By: Dr. Derek Bock

Like most 16 year olds, I remember dreaming of getting my ‘license to drive’ and decorated my room with numerous posters of high priced Italian sports cars. I’d dream of the day I would be banging through gears and cruising around town. Then came reality, I was a broke 16 year old kid that couldn’t even drive stick. How was I going to make my dream an eventual reality? For starters, I took drivers-ed and learned to drive what I could afford; a 1982 Dodge Omni… baby blue!!

The same delusional thinking happens in Orthodontics, I see it every day on my group Pragmatic Orthodontic Clinical Discussions – young and Seasoned doctors alike dream about “cruising the highway of technology and premium orthodontic products” towards a utopia of increased efficiency, profit, results and practice differentiation.

STOP IT!! You can barely drive the ‘vanilla’ twin bracket that’s parked on your bracket tray.

I know you like the case finishes that I post with Damon PSL, and you want that… or a semblance of it. It’s taken me thousands of cases (& lots of failures) to hone my technique and be able to produce consistent high quality results. It’s taken me just as long to believe in my product superiority and charge appropriately; and be able to afford to drive the premium product. I’ve dedicated myself for years to getting better and making it work… chasing the Ferrari illusion. I LOST MONEY on hundreds, if not thousands, of cases driving a Ferrari around in first gear. My treatment times were the same as the Twin cases I was treating, the results were inconsistent and the finishes were mediocre by my current standards.

So how did I learn to drive the Ferrari properly and utilize all the power it has to offer?

• Trial and error
• 3D conceptualization
• Persistence
• Critically analyzing my results

I only learned what to do and improve as I became more experienced and saw patterns in my work – good patterns and the other kind! I’ve CREATED a system to produce predictable efficient finishes, because there is never an adequate one sold with the product. For those of you beginning your journey or lost in the forest of options (Twin, PSL, SL, Lingual, Aligners), reach out to a professional driver and ask for some lessons to save yourselves years of wandering and being broke!! Join Pragmatic Orthodontic Clinical Discussions and accelerate your learning process TODAY.  All you need is persistence and the willingness to learn. If I can do it, YOU CAN DO IT!! Others and I are here to help you – such resources didn’t exist when I was figuring it out!

I have to admit that having the ability to drive at 180mph with one hand on the wheel is really fun and rewarding on every level!!!