The Psychology of Compliance with Dr. Barry Glaser

Randy Feldman

Dr. Barry Glaser is the CEO of Aligner Insider. He is an orthodontist, lecturer, podcaster, private practice owner, author and former associate director of orthodontics at Montefiore Medical Center. He is the owner of Glaser Orthodontics and currently practices in Cortlandt Manor, New York with over 70% of his patients in invisalign.

Dr. Glaser received a B.A. in Psychology from Binghamton University in 1984, and was awarded his Dental Degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1988. He completed a one-year hospital residency at Englewood Hospital in 1989, and went on to earn his Specialty Certification in Orthodontics from Boston University School of Graduate Dentistry in 1992.

Here's a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

How Dr. Barry Glaser has been handling the current health crisis and his concerns about going back to practice
How using dental monitoring has helped Dr. Barry's practice
Dr. Glaser explains what 'the psychology of compliance' means
Why people don't like being told what to do and why it’s important to understand patient needs
How Blair's experience with his financial planner helped him improve his practice and patient care
Tips on how to communicate well with patients and avoiding chances of them not being upfront with their condition
Why orthodontists tend to have great relationships with their patients
Dr. Glaser shares why loves to teach, he manages his different roles, and what can be learned from his book and his online course on invisalign
Why versatility is Dr. Glaser’s superpower and how the pandemic has made him realize the importance of work/life balance

In this episode...

Despite the fact that the current health crisis has affected many people all over the world, it is evident that not everyone has been following the guidelines prescribed for preventing infections. Things are starting to go back to normal in many places and many people have been non-compliant when it comes to wearing a mask.

The same case applies to patients who visit orthodontic practices. They may lie to their dental practitioners about complying with the care they need to do at home post-treatment, which poses a problem for the patients themselves and for their orthodontist. So how can orthodontists help such kinds of patients?

Dr. Barry Glaser joins Dr. Blair Feldman in this week's episode of the In Your Face Podcast to talk about the psychology of compliance. Dr. Glaser explains what the phrase means, how using dental monitoring has impacted his practice, his best strategies for communicating with patients to prevent them from lying, and how he manages his different roles. Stay tuned.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode...

This episode is brought to you by The Mouthguard Club and The Retainer Club. Both services help drive new patients, reactivations, and referrals to your orthodontic office. The Mouthguard club provides personalized custom mouthguards that are perfectly fitted to your teeth. You can fully customize the design and even put your team logo on it.

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Orthodontists love Retainer Club because they feel confident that the smiles they created are being maintained for life and that their long term fans continue to refer new patients to their offices. To learn more about becoming a Retainer Club partner and to bring in more patients go to https://retainerclub.com/partner.

Episode Transcript:

Intro 0:09

What happens when a successful entrepreneur who built a billion-dollar company and a veteran orthodontic specialist team up to share their stories of entrepreneurship and experiences and building a thriving business? You get the In Your Face Podcast, learn how to survive and thrive in today's ultra competitive market. Now, let's start the show.

Blair Feldman 0:39

Blair Feldman here, co-host of the In Your Face Podcast where we discuss stories of building a thriving business in today's competitive marketplace. I was a practicing orthodontist for over 20 years and now with my friend and business partner Craig Weiss, the former CEO of a company he scaled to over a billion dollar valuation, we help orthodontists grow their practices. Past guests include Dr. Donna Galante, Dr. Jonathan Nicozisis, Dr. Sam Daher, as well as the CEOs of EasyRX, Goby Toothbrush, and more. Today's episode is brought to you by Retainer Club, the easiest way for orthodontists to bring online services into their practice which has never been more important than now. Retainer Club provides your patients with perfectly fitting retainers at a great price or freeing up your valuable schedule from retainer appointments that take time up and annoy your patients. Retainer Club also sends a steady stream of new patients who are actively interested in getting treatment into your office. Over 1500 patients love Retainer Club and orthodontists have the confidence that the smiles they had created are being protected and maintained for life, for your schedule from retainer appointments and focus on profitable treatment while ensuring your patients have straight teeth for life. To learn more about becoming a provider, go to retainerclub.com/partner.

Today our guest is Dr. Barry Glaser. Dr. Glaser is an orthodontist lecture podcaster, private practice owner, author and former associate director of orthodontics at Montefiore Medical Center. He currently practices in Cortland Manor, New York with over 70% of his patients and Invisalign. You may have recently seen Dr. Glaser in recent webinars about the product Dental Monitoring, he brings his insight into the psychology of compliance and how artificial intelligence can improve the patient experience. You may also know Dr. Blaser from his innovative website, the aligner Insider, where you may know him from his one on one coaching at Your Ortho Coach. And he has a new online course the Insider's Guide for the advanced clear aligner practice, which I'm sure will be excellent. Dr. Glaser, welcome to the show.

Dr. Barry Glaser 2:32

Thanks for having me. It's kind of interesting to be on this end of the podcasts

Blair Feldman 2:37

this end, right. I mean, I I'm used to seeing you on the webinar side and I know you have a great podcast, which will certainly put a link to in our show notes. But just give us a little background here. I mean, obviously we're in crazy times. Tell us what's happening with your practice. Tell us how you're sort of handling this and your thoughts on on sort of the crisis itself and what it's what it's doing to orthodontics.

Dr. Barry Glaser 2:58

Yeah, it's definitely been crazy. In particular, Today is June 1, I think, is that right? up until today, I've been sort of like on the longest vacation, probably since high school. So 10 weeks off. I mean, I'm in Westchester County, New York. So we kind of went from mid March where it was, you know, pretty scary thing for a lot of folks and we closed our doors. And then kind of trying to figure out, I think, you know, for me, it was sort of like three different phases. There was like the immediate phase, then it was the phase of trying to do the best we could, you know, while we were closed, and now, we were, all of us in New York, were surprised because we're never in New York, the opening is supposed to happen in phases by region as certain metrics are hit, which I think makes sense. So in Westchester, we added phase one, we were expecting phase two to be June 9, and then lo and behold, we got the word yesterday from the New York State Dental Association that we're all dental practices in New York can reopen so so it was it was a busy day trying to get done. organized. So yeah, it's been, it's been an interesting, it's been an interesting road. What do

Blair Feldman 4:06

you mean? What do you feel like going back to practice is going to be like, What are you? What are you concerned about? What are your stresses right now?

Dr. Barry Glaser 4:13

So, I mean, the stresses, I think, are primarily both from the staff perspective, you know, keeping them protected and safe. And, you know, listen, I think, you know, as orthodontist, I think we're, we're pretty good at preventing disease transmission, but you're certainly dealing with their anxieties, and then dealing dealing with the patient's anxieties is number one. And number two is sort of dealing, I think my stress is also dealing with what I think is going to be this pent up demand. I mean, getting all these emails that everybody wants to be for the first patient back, you know, whether it's a retainer check, or whether it's someone who's been in fixed appliances and we haven't seen since since January. So you this, there's just a lot of juggling of a lot of things. It's all the physical stuff in the office, you know, the physical changes we had to each factor. consultant and today to try to get that all worked out English and everybody knows, I don't have to list all the things in detail. But these are the physical changes. There's all the communication that we're trying to do to our, to our patients to inform them. And then there's just all the you're trying to get p PE. So you know, it's been. It's been it's been stressful. Yeah, but but thank God, I've had that 10 weeks to sort of chill and relax, and

Blair Feldman 5:28

you'll never be so excited to do those same talks. You've done dozens of times before, hundreds of times before with your patients. it'll, it'll feel like you're doing it for the first time. I'm curious, and not to make a plug for Dental Monitoring by I recently saw you on one of the webinars. How do you think especially compared to your colleagues that you probably speak with around the country that might not use Dental Monitoring? How, how do you feel like that helped your practice during this time?

Dr. Barry Glaser 5:52

It's a great question. So let me start off by saying I'm looking like AOL for Dental Monitoring. I'm not being compensated for this conversation, but you know, as a case Well, which has become a dirty word, I suppose, you know, those that are listening should just should just know that. Having said that, you know, just like, you know, I'm not just I'm not just a spokesman, I'm also a client. And look, I've been using dm for about two years now. So and 80% right now of share of chair and design. So 80% of my patients have been on dm, they're accustomed to it. It's it's how their orthodontic treatment has been delivered. And for the vast majority of those patients over the last 10 weeks, it's been business as usual. Certainly, we have patients who are on hold because they need IPR, or we have patients that are on hold, because they've come to the end of a series of aligners and you know, they're waiting to either get the retainers or get refinements. But the vast majority of them have been communicating with my myself and my Dental Monitoring coordinator as needed. I need more elastics whatever it is, so they already have that pipeline. And that system that digital communication system has already been set up and they're trained on it. As for the 20% of my patients that are in fixed appliances, MDM was great, within about a week, we were able to pull those patients out of my practice management system and onboard them to something called photo monitoring light. So it's not the full suite of AI that you get within a monitoring, it's basically they could submit photos and we can communicate with them. But nevertheless, I can see those patients I can coach them on oral hygiene, you know, we can see if something's broken and so it's it's been a godsend, because I think there's been very little panic on my patients, you know, and this clamoring you know, I have a handful I suppose, that are clamoring to get back but most of them just it nothing's really changed. So I'm super happy that it's worth every penny. I think, you know, for the expense of the service.

Blair Feldman 7:49

What am I mean? I used to get asked by the residents a lot, you know, Oh, do I have to buy this stuff do I have to buy you know, this product and that product? Can I just do it on my own. I mean, I I would assume, you know, people could just be sending you in some sort of HIPAA compliant manner, their photos, what do you feel that that dm does better or differently that that adds more scalability to your practice?

Dr. Barry Glaser 8:13

So, listen, if you're just getting out of school, you know, if maybe for the if there's residents listening, you know, it's my advice. But before I answer that question, my advice to any resident is the first thing that they should do is they should set up good systems and stick to them. Because when you have 10 patients, you know, listen, we've all been there when you have 10 patients, you know, and well, you don't really have to be organized. You don't have to have those systems. And then all of a sudden, you hit this point, and you realize when you're stressed and there's chaos in the office, and you got to go back and recreate the wheel. So I think it's the same thing with dm, the entire process is set up the dashboard is set up, the onboarding system is set up. And then on top of it, you know, the AI is really amazing. So there are other systems out there where let's say patients maybe can upload photos, but but it's all manual and it's and i think it's it's finding If you've got 20 patients on it, but if you don't have a gigantic practice, but if you have a large practice and you've got 1000 patients that you need to manage, you can't do it as a one off, you have to have systems in place in order to flow that through so that you don't go crazy doing all this. And that's what the M gives gives you. A vast majority of the patients who do their weekly scans are fine, they get to go their aligners fit fine, they're tracking fine, quite frankly, you don't really have to micromanage those patients on a weekly basis, I don't even really look at them and my Dental Monitoring coordinator other than maybe just checking that off, doesn't really have to deal with those. So on on a weekly basis, you're maybe dealing with 10 or 15% of patients that are somehow off the rails needs something have a hygiene issue. So it really in an automated way, helps to keep you organized and helps to keep you focusing on the things that you need to look at and keeps you from not focusing on things that you don't need to look at and I think that's not So easy to do if basic patients or let's say zooming or using, like a doxy type of system or any other like sort of system where they're uploading pictures, and you've got to look at every one of those photos and figure out what you're going to do. So it's definitely

Blair Feldman 10:12

very user friendly. We mentioned in the bio, the psychology of compliance, what does that mean?

Dr. Barry Glaser 10:17

So look, we're in we're in the compliance business. And I think the interesting thing about compliance is if I asked most orthodontists to define compliance, they probably wouldn't even define it properly. And and I think, you know, for certainly, you know, an old fart like me, and it has been out of school for you know, since 1992. You know, the traditional method of orthodontic treatment is that it's not compliance, what we do typically is we're treat we're, we're trained to give patients direct orders. So unlike, let's say, a military system, you get an order from your superior officer and you're expected to follow it. That's not compliance, compliant, but the idea of compliance is that it's supposed to be a partnership, that that your patients are willfully performing. The acts that they're supposed to do for their own health care. And I think a lot of us forget that. And you know, and with all the pressures of practice and life and everything else, we can get into that finger wagging mode very, you know, shaming, the kids aren't brushing, you know, the routine. And listen, I'm guilty of it just as much as the next guy. But think about you, let's say you hired a personal trainer, and all that personal trainer did was browbeat you about, you know, the Twinkies that you ate and the exercise that you didn't do, personally, that guy wouldn't or woman wouldn't last long with me. So I think if we're looking at compliance, we have to think of it in a different way. And I think that the psychology is that we have to partner with our patients in a way to motivate them to do the things that we need them to do in a way that they understand that they're willing to do and that's a lot different than just basically compelling some somebody to do something

Blair Feldman 11:50

you find it makes sense well for all ages, or is it sort of age specific or technology specific?

Dr. Barry Glaser 11:57

So look, I think that there's different types of I mean, some of us are motivated by having our butts kicked. I mean, that's, I mean, maybe I'm one of those where I mean, we want that drill sergeant type personality. I do see trends. I think that let's say boomers maybe respond differently than millennials than then than Generation Z. Generation Z are. So I think that you do have to understand your patients. In general, you think that boomers would be maybe more, you know, tending to having, let's say, the drill sergeant technique, but but I don't find that I find like the opposite. You know, I, you know, when I was in high school, I took some saxophone lessons. And you might my music teacher would tell me to do something and they would do it. You know, so fast forward. Now. I'm in my 40s and 50s. I'm taking guitar lessons and I sit down with my guitar teacher. He's like, so did you practice? And I go, nope. Like, I'm not afraid of that anymore. So my motivation has to be different because I was afraid My music teacher back in high school, you and now, you know, at some point, you know, we all want to be told what, what, what to do. So I think that Yeah, there are different techniques and they do think that you have to understand your patients. Having said that, I think that the the drill sergeant approach, I think that's going out the window because I think it's ultimately leads to a bad review. It leads to unhappy patient. Listen, we've all had patients, let's get an Invisalign patient. An adult patient, bright, educated patient, clearly non compliant, you know, they walk in, you have nuts, not one, not one tooth not tracking, it's every tooth not tracking. And it's just obvious, you know that the patient really hasn't been compliant. yet. They'll sit there and they'll swear on a stack of Bibles, you know that they were 22 hours per day you kind of look at your staff and you're like, you don't know what to do with that patient. But go ahead and call the patient a liar. And then you know what happens? Then you get the I've never been spoken to like this before. You're so unprofessional. So there You have to think about compliance in a way of communication, that you have to deliver a message. And you have to you have to sort of elicit motivation and a response from your patient in a way that that speaks to them. And, you know, and then and I think that's the game. And that's the challenge. And that's changed to the point where you don't get a bad Yelp review, and you get straight teeth at the same time.

Blair Feldman 14:21

I mean, I think the technology is amazing. I had a cute story that happened in my office within a day of each other was to adult patients, both on Invisalign. One was a male, one was a female, and I decided I didn't do it on purpose, but I ended up doing this sort of experiment I said to the male, I said, You know, I noticed your teeth are tracking and we got to get you wearing this. We got to get the 20 to 22 hours a day. You know, tell me what do you prefer? I have this technology in my office. It was basically it was a an add on to Gmail where you could send automated emails. I said, I have this technology, my practice, tell me what flavor you like. Do you want the military like you mentioned you want me to like Beat the you know what out of you and just, you know, insult you until you're bad or do you want the soft like kind? Like you can do this, you know, we know you're, you're the right guy to do this. And he's like, No, no, I want that software and I if you make me if you yell at me, like, you know, it's not gonna work I said, Okay, good. So I actually recorded a little like video of his daughter saying you can do it. I was sending it to the same video to him every day. And he said at work, it was great. The next day this woman comes in. I should have known better I asked her the same question. What do you prefer? Which switch? Did you want the drill sergeant? Do you want the soft guy and he goes on and you have to insult me? You have to tell me I'm doing worse than my friends. You have to tell me you know that, that I'm the worst and you've never seen so bad. I was like, Really? That's, that's gonna work for you. And she goes, Oh, yeah, it's the only thing that works for me. I was like, Alright, here we go. You know, it worked on both ways. The one thing I mean, I think, I love that the idea of the Dental Monitoring the technology, I think it really seems and I've done some demos and I think it really seems like an unbelievable product and for the people that are using it like you that had it built into your practice. You You guys really just did well during this and your patients did really well, because of it. But the thing that I think I'm curious, I want to see where I could add is is, is that sort of that that ad you know, what do you prefer? Do you want more reminders, less reminders softer, harder, you know, what works for you? Because, you know, I've never heard the term the psychology of compliance, but, but it means a lot to me in terms of I agree. I mean, we're cheerleaders, basically. And I always tell people that were but in design, I am a cheerleader. You know, I have to tell them like, you're doing great. This is great. Keep it up, or, huh, we got it. We got to get a better cheer. We got to come up with the perfect cheer to keep you wearing those in designs, we can get you out of treatment someday.

Dr. Barry Glaser 16:39

So yeah, I mean, the basic concept of psychology is that people do not like to be told what to do. I mean, you know, look at this whole, you know, anti masking nonsense. You know, I'm watching watching this one of the nice things about being locked down is you can watch a lot of TV I actually watched all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, which was incredible. And that never watched before but a great miniseries Band of Brothers. Have you seen that? So well done. But you know, you see you look at the Band of Brothers and this is about you know the hundred and first Airborne Division not division, you know what I mean hundred first airborne in World War Two these guys were dropped, perished dropped into Normandy and that just the hell that they went through. So you think about a time where you were forced to you were drafted, you were forced to go into the military to defend your country to go off somewhere and to probably die. And now you have people running around complaining about their liberty and listen, I certainly you know, I believe in the constitutional that but they're complaining about how their liberty is taking being taken away, because they're asked to wear a darn mask. And I just think about, you know, I don't even know how I got on this topic. But

Blair Feldman 17:46

I was like, what the psychology of complaints being told not Oh, you're being told what to do.

Dr. Barry Glaser 17:48

Yeah. And I think that it's, it's, I mean, I think people understand that germs cause disease and it's probably a good idea to wear a mask, but that's not the point. The point They don't want to be told to wear the mask. Yeah. You know, and even and even to the extent that it's going to be at the detriment, you're possibly of their own health. Yeah. So, but so you have to realize that that's to some degree normal. Yeah. And I think that's if we understand that that type of behavior is normal that people do tend to sort of, let's say, recoil from, you know, being told what to do it first of all, maybe it's less frustrating for a doctor on a day to day basis because you're I don't know about you, but you know, the things that come into the category of the things that make me want to retire are typically not the you know, the upside down canine then have to figure out how to get in. I mean, I mean, for the most part, the clinical stuff you get good at after a while and you enjoy the challenge. It's the quote unquote, other stuff. It's the miscommunications with patients and staff and the frustrations. So I think that the more we can sort of understand basic psychology, the more we realize that the things that people do or normal, for example, let's look at medicine. So of all the things prescriptions that are written only about 75% are ever filled. So you go to a doctor, you trust the doctor's judgment, they recommend some kind of medication. So only three quarters of the prescriptions are ever filled this this financial reasons. There's lots of reasons, obviously, but let's just talk about compliance. Then when it comes to refills, only about 35% of prescriptions are refilled. So think about that. It's bad for pharmaceutical companies. It's bad for pharmacies, but it's also bad for the patients because the doctors are recommending things that hopefully won't make patients feel better. So there are there's a company called RX EOB. And what they do is they basically send out automated messages, text message reminders to patients, and they did a pilot study and within the pilot study within a short period of time, they were able to double the rate of compliance with for taking medication. So certainly, pharmaceutical companies are happy, you know, they're selling more pills. For better or worse. The pharmacies are happy but also the patients are now doing you know, following doctor's orders. So Non compliance, whether it's not following that diet and exercise regimen that your physician gave you or you know, anything like that weightwatchers non compliance is normal. So Weight Watchers have studios for a reason. They have studios because they provide support. You can go and you could speak with the counselor and get, you know, support sort of like an A type of thing. But they also make you step on the scale once a week. Yeah. And that, you know, objective assessment. I always say, you know, if you know, you're stepping on the scale on Friday, maybe you skip the Twinkies on on Wednesday. But they do it because it works and because patient clients are paying the money and they want their clients to be successful. Yeah. So yet in orthodontists in orthodontics, I think for that for a large part. There's still a lot of doctors out there that just say to kids, you gotta brush your teeth better, and then are frustrated year after year after year, when they when the levels of hygiene don't get any better. So I think that if you understand how people think and how they're motivated, I think you can have better outcomes for your Patience, and also maybe that maybe they have a lot more hair on my head if I had done it earlier,

Blair Feldman 21:04

I haven't figured out how to do that yet for myself, you mentioned something when you went to the gym and asked or the guitar, you know, and asked if you practice you said, No, I had a similar experience at a financial planner. And it was their answer that to me, that really meant a lot to me that actually, I felt like I brought back to my practice, they asked, you know, okay, so it's been a year since we saw you, we gave you you know, you're supposed to put this money in here and this money in here and save this, this percentage and how did it go? We're like, horrible. We didn't do any of it. You know, we just did a really bad job. And he goes, No problem at all, no problem. We'll just redo the numbers and start from here. And so it was at that moment that I went back to the practice setting was on, you know, Monday, and I said, you know, what, when when I just want the honest answer, I want I want it I want to make sure I asked my question in a way that a patient will feel safe to give me the honest answer, so that I can properly motivate them towards compliance in the way that they best need it. So you know, if they say like, I just didn't, and we started out You know, making sure we asked, you know, questions that were a little more open ended, like, you know, you bring it in more than 20 hours a day, you know, yes. Great. You know, are you married more than 10 hours a day? Great, you know, we gotta get your closer to 20. But if they said, No, the answer was no problem. We're gonna just start from here, and sort of pointing out like, you know, also the, you know, the overbite is getting corrected. But that's, you know, that because you're not wearing the rubber bands. So, you know, same way my financial plan wasn't improving, because it wasn't putting the money away. So I felt like that answer, you know, that that that line of questioning really changed. You know, my thoughts on on that. I'm curious.

Dr. Barry Glaser 22:33

It's sort of one more second. Sure. great insight. It's it. And I think it's actually it's an insight that it's very, very enlightening. And what I think one of the great phrases so for your listeners, here's maybe a tip before you start accusing a patient, head before you accuse me take a look at yourself. And I think a great Oh, exactly. Look at the picture of her clapping right now. A great question. Patience before you get into any of that is simply this is everything okay? So I don't know if you've ever done this, you ever, you know, patient comes in you like, you know, you're terrible Invisalign where and they say, Well, you know, you know my husband just passed away or or I'm going through chemotherapy and you feel like an idiot because we're so focused in on, you know what we what we want to get done that sometimes we forget that there's a person attached to the teeth. So I think if you say something like Is everything okay? I think it's such a nice way. And like you say like if a patient says, you know, here's here's a good example let's say a patient's had a bunch of no goes in a row with Dental Monitoring. So if the software detects what's called an unseat the software automatically text detects teeth that are non tracking, and it'll automatically tell the patient stay on the current aligner. Use choose don't don't go forward until you're ready. You sometimes patients will come in and I'll say hey, I noticed you got a bunch of logos in a row and they're like Oh, you know what? I was, I was on vacation for two weeks, I was drinking margaritas all day long. And I always say the same thing. I'm like, thank you. Thank you for your honesty, because we're all normal. And I can deal with that, as opposed to, let's say the patient who just swears that they're wearing it all the time. So I agree that if we can kind of if patients can trust us, and to know that we're not going to judge their responses, it's going to listen, nothing's ever perfect, but I think it's going to reduce the chances that they lie to you. And it's going to maybe help to open up some honest answers. And now you can work with that person and have a dialogue. So I think that insight is is really right on the right on the money.

Blair Feldman 24:35

Yeah, no, I, you got I'm sure your patients I can tell you your patients are very lucky to have you because I can tell from the warmth, the way you communicate. And the way you ask the questions.

Dr. Barry Glaser 24:44

They'll tell that day. Yes, my wife and kids. Now you

Blair Feldman 24:47

know what I mean? I think it's, there's there's so much subtlety, and we could talk about this for a long time. But you know, I always tell my staff and I'm guessing from what I hear from you, you probably do too, that the relationship that we have with our patients by far Some of the most positive relationships they'll have with a health care provider. But more than that, it might be the best relationships they have with anybody or any adult if their children. So, you know, I hate to get to two to come by. But you know, when it comes to orthodontics, I mean, I the better practice, the ones are changing more than just the physical smiles, you know, they're really, they're, they're getting something a little, a little pat behind the heart and something much more warm and, and talking to someone like that and letting them be honest, you know, is is bigger than helping them with a rubber bands. It's helping you bet you know, every now and then a patient will come back and I find that they're in dental school. And you'll say oh, well, you know, it was you know, and it was because of the experience that they had with me and my staff. And yeah, it's one of those things that always feels good. So, you know, I listed at the beginning, all these things you're involved with. I'm curious of all the things you know, authoring, teaching, lecturing, being part of this. There's different websites that you started in the coaching. What's your Your favorite What do you like the most? How do you break up your week? I mean, how do you do it?

Dr. Barry Glaser 26:04

I mean, honestly, my I mean, it's not that I don't love my practice but if you ask me the number one thing they have passion for I love to teach. So, you know, the gigs that I've had, you know, speaking for line and dm are super gratifying in so many different ways. I mean, financially to me, and I don't think there's a shame I mean, I worked my tail off him and I you know, how many hundreds of thousands of miles I fly every year so I feel like I've earned it but I definitely love to teach you know, and whether it's you know, on stage or whether it's remotely through you know, Willie's you know, Your Ortho Coach, and always the most, most fun so how do I do it? So, I was given a book A long time ago, that I quote all the time and that book is The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Now, I remember when I read it, I thought to myself, this does not apply to ortho because at that point, it's probably I forget when it was written, maybe 2005, something like that. I don't care. I remember when I read it, but somewhere between 2005 and 2010. So I'm thinking so you can't apply a four hour workweek philosophy when you got to go into physically, you're working out a lot, you're tightening braces and doing all those adjustments, you know, but over time, you know, with with, with Invisalign, and all the digital workflows, it has definitely helped to give me more time to do some of these other things, you know, that I'm passionate about. So I went from a four and a half day a week office to a three day a week office, which will probably actually be reduced more because we still haven't done the appointment on demand thing. I don't know if you're familiar with that. But you know, the Terry sulky kind of came in so I'm grant Duncan, you know, in Australia. So which we are going to do now which essentially is you know, with our clear aligner patients, basically only seeing them when we need to, in the office, you know, seeing them virtually weekly through through the seeing them when they when they're when a new requirement or when they're off track or when they need attachment or IPR. So with that efficient See, it's definitely given me more free time. So I suppose if I didn't like teaching, maybe I could have done a satellite office, but it's definitely given me more time to either during normal times, get on a plane Thursday afternoon, fly somewhere and maybe lecture on Friday and be home Saturday, or, you know, do some of these other things. So it's, it's been kind of a neat balance where I feel like I've got these two separate careers. But, you know, don't feel sometimes they feel overstressed, I suppose. But if I feel like I've got a decent work, work life balance, regardless of whether I've got the book and the website and all the other things, too, so i think i think it's a matter of being efficient. I saw something on Facebook and you know, a lot of doctors still just someone made the comment on one of the Facebook page, you know, orthodontic groups that, you know, you're never gonna make up that you know, 1895 or 1869 lab feet with Invisalign. And again, I'm a co l so you can take this with a grain of salt but I mean, if you can, if you can grow your practice, so my practice gross revenue is growing. gone up about 30% in the last 10 years, but I have reduced my staff overhead I'm, you know, only working three days a week. So I've cut down the number of days per week. And so yeah, my lab bill is is big, but it's not the only part of the balance sheet. I mean, if I can reduce staff overhead and other costs, I mean now obviously, I'm shuffling expenses from one column to another. But that efficiency if you really do it and if you take it to the nth degree with Dental Monitoring, you can be efficient in your practice to the point where it either leaves room for more patients you know, if you're, you know, if you go if you're on the treadmill, or a second or third location, so I do think that using digital technology and that four hour work week philosophy has definitely you know, given me the time to do you know, all these other things at the same time.

Blair Feldman 29:48

Yeah, I was a big fan when the four hour workweek came out. I will give a warning to anybody that hasn't read it did decides to pick it up maybe because of this podcast. You know, take it with a grain of salt because I think it make you think that everybody could be the next Tim Ferriss and you can drop your job and move to Paraguay and pick up you know, dancing or dance fighting or something like that. But yeah, but he's an amazing guy. I'm curious Did you did you listen to the four hour read The 4-Hour Body also have you deployed that one yet?

Dr. Barry Glaser 30:15

Cuz I cuz I knew there was no way it was. It was never gonna happen. Unless The 4-Hour Body is like looking like Buddha, then maybe even

Blair Feldman 30:25

A crummy diet that I have

Dr. Barry Glaser 30:26

Dirty Harry said a man's got to know his limitations.

Blair Feldman 30:30

Tell us about the online course. And and when's it coming out? And what's involved with it?

Dr. Barry Glaser 30:35

Yeah, so I wrote a book a couple of years ago. One of the nice things about you know, stuck getting stuck in the Delta sky Lounge is that it gives you plenty of time to write a book. So I wrote this book two years ago, the Insider's Guide to Invisalign treatment, which actually went on to be the best seller which my mom is very proud, very proud of. So I've been getting a lot of requests from folks. It's kind of more of an introductory. I mean, you know, it's fourth and on it's more sort of a basic principles kind of kind of book about Invisalign. So I've been getting a lot of questions about doing something more advanced. So it turns out that for the last couple of years, I've been doing an in house course with a brilliant orthodontists, Gary Brigham. And if you know Gary, Gary, he's

Blair Feldman 31:15

right down the street. We love Gary.

Dr. Barry Glaser 31:17

Oh, okay. Yeah, I have to tell you, I someday I'd like to retire to Scottsdale. I've got Gary there. I've got some friends up in Cave Creek. It's just one of my favorite places in the world. So Gary and I have been doing these in house courses. And I've learned so much from Gary. I mean, he's, you know, he's like a Roth orthodontist, and he does it the right way. So we've been doing these in house courses, and we've had doctors come back two three times, you have to take the course over and over again. And but at some point, you realize that that's not scalable, that there's only a certain number of doctors we can fit in his in his office physically. So we decided to maybe instead of writing an advanced book, your follow up to the Insider's Guide to Invisalign treatment, we decided to do it as an online Caught course. And certainly my inspiration is from Jonathan. And because he says and mas machinery and what they're doing, so it's in development. We've had a lot of free time over the shutdown. We're hoping to this will release sometime in the summer but it's called the Insiders Guide to the advanced clear aligner practice and it's going to go through more advanced techniques. It'll be an entirely online course 12 weeks. Some of the actually modules that Gary is going to be doing, I think are really exciting in particularly is one called cosmetic dentistry for the orthodontist. And you know, I know that a lot of Worthen honest have you know, certainly their their feelings about let's say GPS, you're doing Invisalign treatment, and it is what it is, for better or worse. It is what it is. I mean, GPS are licensed to do orthodontics, I mean, so we'll just leave it at that. But having said that, I'm a dentist. So you know, is there anything to say that I can't be doing some cosmetic procedures and Gary does a lot of that he calls it add, subtract, and I can't remember what to call it, but it's either reshaping are adding on. And I think that I think a lot of us, you'll get that nice smile, but don't really look at the teeth. And you look at the shape of the teeth, look at the color of the teeth look look. And and I think there's a lot that can be done there. So I'm really excited for that module because it's going to be a whole step by step. You know, when was the last time you did a composite? I mean, I don't know about you, but you know, yeah, exactly. But I wouldn't even know you know what materials, go through the materials, you know how to use them. And in a step by step way, and not to say that we I don't partner with really good GPS. And I thankfully, I've got some really good GPS in my area that are phenomenal. And, you know, do a lot, you know, these things far better than I could. But there are times where patients either don't have a dentist or let's say, you referred the patient sometimes back for let's say, an incisal edge chip and they come back and say, Oh, the dentist just said that's gonna fall off. So you know, those are there's situations where I think I want to give it a shot. So in addition to all the advanced clear aligner stuff like me And InDesign first and stuff that didn't address in the book, we're also going to go over things like that white next summer. So when to expect the course to come out? So I think we'll have it, we'll probably have it released sometime, either in the late summer or early fall. I think right now people are busy. But we'll probably and if people want to get more information if they join my facebook group, which is AlignerInsider Clinical Chat, that's a closed group. Obviously, there'll be more information about that. But hopefully, you know, July or August is probably what we're looking for right now for lunch on that.

Blair Feldman 34:33

Great, I'm looking forward to seeing that we'll definitely put a link to the Facebook group. So at this point, we'll move into our short answer questions we affectionately called the lightning round. First question is, what would you consider to be your business superpower? What makes you different than everybody else? Oh, holy cow. I always consider this funny. I have to

Dr. Barry Glaser 34:51

say that that's a tough lightning round because I always kind of consider myself a jack of all trades, master of none. So I have to say that it's versatility, man.

Blair Feldman 35:00

I like it. I love it. I would agree. Yeah, that makes total sense. It's funny, we asked that question and as you know, we didn't prep you for that. But everyone we've asked has a especially people that I know or I know of through their relationship, they seem to always come up with the perfect answer. I'm sort of jealous that everyone seems to know the perfect answer for themselves. And try to remember what Jonathan Nick Aziza said. Confidence he said confidence. I loved that answer for Jonathan and if you No no, Yeah, you bet Absolutely. You That is his superpower. What if you're given a book or you a listen audible person or do you pick up the paper and read?

Dr. Barry Glaser 35:35

Now I old school? I yeah, yeah. Although I have to

Blair Feldman 35:38

say I did listen early one, right. We're not right. My partner and I always choose audible but yeah, good for you.

Dr. Barry Glaser 35:43

You know, it's funny, I only maybe it's also because I only have like a three quarter of a mile commute to the office. So I don't have that like hard time where I can, you know, listen to a book. Although I did, my son did just get me to listen to Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, or Tipping Point. I did listen to that an audiobook and that was that that's another game changer that book in a podcast, it really is. So,

Blair Feldman 36:05

but no, I still like to pick up a book and read it. Good for you. What are you looking forward to personally or professionally in the near future?

Dr. Barry Glaser 36:14

I'm not gonna lie. Now, I what we've been going through is horrible, you know, as far as the pandemic and you know, and the illness and I don't want I don't wish on anybody. But I gotta tell you, I am more chill now than I've been in a long time and they sort of really enjoyed the free time and they kind of I didn't realize how stressed and uptight I was until I had a chance to kind of decompress a little bit. So I think that I'm looking forward to maybe trying to rebalance that work life balance a little bit more towards towards leisure time and not ready to retire but by all means, but

Blair Feldman 36:46

definitely calling it around here. We've been calling it the great recalibration. You know, I think whether it's, you know, my kids who didn't go to this overnight camps, they got into it for a bunch of years. I think they're thinking about doing something else next year, or me personally with exactly what used to Getting some time off and thinking about career. I think there's a lot of areas where people are gonna think a little differently and they've had a chance to kind of taste something they haven't had. And you know, like you said, like, I haven't had a vacation since longer than a week since I went to college.

Dr. Barry Glaser 37:14

But yeah, don't you think that like, Oh, I couldn't even I couldn't possibly leave the practice for more than a week.

Blair Feldman 37:20

That's fine. All right. Well, no, I never did. I never did. Yeah, it took this to really look at it. So I think it's gonna be interesting how people come out of this and what kind of, you know, recalibrations? They do. So I think that's a, that's a nice thing to to look forward to some change. But Dr. Glaser, I want to say, thank you very much for being on the podcast. We really enjoyed having you on. We'll certainly put links to all the things we mentioned in the show notes, but is there any other way to get ahold of you for listeners that want to get a hold of you?

Dr. Barry Glaser 37:47

So a couple of ways. So again, the Facebook group is probably the easiest if you're a Facebook ER and that again is aligner insider clinical chat. You can also get in touch with me at glaserortho@gmail.com. But generally like if you have like a real if you have a question, let's say a clinical question or a practice management question, I encourage people to post it on the Facebook group, because if it's something that you have going on, a lot of people could learn from it too. So that those are probably the two best ways.

Blair Feldman 38:19

That's terrific. Thanks so much for sharing and thanks for being on and we look forward to hearing more from you soon. It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thanks so much.

Outro 38:36

Thanks for listening to the In Your Face Podcast with your hosts Craig Weiss and Blair Feldman. Be sure to click subscribe, check us out on the web, and we'll see you next time.

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