If you've never heard Dr. John Kois speak, now is the time! Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Christian Coachman, founder of Digital Smile Design, to talk about an upcoming, once-in-a-lifetime event with Dr. Kois and Dr. Coachman. You will hear two perspectives from two brilliant minds about optimizing clinical outcomes through digital dentistry. To learn more about this collaborative course and how to reserve your seat, listen to Episode 785 of The Best Practices Show!
Learn More About Dr. Coachman:
Learn More About ACT Dental:
More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:
Main Takeaways:
Quotes:
“It's not about creating new ideas. Many times, it's about better communicating the ideas that are already there.” (9:40—9:47) -Dr. Coachman
“People say, ‘But why should I go to this course, Christian? I went to your courses. I went to Kois’s courses. Why should I go to this course?’ Because it's not going to be one lecture after the other. It's not going to be him lecturing one day, me lecturing one day. It's going to be us dividing this timeline into moments and creating this consensus around each moment. It's going to be like a chat. Imagine if you are in a coffee shop — you, me, and John Kois — and we have connections with some of the smartest people in dentistry to answer any question. It’s like a dental Google in our hands, and you can ask any question that you want.” (19:08—19:50) -Dr. Coachman
“I love to see two smart people disagreeing. I love that, to sit and watch honest, ethical people that disagree defending their point. If I'm the moderator and I'm seeing that one side is losing, I go to the side of the loser and start to pick on the one that is winning the discussion, helping the loser make tougher questions to even out the game a little bit because, of course, in the end, you want to get to a conclusion. Sometimes, there's a consensus. Sometimes, it’s in between. But many times, it’s like, ‘Okay. On this point, we all agree that you were more right than you,’ or, ‘You are completely right,’ and, ‘I don't think your point was that valid.’ And people need to be okay with that. I'm totally okay with that, with people telling me, ‘The consensus is that your idea is not the winner, Christian.’ And I'm okay.” (26:21—27:22) -Dr. Coachman
“Many times, we see speakers lecturing about digital, and they are not actually using what they're showing in their lecture daily. Many times, digital solutions look very cool in lectures, so everybody wants to show it. But it doesn't mean they use it daily for every case. So, I want to know the truth. And leveraging technology means using smart technology, the technology that makes you more effective.” (27:36—28:08) -Dr. Coachman
“The only reason to use technology is to be more effective. Effectiveness is the key word. How effective is this? ‘Oh, no. But it's super cool, and you can see this, and you can see that.’ But how effective is it to see this and see that? ‘No. But if you see this . . .’ How effective is this, at the end of the day? How am I going to be more effective? Because the ultimate goal is not to use technology — the ultimate goal is to solve the problem of the patient, to deliver the solution with technology or without. The ultimate goal is to treat the patient in the best way possible, or to identify that you don't need to treat the patient. So, the benefit for the patient is the ultimate goal.” (28:10—28:58) -Dr. Coachman
“At the end of the day, we need to be effective. Many digital tools are not effective, either because the companies are putting the tool out into the market before the tool is mature enough — and we know that happens all the time. Companies are launching solutions and launching technologies because they have a deadline. They're pushed by the market. Shareholders are pushing. Profit revenue is pushing. They’ve already invested too much in research and development. Beta testing was supposed to happen and finish last month. ‘We've got to go to market. Let's just put an amazing marketing story behind it. People will buy the story. People will buy the technology.’ People will struggle, and we blame the people. People learn, and we're going to have a sponsored beta testing phase. We're going to learn, and we're going to improve. And that's life. So, many technologies are not ready, sometimes because they are not mature enough, sometimes because the dentist is not using it properly, sometimes because the staff is unconsciously sabotaging the technology or not using it properly, and sometimes because companies don't know how to teach their own technology properly.” (29:38—31:01) -Dr. Coachman
“Most of these [big] names [in dentistry] . . . died already. They're not among us anymore. Many of the names I mentioned are not lecturing anymore. Frank Spear, for example, is almost not lecturing anymore. You go to the Spear Center, you don't see Spear giving lectures 90% of the time. And I started to think about, because John Kois is always there — so consistent, so strong. He looks like a rock. He's just there, emotionally — that you create this false impression that he's going to be there forever. There are very few people in dentistry that can teach like him, and he will not be there forever. Just recently, he announced that he's going to take a break in 2026, that next year's annual Kois Symposium — he didn't say it was going to be the last, but he's going to give a break to himself after that. Some people are wondering, is he going to come back and give more of these? We don't know. That's why [people should attend this upcoming course].” (33:24—34:35) -Dr. Coachman
“Sometimes, people explain something in such a good way that you're like, ‘I have to do this.’ But we don't ask the question, ‘What if I don't do this? What actually happens? What are the downsides?’ And many times, because the speaker is so good, we have the tendency to think that we have to do it like this, and we don't explore the downsides. We don't explore the other way and say, ‘But if I do it the opposite way, what is the downside? Please compare the downsides of both ways.’ I do this exercise with myself when I'm lecturing. I do this exercise with others. And I've had moments where smart people change their mind in real-time in front of me on their own idea by asking the right questions, and driving people to a specific path of challenging their own beliefs, and comparing the other ways with their own way, and going one step further on this exploration to the point that the person gets to the conclusion of, ‘You know what? This other way is actually as good as mine. You can do it both ways. There's no clear advantage.’ ‘That's fantastic. So, you prefer this just because you're used to it. It's not necessarily better than the other way.’ It's beautiful when you can make people go through this exploration and get to conclusions like that. I love getting to conclusions like this where people listening can really understand the thinking process behind it, because then people can make their own decisions and conclusions. It's not like, ‘Oh, these super famous guys told us to do this.’ Let's challenge ourselves.” (39:34—41:22) -Dr. Coachman
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
1:18 About Dr. Coachman and Dr. John Kois’s upcoming course.
13:04 Dr. John Kois’s background and the Kois Center.
16:54 Why you should attend this event.
20:29 Course layout and objectives.
27:24 Leveraging the digital tools, explained.
31:59 This is it!
36:00 Key takeaways of the event.
37:27 A message for attendees.
41:25 Where to register for this event.
Dr. Christian Coachman Bio:
Combining his advanced skills, experience, and technology solutions, Dr. Christian Coachman pioneered the Digital Smile Design methodology and founded Digital Smile Design company (DSD). Since its inception, thousands of dentists worldwide have attended DSD courses and workshops, such as the renowned DSD Residency program.
Dr. Coachman is the developer of worldwide, well-known concepts such as the Digital Smile Design, the Pink Hybrid Implant Restoration, the Digital Planning Center, Emotional Dentistry, Interdisciplinary Treatment Simulation, and Digital Smile Donator. He regularly consults for dental industry companies, developing products, implementing concepts, and marketing strategies, such as the Facially Driven Digital Orthodontic Workflow developed in collaboration with Invisalign, Align Technology.