.\u201d He\u2019s right. He says, \u201cWe don\u2019t have that opportunity. We\u2019re rushed all the time. Everything is we have to code, we have ten minute appointments and then we’ve got to get the patient out of there\u201d because medicine is so controlled now by insurance and by big pharma.<\/p>\n So when I started thinking about that, I said, \u201cYou know, you’re right. We have an incredible opportunity with these people that no other profession really has. And we\u2019re so highly respected by the people that we serve.\u201d That\u2019s what keeps me going in this area. But if you ask me what I do different, we ask a lot of questions and give a lot of forms. Besides checking for perio disease and tooth decay and so forth.<\/p>\n We talk a lot about obstructive sleep apnea. It\u2019s not so much about making the appliances to me but it\u2019s about educating people on airway and how if they have an obstructed airway it can affect their total health. It can affect every organ in their body. So we talk a lot about that. We send people home with high resolution pulse oximeters.<\/p>\n I have at least three sleep physicians that I work closely with because in Texas, and probably in most states, you can’t send a patient for a sleep study. You have to be done by a physician. But I have a great relationship with these physicians that if the patient is not severe, they send them back to me for treatment. We talk to them about diet. I mean, nutrition. Losing weight. And ultimately, if that doesn\u2019t work and the only thing that will work is a mandibular advancement appliance then we talk to them about that.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s a big part of our practice now. That really fits with oral systemic health. We talk to them about acid reflux and GERD. We talk to them about diabetes and what the risk is for diabetes. So there\u2019s a lot of things that we\u2019re doing at that hygiene appointment that really sets the tone for our practice. I’ve trained my hygienists all about this. I mean, they’re on 100 percent.<\/p>\n That to me is where it starts, is with hygiene. They talk about our core purpose and our vision and all that stuff. I think they get it when they know exactly that we care more for them and about their wellness than we care about\u2014I don\u2019t want to say our practice\u2014but really about the success of our practice.<\/p>\n We know if we do a great job for them and make a difference in their lives and their family\u2019s lives, that we\u2019re going to be rewarded tremendously. It\u2019s that mentality and it\u2019s that feeling of success that I think makes the practice now so successful. It\u2019s now more successful than it\u2019s ever been. I mean we\u2019re overloaded with people.<\/p>\n Another thing we do is we do a lot of work with oral cancer screening. We use the OralID device but it doesn\u2019t matter which of those devices you use. It\u2019s more of an education device than anything else. You know, fluorescents, it\u2019s not 100 percent, it\u2019s just a screening device. But when we use it, we talk to them about how that device was developed at MD Anderson and how it was developed to find cervical cancer and now that same light utilization has come over into dentistry. So they’re very, very interested and they ask a lot of questions on it.<\/p>\n We have found at least\u2014oh, I think in the last two years\u2014we\u2019ve found three cases of squamous cell carcinoma on patients. I can’t say we found it just from the lights, but we found it by doing really good screenings on people. That\u2019s a huge part of a dental practice. I mean if people aren\u2019t doing a really, really thorough head and neck exam, I think we\u2019re missing it.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I don\u2019t see a lot of people talking about that. If we go to Pankey and that kind of stuff, we\u2019re trained really well to do the muscle and joint exam, but not so much the oral cancer exam.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The thing now which is really interesting is that I was privileged last year to be invited to MD Anderson. They had a symposium for three days and they invited I think like 28 people. I was there and we got to sit with their top oncologist. I was at lunch\u2014and I\u2019ll ask everybody on the call if they can kind of guess\u2014what percentage of dentists do you now think do extremely thorough head and neck exams? Do you have a guess of what the percentage is of dentists that do a thorough head and neck exam at least once a year? Allison, take a guess.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going to throw out a number. We\u2019ve got a couple, you ready? I think this is cheating, Linda.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think it\u2019s 14 percent, don\u2019t you Matt?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll tell you what they said. Okay, 14, give me some other numbers.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going to mute you, Linda. Raise your hand if you want to come back on. All right, here\u2019s Bethany. What\u2019s your guess?<\/p>\n Bethany:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was going to guess 10.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, 10 and 14. You know what the number is that they gave me?<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve got three more people with their hand up.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh okay, I\u2019m sorry, I won’t even tell you.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t tell us yet. Okay, we\u2019re going to play a game. I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to give, whoever gets the closest.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t know.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019ll just get the glory of being famous.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Being the winner.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mark, what is your guess? Ryan? Is that you?<\/p>\n Ryan:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 23 percent.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 23 percent, okay.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All right, I\u2019m muting you. Lisa, do you have a guess?<\/p>\n Lisa:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was going to say 10. Bethany beat me to it.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All right, I\u2019m muting you and I\u2019m going to try Mark one more time. Mark, are you there?<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I say 8 percent.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How much?<\/p>\n Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8 percent.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8 percent, okay. All right, thank you, guys. What is it Matt?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They said it was 5 percent.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh my gosh.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is that not deplorable?<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s deplorable.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We are the leaders in oral. Physicians, you can put them at zero. So if we\u2019re doing 5 percent, this is one reason why oral cancer now is not being found until\u2014and Linda knows this\u2014until usually stage 3 and stage 4. We\u2019re not finding it early enough. That needs to be a hallmark of your practice. Boy, I tell you, for an oral systemic practice that needs to be number one. Bar nothing else. I mean, we are the leaders in this area and we need to talk it up to people.<\/p>\n I have people that refer their friends over that see another dentist that just come for a screening. Then eventually some of them change over. Some of them don\u2019t. Some of them just come yearly for the screenings in my office because their dentist won’t do them.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Are they finding out about you from like friends and stuff? I know you do some marketing around this, are they finding you from your marketing?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes they’re finding it from people who come in and patients who are impressed so they talk to them about it. I also have a network of medical oncologists and they send me patients.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, they send you patients. Okay.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, because what I\u2019m doing, and I\u2019ll tell you guys this. This is a huge market if you really want to get into it. The leader in this, I\u2019m going to tell you, you need to look him up, is Dennis Abbott, A-B-B-O-T-T. He\u2019s in Dallas. He\u2019s brilliant. His whole practice is dental oncology. All he does is see patients referred to him by medical oncologists and he treats the oral complications that occur when people go through chemo and radiation. So he\u2019s treating them but at the same time he\u2019s doing restorative dentistry on them. He\u2019s treating them medically but he\u2019s also treating them dentally. He\u2019s got a thriving practice.<\/p>\n So if anybody here wants to develop a practice, in fact, he\u2019s having a seminar in November in Dallas that\u2019s going to teach you everything that he does in his practice. His organization is called the American Academy of Dental Oncology, AADO. You can look up AADO.org, but he\u2019s brilliant.<\/p>\n What I\u2019ve learned, and a lot from him, is I go out to oncologists here in Austin and I say, \u201cWho is doing a dental screening? A total oral screening on your patients before you’re doing chemo and radiation?\u201d You know what most of these oncologists say? \u201cWe just depend on the dentist to do it. We don\u2019t really know.\u201d I say, \u201cWell that\u2019s wrong. You need to get a total, written oral exam from these dentists.\u201d Most of them say, \u201cWill you see the patient?\u201d So I\u2019m getting referrals from all these patients. They’re referring them to me.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How do you know how to do that, Matt? That\u2019s pretty cool. Do you have a form or anything you could share with us?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I do. I\u2019ll tell you at the end of this call if you guys want to email me or anything, I\u2019ll send you any forms that I use in the office. I\u2019ll share with you anything. I don\u2019t care. My goal is to make everybody successful. I want you to have the best practice that you can. Yeah, I\u2019ll share with you that form.<\/p>\n Number one, it\u2019s a one-on-one conversation you have to have with them telling them about your practice and how you’re shifting to oral systemic health and what you’re doing and how you can take care of these people for them. If they know you can take care of these people and treat them right, they’re going to refer them to you because most of them don\u2019t have dentists that they trust. You know, they don\u2019t know who their dentists are.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So what are you doing for them? Okay, so they have a regular dentist and the oncologist tells them they need a dental screening. Let\u2019s say they go to their regular dentist, they’re just going to look and do an exam and say, \u201cEverything looks fine. They don\u2019t have any infection.\u201d Basically, or something like that, right?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But when you do it, what are you doing?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m looking for, once they get radiation and once they go under chemo, you better start treating them dentally before they start going through that major cancer treatment because after that, their saliva changes. They get xerostomia. Their tooth decay\u2014you better put them on fluoride. You better teach them all about how to really take care of their teeth. You better talk to them about diet and sugars.<\/p>\n I mean, there\u2019s so much to talk to these people about as they’re going through, as they’re having this poison injected into their system. You need to keep them healthy. Physicians don\u2019t really do this and they don\u2019t even want to touch the mouth. I put them on PerioSciences products. I use a lot of PerioSciences. A lot. I put them on fluorides.<\/p>\n Then I look at if they have a lot of recession, if they have a lot of cementum exposed. What\u2019s the chance of them getting root decay, which is huge. So I talk to them about diet and I talk to them about acids and so forth, eroding the teeth. So I\u2019m doing a lot of that with them. That\u2019s what I\u2019m really doing.<\/p>\n I work very closely with the oncologists and they are thrilled that we\u2019re taking care of them dentally because they don\u2019t want any dental infections at all. Their immune systems are down. They can’t afford to get some abscesses. They can’t afford to have extractions done. They\u2019ll get osteoradionecrosis. A lot of these people are getting a huge amount of what\u2019s called gray, which is a huge amount of radiation to the jaws, to the mandible and the maxilla.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is whether or not\u2014it doesn\u2019t matter where the cancer is or it does?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, it does. I\u2019m talking about head and neck cancer.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For other cancers, right. But they’re still going to get the xerostomia. They’re still going to get usually those issues because\u2014and they’re not going to feel like they need to eat. So I tell them about protein products. I talk to them about greens. I talk to them about amount of protein in their diet as relationship to vegetables and so forth. So we\u2019re really educating them a lot as far as diet.<\/p>\n We talk to them about getting a Vitamix so if they can’t really chew solid foods, at least they could put those solid foods into a Vitamix and make them into something that they can drink and not lose all the essential nutrients. So we do a lot with people around nutrition that physicians don\u2019t even touch. They don\u2019t even go there. If somebody is interested in there, and I can send you our protocol and everything, but it takes a while to build this.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, that\u2019s what I was thinking.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, you don\u2019t just go out and shake the hand. But these oncologists are looking for dentists that will take care of these people. They really are. They don\u2019t know where to turn. If the oncologist doesn\u2019t have a good dentist or the oncologist isn’t even interested in dentistry, they don\u2019t have many contacts, so you have to establish those contacts. Then you also establish those contacts with the nursing staff. You get to know them. Everybody knows here it\u2019s all about relationships. Dentistry is 99 percent relationships. It isn’t your clinical skills are great\u2014well, I shouldn\u2019t even say that\u2014what did L.D. say? 80 and 20? Something like that?<\/p>\n But relationships are the key and you have to get people to believe in what you’re doing. That is really important.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So you built this the same way, I built my practice the same way, everybody on the line who owns a practice built\u2014you’re passionate about it. You guys talk about it with your staff. You talk about it at team meetings.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All the time.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where did you learn all this stuff though? Because I feel when I\u2019m listening to you like this is stuff I should know but I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well if you really want to know, I learned it from my dad. I listened to him when he was talking to patients and he was talking about acid-base balance and he would tell people that when your body is acidic, that\u2019s when you’re in a disease state. This is back in the late 60s, early 70s. I mean he was talking to people about that. He had a machine that would tell people if they were acidic or basic or alkaline.<\/p>\n We all know now that when people are alkaline, disease doesn\u2019t develop that fast in the body. When you’re acidic is when you get the cancer and everything else. So the idea is to become more alkaline. That\u2019s done a lot with diet, with exercise. Emotions have a lot to do with disease. I\u2019ve learned that a lot from NuCalm. I use NuCalm a lot with people going through chemo and radiation.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Can you talk about that? I would love to have you talk about NuCalm. I know there are some people on here that know about NuCalm but maybe just a little brief intro and then how you’re using it in your practice? Because I know you’re on the cutting edge of that as well.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t live without it. It is the number one practice builder internally in the practice, is NuCalm. So let me tell you how I found out about it. I don\u2019t know how many of you know David Little. He\u2019s a dentist is San Antonio. In fact, he\u2019s going to be at ADA. He\u2019s starting the ADA conference by doing a surgery in the round, I think a 10-hour surgery. Where he and Massad are doing extractions, implants, and then I think doing some of the restorations. But David is brilliant.<\/p>\n He calls me about five years ago and he said, \u201cAre you using NuCalm?\u201d I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s NuCalm?\u201d He said, \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible product.\u201d I said, \u201cOkay, but what it is it?\u201d He said, \u201cIt relaxes patients. It controls the autonomic nervous system. You have a nervous patient and it\u2019s all natural. If you have a nervous patient, an anxious patient, you start them on NuCalm. Within 8 to 10 minutes, they’re relaxed in your chair.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need nitrous, you don\u2019t need IV sedation. It really works.\u201d That\u2019s when I was doing a lot of work with people with sleep disorders, not so much with sleep apnea but with insomnias, either people having trouble going to sleep or staying asleep. So he said, \u201cYou need to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n I called the CEO of the company, who is Jim Poole, and I tell him who I am. He says, \u201cI know who you are. David talked about you. Would you like to be on our medical advisory board?\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, I\u2019ll do it. Sure.\u201d He says, \u201cBut you have to do a little bit of research for us with the patients that you are now working with with insomnias.\u201d I said, \u201cFine.\u201d<\/p>\n He sent me a unit. Of course, I started doing it on myself first. After about two sessions, I said, \u201cThis stuff is amazing. It is unbelievable.\u201d Then I did it on my staff and they went, \u201cWow, we\u2019ve never felt so good in our lives.\u201d Then I just did it on some patients and I got the response and I said, \u201cI\u2019m sold. This is it.\u201d<\/p>\n Everybody has a feeling of more secureness, more focus, more relaxation. I said, \u201cThis is what is needed.\u201d Not only needed in dentistry but needed in life. It\u2019s like I told somebody at Smile Source last Saturday, I said, \u201cI don\u2019t care if I ever use it on another patient, I use it on myself, and on my kids, and on a lot of the staff. That\u2019s worth it to me. It doesn\u2019t matter on the patients. The patients are just a bonus.\u201d But it uses two amino acids, GABA, G-A-B-A and L-Theanine. And GABA is what our brain thrives on.<\/p>\n Our brain becomes deficient in GABA when we\u2019re anxious or under stress. So what you’re doing with NuCalm is you’re overfeeding your body with GABA at a time when it\u2019s deficient in GABA. Then the L-Theanine helps to work with it. These are chewables, but they now have a cream. You take these chewables and within five minutes you\u2019ll feel your brain going from like high beta activity almost to theta activity. You feel a total relaxation in your body.<\/p>\n Then you listen to a music that has a binaural beat in it. Binaural beat has been out for years. It\u2019s a beat that is embedded in music, it happens to be embedded in classical or guitar music on the headphones. But by listening to that music, it helps the GABA and the L-Theanine to be enhanced.<\/p>\n Then they have a CES device, a cranial electro-stimulation device, that works a little bit like\u2014I don\u2019t know how many of you are familiar with Alpha-Stim, it\u2019s a little bit like a TENS unit but it\u2019s different. It fits right below the ears. What it does is it controls the sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in the vagus nerve.<\/p>\n By controlling, by taking sympathetic activity out of the vagus nerve and making it more sympathetic, you’re controlling your heart rate. So your heart rate goes down when you’re on NuCalm. That\u2019s what gets you into a state of relaxation. You put an eye mask on to block out any light to the optic nerve and you just chill. That\u2019s it for 30 to 45 minutes. Then you get up and you feel like you\u2019ve had a three hour power nap. You feel so good.<\/p>\n Patients feel great and they all respond that they sleep better that night. They feel more relaxed. I have people wanting to come back just to be NuCalmed. I mean, we have Friday NuCalm days where people just come in and lay in a dental chair for 45 minutes, it\u2019s like having a margarita. Then they get up and they go on to work. It doesn\u2019t impair you at all. I mean you get right up and you can drive your car and everything else. There\u2019s no transition at all. Everybody just feels better that day.<\/p>\n So that is the one thing, if I was to say if anybody wanted to transform their lives with one product, NuCalm is it. It\u2019s great. It\u2019s great stuff. So if anybody wants information on that, I\u2019ll be glad to send that. I’ve got three manuals on how to incorporate NuCalm into a practice.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, do you really?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you write them?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some of it I did, some of it I got from them. They had a lot of proprietary information. They’re doing a lot of work with Harvard Medical School now on heartrate variability. They’re also doing a lot of work with\u2014I don\u2019t know how many of you have heard of the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida. It\u2019s a totally vegan health institute. It\u2019s on 50 acres. They take people that have stage 3 and 4 cancer that have been told that they can’t do anything more with them. These people go there. About 50 to 60 percent of those people turn their lives around. It is amazing.<\/p>\n They’re using NuCalm there now on these patients as they go through the detox, I call it a detox but it\u2019s more of a nutritional detox program. As they’re using the NuCalm three times a week, they’re tracking these people on heartrate variability and on sleep and everything else. The results are amazing. So if you can take people that are that stressed, that have stage 3 and 4 cancer and you can make them healthier, think what you can do on a person that just has anxiety and doesn\u2019t have stage 3 or 4 cancer.<\/p>\n It\u2019s really being utilized a lot. It\u2019s being utilized with sports now. The Miami Dolphins just bought I think 20 NuCalm units. The Miami Dolphins are now going to be using NuCalm. Kobe Bryant who plays for the Lakers is a NuCalm user. He just bought six units. So they’re using them a lot in sports. The Chicago Blackhawks who won the Stanley Cup attribute their winning of the Stanley Cup because of NuCalm.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jordan Spieth.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hmm? I\u2019m sorry?<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jordan Spieth, the golfer that won.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well the thing about Jordon that I found out about, they can\u2019t say he\u2019s still using it. Nobody knows if he\u2019s still using NuCalm. But he did use it during the US Open. Yes, he was on NuCalm.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They were hoping he\u2019d report back and become a spokesperson but I don\u2019t think they’re going to get him to be a spokesperson for NuCalm. His caddy is the one who used it a lot.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, cool.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s how he found out about it, through his caddy.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just listening, I’ve heard you talk about NuCalm before but just listening to you today I can see, it\u2019s like, duh. It totally piggybacks with the wellness thing. We use nitrous and sedation and drugs. This is such a cleaner, better, healthier.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll tell you, there aren\u2019t going to be that many dentists that are going to use NuCalm in your community. So if you use it and really market yourself, what we do is the first time a patient comes in, I\u2019ll say, \u201cI\u2019ll NuCalm you for free.\u201d I don\u2019t charge them. \u201cLet\u2019s just get you and let you experience it so you see what it\u2019s like.\u201d<\/p>\n Then I say, \u201cIf you want to use it on dental appointments, we charge $84.\u201d That\u2019s it. So I\u2019ve never had anybody argue with me about the $84. We charge the same for nitrous. But the first visit I give them because I want them to experience it without thinking I\u2019m going to nickel and dime them to death. I say, \u201cJust come on in and do it. If you want to come in on a Friday, we\u2019ll do a Friday. If you feel like you want to come in after work some night and I\u2019m still there, then we can do it then.\u201d So I give it away the first time. But that\u2019s a great marketing tool.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019re going to do it, there\u2019s a big Susan G. Komen event in Austin on September 19. It\u2019s going to be done here. They\u2019ve chosen here and San Diego. They expect 5,000 people. I bought a 20-foot booth. We\u2019re bringing yoga mats and we\u2019re going to NuCalm people there. It\u2019s going to be very interesting.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cool.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to have people laying on the floor doing NuCalm listening on headphones. Everybody\u2019s going to wonder, \u201cWhat the heck are they doing?\u201d<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, you’re going to get some attention.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can’t wait.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, but I\u2019m just telling everybody on the line, if you want to really make a difference, ask me. If enough people want the units that are on this call, I can probably get you a pretty good deal on them if there\u2019s enough people that want to buy them.<\/p>\n Right now, the lowest the price is right now, the lowest price I’ve seen and that was at ADPA was like $5,500. I mean, you’re getting a whole protocol that you can use for life. When you really figure it out, it\u2019s not that much money when you figure you can use it on yourself, your family, your office staff, your patients. They\u2019ve spent so many millions of dollars developing this product.<\/p>\n About a month ago, they just got a US government patent on the product that no one can compete in the space of autonomic nervous system devices until the year 2031. So they are totally protected. That was huge. That\u2019s what they needed. So now you’re going to see major marketing about NuCalm. You’re going to see it in Cosmopolitan<\/em>. You’re going to see it in The<\/em> New<\/em> York<\/em> Times<\/em>. They’re going to start doing a lot of marketing to patients asking dentists, \u201cDo you use this product?\u201d Until now, there hasn\u2019t been hardly any marketing.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, they’re going to be direct to the public?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, going to the public. I think it\u2019s just something you need to have in your practice. It\u2019s a wonderful product.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you talk about all of this stuff with all of your patients? Do they all as part of your practice or do you somehow pick and choose who wants to hear about it?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s like L.D. said, number one was know your patient. I think you know your people. At our team huddle in the morning, we kind of go over what interests people have and if people are really into health then we talk to them about certain things. If they’re not, we talk to them about other things. \u201cHave you heard about this or this or this?\u201d<\/p>\n Women are always much more receptive than men are. I hate to say it but it\u2019s true. Women, you guys have such a high EI, emotional intelligence, and we just don\u2019t. If you’re going to market a product, you market to females. You don\u2019t market to males. Males just don\u2019t listen that well. I\u2019m being honest.<\/p>\n When you look at the people who use NuCalm in our office, it\u2019s 80 percent female. They want it. They want something that\u2019s going to relax them. They want something that\u2019s going to take tension, relieve their day, make them feel better. Because women are balancing a career, are balancing family. Men don\u2019t usually do that. So there\u2019s a lot more for women to put together in a day than men.<\/p>\n So NuCalm is wonderful and now there\u2019s another thing. But I wouldn\u2019t publicize this yet, but there\u2019s some studies being done that shows if you use NuCalm regularly, that you can slow down the aging process.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nice. Yeah, that might be good marketing.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now, I wouldn\u2019t publicize that yet. I wouldn\u2019t make any claims.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Someday.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, someday. But that\u2019s where they’re going. They’re doing research now showing that if you get into a meditative state three times a week and this state lasts, that it really puts less pressure on cells as far as the aging process. I think that\u2019s pretty cool.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is cool.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe another thing that we can put and use in the future.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But it\u2019s a great product. Like I said, it\u2019s the number one transformational product that I use in the office is NuCalm. Everybody is in on it.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So a new patient comes in, you have forms that you have everybody fill out. Somewhere in those forms and in your interview, you have a feel for what this person is interested in in terms of how much conversation about health coaching and all this stuff\u2026<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Exactly.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tailor it to the person basically. But you’re always still kind of dripping and like your hygienist talks and you\u2026 it seems like this take a lot of time. Is that true?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It does. It takes a lot of planning more than it does\u2014because somebody in your office has to touch them, it doesn\u2019t always have to be me. It can be my health relationship coordinator who interviews them during the preclinical, during the new patient interview process. It can be them. It can be one of my assistants who takes them back and gives them a tour of the office and says, \u201cHave you ever heard about NuCalm? Let me tell you about it.\u201d<\/p>\n It can be the hygienist that does it. So somebody along the way is going to touch them and we kind of set that up because I want to know who\u2019s going to be talking to them and forming the relationship. But yes, it has to be preplanned because if somebody is not interested in health, yet, then we\u2019re not going to talk much about NuCalm.<\/p>\n If they say, \u201cI have no anxieties at all. My life is absolutely perfect. I\u2019m just coming in here for this, this, and this,\u201d then we don\u2019t even mention NuCalm. We\u2019ll mention something else that we do in the practice. We\u2019ll mention painless injections. We\u2019ll mention something else that we do. They\u2019ll go over my bio. I don\u2019t know, they\u2019ll find something that we can connect with them on.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is like a niche for you. What percentage of your practice is\u2014I\u2019m not talking about specifically NuCalm but just as far as the integrative dental medicine thing?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Every patient is involved in some degree and knows about that because we put so much of that on Facebook. We do so much of that on our Facebook page.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re just attracting those people, that\u2019s what your practice is about, right?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think it should be what everybody\u2019s practice is about in the future to some degree because that\u2019s what\u2019s going to distinguish your practice from a regular practice that\u2019s giving coupons and offering discounts on bleaching or on whitening and this and that. I mean, we still do all the regular dental services and we talk to them about smile design and everything else.<\/p>\n But we don\u2019t talk to them about\u2014now if they come first and they come in and say, \u201cI want a smile makeover,\u201d then we go over that. I mean, we don\u2019t start talking about NuCalm and oral systemic health and everything. We\u2019ll address their problem. We\u2019re not going to overload them and they say, \u201cWell wait a minute, I didn\u2019t want to learn about this. I came in for this.\u201d<\/p>\n So we really listen to them about what they really want and then we kind of tailor it to them. NuCalm works great on doing esthetic work because it chills them out so much. I don\u2019t like nitrous particularly because I don\u2019t like the nose piece, it gets in the way. The thing is, if you use NuCalm, it takes them down so much that you can cut your nitrous to about a third.<\/p>\n I swear you could almost put the nose piece on, put them on 100 percent oxygen and they\u2019ll still feel the nitrous effect. We did that on a patient. She said, \u201cGod, this feels great.\u201d The NuCalm just gets them so relaxed, everything else is kind of eliminated from their mind and they just go into a state of relaxation. I love the stuff. I can’t talk enough about it. I mean I can talk day and night about NuCalm because I use it three times a week and I have been for five years. I\u2019m a NuCalm survivor. I mean, that\u2019s it. I\u2019ve been using it so much. So I can tell you exactly what it\u2019s like.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s why you\u2019re a medical marvel.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A medical marvel, yeah, right. I love that.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You are, you\u2019re getting younger.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m a MM, that\u2019s right. When I NuCalm, I NuCalm at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning because I want to do it first thing in the morning when my GABA is low, I want to overload my body with GABA and then it just sets my day beautifully. It makes all the difference in the world. You never want to do it first thing before you go to bed. You want to do it during the day. The earlier you do it, the better it is.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean if a patient comes in at 3:00 and you put them on NuCalm it\u2019s not going to work, but I\u2019m talking about for a homeostasis, it\u2019s better to do it early in the morning. You just feel great. It sets your day. But like I said, if anybody here wants more information, you can email me. I\u2019ll give you my cell phone number. Call me. I\u2019ll talk to you about it. I\u2019ll send you forms.<\/p>\n Before you do any purchasing of anything, just see if it\u2019s the right thing for your office. If you feel it is, then I can walk you through it and we can see if we can get really good deals on it. Because it\u2019s worth everything. It\u2019s worth every penny. I mean if somebody said it was $10,000, it\u2019s still worth $10,000. You\u2019ve got to see what it\u2019s like. It is a phenomenal product. We just don\u2019t have anything like that in dentistry that relaxes people, that is totally natural. That has no drugs in it at all. That\u2019s the beauty of it.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thinking about having you talk a little bit about Backbone Pro unless you\u2026<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can talk about that. Allison pulls me on all these tangents. She\u2019s got me on all these tangents.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well we don\u2019t have a lot of time but I just thought\u2026<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll give you the quick version. There\u2019s a company out there that has been in chiropractic for five years. They\u2019ve developed a product called Backbone Pro, backbonepro.com, write that down and go there for now. The name is going to morph, it is going to change in December. It\u2019s going to be called BlueIQ. I\u2019m not going to explain why it\u2019s going to change but I\u2019ll tell you about the product.<\/p>\n They called me and they wanted me on their advisory board. There\u2019s five of us on the advisory board because they want to get into dentistry. This is an artificial intelligence software. There is nothing like it in dentistry. Nothing. It\u2019s not out yet. It won’t even be out until first quarter of 2016. But we\u2019re using it now, we\u2019ve been using it for two months.<\/p>\n What you do is it\u2019s a metric-based software. I don\u2019t know how many of you are familiar with Sikka Soft, which is a metrics-based software. It\u2019s cloud-based. This is so much better than Sikka Soft. What it does is you pick what metrics you want to measure in your office. Say how many hygiene patients a month go through root planing. How many implants do I do? How many missed appointments? Are there open units on doctor\u2019s side? On hygiene\u2019s side?<\/p>\n You set whatever metric you want to measure. You assign a team member to do that metric. And you assign a top goal. Then it does the rest of the work. So on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, you have a dashboard and it\u2019s in colors. Blue means you’re above goal, red means you’re below goal. So everybody who has an assignment, so it has accountability. Anybody who has an assignment can go in on their dashboard and see where they are.<\/p>\n So you don\u2019t have to ask people questions. It does it for them. If they’re below goal, you don\u2019t have to worry about it. The software will automatically tell them they’re below goal and in a very positive way say, \u201cThese are the videos you need to watch to help you with this goal. How can I help you?\u201d It asks the questions automatically. It is amazing.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If they are reaching their goal, they get rewarded, right?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes. It has what\u2019s called gamification, which is gaming. But you set that. You don\u2019t have to put it on every single goal but on certain goals, like I have a goal of the hygienist marketing esthetic dentistry. Any dentistry that they get a patient to schedule for that is over four esthetic units that they bring up the\u2014it\u2019s not already been talked about\u2014they bring it up, they get the patient to schedule, they get like 500 points. You can make each point a dollar. You can make each point 25 cents, whatever you want to do. But they get a bonus for doing that.<\/p>\n They’re certain other things that I have down for getting bonuses. I don\u2019t put bonuses on everything because some of them are just regular work business of the dental office. But that makes it a lot of fun. So they know what they’re going to do. I don\u2019t have to ask them how many cases they\u2019ve sold.<\/p>\n I just look on the dashboard and I can see exactly where they are and I can see the patients that they\u2019ve talked to and everything else and the conversations that have happened because it integrates with your dental software, whether you use Open Dental, Dentrix, EagleSoft, it doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s going to integrate with your software and it\u2019s going to integrate any other software that you use\u2014QuickBooks, whatever you want to use, it will integrate to it and it\u2019s all cloud-based.<\/p>\n I can’t talk about it much now because you can’t really buy it. But you can learn about it by going on backbonepro.com. I\u2019ll tell you, if any of you are really interested, and I mean really interested, what they’re doing now is they have a circle of influence. If any of us on the board find people that we think have good practices, that want to integrate this in their practice now, they will let you have it for a major, significant discount and it will never be raised in price and you get to try it.<\/p>\n So if any of you are interested after you go on the website, take a look at it and then call me. If you say, \u201cYeah, I’d like to really be a beta test site,\u201d I\u2019m a beta. It\u2019s not that hard. It\u2019s 100 percent, there\u2019s really no beta much less than it\u2019s just giving them feedback on usability and so forth. That\u2019s really what it is. It\u2019s not going to mess up your computer. It\u2019s not on your server. It\u2019s all cloud-based so you don\u2019t have to worry about any integration failures.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The version they have now just takes a little bit more work, right? Than the one that\u2019s going to come out?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well that\u2019s changing in like two weeks.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, right now you have to manually input all the data in. Within two weeks, they’re going to have a version that totally integrates with all dental software.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If anybody here got on it, I don\u2019t know if they\u2019d get on the later version. I have no idea. But it\u2019s a wonderful product. I\u2019m involved in so many things but I only put my time into products that I really feel are going to be successful in dentistry. So far, I haven’t hit a loser yet. Down the road I probably will, but nothing so far.<\/p>\n Backbone Pro is a winner. NuCalm is a super winner. OralID, I don\u2019t know how many of you are using fluorescents devices but it\u2019s the least expensive and I think has the best marketing tools to help you develop an oral cancer awareness program for your practice. It\u2019s a great product.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And you said something about Smile Source when we were talking at the beginning. I don\u2019t know if everybody knows what Smile Source is but just a quick thing about that?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Smile Source is an organization\u2014how many minutes do I have?<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You have seven and I also want you to share your contact information too.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, I\u2019ll do it. Let me tell you about Smile Source, 24 years ago four optometrists in Houston, Texas felt corporate autonomy coming in on the optometry profession, like TSO, LensCrafters, so forth. They said, \u201cWe have to protect ourselves. We\u2019re going to develop a group\u2014not try\u2014we\u2019re going to develop a group of optometrists and we\u2019re going to shield ourselves from this because we\u2019re going to be the survivors of independent optometry.\u201d<\/p>\n That was 24, 25 years ago. They now have 6,000 optometrists nationwide. The company is worth four billion dollars. It is a huge success. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s been one optometrist that has opted out since the beginning unless it was illness or something else. Nobody has opted out.<\/p>\n So about six years ago, they said we see the same thing coming into dentistry. Would dentistry be interested in taking our business model and adapting the same business model that we used in optometry? So they went to some people and formed Smile Source.<\/p>\n Smile Source is really an organization about keeping dentistry independent and thriving in an independent environment. They\u2019ve also developed a whole buying group of vendors, 3M is a part of it. Oh god, there\u2019s so many. There\u2019s so many vendors and the deals you get are unbelievable. They’re deals you can’t get any place else. No place else. I\u2019ve checked. But that\u2019s not the reason you’re joining. You’re joining because of the comradery.<\/p>\n Each city has an administrator. I\u2019m the administrator for Austin. I have a group of 13 dentists here and we meet like once every two months. What we really do when we meet is we talk about what\u2019s working well in our practice. We talk about best practices. So we share among each other. So it\u2019s kind of like we all belong to these groups where we share, but this is a group that\u2019s on a little bit on a higher level.<\/p>\n Then they have a national convention every year that is superb and their CE is really phenomenal. Their CE now is getting to be AAA. So if anybody, you’re going to get my contact information. If you want to ask me about Backbone Pro, if you want to ask me about Smile Source, I can tell you how you can get in touch with a Smile Source administrator near your area and look into it. The thing about Smile Source too is they\u2019ll let you join for a year and if you don\u2019t like it after a year, you get all your money back. Guaranteed. So you won’t lose.<\/p>\n Everybody that\u2019s in my group, nobody is pulling out. Everybody is thrilled with what they’re getting, the value. So you need to learn about what you’re getting. So now NuCalm is a vendor for Smile Source. This last Saturday they offered some incredible deals. They offered 50 NuCalm systems at an unbelievable price. I can’t even tell you the price, the price was so low. So they went like wildfire. So that was it.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no more units left at that price. That was just to get people excited about it and people jumped on and bought two units, three units, four units. It was amazing how fast they went. But NuCalm will probably do it again. I mean, I don’t know. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll do that deal, but they\u2019ll give you deals on the reusables, like the chewable amino acids or the creams, or anything. You get great pricing on it. So that\u2019s about Smile Source. So you can ask me about Smile Source. You can ask me about NuCalm, you can ask me about Backbone Pro. You can ask me about OralID. What else? It\u2019s like an advertising billboard.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Any of your forms or whatever.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah, so when people talk to me, call me personally and just like I do with patients, I\u2019ll kind of make a custom packet for you and give you something customized. I\u2019ll do that. Just tell me what you’re interested in and I\u2019ll do whatever I can to help you and take you on that journey that I\u2019ve worked so hard on and make it easier for you because that\u2019s the idea. I\u2019m passionate about it. That\u2019s what I want to do in the rest of my career in dentistry. I want to help other people get to the level and make our patients\u2019 lives better and really talk about wellness and oral systemic health, because that\u2019s where it\u2019s at.<\/p>\n Another organization I haven’t talked about, I\u2019m not on the board or anything, is the American Academy of Oral Systemic Health, AAOSH. They’re having in September they’re having their national meeting in\u2014I believe it\u2019s Dallas. But that\u2019s another great organization. You could just join it for, I don’t know what it is, $170 a year. Their blog is worth $170 a year. So if you really want help, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great, thank you, Matt.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, you’re welcome. I gave you guys a lot of information.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You did.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But you can use me personally. Like I said, my email, write it down, D-R (like doctor) M-A-T-T @ S-T-E-I-N-B-E-R-G-D-D-S.com. So drmatt@steinbergdds.com. My cell phone is (512) 567-2448. Just don\u2019t call me at midnight or just remember I\u2019m on Central Standard Time. That\u2019s for Bill. Now that\u2019s only for Bill. That\u2019s for west coast people. Bill is just gearing up and I\u2019m in bed.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right, exactly. Okay.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Does anybody have any questions or anything that I touched on or that I didn\u2019t touch on that you want me to hit in about a minute and a half or 30 seconds?<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great job, Matt. This is Linda.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks, Linda. Thanks for coming.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you so much. Thank you for being on, Linda.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You did a great job. I think I need some NuCalm from time to time.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I wish I could send it over the phone.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I do too.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I could have NuCalmed everybody before this phone call, yeah.<\/p>\n Caller:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matt, excellent as always.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks, thank you so much. But really, I sincerely mean it from my heart. Do email me. Do call me. If I don\u2019t answer the cell phone, just leave a message. I\u2019ll get back to you.<\/p>\n Never say never but at least I think for the next five to six years, I think we\u2019re protected. We’ve got to make our jump now because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to always get better. I think we\u2019ve got a unique opportunity now to touch people and to influence people and to keep people in our practices.<\/p>\n Because I\u2019m telling you, all of these corporate entities like Heartland and everything else are going to make a mad dash to try to gain more patient base. They have the bucks to try to influence people with marketing. So we\u2019ve got to do it emotionally. We don’t have the bucks. I mean, we don\u2019t have three billion dollars in our banks.<\/p>\n So we have to do it by touching each individual patient and getting them to go out and be our missionaries. It\u2019s work. I mean, there is no doubt it\u2019s work. You\u2019ve got to keep your team in line. You\u2019ve got to keep yourself in line. That\u2019s where NuCalm, to me, works so good because it relaxes me so much. I don\u2019t know if I could do it without NuCalm.<\/p>\n Tracy:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks, Matt. I joined in late. This is Tracy Warner from Michigan.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, hi, how are you?<\/p>\n Tracy:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I hope you heard most of it.<\/p>\n Bethany:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hey, Tracy.<\/p>\n Tracy:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, Bethany. Hi, Linda.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, Bethany. We\u2019ve got a number of NuCalm users on here.<\/p>\n Bethany:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great to be on here. Absolutely. I\u2019m a fan.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, me too. Wonderful. Matt, there\u2019s still like 14 people on the call.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great. Like I said, if you guys email me, call me. I\u2019m going to say it over and over and over. I\u2019ve got so much information I can feed you that would really make a difference. I\u2019ve got it all categorized and in packets and everything else. It will be a Hightail file, I don’t know if you guys are familiar with Hightail. You can’t send anything by email that\u2019s over 15 megabytes, so most of these packets are like 100 megabytes. So they come over as a large file and you just download them to your desktop.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, he sent me a bunch of wonderful information before the call.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, if you want it, I can just load you up on stuff. But kind of do one thing at a time because if you ask about\u2014but I can do NuCalm and Backbone Pro if you want. But just look at these things. That\u2019s all I\u2019m saying. Go on Backbone Pro. Go on NuCalm.com. Their new website is live as of two days ago. Kind of learn about these companies and see if it\u2019s something you\u2019d be interested in.<\/p>\n Then if you are, since I\u2019m really on the inside of these companies, I don\u2019t make any big money from these companies, I can promise you that. I can tell you the skivvy on them. And I know, otherwise I wouldn\u2019t be involved with them. I wouldn\u2019t be doing this. I mean, my time is too valuable to be messing around with companies that won’t give me a return either on my health or on making the practice better. But these are things that I\u2019m talking, with the OralID and everything, I love that company. I love that company. I love the marketing and I love their product.<\/p>\n I don’t know how many of you are using fluorescents, but you know, everybody asks about the light. It creates a conversation. That\u2019s what we want. We want people to ask questions so we can get involved in conversations. Because that\u2019s the only way you truly will get people to think and change their behaviors. They have to do it on their own. If they don\u2019t ask questions and they’re just listening to you talk, it\u2019s not going to really make much difference.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I almost think we could have another call about marketing too. You are so good at that.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, get me on again, I\u2019ll talk more about it. I tell you, after you guys ask me for stuff, do it, and I\u2019ll come back and we can talk about all the stuff that I sent to you. We sure can and then get new people on the phone.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Awesome. Bill, were you going to say something?<\/p>\n Bill:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was just going to say, Matt is a resource that is unbelievable. Those that are questioning or wondering about getting involved in this, he\u2019s amazing. He has some unbelievable contacts and information. So, yes, I would totally agree. It would be wonderful to have Matt back again after a certain amount of time to follow up on this.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After you guys get a lot of information and really can think about it or start using some of these products. Man, we could have one heck of a conversation then. Then other people, say some people started using NuCalm, some people started using Backbone Pro, in an hour, we could really have an incredible interaction.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cool.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because it\u2019s all things that are going to make your practice more efficient and you feel better. There isn’t anything better out there than that. That\u2019s the whole idea. And you get your team involved. All of these things energize your team, so that\u2019s the big difference too.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I have some team members that were on and may still have a couple maybe that are on but I know I have a hygienist that would be really excited to be talking to patients about nutrition and she\u2019s health conscious. I’d like to know where to send her. I mean, I\u2019m really into nutrition but I don\u2019t feel like I have the skills to teach her. Anyway, I think it\u2019d be cool. I don’t know what you do, Matt, do you teach any of this stuff in a formal setting?<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019m going to start doing it because my dad was vegan, I mean, I know so much about nutrition and I talk about it. But no, I don\u2019t really have a formal class, but I\u2019m going to start putting things together for dentists, packaging, because no one else is doing it out there.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I’d love to see your oral cancer screening, just videotape it and share it.<\/p>\n Caller:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or YouTube.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I could put it on YouTube, you’re right.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, totally.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So you guys just keep connected to me. That\u2019s what I want. If I don\u2019t get an email or a phone call, I\u2019m going to be really disappointed.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, that\u2019s good. If people email me, I\u2019ll tell them to email you directly.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s right. Just use my email address as yours.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, awesome. Well, thank you.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Guys, any way I can help you, I\u2019m here as a resource for you.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you so much, Matt. Thank you, everybody else, for taking time out of your day.<\/p>\n Matthew:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re welcome. Thank you guys for being on. I really appreciate it. It makes me feel good.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bye.<\/p>\n Thanks for listening to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists, with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. For more about how Allison Watts and Transformational Practices can help you create a successful and fulfilling practice and life, visit transformationalpractices.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joining me this week on Practicing with the Masters is Dr. Matthew Steinberg. Dr. Steinberg has been nominated three times by his peers for the honor of Texas Dentist of the Year awarded by the Texas Academy of General Dentistry. He has been on the teaching faculty of the internationally recognized Pankey Institute, the premier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[303],"tags":[309,305,304,307],"yoast_head":"\nWhat You’ll Learn From This Episode:<\/h3>\n
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Listen To The Full Interview:<\/h3>\n\n
Featured On The Show:<\/h3>\n
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Full Episode Transcript:<\/h3>\n
Creating an Integrated Holistic Practice with Dr. Matthew Steinberg<\/h3>\n
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