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Elvis Dahl: Clinical Mistake
45 Plays1 month ago
This week on Dental Fuel, we’re breaking the mold! Meet Elvis Dahl, the first dental lab specialist to join our podcast. 🚀 From his start in a pizza restaurant to becoming a trusted partner for clinicians, Elvis shares how labs and clinics can better communicate to avoid those "nonexistent" lab errors.
Episode Summary:
Join us in this intriguing episode of Dental Fuel, as host Tanya Sue Maestas interviews Elvis Dahl, the first dental lab specialist to feature on the show. Elvis shares his passion for the dental lab field, tracing his journey from a part-time packing job to becoming a well-respected figure in the industry. Throughout the episode, Tanya and Elvis uncover important insights and valuable lessons from their experiences.
Elvis discusses the critical role of communication between dental labs and clinics, elaborating on common issues such as inconsistent expectations and offering tips to foster better relationships. Tanya draws on Elvis's years of examining dental procedures from a lab perspective, providing listeners with actionable advice on improving outcomes and avoiding common pitfalls. This episode is a must-listen for both clinicians and technicians aiming to bridge the gap in dental lab-clinic interactions.
Key Takeaways:
- Effective communication is key to preventing dental practice and lab errors.
- Understanding professional compatibility is crucial for successful lab-clinic relationships.
- Elvis Dahl transitioned from working in a pizza restaurant to a thriving career in the dental lab industry.
- The dental lab community is vast, offering diverse opportunities for growth and collaboration.
- Identifying the right lab partner involves balancing factors like price, service, and relationship dynamics.
Connect with Elvis Dahl: @voices_from_the_bench
Connect with Ignitedds and Dr. David Rice: @ignitedds Free Intro Call
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Learn more about Ignite Coaching : https://ignitedds.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Dental Fuel Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Dental Fuel, the podcast that focuses on what no one else is talking about. Mistakes. The dental world is full of before and afters and no one is talking about the middle. Dental Fuel brings you the unspoken in-between. Dental Fuel is brought to you by Ignite DDS Coaching, empowering dentists to build self-determined futures.
00:00:20
Speaker
Together, we're shaping the next generation of leaders in dentistry. Finding a great lab can go a long way when it comes to success in your practice. I'm so excited to introduce our next guest, Elvis Stahl, a lab technician and guru who talks about his experience in dentistry. Elvis talks about his passion for the dental field and reminds us that it's never the lab's fault. Or
Common Mistakes in Dentistry
00:00:43
Speaker
is it? Elvis dives into a clinical mistake that we can all learn from. Let's listen in.
00:00:47
Speaker
Elvis Doll, welcome to Dental Fuel. How are you doing today? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much for having me on. Super excited. Oh, I'm super excited to have you here. And you are our first lab guy that we're going to have here on Dental Fuel. And I'm so excited to... It's all downhill from there.
00:01:06
Speaker
That's right. I'm very excited to hear about mistakes you have made, mistakes you have seen, and you just to impart some wisdom upon myself and
Elvis Stahl's Journey from Pizza to Dental Labs
00:01:15
Speaker
our listeners. But before we get into the nitty gritty, tell us, where are you coming to us from?
00:01:21
Speaker
um I'm actually located in Indianapolis, Indiana. But the lab I yeah the lab i work for um is Derby Dental Lab at a Louisville, Kentucky. So I'm not really on the bench anymore, like they like to say in our industry. For years I was, I ran production for a ah a local lab here in Indiana.
00:01:42
Speaker
But now I'm what they call a customer service rep for Derby. I'm more of a chair side technician. So my role now is going out, helping the clients, doing a lot of whatever needs to happen all over the state of Indiana. Absolutely love it. It's it's it's a super passion of mine to be able to see clinically what I did for years in the lab.
00:02:07
Speaker
So Elvis, I'm curious to know, how did you get into the world of dental labs? ah Well, it's it's an epic story that generations will tell for years. I answered an ad on Indeed to be a part-time packer. And I had no idea what that was. I had no idea what a dental lab was. um At the time, I was in my late 20s, maybe.
00:02:32
Speaker
ah in a pizza restaurant making pizzas, um really going no direction in life. And I saw this ad about packing in a dental lab. I was like, What the heck? ah Went through the interview process. They hired me on. um I had no idea what I was putting in these little paper sacks for years.
00:02:51
Speaker
um I remember throwing away bite registrations because I thought they were garbage and like used gum and getting in trouble for that, just having no idea. But luckily the lab I started at, great people took me on, really just taught me everything. And I just grew to love the the processes and what we did and how we help patients and working with doctors. And it just grew from there, but it all started as a part-time job with no idea what it was.
00:03:22
Speaker
Wow. Well, sometimes that's how legends are made. So I'm going to, I'm going to group you into that. That's really cool. and And how long have you been in the lab world? Well, 2008 or say six or eight, somewhere around there I started. yeah And is it everything you've ever wanted?
00:03:40
Speaker
Like sure, like everyone else's career, there's ups and downs. Um, but once I discovered the dental lab world outside of just the lab I was working in, that's when the passion exploded. You know, we were located in Indiana. So it's a decent sized lab. We're about 20 to 30 technicians at this lab. I didn't know any, I didn't even know other labs existed. I really remember asking one time,
00:04:10
Speaker
Are we not the only lab in Indiana? Cause I really had no clue, but once I discovered how great this industry is and how amazing everybody is in this industry, that's when my passion grew even more for what I did. You froze up again. Yeah, you're frozen again. Uh, it probably did it. It may have picked it up. Yeah. i may it up Let's roll with it. And if not, um, we'll, we'll cut part of that. Yeah, whatever. Okay.
Learning from Mistakes in Dentistry
00:04:40
Speaker
ah Well Elvis here at Dental Fuel we are dedicated to learning from each other's mistakes and sharing those mistakes so that way ah we don't make them any longer along the road and ah this will be a little bit different. We usually have clinicians who are in a dental clinic who are here to share their mistakes so we're gonna You know, just ah twist up the questions a little bit and mix it up a little. And so that way you can share some mistakes that you have made and also some mistakes that you have seen from, you know, the clinicians who have sent things into the lab. But absolutely first off, kicking this off with our first question, I would love to know a clinical mistake either you made from the bench or some crazy mistakes or some errors that you consistently saw come in from different dentists.
Communication in Dental Labs
00:05:23
Speaker
Well, I need to first start off by saying that labs do not make mistakes. Never have, never will. It's never our fault. Everything comes clinically. Now that that's out of the way. I mean, let's be honest. There's a lot of different skill sets out there for clinics. ah different Different doctors at different levels in their career. Some are still learning. um And they turn to their labs a lot.
00:05:52
Speaker
to learn because we've seen it. you know I've always said that implant restoration, for example, some doctor would say they maybe restore, I don't know, 10 to 12 a week in a lab. We're doing that every hour. So we're seeing a lot. um Classically, I would say the biggest mistake is lack of communication, lack of providing us what the doctor and the patient's expectations are. Now granted, a lot of the times we're talking single molars, maybe there's not a lot of expectation, but some of these larger cases, and as we're getting more into the fixed hybrids, full arch, those expectations need to be communicated to a lab. We see this all the time where we get a scan, we get an impression, that's it.
00:06:46
Speaker
ah Labs are getting better of not moving forward without the information that we need. At Derby, we have a ah criteria, and if we don't get that information, we're not going to do it because we know we're not going to hit an expectation. so That's probably one of the bigger, most common things that I see.
Choosing the Right Dental Lab
00:07:05
Speaker
ah Mistakes that I've made, over-promising and under-delivering is a big one.
00:07:13
Speaker
um Labs are very famous for just saying, yeah, we can do it, no problem. And then maybe we can't. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. What are things, aside from communication, what are things that dentists can do to be better for their labs? I think we have to step back and ask, what kind of lab do you want for your office? So you're a practicing clinician, right?
00:07:41
Speaker
What kind of lab do you use? What do you look for in a good lab? Is it price? Is it turnaround time? Is it a lab that's willing to come chairside to help? Is it ah having a lab where someone is available to text and talk to instantly? Is it someone that you know the one person that's gonna be working on your one thing? There's so many great labs in this world.
00:08:10
Speaker
there's a lab for everybody. And probably one, another mistake I've learned over the years is not understanding that every relationship can work. So I've worked with so many doctors, we've gotten along great, great communication, but for some reason we just cannot make the restorations work. And you just have to step back and say, I don't know why, and it's okay.
00:08:38
Speaker
Because there's going to be a better lab for you and a better clinician for me. it's ah It's a relationship. I don't even know if I answered your question. No, that's that's great. No, that's huge. I think that, um
Understanding Relationships in Dentistry
00:08:50
Speaker
yeah, I think that's great. I think that it's important to recognize, you know, if if things things aren't working out, maybe you need to kind of pivot and go a different direction. but And I'm not saying I don't give my 100%. Oh, absolutely. Trying to get it to work.
00:09:02
Speaker
but I've wasted so many hours of my life trying to get all the work for a doctor and do everything perfect. And it's sometimes it just doesn't work. And honestly, it's okay. Yeah, it is okay. Yeah, yeah. And that's, you know, that's dentistry too. Sometimes it just doesn't work. And, you know, I share that with patients as well too, um that, you know, the first dentist they go to may not be their dentist. They may need to find somebody else and and that's okay.
00:09:30
Speaker
Um, you know, I wish I would have known that coming out of dental school. I thought everyone was going to love me coming out of there, but you go that's just not the reality of what the profession is. And like you said, it's totally okay. It's just something that has to be understood. And it took me years to figure that out because I wanted all the work from every doctor I talked to and I wanted everything and you just can't. And you have to understand that. Listening to the lab side of things is so
Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
00:09:58
Speaker
insightful. Next week, we continue our conversation where we talk about a financial mistake that Elvis has seen. Ready to take the next step in your journey? Book an intro call with Ignite DDS coaching today and level up your future in dentistry.