On the Miss America website (www.missamerica.org), you can find out more information about all the contestants and this years competition.  The press release talks about Alyse as follows:

The first runner-up was Miss Arkansas Alyse Eady who earned a $25,000 scholarship. Her talent performance was Vocal-Ventriloquism to “I want to be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” and her personal platform is Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Good luck Alyse in all that you pursue and keep that beautiful smile on for all to see!

1. Shipments tend to run late in the Winter time.  Our FedEx and UPS deliveries are later than usual in the winter, and you should expect that they may not arrive by the guaranteed delivery time.  We suggest that you try to make sure that patient’s are scheduled at least one day after the delivery date, to be certain that any late deliveries do not affect the appointment.

2. Scheduling Rush Cases before sending them is even more important during this time of year.  Typically many technicians take time off work, so the schedule fills much faster than usual.  You should expect 3-4 weeks for a regular turn-around time.  Anything less than that should be pre-scheduled to ensure you have the case when you need it.

We hope you enjoy this winter and holiday season as much as we know we will!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Joanna will soon be turning 25 and therefore losing her medical insurance.  Her medical costs are astounding and her life depends on at least $20,000 a month in medical treatment and drugs.  Joanna’s friends and family started a donation fund to help pay her medical bills after she loses insurance.  However, Joanna realized that many, too many, others are in a similar predicament.  Because of this, she started a non-profit organization designed to help pay for unplanned medical bills when catastrophe strikes.  A recent documentary has been made about her trials, her efforts to help others, and shows just what kind of spirit she has about her.  The documentary was filmed and produced by Neil Shulman, MD and Associates.  Dr. Shulman is the physician who wrote the book, and wrote and produced the movie Doc Hollywood, staring Michael J Fox.

You can find out more about Joanna on her website www.JoannaCare.org.  You can view her documentary there or on YouTube, where it is broken up into 9 parts..  The documentary is 80 minutes long and also has a 10 minute trailer.  If you are interested in supporting Joanna’s cause, you can also make a donation from her website.

Please take a moment to view Joanna’s story and to realize just how easy we really do have it!  Thank you Joanna for sharing your story and your smile with us!

(We will post before and after photos soon . . .)

One is from 2008 and talks a lot about the impending recession we are all feeling now.  It is interesting to see what we thought about it before it actually struck.  On page 4 of that article, there are photos of a great DURAthin case that Mark did.

The article from  2009 was written by Dr. Hugh Flax and features a DURAthin veneer case done by Mark.  Dr. Flax really looks into the technicalities of DURAthin veneers and why they were a great fit for this patient.  He goes into detail about the process and has great pictures of before and after and all along the way!

Experience Dental Studio has been working with various doctors on these digital impressions for the last year with great success and we look forward to working with many more doctors in the future.   We currently are looking for a couple of our dentists who are interested in sending digital impressions to use one of the 3M ESPE COS Machines we already own!

Join us on October 19th as we participate in an informative webinar hosted by 3M ESPE.  For more information and to register, go to: http://www.dentalcompare.com/optin/768.html

P.S. DDS’s can receive 1 Hour of CE credit for free with this Webinar!

The follows areas are checked on each case:

1. Margins
2. Contacts
3. Occlusion
4. Shade
5. Contour

Any preferences the doctors have made us aware of are included with each case, so that any notes regarding fit or finish are taken into consideration when cases are quality checked.  All contacts are checked on a solid model for accuracy and fit. If you have any preferences that you have not made us aware of, please do so.

To make certain that each case is reviewed equally and  fairly, our quality control technician is not one of the ceramists and all ceramists have their work checked.  We have noticed that since implimenting these new Quality Control procedures that the percentage of cases returned due to error on our part has decreased dramatically!

We understand that cases occasionally fit differently in the patient’s mouth than on the models.  In those cases, we welcome the opportunity to correct any issues that may occur.

Thank you to all the doctors who sent their veneer cases to us this summer.  We hope that you and your patients were impressed by the quality of work you received.  We are looking forward to continuing to receive your cosmetic and standard restorations throughout the year.

Mark was out of the office through the end of the week and the patient was moving on Saturday, so we only had two days to do it all.  Our model room and swager worked together to get everything ready in only one day (whereas it usually takes at least 3), so that our technician, Daniel, could have as much time as possible.  Daniel worked as hard and fast as he could, but completing 10 DURAthin veneers in one day is practically impossible!  Daniel finished just after 7PM, which is the cut-off for both UPS and FedEx.  But, Daniel was determined to try everything he could and he drove to the airport (an hour drive) just to see if he could make it in time to get the package on one of their planes.  Unfortunately, he could not.

Next, Daniel called our office manager to see what could happen.  She called Carlie (interrupting her anniversary date) and, at 10PM, scheduled a flight for 6:30AM the next morning.  Carlie has a sister who lives in the same town, so her sister picked her up at the airport and drove to the office to hand deliver the case.

With only a few minutes before the patient’s appointment, Carlie dropped the case off at their office.  Here is what Dr. West had to say about his experience via the Crown Council Email Network:

Wanted to give a shout out to Mark Willes and Experience dental studio. I was in the process of treating a 17 year old female with hypocalcified enamel. Part way through the case I learn that the family was moving to the east coast and I had one shot to seat 10 units of Durathins, that was on Monday. Things didn’t quite look the way I wanted and I called Mark to see what could be done, patient will be gone Saturday morning. He basically just said he would get it done. I overnighted the case with a new impression. They evaluated what we had and determined rather than trying to make the first set fit, to redo the entire case on the new model, this was Wednesday. Mark and his staff worked on this case until last night, missing the fed ex cut off. They put one of their staff members on a jet this morning to hand deliver this case with a few minutes to spare before the patient was scheduled. This goes way beyond customer service and I wanted to recognize Mark’s efforts. The case was beautiful and the patient had tears of joy when I handed her a mirror.

Carlie and Daniel worked together to make this an awesome experience for the patient and doctor alike!

Dr. Dennis Wells, Brentwood, TN     38 Veneers
Dr. Paul Thompson, Manchester, NH     32 Veneers
Dr. Dean McSpadden, Greenville, DE     24 Veneers
Dr. Bonnie Rothwell, Hilton Head, SC     24 Veneers
Dr. Michael Cooper, Russellville, AR   21 Veneers

We are anxious to see who will take the lead in the end.  Keep watching our blog to see how this contest goes!