Ep. 43: Patient Interview - Tennessee Kelly: Three Years Later

Part 10:00

This is Beyond the Arches, where full-arch dentistry meets real talk. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome to Beyond the Arches. I'm your host, Dr. Daniel Noorthoek. With us today, we have Erica. Hello, Erica. Hello. We have Danimal. Hello. Welcome back, Danimal. Thank you. And today, we have our special guest, Kelly Fellows. Welcome, Kelly. Hi, welcome. Yay. Kelly is a patient who came in for travel several years ago, three years ago, three and a half almost. From Tennessee.

So, welcome. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. We're excited to have you. So, the way that we do this, we just kind of pop some questions around, get to know you, talk about your experience, how everything went, and how your life has changed since. Yeah. Yeah. To start with, so you are, where are you born and raised from? So, you come in and out from Tennessee, and are you born and raised in Tennessee?

No, I was actually born and raised in Michigan. Oh. I don't know that I knew that. So was I. I didn't know that. I'm also from Michigan. We did talk about it. Did we? Because I went to school at Grand Valley. Oh, yeah. That's where my brother went to school, and it's from my, basically, my hometown. Yeah. So, I went to school there my sophomore year. The Lakers. The Lakers. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, you grew up in Michigan.

Did you grow up, you didn't grow up in Grand Rapids, though? No, just south, about an hour south in Kalamazoo County, which is a small town just south of that, Vicksburg. With all the cereal. With all, that's in Battle Creek, yep. Yeah. Cereal city. Very close. And how did you end up in Tennessee? So, we moved to Tennessee in 2022. It was just kind of a whim. My husband and I were on a vacation the year before, and we decided to do a bourbon tour to Kentucky and Tennessee, and one of our end stops was in Knoxville.

And we just were like, we love it here. This is great. We had just built our home in Michigan. It took a year, and so we were loving life, but we hated where we were because it was so cold and gray and depressing. Although I'm from there, we raised our kids there. You know, my mom went to the same elementary that I did, my boys did. So, it was like, when we put our house up for sale, everyone was like, what's going on?

Yeah. And so, we decided to move. My husband works for an international company. And they reload us to Knoxville. They were opening up a new business in one of the facilities, and he headed that up. So, it was kind of like a, we'll raise our hand and go. And it was perfect. That's awesome. Yeah. So, I actually came across Dun & One through a TikTok during, a little bit after COVID, 2021. And I was doing research and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, which, you know, I had so many issues.

Well, it's kind of cool about your story is, you're a little bit early on when we had moved and sort of established ourselves and sort of the mainstays, if you will, of the employees were sort of forming and were kind of there in place. You know, we already had Dan, and you've gotten to know him well. But you also were kind of sort of the initial, like, OG, like, social media Dun & One follower clique. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

It was interesting. It was interesting because I had always knew I needed to fix my teeth. And we were in a good spot. We sold our house. We moved to Knoxville. I had, I coached travel and high school volleyball over a 10-year span. And that was, like, my time to be done because my boys were getting into sports. And if I continued to coach, I wouldn't be able to watch them play sports. And we moved across the country.

And it was a great time for me to then stumble upon you all. And have the surgery and not have to worry about, like, a job and a career and all that. So I paused working for a year, and it was perfect. I'd, like, do it over again and again. Tell us, for just the sake of, you know, travel and the people that are in the travel mentality, what was going through your mind as you sort of came to the realization that off of TikTok, you were vetting out a company that you were going to go visit and stay a week, et cetera, for?

I was kind of like, this is amazing. This is what I've, like, been praying for and looking for. But then I was like, I mean, it's TikTok. Like, you know what I mean? But I had never done TikTok. And I started TikTok in COVID on accident. I would film a lot of volleyball videos when I was coaching, and one went viral. And it was one that we did prior to COVID. And I just happened to post it in COVID.

And, of course, nobody was doing anything else but TikTok. Sure. Absolutely. And so with me. Having a little bit of that platform and then watching other people, I came across Alex. ▶And I was like, oh, her story seems very similar to mine. And I just started down the rabbit hole and did the research. And I'm like, OK, this looks legit. But I was honestly, is this really real? You know, could this be my opportunity? I drew that out because I can remember back to your surgery.

And I can remember you. Being a little bit still. When we went to do surgery, you were still a little bit like, do you know how to do this kind of thing? Yeah. I almost. Turns out I do. Yeah. I almost canceled two weeks before. I was like, I don't know. Because this can't be undone. You know, I'm like, done in one. It can't be undone. You can't just put the teeth back in my mouth. But I'm very.

Once I do the research and I know, I'm like, OK, I'm good. Mind over matter. Like, this is happening. This is going to change my life. And so, you know, even when I came in that morning, driver Dan is what I call him. He goes by many names. And he's like, you got to take that pill. And I'm like, oh, once I take this pill, it's a done deal. And I remember sitting in the lobby and there was a plant next to me.

And it was really close. ▶And it touched my cheek. And I was like, is this plant moving? I started really getting gloomy quick. And I was like, well, it's done deal from here. I don't know. We'll just see what happens when I. That's awesome. Yeah. And you've continued to come back for all of your follow ups. Yeah. Yeah. I come back every year. Yeah. We look forward to seeing you every year. And that has all gone well.

Yeah. It's been great. As I recall, you haven't had any sort of issues with any implants. Zero issues. No issues whatsoever. Which, you know, the first two checkups, I was nervous. I was nervous. The first one, I was definitely like something definitely is, you know, because you just get in your mind because you, you know, you're on your soft foods diet and then you can eat. And for me, I was careful. ▶Like I pushed it to like 120 days because I was just nervous, you know, but I could eat whatever.

Going back to the sort of family. So you have a couple boys. Yeah. So we have two boys and we have a daughter. We have a daughter who's older and now a granddaughter. So I'm a, I'm a fancy. I'm not a grandma. I'm a fancy. I like that. She's one and a half. So yeah. That's pretty fun. Do they live close by? Are they back in Michigan or? So. They being the daughter. She was with us for a little bit last year for a few months.

And then she's moved back to Michigan. So she's in Michigan in my hometown. Yeah. Nice. And all of your family still lives in Kalamazoo? Yep. My mom, my dad has passed. He's been gone for about 11 years, but my mom's in Kalamazoo. My sister's in Kalamazoo and she's got two daughters. My nieces are there and basically my community of where I grew up. And then my husband's from Ludington, Michigan, which is a little north. It's like a beach town.

It's a resort town. It's a, you go in the summer. For a month a year. Yeah. You don't, there's no mall. There's no, there's. I have an uncle who for the last, well, he doesn't do it. But for probably 25 years or so, he had like a fit. He had a trailer that he would park there and he'd go up there for the entire summer with my aunt and come back and forth. Fourth of July. No Ludington.

It's amazing. We're going home this year for fourth of July. We used to go a lot, but then, you know, as you travel, you know, my, my boys are 13 and 15 now and my 13 year old plays ECNL travel soccer. So we're never in Tennessee. We travel all year almost. Oh, wow. So we don't. We don't go traveling a lot of driving then and flying when you go back home to Michigan. Do you fly or do you drive?

Cause you're kind of in an awkward timing. If I go by myself, I fly. I was just there three weeks ago. I went back for a week. It was freezing two degrees and I'm like, there is another way of life. People, you should move South. Um, but if it's the family, it just kind of depends on how long we're there. If it's a short trip, we'll drive. I mean, we've. Mm-hmm. It's eight hours. It's not bad. I have a crazy Knoxville story.

So I've been to the Knoxville airport one time, not by choice, and it wasn't intentional. So back when we first, first started done in one, we were doing some training with different schools. And so we would bring all of the equipment and such and work in conjunction with the school to teach them how to do full arch and then also give them restorative, uh, support. And we were working with the university of Kentucky periodontal group at that time.

And we, we worked a full day in Jacksonville was probably, we'll say a Wednesday and then we had a sort of lecture portion and then we all went in and did one surgery together and then we're flying out to go back home. Well, we had to fly. We decided to fly private, um, which private wasn't. That amazing. It was a twin engine Cessna and we flew out of Jacksonville because we worked the whole day. That's it justified it because there was enough income to justify not driving there.

So we flew with our whole team lab, et cetera. There's maybe like six or seven of us. Nick was on that flight as well. And we got into, um, Lexington, did what we had to do. Everything was good as we're going to fly out of Lexington. The weather was getting really bad and sort of, there were two sort of two lines of storms that were essentially collapsing. Well, one by one, everyone decided to go alternate ways. Like, uh, one of the lab guys decided to fly, uh, commercial and it was like a couple hops and such.

And I'm sitting there like we paid for this. Like I'm going to sit here and the pilot was trying to make the decision. I said, listen, don't get us killed. Don't get us killed, but find an opening and let's go. So we waited. It was probably eight hours by that time. I was, it was the only person standing, not going commercial. So we decided to go and it was just me. And I was in the, in the plane and all of a sudden we're, we're probably in the air for maybe like 20 minutes or so, 25 minutes or so.

And we're climbing, we're climbing and I look out the front window and I just see a wall of buildings. It was black, right? There's the, it was, the storm was closing in on us. Just a wall of black. All of a sudden he goes in for anyone that flies. Like, I'm not saying that this was the most harrowing experience, but for me as a person, that's not a pilot and I don't fly like that very often. This was the most scary ride I've ever had.

So we're climbing, we're climbing, we're climbing. We're trying to kind of go over it. Right. Well, we're kind of like max. And so I see the pilot flying, you know, fumbling around. He gets out oxygen. I see an oxygen mask come out and I'm like, Oh my goodness, I'm going to die. Like this is the end of the end. Well, we get into this wall and we didn't get high enough. So we're in the middle of this and there's, I can't even describe how scary this scenario was.

I'm just full on white knuckle. And I looked down, feels like it's been an hour and a half, three minutes, you know, another hour and a half, three more minutes. Well, all of a sudden I kind of feel like I smell something. And there's smoke coming into the cabin, like full speed, just full on smoke. So I yell up, I think his name was John. I was like, John, John, John. He looks back. I've never seen anyone turn back that fast before in my entire life.

I think he almost broke his neck. And all of a sudden he didn't say anything. Just turned back and starts flipping switches and doing all kinds of stuff. And we were basically started like crazy descending. Now I'm looking. I'm looking at the countryside with just forestry everywhere. I'm looking around. There's nowhere that I can see that we're going to like emergency land. I have no idea what's going on. He hasn't communicated anything. So finally, what seems like eight hours, we finally get down and we are landing into an airport, which is the Knoxville airport.

So you probably landed at Signature Aviation, which is the private. Correct. That's exactly what we did. Client of mine. So we, as we land, I'm looking up commercial flights. Like Knoxville to, and it was ended up being with Allegiant, Knoxville to Sanford, Orlando, which is I then had to end up renting a car and such. So I booked it to get basically when we hit the ground and John comes to me and he's like, well, you know, it was just, there was some corrosion on the heater and so it was burning off and that's all it was.

So we just got to clean that up and we can go back on and I go, no, I am never getting on that plane ever again. I'll see you later. And so they have the, the cars that you can, um, the car shuttle. I took that. I went to Walmart. I got myself about like a, uh, travel bag. Cause I didn't have any sort of travel bag, packed all my crap in it, brought the car back Uber to the front door of the Knoxville airport.

And I have not said set foot on a plane like that ever again. So Sears aircraft is in Knoxville. Um, it was started by two brothers wanted to come up with an idea of building a plane. They built a plane. And then they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they wanted the whole idea and hope I get this right. If anyone's listening from Sears aircraft, but Sears is awesome. Yes. So, but what every plane that you purchase from them has a parachute, right?

So if you're in that type of trouble, it comes out, you can only use it once, obviously, but actually that's not true. The new models, you can reuse them. Okay. So if you've ever go back to Knoxville, I mean, definitely let me know. I'll tell you where to be. Um, but you can have a tour. Um, and you can go to Knoxville. And so I've done that, um, about a year and a half ago. And that was really cool.

Did you get to check out the vision, the, the jet, the single engine jet? No, I don't think so. I don't remember that. Sears is a really cool company. Yeah. Sears. They have the, the parachute. You should buy a plane, Dr. No, I should not. And no, I would not. You don't think we should buy a plane? No. Garmin is their GPS thing. And yeah, they have the auto land. You can even go there for school and they'll teach you.

Or you can just, you should just do it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to do it. Driver Dan, the pilot Dan. No, thank you. Dan, I barely get in a car with you. I'm not getting in an airplane with you. Not barely. I very willingly get in a car. He's a very good driver. However, I don't know that I'm going to go into the air with Dan. Uh, but seriously, they have, they have a single engine jet that holds, I think it's up to seven people.

Realistically, it's like four, but they have all kinds of features. Like you can, it's a jet that can be, um, manned by one pilot. So you don't have the expense of two pilots in a jet. It also has a parachute in the jet and it goes very fast and is very economical for what it is. Um, pretty cool. Yeah. Pretty cool product for sure. I think when I was there, we did a tour and I think it was about in the high two hundreds of how many times that they say like, okay, this has saved someone's life because they've, they've activated the parachute.

Oh, they had to end up. Well, they, I think from what the research I've done and looked into it is they essentially made the pot, the parachutes reusable because in the very beginning they had some deaths because people were like, I'm not going to ruin my plane and held on too long and didn't deploy it fast enough. So now it's reusable. Big changes. That's cool that they're, I didn't know that they were based out of Knoxville. So very cool.

Very cool. What else we got for, uh, Kelly here? I've got a couple of dental kind of related questions. Um, maybe that we can get started with. So what kind of made you finally pull the trigger onto getting your full art procedure done? What was the buildup to that? Like, did you see like several different consultations? Was it like that you saw done in one on a tick tock and you just enjoyed what we had to offer?

Part 218:00

Well, I found Alex and I watched almost all her videos and she had just gone through the surgery about six months prior. So it was a perfect time for me to kind of watch to see her healing and her steps of what she did. And she had filmed a lot of things. Um, and at that point, after I had my consultation, I remember when we spoke on the phone the first time I almost like was like, I don't know if I want to do this.

Cause if I do it, I know he's going to do it. He's going to talk me into it. And I was still a little apprehensive and I did like to have control. Um, and so I was driving and I was stopping to pick up some sushi and there, they got my order wrong. So I had to wait. I'm like, Oh shoot. I was going to be able to be back home and have this call while I didn't have time.

So I just did it in the car in the sushi parking lot. Wow. And I'm like, it's fine. Like whatever. And I don't know. I think after we spoke, I just felt. At ease and I'm like, okay, I got to let, put, put my barriers down. I did the research. This is my time. This is in, you know, timing was a big thing. ▶Like it just kind of lined up with what was going on in my personal life where I could do it.

We had the money to do it. Um, I had the time, you know, I felt like I had enough time to heal and I wasn't pressured to go back to work. And, you know, um, so prior, you know, to all of this. In my career, um, I work in staffing and sales. And so, you know, I had left that industry for 14 years, um, had the surgery in 10 or, you know, when I moved to Tennessee in 2022, and then I went back to work for that company I worked for before in 2023 in April.

So it was like a perfect time to get through my 90 day soft foods diet, heal and start being on the phone again and feeling comfortable. But. Um, you know, the world had changed from when I first started working, we did in-person interviews, we did all that. We do everything on teams, we're on video and it was just night and day difference for me of just confidence and feeling more comfortable. I'm a very outgoing person. I'm an introvert extrovert, but I definitely need time to recharge.

But, um, I love talking to people. I love to help. And so with my job, I, I recruit and I sell our business. So, um, I get the best of both worlds. I get to solve someone's problem and then I get to offer someone a job and then I get paid on it. Perfect. That's great. Yeah. So that was, um, it was just perfect timing, how all lined up. And prior to my days with Robert half, I'd worked for the same boss, um, in Virginia.

And then I had moved to our Fort Lauderdale. So I've, I've lived in, worked in South Florida in the past. I didn't know that. Yeah. We had our first son, Oliver here. He was born in Boca West. No way. Yeah. That's fantastic.

Part 321:08

It was kind of like, just this keeps pulling me back. But, um, yeah, so it just, you know, I think just knowing, okay, I'm taking this time for me. Like I, you know, we adopted our daughter when she was 12. That was a lot, you know, it's a lot to give. It's a lot to do research. And, um, I stepped away from my career for that reason. Um, and so it was time for me to give me something and then also go back to work and feel like I, you know, where I, where I fit best as a person.

Do you feel like you were able to flow easily back into your position? Like you mentioned, you took a year off of work. I know some patients ask us, like, am I going to have any problems speaking? I speak a lot in the office. I'm on zoom a lot. Like, what was that adjustment period like for you? It was good. I felt like I was pretty much healed by the time I went back to work, but I still had ▶like those moments where I wasn't used to seeing myself on camera and I'm like, wow, your teeth look great.

You know what I mean? It was the opposite. So that was kind of fun. And still, even to this day, my husband and I will, you know, like after work or something, we'll go get like a glass of wine or we'll go to dinner or whatever. And people are always commenting and I'm not used to it. And I'm, I've gotten used to it a little bit. And then my husband's just like, oh, I'm not used to it.

Like when someone compliments you, you just light up. Like, he's like, it's from what I saw you go through all these years, it's like completely worth it. Yeah. I can see that. It's, I imagine it makes probably the biggest difference in people that are extroverts. And you'd mentioning that you're an intro extrovert, like, yeah, I can see it making a big, bigger difference for you than somebody that's a little bit more of an introvert in general from a getting out there standpoint.

Going back to the, when you did your talking about going to the sushi place and doing your zoom in the sushi, um, parking lot, I was thinking literally this weekend, how much my, excuse me, how much sort of my career has changed in that zoom is completely normal for consultations and how different that is from when. The way I was trained and the way where we went and school and just the way that the world was then, and you were sort of on the beginning part of when that sort of became normal.

And it's kind of fascinating because it's almost like doing a zoom consult is even more comfortable for me and us now in general, not because we can't handle seeing people in person. It's just so normal to do the consultation with somebody's camera, sticking up. But their headliner and a kid running around, like that's become more normal than having to have somebody across the desk. And I was, it just kind of this weekend was sort of taking a look back and seeing like my career has changed that the environment of my career has changed so drastically, but it's interesting because you were in the very beginning of it where that felt weird for you and it probably felt weird for me.

Um, but now that we're here, that couldn't be more normal. Yeah. Even like the Tik TOK, you mentioned that you found us through Tik TOK kind of, and I know when you were like here for your surgery week, we were like, Oh, do you want to film a video? And you're like, I don't know, maybe, but like now it's so normal to us. We have Carly, you know, Carly's here right now. I did the video. You did, yeah.

Right. That, yeah, that was, that was the first year of my first checkup. And when I came down, I think, yeah. I think so too. I think you made some fun relationships. Along the way as well. Daniel, obviously Dina too. Daniel's my favorite. Your favorite? Don't tell Dina. No, I'm kidding. Favorite Daniel. Daniel is a lot of people's favorites. Yeah. Why is Daniel more your favorite? No, he, he just was, you know, I bought the travel package.

I was like, I just wanted to feel like I, I didn't care if I was spending that much money. ▶What's another $3,000. I'm like, whatever, you know, and I'm not from here and I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to feel. I'm. Probably going to feel pretty crappy afterward. I don't want to have to drive a car. I don't want to have to know where I'm going. I don't, I'm doing none of it. Yeah. And so I was like, yes.

I'm like, where's my, where do I give you my card? Like, I'm, I'm good for it. Um, and I thought there's a driver. I'm like, he's probably old and weird. It's definitely weird. Turns out he was just young and weird. Yeah.

Part 425:48

I remember in the beginning, um, you and your sister had flown in separately. Yep. And. Cause she was in Michigan. Yeah. There's, there was like a two hour difference with your flights. And I was like, oh, you know, I might as well just go get one of them and then pick up the other one when, you know, the flight lands. And I think it was your sister or no, it was you. I was first. You landed first.

And I was like, oh, I can come pick you up. And you were like, so nervous. You were like, no, it's okay. I'm just going to sit at the airport and wait for her. And I was like, I don't know if I'm, I'm like, I'm like, these people are, I don't know. I'm like, I already signed the paperwork. Like I was, but I was still kind of like, yeah, so sure. And your sister left. She left a little early.

She did. So she stayed all week with me. And that's. Before the Zirconia, right? Yeah. Then she flew home on Saturday. And then of course that next Monday is when I got my finals put in. And then literally an hour later, you took me to the airport and I flew home. That's awesome. And when you came down, did you do the commercial? You didn't do the commercial on that same week. It would have been when on a follow-up or the year cleaning.

Yeah, it was my cleaning. It was my first cleaning. Yeah. Cause it was. It was in January or February. Walk us through the logic other than the obvious of we did the work and you wanted to stay with us, et cetera. Is there any part of the decision that, you know, for, for people that are looking to do this, we find that most patients, even if they come in with an idea that they're going to stay local for their cleanings, we kind of find that most of the time we kind of win them over to stay with us and keep coming back.

Yeah. Especially because they develop friendships and things. Um, but is there, is there ever a part of the discussion or the decision-making where you've considered going to other offices for cleanings or anything now for you? I was just talking about that this morning. Yeah. I was just telling him, I'm like, this is kind of a mini getaway for me. Last year, my husband came cause I wanted him to meet the team and, you know, like he just heard everything and he, he was a little like he wanted to come for the surgery, but we had just moved.

So it was going to be hard to find. And, you know, the care and our kids are busy and whatever. I'm like, it's fine. My sister will fly down and be with me and almost kind of better. She's more nurturing. I mean, husbands, they, sometimes he doesn't move as fast, but it's fine. But so, yeah, I think, um, I would never have someone local, like, you know, until today or yesterday, Monday, I don't even know what day it is.

Yeah. Monday when I had my cleaning, um, Nadia did my cleaning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's done it. Dina came in last year. I was actually thinking that. She wasn't working. This is your first time seeing someone else who's not Dina. So I was already feeling anxiety when I was flying in here. And I texted Dina. I'm like, girl. Right. You better be on standby. And she's like, you're going to be fine. She's great. I'm like, I know she's great, but like, I'm, I, you know, but it was perfect.

It was fine. But no way. ▶I would never, I don't want to say never, but I don't, I don't think I would trust anyone else. To change things because they didn't do it. They don't, I don't know. They don't know. I mean, unless you opened up an office in Knoxville. Okay. So we can talk about that. We could talk about that. We might need a plane. Charlotte. Oh God. No, then you could. Yeah. That was very expensive.

The, okay.

Part 529:14

Here's the question. I've never asked a patient before and I actually am very curious now that I thought of it. So when I go get a cleaning, there's a big difference between before and after. Build up and such, and you just feel like fresh for two or three days, whatnot. Is it the same with hybrids? Like when you get from before you came here to now, not that it was bad, I'm sure your hygiene is great, but regardless, can you feel like a new freshness or, or is zirconia so, so resistant to that kind of stuff and it doesn't really matter or you don't feel that difference other than having a peace of mind that it works.

It's not like how it used to feel when I would go and get a cleaning with. My original teeth, but now, um, it's, I brush really well. Um, and you know, I think sometimes like if you're, I don't know, eating extra, whatever weird stuff, you might be like, oh, I need to rush a little better, but I think it's pretty much felt the same, maybe a little bit better, but not anything where I'm like, oh, glad I had my cleaning for me.

It's more like, are my implants. So they're in doing well and, you know, and then this trip was a little bit of more, um, tweaks and changes that I've been thinking about for three years that I wanted to happen. And so, yeah, yeah, the, um, that's fascinating because my motivation when I get a cleaning is to get that feeling, you know, the dentist, I hope that I can brush. Well, I know that I, you know, I keep an eye on things.

So I know that things aren't like going downhill for me. So that's my motivation. It just feels so much different than like, I guess if you, your original teeth, it just, it's nicer, I guess. I think like you said to your very diligent patient with like your hygiene, you're very good at it. You're at home care and things like that. I have actually heard on my end that only a handful of times that a cleaning does feel different for patients, but more so in the sense that it opens up, um, the opportunity for like relines, but nothing like I, I agree.

Nothing. Nothing like going to like my hygienist. I don't know. Yeah. Which is sort of the, that's the difficult part of getting patients to come back. You, you want them to stay in contact so that, you know, if things are going downhill, but if the satisfaction is abstract, meaning I know that it's, I now have another continued piece of mind that it's working well, and then I'm doing a well, a good job cleaning. That's kind of abstract versus I went in and I get this feeling of cleaning.

I mean, and the satisfaction, there's a physical difference there. And so it's really, really difficult to get maintenance programs for hybrids and that's made even more complex by the industry, not really having a good consensus on how often to clean, not really having a good consensus on what is the right way to clean, when you should take it off, how to take it off. There's not a big consensus. Yeah. And so. Yeah. are also motivated to make the money of new business, not worry about the hygiene follow-up program. And so there's a huge chasm in hybrid dentistry done in one style dentistry with follow-ups and hygiene. And so it's, it's difficult. It's a weird sort of thing.

And it definitely was nice when, you know, you have them taken out and they're cleaned and, and, you know, they come out once a year if you come back. So I'm kind of like, if I could do it more, I would, you know what I mean? Like, so, so like yesterday with the cleaning, I'm like, okay, this was nice. You know, it's clean and I know my gums now and everything where everything is sitting is cleaned and brushed and good. So in that sense, yeah. Like, I don't, I don't know. I don't, who are these people going to when they have a cleaning?

Um, you're speaking to like outside services? Like if they went to another provider? I'm guessing these are people like me who don't live in Florida or they're far away where they don't want to incur the cost. I was more speaking to more like the industry. So the big box retailers, and then also the locals, locals, um, you know, locals being, you know, private practice dentistry, a lot of them don't really have these like rules and, and they'll, they'll either put the person in the group of, you know, every six months.

Cleaning, which I've found to be sort of negative because it's almost too much in and out. Um, or they make no attempt at all. And if you aren't getting any, if you feel like everything is clean, you're not going to go seek care until it hurts because traditionally as well, the population of people that have lost their teeth are also seekers of care when it becomes sort of extreme. And so if you don't stay on it, that's really why we came up with the lifetime of warranty that includes the cleaning, because we're giving you a peace of mind, but we also give the peace of mind that you're going to stay on top of it. So you're not going to come in with emergencies. Yeah. Yeah. I, um, I do the warrant. I do the, I did the lifetime warranty. I'm like, it's a no brainer because if I do come down, it's $500, I think to get the cleaning and it, it almost pays for itself. I don't know. I'm like, I'm thinking if I invested all this money in this change for me, why wouldn't you then, I mean, you're going to spend that. You would have typically spent that in dental care anyway, prior. It's just, you don't have any really things to do. Like you don't, it's not like I'm going to get a cavity, right. You know, so I don't have to worry about any of that. It's just making sure that everything is clean. And, and me maybe too is different because for me and my teeth, it wasn't that I didn't clean them. I had so many other issues and injuries that kind of affected and, you know, snowballed.

And that's finally, I was able to fix it. There's a million ways a person can lose the teeth. You know, the, we've, we've talked about it pretty, pretty good at length, but the motivation on the lifetime warranty is to make it so that it's sort of a no brainer for a patient like Kelly, but also it becomes a no brainer for us because we already know your case. We know you well, if something goes South, you know, that we're going to fix it, take care of it. The amount that it costs to take care of, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, somebody that's already been taking care of it is marginal versus if you go disappear for six years and you come back with a disaster, that's, that can be a big disaster for me. And that's where you start to kind of like lose relationships and patients. So it's been a really awesome thing for both the patient and for us because it's a two way street. You scratch our back, we scratch yours. Uh, and it's been really fun, you know, because we get to see patients who may, may not have seen it since the cleaning is included. Sure. We're now seeing them on the interval that we're supposed to. So it's the whole program in general is really like paid off because, because I've seen it happen in many of the places I've worked with. Most of these patients disappear off the face of the earth. Most of them, I would, I would venture to say it's over well over 50%. I mean, think about how much work we have. We probably have, I feel like I've already seen that. We started our warranty in January of 2025. So it just turned one year old. And I already know that the patients that are signed up on it, I know that these are the people that are going to be coming back because not only in a sense that they're responsible, but also this is an additional program that they're paying for. So they want to make sure that they get that once annual cleaning to make sure they're, they're receiving the benefits of that. Yeah. I wasn't worried. Okay.

▶So when I had mine, it came with a five-year warranty. I wasn't worried for five years, what I was worried about was in 15 years, as I get older, things change, what's going to go, right. What's going to happen then? Am I going to be paying the same amount of money that I paid to have this done to fix things? And so the lifetime warranty was like, I'm signing the line. Like, thank you, Dr. Dan, for that. Cause I was a little bit five years like that's not okay.

Maybe we can, I can negotiate that later. Yeah. That's, I didn't have to. I feel like that's a thought that everyone's always had in the back of their mind. Like, what happens when that five-year runs out and we're like, and to what Erica was saying as well, you know, it's, it also self-selects for the people that are going to be remote. It rewards the people to become part of a group because you're a group, a part of a group that are already taking care of it. So it's this community that self-selects for being the best of the best anyway. Um, and the people that are going to disappear, they just disappear and they just don't become the liability because the problem was with five years is that it may not be too much enough for you, but for the person that we'll say is the treasure hunter and goes away for four years at a time and doesn't take care of themselves and shows up at four years and six months, but it hasn't ever shown back up. Even though the paperwork says you have to, you kind of are in this, like, you know, what do they call it? Like a Mexican standoff where you're just kind of like nobody first person that blinks. So, uh, it's been a really successful program and it's, it's good to see people that appreciate it and take part of it because that's really what it's for. It's meant for you to be in a little insurance group. It's meant for you to be a little community where your dollars, you may not need them now, right? Uh, but those dollars go into a pot for X, Y, Z person who had an implant go bad, or if you have to dip into it in the future and it creates it so that we as a company can be fine with it. Um, there's no pointing fingers.

And we just move on, take care of it. ▶I always look forward to February. I always come down in February. You get through the holidays, Christmas is over, you know, you spent money and then February, it's great to get out of Knoxville. It's a little bit chillier. So I just come down in February, although I had my. Being in Knoxville, thinking about the winter, your days are a little bit, a tiny bit longer than they were in Michigan.

Yeah, they are. But then in the summer, a tiny bit shorter. Yeah, Michigan summers are amazing. It doesn't get dark till like 10 o'clock. I don't think it subsets until late nine something, 10, almost 10 o'clock at night. If you can go to Michigan, go in the summer. Don't go any other time. My parents will send me pictures where I'm sitting in the dark of midnight and they're sending me pictures like it's the middle of the day. It's pretty wild.

Bizarre. Michigan's got some weird things. I know we were talking about it. Last week, we were driving back from Jacksonville. We had surgeries up there. A Michigan staple. These, what were they called? Pasties? Pasties. Do you like pasties? Do you know what they are? What the heck is a pastie? Okay. It's, no, it's not a donut. I don't know what a pastie is. It's the exact opposite of a donut. All of the excess sugar that's in a, yes.

Oh, no.

Part 640:39

It's meat? I don't eat. Yes. They take. Yes, it's the meat. They take. Oh, like a Jamaican patty. No. Jamaican, actually. No. It probably has flavor in it. They take, like, imagine the driest and chewiest stew that you've ever had. Big, chunky carrots, celery, you know, potatoes. Like a hot pie. Yeah, but no gravy. Right. You know, no, like. It's not good. There's no moisture to it. It's dry as can be, and then they put it in, like, if you took a pie crust, took too much of it, wrapped it around this stew, and then cooked it.

That's what they do for pasties. My mom used to make it maybe, like, once a month, maybe less than that, but I would, especially as I was, like, 12, 13, 14, I was always at a friend's house during that time. I had a baseball game. I didn't grow up. I had something to do. My dad was a cook, and he's from Boston, so we didn't have pasty pasties, whatever. They're more like UP kind of thing. Probably. Like Upper Peninsula.

Yeah. Funny thing. I mean, just like you came to me. Dr. Lindsay from our perio office, he had a patient that would send. The patient loved them, apparently, and he would send a box to his, like, favorite friends of these pasties. You just got the funniest face. He would send a box to each of his friends like a gift, and apparently Dr. Lindsay said, like, the only way I could choke him down was, you know, like, putting a bunch of, like, hot sauce and stuff on him.

So he told his friend, like, look, I appreciate. This is a gift, but the only way I can choke him down is putting hot sauce on him. And the friend, like, Dr. Lindsay came to me as if this was, like, some, you know, crazy story, but the friend apparently, like, got so mad at him that he would put anything on a pasty, which you should put everything on a pasty in order to be edible. Is it like an elderly people thing?

It was like, I think it was like a poor, like, like a lower socioeconomic. Class, like, sort of meal just for sustenance kind of thing. And now since it got sort of like a regional sort of name, you kind of see it pop up here and there. But it should have been squashed when people started to have access to better funds and better food, because that's one of those things that should have just died. OK. But, yeah, so what else do we have for Kelly?

Now that we're talking about food, maybe we can get into that a little bit. Yeah. What were some things that, like, just kind of getting back into after your 90 day, what was your most excited meal you were looking forward to? Sounds really bad. It was salad. That's not bad. There's a lot of people that do that. Like steak or what? I mean, I'm a big green person. Like, I love salad. And so that I missed out the most.

So my mother-in-law came from Michigan, came into Knoxville the same weekend when my 90 day hit. And her birthday is in December. And so instead of giving her a gift and Christmas, what we do is she comes to us and then her and I will do a concert or something. So we had went to the Grand Ole Opry. But it was at the Ryman. And we did a show there and then did, like, the Country Music Hall of Fame.

And then, of course, we were downtown. ▶And I have a video of me ordering nacho chips at this bar restaurant. And I'm like, it's 90. It's 90 days. And I'm crunching. And I mean, it's pretty cheesy. But that's fun. I did a countdown. I think once I hit, like, day 80, I did a count or count up, I guess, to 90. And whatever I was eating that day, I did a TikTok and I posted it. And it was funny because because I was coming down here, I was laying in bed on Saturday night and I was like, let me watch some of these TikToks.

So they're quite old. And so I'm, like, cringing at some of them. But then I was actually. Like, I think she's actually kind of funny. Like, that's funny. Yeah. I definitely had to get creative when, you know, going back to the 90 day soft foods. Like, like I said, I love salad. I couldn't eat salad. And so I would, you know, you make your food and then you get sick of making it because you're not excited to eat.

All right. You know, I mean, I have a video and it's like a plate of mush. And I had, like, you know, mashed potatoes. Potatoes, a little bit of mac and cheese, some, like, oatmeal. Carbs, carbs, carbs. Yeah, seaweed. Like, I had a lot of fruit and stuff, but it was just like. It's tough. This is what's for lunch. Yeah. Did you have, like, a go-to meal?

Part 745:30

And what was your favorite thing to eat on the soft food diet? My favorite thing that I made and ate was a, like, a buffalo sauce cauliflower that I cooked in the oven. Like, the buffalo. The buffalo cauliflower wing thing. I've seen that on Pinterest. Yep. Oh, yeah. The restaurant right in this area, Farmer's Table. Yeah. Nature's Table. There's two. Farmer's Table. Farmer's Table is good. They do it. Have you ever had it here? No. So I had it in Michigan at a restaurant, which was fantastic.

And I remembered about it. So when I was like, oh, I get sick of eating the same stuff. I'm like, I'm going to make it. So I did a TikTok and then I was like, oh. So I had sent that recipe to a few people on the Facebook group for Dun & One for people that were looking back. That's a good idea. I've never heard anybody say that. It's one of Beth and I's favorite dishes. We'll go to the Ave and we'll basically start with that and maybe have something else or we'll get it here.

It's like, it's not a wing, but it's like kind of wingy. Yeah. And then the places here, they do like a, it's almost like a lime ranch chipotle kind of sauce. So good. Yeah. We love it. So salad, I loved eating that. And then. So, you know, wings, you know, carrots, like I'm a big veggie person. So like, I mean, I like will have like four radishes, five cucumbers, two carrots. Like I get, my husband's like, I don't even.

You sound like me at lunch. What you're eating and, and he'll, you know, if I'm sick or something, you're like, well, what can I make you? And I'm like, well, get me three carrots. And he's like, yeah. What's the, why, why the numbers of them? Is there any logic behind that? No, it's just, I just. It's just like a little bit of everything, but I don't. Yeah. And he's like, it's just random. He's like, it's like, you'll have like oatmeal and then you'll have like pickles.

It's like weird. And I have the same palate, I think, because you get the best of both worlds. You get a little nibble of this, a little nibble of that. Yeah. I think Erica today had hummus and then she had a singular prune, right? I did have a singular prune at lunch today. Interesting. I don't think I would choose to eat a prune. I don't think I would choose to eat a prune. No, I've never chosen. I would probably eat Daniel's toenails.

That's really bad. I take that back. Would you eat Daniel's toenails for a million dollars? This was the question in the car. That would be a yes. Dan says he would chop his own finger off for a million dollars. I would. She said no. I would shoot myself in the foot, though. I said no to that one. That was, you know. I'll just get my pinky toe. With a BB gun, she said. Yeah, she was cheating. I don't like to self-harm.

No amount of money will make me self-harm. Well, we could probably hang out and do this forever, but, you know,

Part 848:30

we appreciate you coming on, helping out a future patient, many future patients, etc. You've always been a really good cheerleader and a nice, bright, cheery face to kind of come in our area. Pick up our day or our week, so we appreciate you coming down and look forward to many, many years of it. Yeah, for sure. Congrats on no issues and all of your travels with your sons and soccer and being a grandmother, a fancy mother. Fancy mother.

Just a fancy. Yeah, just a fancy. But congratulations on that, and, you know, we look forward to many years to come. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. We'll see you guys next time. Bye. Bye.