Hi Ray,

Happy New Year.

Good to see you again on the message boards.

Great info, as always, thanks!

Your review of recent laser company developments echoes what I have been saying for some years now–that SIZE and STOCK PRICE of a company has absolutely NO relationship to the company’s longevity in the medical or dental laser marketplace.

Longevity has more to do with the commitment of the Board of Directors to the science, technology, clinical applications, and TRAINING than any statement in the company’s SEC 10(k) filings, or advertisements claiming to be #1 in ANYTHING else.

High flying and publicly traded companies–like ADT 10 years ago–have as their first commitment the ROI to the shareholders, not the customer dentists or patients.  Oh sure, they can say that customer service is necessary for their success, but that is often a means to a “liquidity event” and “exit strategy”, NOT the company mission in-and-of-itself.

It was always very frustrating to watch ADT management refuse the many suggestions and much advice we gave as their product users and trainers, and continue on a self-destructive pathway, while the company executives and stock underwriters we spoke with said–“but we must be doing it right, look at our latest quarterly sales and stock price….”  “Management is so smart, look at their sales, look at their stock price, look at the number of attendees at the study club meetings……”  “Who do you think you are, and what do you know….your just dentists.”  OK, sure.  Uh Huh….Bu Bye ADT……Bu Bye Premier…..

Guess who’s flying high now, and hasn’t shown ANY indication they have learned the lessons of ADT  or Premier Laser?   The arrogance, ruthlessness, exclusion, over-statements, hype over substance, false science, tactics, strategy, etc., are all the same–only worse–and on a smaller World-Wide scale.  ADT had a much bigger reach in Europe, Japan, Australia as well as the US.

Like I have said for years, “When all the company’s executives, shareholders, underwriters, and private placement investors have taken their profits (or losses) and gone on to other things, us dentists who use the technology will still be using lasers (if we have made provisions) long after they are gone.”

There’s no guarantee that Millennium Dental will be around either, but I’ll still be using my digital PerioLase laser to treat my patients decades from now.  What will the executives of publicly traded companies be doing months, let alone decades from now??  Where will the customers be?  Can you say Premier Laser??

The effects of the next dental laser company fall-out will be painful indeed–and set laser dentistry back as much as another decade…..:(

Bob

P.S.  How was your Y-Beam visit?  I never got a follow-up invitation from Yossi.

Thanks Ray–

I didn’t mean my comment to suggest optimism at all.  This industry is in a very precarious state right now–as it has been since Pfizer, ADL, Premier, HGM all made a lot of noise in the early 1990’s.

That’s not what I said.  I have never said that there are ALWAYS spectacular crashes after take offs.  What I said is there will be short term profits for high flying acts (like Premier and ADT) who fail to learn the lessons of the past.  But this industry needs people like me around who REMEMBER what actually happened, what was done, who did it, who got hurt and WHY.

Premier was around since they were once called Pfizer Laser–and that was 1984.  In May of 1997, Premier had the very first Erbium Yag laser hard tissue clearance from the FDA.  They were the DARLINGS of every media outlet and Wall Street and had the dental world at their feet.  But they too made horrific mistakes at the CREDIBILITY & INTEGRITY level.  

You’ll have to convince me some more that they weren’t High Flyers though in the sense they had EVERY opportunity to “do it right” and BLEW IT big time going bankrupt in 1999 after 15 years in business both in medical and dental laser systems.

Designs on Derm??  Ha!!

I’m a dentist, not a derm guy.  But that’s how laser engineers and manufacturers feel–very guarded, easily threatened, very suspicious, not cooperative.  I could care less about the derm market.  I probably have some ideas he could use and vice versa to help the other.  But again, that’s the problem with this industry–no one collaborates for the benefit of the ENTIRE market.  It’s only about getting one’s share of the pie at the expense of the other guy–and at the expense of the entire potentiality of the marketplace…….

I Like Yossi, he just needs to loosen up a bit…..for some people, it’s not all about the money!

Bob

Ray–

I LOVE it when you talk blunt like that!!

The managerial ineptitude of Premier and ADT still does not change the basis of my assertion, that is, these companies have had the opportunity to do things in a way that was win-win-win for the company, investor, and customer.  They chose….unwisely.  Let’s hope those companies today choose more wisely.

So tell me Ray, where is the chief scientific talent for Biolase from?  Dmitri Boutoussov, PhD?  I’m not trying to get you annoyed Ray, but I want to challenge some of the assumptions and assertions you are making.  I’m trying to show you examples of things that support my assertion that the more things change in laser dentistry, the more the remain the same as 13 years ago.

I would caution everyone not to be too impressed with the symposium attendance.  I remember the early days of excitement and attendance with ADL/ADT.  The meetings were large and impressive.  Looks can be deceiving, especially when the symposiums are positioned as a means to generate additional sales.

Having given that sober caveat, I hope it went well for all attendees,  presenters, and interested parties.

I’m not negative on these meetings, I’m trying to temper the excitement about them from the perspective of someone who was around for the first wave of laser exuberance and saw how it eventually shaped up.

Biolase and ConBio are advancing laser hard tissue technology and clinical applications in 2003 like ADL/ADT was advancing laser soft tissue technology and clinical applications in 1990.  The industry for laser soft tissue technology, clinical studies, clinical refinements, and organizations have had 13 years to develop and “mature”.  Laser hard tissue technology, science, and clinical usage has a ways to go to be where laser soft tissue technology, science, and clinical usage is today.  I plan to be there when it is more fully developed.  I’ve had my fill of laying the ground work in basic science, clinical applications, laser technology in the soft tissue arena.  I’m gonna let someone else develop the laser hard tissue stuff!

What, you say?!  Colette is trying to get back into dental?  She had some SEC trouble at the last company in medical she was recently at.  Oh well, there are other CEOs out there to be just as weary about……

Bob