- Hi everyone, this is Erica Spicer Mason
with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast series.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.
I'm thrilled to be joined by two leaders from Soul Medics.
We have with us Steve Craig, the Director
of Special Markets East,
and Mike Wolley, the Director of Special Markets West.
Today, we'll talk a little bit about the role
of water management at dental practices.
With that, Steve and Mike, welcome
and thank you so much for being here today.
- Thank you. Yeah, - Thanks.
Thanks, thanks, uh, Eric,
and thanks for the opportunity to speak with you today.
As you stated, my name is Steve Craig.
I've spent the last 30 years in various
sales leadership roles.
Uh, my health career started back in about seven,
about seven years I spent in the ophthalmic space, uh,
and then I trans transitioned over to dental
for the last 20 years.
Uh, I've been at DS O
and dental industry partners spending a large part of
that time really building high performing teams
and servicing the customers
that fall underneath those teams.
And, you know, I'm currently, as you stated, the director
of special markets overseeing group practices, uh,
in the eastern half of the, some accounts in Canada.
You know, I, I believe it's greatest time to be in dentistry
and I'm excited to continue.
- Ah, such a great intro.
Thanks Steve And Mike,
tell us a little bit more about yourself.
- Yes. So my role is, um, I'm the Western director
of special markets, um, Steve's counterpart.
Um, I basically cover from Texas to the Pacific,
and I also have over 20 years
in the dental space in regional management.
And the DSO market, specifically
expansion within these roles within the DSO space,
with soul medics has been crucial
and couldn't come at a better time
because of the trends in the market.
The growth in this space is exploding,
and in the next five to 10 years, it's expected that 65
to 70% of dental practices will be owned
or affiliated with the dsso.
So there's no time like now to be focused on the space.
- Thanks so much, Mike.
You know, it's great having you both on the line just given
your, your breadth of experience in the dental space
and then all of the various regions that both of you cover.
So I know we're getting a lot of great perspective.
And then Mike, you so aptly touched on some trends
that we're, we're seeing in the dental space
and this growth of DSOs.
So I, I wanna stick with you
for the first question, if that's all right.
Um, you know, speaking of trends, we know
that dental practices, just like the rest
of the healthcare industry, are no safe,
are no stranger right now to the challenges
of staffing shortages and rising costs.
And so as practices strive to uphold quality care
and patient safety in dentistry,
what role does water management play in this realm?
- Yeah, listen, water is the most used instrument
in the dental practice.
A lot of folks dunno, that utilized in nearly every
aspect of patient care.
Water is the lifeblood of a dental practice.
It's purity and safety are paramount, which is why we're,
you know, proud to have a legacy
or legal legacy of protecting dental water practices
patients, and quite frankly, the environment.
Um, somatics provides dentistry
with the only comprehensive lineup
of end-to-end water solutions designed to enhance,
you know, uh, practice performance.
And we believe that every drop matters.
- Thanks so much, Mike.
I I appreciate some of these phrases that you've said,
like water is the lifeblood of the practice
and, um, it, it sounds like,
so medics really has a commitment to that, so I'm excited
to learn a little bit more about what that entails.
Um, so Mike, can you describe just
how Soul Medics does support dental practices in maintaining
the quality of water as well as its safety and compliance?
Um, let's start there and then I wanna kick
another question over to Steve. Yeah,
- Absolutely.
So, we'll, we've gone through, um, um,
a major transition merging three organizations into one
over the last, gosh, six to nine months.
Um, we are now the manufacturers of so medics, uh, steril
and dry and the dry shield product portfolios.
So our solutions are superior
because they're easy to use, they're easy to install,
they're all smart products, and they save time and effort
and quite quite frankly, are supported
by a world class organization.
This provides an unmatched level of assurance, you know,
for water safety, quality
and of course quality, you know, compliance.
- Thanks, Mike. That's, it's really helpful
to know that approach.
And so Steve, can you just tell us
what else about som medic's story
or offerings is really important for listeners
to know on this topic?
- Sure. I mean, as Mike kind of stated, you know, we're,
we're the only, uh, comprehensive lineup of
of end-to-End Water solutions.
We kind of called our, our medics, uh, system of solutions,
which covers everything from, you know, water, in water
through and, and water out products.
You know, our lineup kind of covers as Mike kind of stated,
uh, now medics and dry shield.
So, you know, our, our kind of our first entry is kind of
that, that water in.
So we do offer, you know, ster cell water systems.
Um, but what is a lot important to to offices is
that dental unit waterline management.
So we do offer shock testing maintenance,
and we really have our flagship class leading flag ster cell
straw, which has superior iron technology where kind
of the water kind of crosses the patient in that isolation
and aerosol control where we offer dry shield,
which is a phenomenal product, uh,
that it's increasing sales daily.
Uh, and then we also cover the evacuation with dry back.
And then we also have our power scrub,
which is the fastest growing, you know,
vacuum cleaner on the market.
What most people know sole medic for is the,
and recycling, uh, with our, so NXT five,
which is the marketing leading amalgam separator.
We also do offer our, our waste management.
This how we touch aspect through the
Tory, the comprehensive lineup end-to-end water solution.
- Yeah, that's great. Steve, I, I know earlier
I think it was you or Mike referenced, um,
so medic's solutions as end-to-end.
So the way that you just described it really does speak to
how comprehensive the services are here, um,
which I think is helpful for our listeners to hear.
So thanks for that.
And you know, we're talking about
this comprehensive approach.
So when dental practices do leverage the water management
tools that we've mentioned,
what outcomes can they see in their practice performance?
Uh, Mike, do you wanna get us started with that one?
- Yes, absolutely.
So we're very excited that we have launched a
new website a few months ago
and within that new website it's very intuitive, um,
and we're very excited.
But within that new website is the,
what we're calling the My Solution center,
which gives the DSO an all-in-one tool that allows
compliance of their collection containers
that Steve was talking about, the amalgam buckets, straws,
water testing in national, regional
and individual office views with access to being able to,
you know, print shipping labels, print, um, certificates,
and obviously, um, recycling, which, you know,
is offered 24 7, 365 days a year.
This tool really helps maintain compliance nationwide
with a subscription service to schedule custom delivery
of our products through their dealer of choice.
So it's really just a, a one-stop shop for compliance
for procurement to go in
and see what's going on with the individual dsso
and all the way down to the individual practice.
It's very exciting.
- No, that is exciting. Thanks for sharing Mike.
And Steve, I wanted to see if you had anything to add here,
whether it be success stories
or case studies, um, from partners that might come to mind,
you know, whether it's for this new tool,
the My Solutions website or, or any other, uh, service
or feature from SOM medics.
Would love to hear about any tangible examples or results.
- Yeah, absolutely. We, we get a lot of great conversations
with our DS partners.
We also hear extensively from our inside
they're, but I guess a few examples that that would come
to mind, kind of speaking to the last point
that Mike talked about with the My Solution Center.
You know, we hear a lot from our compliance
and procurement teams that they feel
that the my solution center is a great extension, you know,
to their department, and it has them to, you know,
really do their job responsibilities a lot more efficiently.
And it really helps keep the, the DS o uh, the offices
compliant and, and most importantly, the patient safe.
Uh, another one that really comes to mind is, you know,
you mentioned earlier about
staffing shortages of rising costs.
That that seems to be a large topic, uh,
on all the different platforms that I listen to.
You know, we hear a lot from both the compliance teams
and the operations teams, um, within, inside the Dsso space
around not only does, you know, the STA have, you know,
a powerful non-oxidizing silver ion technology,
and the benefit there to them is, uh,
it offers 20 times more effective, uh,
water treatment than, than the competition.
But also where a lot of them see the huge opportunity is,
you know, our straw system, you know,
drastically reduces the total annual steps per operatory
from 2 58 steps to one step needed to maintain the,
and what they really, you know, talk
to us about is this really helps you reduce, you know,
staff burden and, and also increase productivity for them.
And, and probably the last one that comes to mind would,
would be, we hear a lot also from both the Dsso clinical
and operations teams, how Dry Shield's been a game changer
for them with, with not only patient comfort,
but allows them to stay productive in their operatory,
you know, when they're fully staffed
or when unfortunately they're not fully staffed.
Um, and we hear a lot from our dental assistants
that they share with us that, you know,
dry shell allows them to be more efficient when,
when they're assisting their doctors
and they love the auto mouthpiece option
in addition to the single use.
So those are probably three of, of the, the top ones
that really come to mind, um, that I've been having, uh,
in extensive conversations in, in the DSO space as of late.
- Yeah. Thanks so much, Steve.
It sounds like those benefits really are twofold.
You know, there, there are these benefits
to the business when it comes to efficiency,
reducing burden on staff, and then of course compliance.
And then on the other end, patient safety, you know,
the number one, uh, priority for
so many organizations it sounds like, um,
these services contribute to that as well.
soly really important to care. Thanks, Steve.
So I wanna be respectful of both of your time.
Our conversation has gone by quickly,
but I wanted to know if there's anything else that you think
that our listeners should know, anything maybe
that we missed earlier in the discussion?
- Yeah, I think Mike touched on, you know, we, we,
we have now merged, you know, three organizations into one.
Um, we're really excited that we're now gonna
merging a fourth organization under the so medic umbrella.
Uh, we've a company called, um, they're best known for
blocks, which really aids in in socket preservation.
Um, INET is currently being run as a, as a CYS organization
underneath the so medic umbrella.
Uh, but Mike and I have, have responsibility
to see the tremendous opportunity in, in the dsso space
and beyond, you know, based on the oxygen plug
as a a strong clinic, it's strong clinical product, um,
has superior handling aspect for the clinicians,
and it's at, at a great value price.
So we see great things to come, um, adding that to our, our,
our portfolio, uh,
and really being able to offer that to our, our system
of solutions, as you talked about, to,
to really help offices, you know, be more productive, uh,
be more safe and safe.
And ultimately at the end of the day, what we're all here
for is to truly help patients, uh, thrive in their lives.
- Mm-Hmm. That's great. Steve, thank you so much.
Uh, thank you Mike as well.
I mean, you've both shared a lot of great insights
and it sounds like there's
so much growth happening in the DSO space,
and so medics is really stepping up to that growth and, um,
and you know, really innovating in, in this area.
So appreciate everything that you've shared today.
Thanks for a great discussion.
- Thank you. Yeah, thank you Erica,
and we appreciate everything, uh, Becker's does
for the dental community as well.
- Oh, great. Thank you.
And we'd also like to thank Sol medics today
for sponsoring this episode.
You can tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare
by visiting our podcast page at becker's hospital
review.com.