Hello!
And welcome back for another episode of the #AskT-Bone segment on the T-Bone Speaks Podcast!
Today I had someone who didn’t follow directions. They had a question and they Facebook messaging me the question versus sending it in through the www.tbonespeaks.com Question Portal.
At the end of the day I’m going to answer questions no matter how they come to me, but I prefer to go through our www.tbonespeaks.com portal because my virtual assistant and my personal assistant will put it into my queue and that way I get to the questions and everything kind of just flows. So Gwen, I do appreciate you sending in the question, but next time please if you don’t mind just send it into the www.tbonespeaks.com so we can get it there.
So the question that came in was:
Hi T! Long time one of my associates went to a course by Sleep Group Solutions and want to invest $30,000 (of my money LOL). We want to be involved in the sleep apnea world, but something told me to check with you first. I would have sent it to your class but she signed up for this on our own before I had a chance. Any thoughts, I don’t know anything about this stuff.
So you know quite honestly I don’t know Sleep Group Solutions personally, have seen their stuff, I certainly have watched some of their things online, and have some friends who have been. And I know some of the speakers are colleagues of mine, so I know they have great information. So I don’t see anything wrong with Sleep Group Solutions as a source of education but I do want to say this: In my opinion a dental practice does not need to buy any equipment to treat sleep apnea. Bottom line: You do not need any equipment to treat sleep apnea well. So ultimately we need a diagnosis from an MD and we need a way to take a bite and we need a way to fabricate the appliance. Now, I don’t believe that you need to spend $30,000 on equipment, quite frankly. I do recommend and firmly suggest that Dental practices buy a home sleep test. I think that you should have one of those, you don’t need to have one of those but you should have one of those. So that you can assist your patients and getting the diagnosis and Screen your patients better. And I do believe that there is a role for 3D imaging in creating awareness for sleep apnea. That being said, I do not believe you need to buy 3D imaging just for sleep apnea but if you’re going to buy 3D imaging, one of the great benefits is in the sleep apnea world, the implant world, the orthodontics world, there is so many benefits of 3D imaging that you should certainly consider using it for creating awareness in the sleep apnea world.
So you know these fancy software, listen at the end of the day you don’t need all that stuff. You know, use the other things and listen I say these things very lightly I don’t want to offend, people, I don’t mind offending people. But I don’t want to offend or say anything negative about Sleep Group Solutions, because I don’t believe there’s anything negative to say. I just believe that the lure of inexpensive education comes at a cost. And that cost is typically a sales pitch, a pitch to sell you equipment. And sometimes you need it, and sometimes you don’t need it. And that’s why education sometimes is less expensive, because it’s being underwritten by back of the room cells. And that’s why our courses, they do cost more but they come with honest information, honest implementation and really what we’re doing in our practice and how was successful or where our struggles are in practice. So, when we do sleep apnea workshops and we charge $1,700-$1,800 for the dentist to come, it’s hard for us to compete when there are places doing it for $300-$600 dollars. And the difference is, we are not selling any equipment in the back, and we are not selling any services on the back end. We are there as colleagues to provide practical, real information based on real world experiences. So I’ll never say there’s anything wrong in going to get education, I think the more education we get the better. I think that the buyer must aware and I do believe that the person who is when you’re getting education you have to take everything, you know, logically. You have to listen, you have to research. you have to make sure, do I really need that? Because we all make compelling arguments for everything. Compelling argument that you need 3D imaging, compelling arguments that you need to do these things, and at the end of the day, needs to fit within your workflow. On a side note Gwen, I do want to say: That is great that you have an associate that is taking education, that is self investing in education, and I would take the opportunity to encourage her to continue to take education. On another note, it’s amazing how it’s very easy for Associates to say “I think we need to spend $30,000” when they’re not the one spending the money. Whether the number is $30,000, $300,000 whatever the thing is, it’s easy to say. But don’t discourage that, encourage education and courage free thinking, encourage all those things but, you know I believe that you have to attend some level of accountability on these things, and I would tell you that from sleep apnea, in my opinionl the only dollar amount you should ever spend in the Sleep world in my opinion, outside of education, is a home sleep test. I do firmly believe that a home sleep test has unbelievable value to have it internally within a practice. I don’t believe in outsourcing it even, I want to be able to spend some control it directly from my office, to help our patients get the diagnosis to facilitate getting the diagnosis to be able to do post-op testing, post appliance therapy. So I think there’s a lot of value in Home Sleep testing.
So Gwen, thank you very much for sending in the question, again I’m not against Sleep Group Solutions, they are a class organization, they have wonderful education, they are making a good job of educating dentist on sleep apnea, it’s an opportunity for us to learn at an inexpensive cost, but I do believe that you don’t need all that equipment to treat sleep apnea. Is it helpful? Sure. Is it necessary? No. So that’s my opinion, you asked the question I gave you the answer.
Thank you again everybody for listening to the #AskT-Bone segment, of T-Bone speaks!
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