Making NFL-Quality mouth guards for your local high school football team is an outstanding marketing/community service project. Gary was taught how to make these mouth guards by Dr. Derric DesMarteau, the late Team Dentist for the NFL Oakland Raiders and the NBA Golden State Warriors. Sadly, Derric passed away from prostrate cancer a couple of years ago and hopefully this Show will serve as a lasting legacy of Derric’s lifetime commitment to dentistry and to helping his colleagues.
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Running Time: 43:36 minIn this show, Gary discussed how to use ethylene vinyl acetate material to make a two-layer, laminated mouth guard that is thick enough to provide appropriate protection yet not so thick to be uncomfortable. Gary also discusses how to organize the process of making these mouth guards in an efficient manner with little disruption to your practice. This mouth guard project has proven to be an excellent marketing project for Gary’s practice (LifeSmiles Dental Care) and for his clients as well.
Source for the Thermopressure machine:
Erkodent (Erkoform 3-D Vacuum Unit) www.glidewelldirect.com/erkodent-thermoforming-equipment.aspx
‘A Technique for Fabricating Modern Athletic Mouth Guards’ CDA Journal article written by Dr. Ray Padilla
www.essix.com/orstore/downloads/mouthguardfabrication.pdf
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Gary Takacs
Gary became a successful practice owner by purchasing a fixer-upper practice and developing it into a world-class dental practice. He is passionate about sharing his hard-earned insights and experiences with dental practices across the globe. As a dental practice coach, Gary provides guidance for dental professionals on how to create a healthier practice style that lets them deliver excellent patient care while reducing depending on insurance.
More importantly, Gary’s insights are not just based on theory – as a co-owner of a dental practice, he has first-hand experience in making this transformation from a high-volume and low-fee insurance model to a fee-for-service approach that is more sustainable and promotes a patient-centric and financially healthy dental practice, and he is dedicated to sharing this knowledge with other dental practitioners via the popular Thriving Dentist Show!