Continuing the Legacy
Continuing the Legacy
Paul Herrmann, CDT, is the general manager of East Tennessee Dental Restorations, LLC, in Kingsport, Tenn. The crown and bridge and ceramics laboratory has 13 employees, about 40 local and regional dentist clients and annual revenues of about $1 million. Herrmann says the laboratory’s good, consistent balance of quality and service is its highpoint.
JDT: How do you balance the desire to get the latest products and equipment with the other needs of the laboratory?
PH: The first thing we do is we analyze our need keeping in mind that these new items, new toys, that have come and gone in the past. Then we take a long, and I emphasize long, hard look at new products. We communicate with other laboratories that may have already taken the plunge and get feedback from them. Generally, we’ll even pursue a test period for a new piece of equipment. Compiling all that information is how we make our decision.
JDT: What is the biggest issue facing the dental laboratory industry right now and how should it be addressed?
PH: I think there are a lot of issues facing the dental laboratory industry that are important. To me, the biggest problem is – you’ve head the old cliché, I’ve seen the enemy and the enemy is us – to me that’s our biggest problem.
JDT: What do you mean by that?
PH: I mean, I’m going to try to say this without stepping on anybody’s toes, but having been in this business, this field, for going on 35 years. I know some laboratories that are getting the same price per unit as my father was getting in the 1970s. And that, along with the outsourcing due to cheap labor in other countries, is holding us back. That, to me, is a huge problem. I think we should be constantly striving for higher quality and higher prices. I’m not trying to rob anybody. I’m not trying to be greedy. But if you took the prices my father and grandfather used to get in the mid to late 60s and early to mid 70s and applied inflation to it I think most laboratories – good quality production laboratories – should be getting about 75 percent more than what they are getting. If you factor in everything, inflation, cost of labor, cost of materials – this just holds the industry back and it holds technicians back too. It creates a problem for schools that we’re losing because who wants to go into a field where you have to put in a couple of decades to make some serious money. The other problem I see with this industry, and I know it’s not just this industry, I think people need to search their hearts for the old American customer service and quality-minded people doesn’t exist as much as it used to. I think more technicians need to search their souls and realize that their restoration is part of a person’s mouth. How much it means to that person and then give 110 percent. I think those two problems are the biggest headaches.
JDT: So how do you address them?
PH: You have to change people’s hearts and minds. It’s nothing you can legislate, you can’t force anybody – you have to have conversations with people about why they don’t want to do better. Why don’t they want to perform better? Why don’t they want to be the best they can be? It’s a tough task and it can be like beating your head up against a wall. There are plenty of labs out there who just want to get it out the door and they don’t seem to understand that it costs more to do it twice than to do it right the first time.
JDT: What has been your proudest moment as part of the dental technology industry?
PH: Gosh, I don’t know if there has been a proudest moment. But I am very proud of the fact that I am trying to carry on the legacy that my grandfather and father made. Believe me that’s a tough act to follow. They were well known for their expertise. So it’s not a moment, but the fact that I am following in their footsteps makes me very proud.
JDT: Why did you choose to work in the dental technology industry was it the influence of your father and grandfather?
PH: Yes.
JDT: What is the best advice you’ve received about succeeding in this industry?
PH: Never worry about your competitor, take care of yourself and everything else will work out.
JDT: Who gave you that advice?
PH: My father.
JDT: What’s the thinking behind that advice?
PH: Well, he felt like – well it’s just pretty self-explanatory I think. If you do the best you can do, be the best you can be no matter what you do – that covers everything … he felt if you take care of yourself everything will fall into place. Let your customer make mistakes. To me business is just like sports, most sports teams lose because they beat themselves. The teams that don’t worry about other teams but run their game plan to the best of their abilities and stand true to their principals and their foundation are the ones that succeed.
JDT: What advice would you give to someone about to embark on a career in dental technology?
PH: Stand true to your principals and give it everything you’ve got.
JDT: What is the most rewarding part of being a dental technician (or in the dental industry)?
PH: Being allowed to be creative and enjoying the art side. Seeing a restoration in the mouth and not knowing which one it is unless you’ve been told ahead of time.
JDT: What is the biggest motivating factor driving you to succeed?
PH: Well, I think it was genetically put in place. … I think your born with it. You can learn it but I think (my father and grandfather) pretty much instilled it.
JDT: How many years have you been in the field of dental technology?
PH: Thirty-four.
JDT: Your father and grandfather have passed away, is there anyone else in your family who is in the field?
PH: My uncle was also in the field with my father and grandfather. I have a sister who owns a lab, her name is Betsy Offill, CDT, she owns B&G Dental Lab in Arlington (Texas).
JDT: When you are not working, what do you do?
PH: Farm and spend time with my wife.
JDT: Now there’s a lot of farmers’ wives who would say those two are mutually exclusive.
PH: I mostly spend time with my wife, Donna. She’s the girl I wanted to marry out of high school, but I didn’t have the courage to ask her out. It took me 30-some years to ask her out – thank God she never married. I’m trying to make up for a lot of lost time so that’s what I do with my time.
JDT: If you were not a dental technician (or in dental technology), what profession do you see yourself in?
PH: Probably in meteorology as a storm chaser. I love storms. I’m a tornado buff.
JDT: Would you choose the career of dental technology again?
PH: That’s tough. Yeah I would because it’s been good to me, but there are times when I curse my father and grandfather because of all the headaches labs in general and lab technicians still have that they had back then. The problems are still the same. That is very frustrating.
JDT: What is the most difficult aspect of being a dental technician?
PH: The most difficult is trying to get a dentist client to see the lab’s perspective from the lab guy’s eyes.
JDT: Do you have any tricks for that?
PH: Just communication and to stand firm on what you know will work and what you know won’t work.
JDT: What contributing factors have helped you grow as a technician?
PH: The influence of my father and grandfather. Knowing how successful they were and how good they were at what they did, knowing I had that legacy to live up to that has helped drive me. As a matter of fact, I keep a picture of them above my bench at all times, just as a reminder that they are watching.
JDT: In 10 years, in what area do you think the most significant changes in dental technology will take place?
PH: In computer technology. I think the new generation, like the Cerec In Lab, is real promising.
JDT: Some technicians are worried about the CAD/CAM systems taking work away.
PH: It takes somebody to work them. You have to have computer knowledge and if you have it that’s one more feather in your cap. … There will always be a need for a dental technician. If you are striving to be the best you can be there will always be a need for an artist regardless of whether you use the CAD/CAM system or not.
