Phil Cole 0:05
Hello and welcome to class solutions dental education Podcast, the podcast series where we share knowledge and experience to provide value to you and your dental practice. I'm your host, Phil Cole and today's episode we're going to be talking about oral health care. And what Elevate is continuing to do to deliver preventative dentistry product solutions. So today we're joined by Haley Buckner of Elevate oral health care, and she's going to be sharing her thoughts and experiences with Elevate so welcome. Hello, Hailey. And welcome to the podcast.
Hayley Buckner 0:39
Hey, Phil, thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely
Phil Cole 0:42
So, obviously elevate has, I know been around for a little while. But just in case, those who are listening and stuff don't know who Elevate is give us a little brief description of Elevate oral health care?
Hayley Buckner 0:58
Sure, yeah. So LV, oral care is still a fairly new company. We've been around for about a decade now. And we are really leaders in prevention, we have a full line of preventive care products. But we really take that a step further. And we have a team of preventive care consultants that many of them are hygienist themselves, and they go in to offices. They're all AEGD, paste certified to bring continuing education to their lunch and learns. And they'll really educate offices on the latest in prevention, caries risk assessment, motivational interviewing and patient centered communication. So we really pride ourselves on that education aspect, and to try to get offices as preventive focused as possible. Because we know that carry disease process is really almost an entirely preventable disease process. So our team is very helpful. They'll go into offices, educate them, and then we've got a great product line that can help get your patients healthy as well.
Phil Cole 1:55
So and one of the reasons why I want to have you on the podcast is because our focus as class solutions is also to educate right. And so I just love the fact that you guys are doing that putting that add, making sure that you're getting out there and doing those lunch and learns to really get that out. What else makes you unique?
Hayley Buckner 2:15
Yeah, definitely. So we are like I said, our product line is pretty unique. I know Phil, you and I were talking a little bit before about silver diamond fluoride, which in itself is very unique. It's it's a fluoride product that is a site specific application that can be applied to an active carious lesion and it will arrest that lesion in the patient's mouth. And we really were the first company to bring silver diamond fluoride in the into the United States with advantage arrest silver diamond fluoride. So that one in itself is pretty unique, it kind of puts a whole way spin on how we treat caries, you know, we've always done a surgical approach with your traditional drill and fill dentistry. And silver diamond fluoride allows you to take a more medical approach and really treat the infection in that tooth surface. Rather than just going in and drilling drilling the tooth and you know, filling it with something else this way we can go in medically treat that or rescue infection in the tooth. And then we can decide on what treatment to take for that patient afterwards, you can leave it like that as the definitive treatment, or you can go back in and restore later, if they're significant to structure missing, you know, whatever the case may be. There's a lot of options and how you can move forward after you use silver diamond fluoride. So that's been a big difference with Elevate oral care is that we're really kind of shifting a lot of things and putting that prevention into focus and minimally invasive dentistry and that more medical approach.
Phil Cole 3:39
And I would assume because of that, then it's, I mean, do you have any, I don't mean to put you on the spot or anything but stats or anything like that. But I would assume that with that type of concept or putting that into practice, patient. Acceptance has got to be I would assume, goes up quite a bit knowing that, you know, they don't want that handpiece in their mouth if they don't have to. So I would assume that you're getting great acceptance from the patient as far as feedback from your hygienist and stuff on that.
Hayley Buckner 4:13
Absolutely. Yeah, you'd be right in that now, with silver diamond fluoride, when you do apply it to an active carious lesion to arrest that decay, it will stay in that lesion black permanently, which is a really good sign that's letting you know that hey, that infection that's in that tooth is no longer an active infection, it's arrested. So it's a good sign to see that but as you can imagine, dental professionals, you know, are taken aback by that a little bit. We're so cosmetically trained. There's so many beautiful tooth colored restorations out there now and so when you explain that dental professionals kind of take a second to understand the technology and why you would do that, but patients very much appreciate it. So with our education that our team offers dental practices will offer the training on silver diamond fluoride, so everybody understands the indication In the benefits, the you know, uses for it, contraindications, all that good stuff, but will also educate your team and staff on motivational interviewing or that patient centered communication to really help with that patient case acceptance, you know, because it is that whole different way of thinking now, and we want to educate the clinical teams so that they know how to properly educate their team. And a lot of that goes into that patient centered communication, asking your patients the right questions, identifying what's important to your patients, you know, because we can't handle each patient, like buy a textbook, you know, you need to brush floss and this, you definitely want to take the time to ask the patient, what's important to them, what are they currently doing with their oral health routine and see how we can easily modify a couple things, to get them as healthy as possible. And through that motivational interviewing that our team does with offices, it definitely helps increase the patient case acceptance.
Phil Cole 5:52
So without a doubt, then going in on those those really aren't just Lunch and Learns then that I mean, we're talking instead of saying a lunch and learn where they're just, you know, being in the business, and I'm the supply business at one time, Lunch and Learns where you learn about the product, the camp, the chemical, makeup, different things like that. But really, for you guys, it's really an education piece, to really explain to them how to implement that into the practice. And for us, I know when we do our coaching, to also be able to get them to understand how to talk to the patient, about perio, whatever the case may be same thing with you, then it's not really a lunch and learn you guys are really it's an educational study, I should say. But during lunch, right?
Hayley Buckner 6:43
Absolutely, yeah, I mean, our reps will come in, they'll still bring you lunch, they'll you know, sit down with you. But it is an educational journey that they take you on, you know, at Elevate, we've worked really hard to create a lot of tools to help implement that patient centered communication. We've created a simplified caries risk assessment tool, which has some of those open ended motivational interviewing questions on it, as well as some of those quick closed ended questions that you need to be able to identify if that patient of low moderate or high caries risk. So we'll educate the team on how to use these free tools that we have available. And it's all about just simplifying your patient care, streamlining it getting everybody on the same page. So if the patient comes in one day and sees you, Phil as the hygienist, and then they come in next six months and see me, it's kind of that same streamline communication, they're not thinking they're getting better care at someone else than than the other. So yeah, it's it's an educational experience that our team takes you on. And you know, we're very passionate about having that add pace accreditation, and we don't take that lightly. So we definitely stick to all the you know, requirements for that. So it's truly an educational Lunch and Learn the session that you get with our team.
Phil Cole 7:51
Yeah, and I mean, being an add pace provider as well. I mean, it is something to take very seriously, it's not an easy, it's not an easy task to get that either, you know, so you want to make sure that you're giving the your clients exactly what their patients what they need. So obviously, when you go to the website, checking it out, and stuff, totally have all kinds of new products, but you also talk about how you're making change in the dentistry in dentistry. So what what gives me some more examples of of what parts have you really taken hold up and what you're changing for dentistry?
Hayley Buckner 8:34
There? Yeah. So I think kind of really what we talked about here, you know, we're not just there to be a sales rep. And that's really why we call our team at Preventive Care Consultant. We want to be there and be someone that your team turns to if they have any questions on, you know, what's the latest in dentistry and more specifically about prevention. So, you know that doing that and focusing on that really aren't we'll have people reach out to us all the time with questions on prevention. We also host monthly typically its monthly webinar on our platform, which is elevate oral care and it's elevating care is our actual platform for that where we will host a series of different webinars, prevention focused a lot of them have been on silver diamond fluoride, because we have a survey at the end and every time we still get so many requests for more silver diamond fluoride information because it's still such a new option for these offices. So we still do a lot on silver diamond fluoride, but we certainly bring in other different tools and and just things that people are requesting so are February 2023. webinars going to be on airway and sleep apnea, which really has nothing to do with LA but we've had some requests for it. We've also featured other products on our on our platform again that nothing that elevates cells but we had a lot of questions come in about cure don't repair recently, so it's a another minimally invasive options. Though we just said, alright, well find some some people out there who know a lot about and we'll bring that information out. So any way that we can help spread prevention and spread, minimally invasive dentistry and get everyone up to speed and up to date on the latest, that's what we like to do.
Phil Cole 10:15
Yeah, that's, I mean, that's really awesome, too. So you're doing the webinars once a month, once a
Hayley Buckner 10:20
month? Okay, yeah, typically, once a month, they're usually on a Tuesday evening, but you can always check them out. The recorded ones are available on our website, which is elevate oral care.com/elevating care, we have a whole great theory of recorded webinars where you can still watch them and get the credit by filling out a little quiz, or you can watch them live when they come out. So you can sign up on our website to get notified through the through the email about those as well and our social media.
Phil Cole 10:48
So because he was mentioned that you're taking the feedback that you're getting, is that basically someone that's taking the webinar, and is then filling out the survey. And that's where you're getting what the like February's topics, since it's on sleep apnea, those are coming. Is there any place that they can go to your website to actually ask or request really,
Hayley Buckner 11:09
yeah, we love that we love to hear from everybody. So you can always email us at info at Elevate oral care.com. And if you have any topic you'd like to see us cover, you know, when we see that coming in at the request, we definitely investigate and try to do that. So we've got a pretty exciting lineup for the first part of the year here. But we've got plenty of room to grow at the end of the year. I need some topic ideas. So we'd love to hear from everybody.
Phil Cole 11:31
Well, that's awesome. Because I think that that's that's so huge. Once again, the education piece of it, just to know that you got at least a place to go and be able to hit where I know that we're starting. We'll be introducing early of 2023, our education center as well. And that's going to be the whole thing is to get information out to them so that they have a place that they know that they can to go to and stuff. So always when it comes to products and stuff usually waits until the first of the year midwinter and in the Midwest here where we're at the midwinter and then get to him and all that stuff. What's some of the new exciting products that that you're that you have coming
Hayley Buckner 12:13
out? Yes, so we do have some really exciting products coming out. Hopefully in this 2023 year, you'll see some new stuff from Elevate, most recently, our fluoride varnish, which is for Max varnish, it's been out for a while, we recently launched some new flavors with that which have been a big hit. But if you haven't tried Formax varnish yet, it's worth trying. It's really a different varnish than what you're used to. So traditional fluoride varnish is made up of that thicker cloth honey based resin typically, which is very thick and sticky, because it's literally made from like tree sap. And that's where a lot of those pine and tree nut allergies can come into play. So with our flora Max varnish, we eliminated that Kolodny base. So ours is made up of a food grade shellac, which is very thin, like up to 40 times thinner than traditional fluoride varnish. So it's super comfortable for the patient, it makes application a little bit easier as well, because it's hydrophilic. So you keep the teeth moist, completely hypoallergenic. So there's no allergies to be concerned about. And patients can eat or drink immediately after that application. We do have unit dose available in that. But we also have it available in a bottle system. So you just dispense what you need. And that bottle system it can be as little as 20 cents burn in office fluoride varnish applications, so super cost effective as well. Oh, yeah, it's great. The flavors we've had for a while are bubblegum mint and salted caramel. And then we just launched cotton candy, which has been a big hit with with pediatric offices, and then also a naturally unflavored, which is nice for those sensory sensitive patients and just anybody else that doesn't want a lot of flavor. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And the more exciting around silver diamond fluoride that we've talked about, we are getting ready to launch our advantage arrest gel. So it's the same thing as our silver diamond fluoride 38% Advantage dress, but this one is going to be in a gel formulation. So it's much thicker. So it's great for that site specific application, you don't have to worry about it kind of going to places that you're not intending it to. So it's really great for you know, small children, older patients where you're working on root decay or sensitivity up there. Lots of great uses in it the gel formulation, I think people are really going to like it stays put right where you want it.
Phil Cole 14:28
Excellent. Yeah. So constantly trying to develop is is excellent. I'm glad I will say I gotta tell you that the one thing that I will say with Elevate is you have such prepared and well educated Salesforce. If you want to call it Salesforce, but when you the people that you have with dental shows that I've been to and stuff when I get a chance to talk. I think that that's very impressed To know that when I see the education that we try to push as well, to know that when you're talking to them, you're you Oh, definitely, I have somebody that is informed. And I think that the thing that's even more noticeable is the passion. What you guys believe in what you guys are doing is awesome, because it definitely is portrayed by your consultants that are out there, talking about elevate and stuff. So I got to just give you that kudos because it's very noticeable.
Hayley Buckner 15:31
So we really appreciate that, because that's really what we pride ourselves on. In fact, we just got off of our annual national sales meeting just about a week ago. And you know, we really do pride ourselves in that education aspect. Our team, like I was telling you before, most of them are hygienist, not all. But you know, we do a big, full three day training and get everybody kind of, again, up to date. And some of the latest I think our team walked away with receiving, like 10 CPE credits themselves. So we spent a lot of time on education, our team is very passionate about what they do. So I'm really glad that that comes across. And we usually are attending every major convention and meeting and a lot of local ones throughout the country as well. So yeah, definitely check us out. Because I think hopefully you guys will be impressed with by Dr. Phil, because that's something we worked really hard for. So thanks for saying that.
Phil Cole 16:21
Yeah, no, absolutely. So I think that anytime that you can, I think the anytime you get education, but that one of the biggest things for us on the coaching side of things is to be able to know how to talk to that patient and constantly get that, that update or get that understanding of how to bring a product bring anything across the patient. I think it's definitely something that's not maybe taught in the schools, you can tell me because of being an agent, I don't think it's it's taught real well. It's more just the clinical thing. And that's always a missing piece. But that, to me is always more, I think huger than anything is being able to have that relationship with that patient and making sure that they get all the scenarios of what can can be done for them.
Hayley Buckner 17:11
Absolutely. Because like you say, if patients don't know, I mean, they're relying and trusting in their health care provider to you know, let them know, Hey, this is what's going on. And these are all the different options that are available to you. Let's talk through the pros and cons of each one and really help that patient make that informed decision. So that's something we're passionate about helping clinicians do. And when it comes to these other non traditional things like silver diamond fluoride, and and our Flomax, varnish even so we really, we really want to make sure they feel confident in talking with their patients on that.
Phil Cole 17:41
And I do think it's important for them to understand what the product is, as well, right? I mean, so educating them what actually is going in there versus just having it do it. You know, having it be done and just take your word for it and stuff. So I think it is it's always good, always makes me feel better. I know that when I'm sitting down my hygienist is one of those is very educated and always is talking about the latest and greatest and stuff and it makes us feel a lot more comfortable knowing what she's doing than someone that when you bring up a product and they're like I've never heard of that.
Hayley Buckner 18:15
Exactly right. Patients patients Google Now they know, they know a lot patients come in asking those questions. So yeah, you want your healthcare team ready to go and to answer those questions for Yeah,
Phil Cole 18:26
absolutely. Any final, any final words on what else you would like to get across for elevate? Besides that you guys do a phenomenal job of educating?
Hayley Buckner 18:36
Yeah, check us out and visit our website, you can request to one of those free CTE staff meetings. And we'd love to come in and help educate your team and get to know you guys better. So check us out at Elevate oral care.com. And we're also all over social media to really appreciate it.
Phil Cole 18:50
Awesome. So well thank you very much Haley for being on and giving us a better look at what Elevate is doing for dentistry and continues to keep doing and once again, like I said, I cannot thank you enough for the education piece. I just love it. That's what we thrive on doing for our clients too. So thanks so much.
