The Compliance Divas Podcast
Our podcast covers current topics such as infection prevention and control, OSHA and HIPAA compliance for dentistry. We discuss the latest regulatory information, answer frequently asked questions and give suggestions for dental practices to make compliance easy and sustainable. The Compliance Divas are a trusted source for consistent, accurate information based upon current guidelines, standards, science, and recommendations.
The Compliance Divas Podcast
#234 See the "Z" Difference with Z-Loupes
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Are you struggling with loupes related ergonomics? Or just beginning your search for loupes? We have just the guest who can help solve that dilemma. Tune in and see how Z-Loupes have transformed infection control, ergonomic and other loupes related issues.
- Z-Loupes: https://www.z-loupes.com/z-difference
- Diagnostic Questionnaire: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ga9EuqNYWk48GSNdSMAA_FRF2rBzKkcLJAWff9NJJ2g/viewform?edit_requested=true
Welcome! I'm Leslie Cannum. I'm Mary Gavoni.
SPEAKER_03I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Juan, and together we are the Compliance Divas.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to the Compliance Divas Podcast. This is Linda Harvey, and I will be your moderator for this episode. If you are practicing and you're struggling with current loops and having ergonomic issues, neck pain, shoulder pain, we have some answers for you today. Our special guest, Dr. Zina Barry, is a dentist with over 25 years experience and she's a serial entrepreneural. As a matter of fact, she was recognized at the New York Summit recently as a champion of innovation with her new product called Z Loops. Welcome, Dr. Berry.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. I so appreciate being here today.
SPEAKER_01I'm excited to share this product because we know that so many practitioners, dentists, hygienists, and even assistants now are using loops, and we wonder well, how did we ever practice dentistry without loops? So to start us off, Olivia's going to ask the first question.
SPEAKER_03Once again, thank you, Dr. Berry, for joining us. We're so impressed with all your information and background. But I was curious what first sparked your interest in dentistry and how did that lead to you inventing the Z loops?
SPEAKER_00Well, I hope you're ready for this journey that I'm getting ready to take you on. So as a child, uh, I thought I wanted to be an artist. And I literally did a lot of artwork when I was a child. My mother was like, well, Zina, that sounds great. But artists don't really make money or become famous until after they're passed. And I thought as a kid, I thought, oh, no way, that's not for me at all. So I quickly abandoned that. But I really like the art part and being a creative person. And I think it was around about 12 years old, and I went to the dentist. This is during the time I'm probably dating myself, where you actually was allowed to take yourself out of school with a note. I was able to take a bus, go to the dental office, and then you go back to school. I'm like in the seventh or eighth grade. But during those times, it was very, very common that you can do that. And I remember going in there and I was like, you know what? I think I want to be a dentist. And I told the dentist that I was, you know, that was working on me. And he was like, oh no, I think, you know, you should go into teaching or be a beautician. And I thought, huh, no, I think I want to be a dentist. And I remember going home telling my mother that. And she said, if that's what you want to do, then you need to prepare yourself and do it. So I was really good at drawing, but I didn't like reading and doing all the other work. But she used that as a way to get me to become educated because if I wanted to be a dentist, I had to get those other things straight. Math and science was important. So I decided to take that path. And I became a dentist, you know, some years later. That passion was definitely ignited during those early years. But as I continued to practice, I realized the augmentering and things that I was wearing was something that needed to benefit me, number one, shouldn't cause me pain, number two. And number three, it shouldn't be so expensive that it prices me out of the arena. So when I started looking at my last 10 years of practice in dentistry, that's when I realized that some of the things that I was going through that something different needed to happen in regards to what I was wearing. And I started with the loops. And I remember drawing it on a napkin of my ideas. And my first idea was the neck battery pack and making sure that we had an option because the only other option was wearing a waist battery pack. Wearing a belt wasn't always something as females we did. And having another option seemed the a the natural way of processing to get to the next step. And although there's other ways of wearing battery packs, and the neck battery pack isn't, you know, as unique as other places that you can wear them. But the thing that I did recognize is the fact that it was painful to wear. It also caused some problems in regards to my neck and back alignment. And it also ergonomically wasn't working for me. So as things developed, I developed as well. And having the gesture control, being the component on my device that allows you to be hands-free became the moat that I was really looking for. And it was realized right after COVID. Because during COVID is when I said, okay, this whole touch and everything and having the aerosols, it was uh it was a nightmare in New York practicing during COVID. And that's when it really delved in for me that the gesture control makes a difference in not touching and not handling our loops while we're working. And particularly when we're working on a patient. I've had many a dental student reach over and move my glasses for me because I can't stop. I'm working, or I'm trying to readjust and I'm trying to pull my wire out, you know, these little wires. Well, you know, having a neck battery pack, there's no wire snorking through your body. So there's different options, and these options I created for us by us.
SPEAKER_03That's so impressive, Dr. Barry. And I love how you describe your early background as an artist, because I have said for years that dentists that are really good at their skill, they have a combination of being an artist, a scientist, a mechanic, an engineer, and you roll that all up together and you get a great clinician. And it's really amazing how you took that early art interest and were able to weave it into your profession of dentistry. So thank you for that explanation.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you, because that was the part I enjoyed the most when I when I went to dental school. Let me carve teeth, let me go work on teeth. And it came to didactic studies. I was like, oh, I need to go to the librarian.
SPEAKER_01Well, it served you well.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01I think that's fascinating as well, Dr. Barry. And there's so much to learn from the experience of others and what you've experienced and what we now want to share through Z Loops is just is phenomenal. You're giving back in a different way. Um, yes. So to that point, Mary has a question for you now about the Silicon epidemic.
SPEAKER_02Sure. I am so thrilled that you are addressing what you describe as the silent health epidemic among um dental professionals. And it's it's something that I tell people all the time when I'm lecturing on ergonomics, don't sacrifice your body to dentistry. It's not worth it. But they do. And they just don't think about it. They block out the discomfort in order to get the procedure done. So tell us a little bit more about your journey in developing this technology.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so like I said, you know, having the the personal pain points myself that I dealt with. So let me just take you through my journey. So as I you know was practicing dentistry and I graduated in the 90s, when I came out, loops weren't very common. And so within my first 10 years of practicing, loops came out. But when they came out, they were fixed, meaning that the loops themselves were in a fixed position and you had to find your object. That caused that neck and back misalignment in the early years. And you're right, Mary, that is something that we do ignore. Because in the very beginning, when you're practicing, you're trying to make sure you make payroll, you pay your rent, you know, you got to survive. The last thing you're thinking of is your personal health. That's something you think about as you move on in your career. And as I moved on in the career track in my next 10 years, I realized, oh, okay, I bought one pair of loops and I was like, oh, it satisfied this portion of what I needed. So it satisfied the magnification level that I needed. Then the next pair of loops, it addressed the lighting part of it. You know, I wanted brighter light, more consistent light, and battery light. And then, of course, my third pair of loops, I wanted to have the magnification adjustment at my disposal. So I felt like I was my test beta test study for my own company early on before I even knew that I wanted a company. And so as I'm doing these things, I'm paying attention now because now I am experiencing pain. Now I do have some things that I need to address because I didn't pay attention in my early years. And so, as my later years, I did start to pay attention and I started making those adjustments. And making those adjustments allowed me to develop the neck battery pack to give that option and to make sure that the comfortability of these loops were something that was of paramount. The lightness of it, the battery pack life lasting four to six hours. So the doctor doesn't have to worry about if they have a busy morning. And you know this happens all the time. We start out at eight o'clock in the morning, we're supposed to stop at 12. When does that ever happen? Dental assistants are running around setting up. We may get lunch at 1:30. So your battery life needs to last as long as you're working. So I want to make sure all of these pain points were addressed, making sure that I changed the deflection, making sure that the doctors had an option. The deflector prisms are on the market, making sure they're fitted into a boutique style frames to give you the maximum ability to have magnification between 2.0 and 8.0. I think we've covered the ground as far as magnification. But the light source, the light source is important. And that battery life to support at life source is important. And we have clear light, meaning that it doesn't give you shadows, it doesn't give you yellow hues or blue hues. So that when you're utilizing it, I'm not making a mistake when I hit the denton and I don't need to go any further. I know exactly where I'm at because I have clarity of color differentiation. I can see the enamel, I can see the dent. Those are two different colors. With clarity of light, now I can see it. I have the lightness of frames. I no longer have frames sliding down my nose like this. By the end of the procedure, I'm doing this, I'm doing it. Or I'm asking my assistant to come over my head and make these adjustments. Z-Loops is very light. You actually take a pair of frames that's very light, these are less than three ounces. Okay. And when you put them on, they don't cause any indentation in your nose, they don't slide down your face, and even with the light source added, it still does not give you the kind of weight that makes you feel like you have a helmet and you're playing football rather than practicing dentistry. I gotta tell you, Z loops and developing this whole process has been a journey. It's not been easy, but it's one that I really wanted to address to the community of dentists. Um, being female in this um particular profession hasn't always allowed me to have things that were made for me or comfortable for me. And that's what I wanted to change. And I wanted to give that back to make sure that we give the versatility to everyone in the profession to have something that is wearable for themselves.
SPEAKER_02Wow. You have it, it looks as if you thought of everything. When I remember the days of headlights or headlamps when we first started wearing them and you wore them over your head, and and people got headaches and they were hot, and it was and you had to plug into your light source. So if you forgot to unplug, then everything came off the counter when you got up to to go and check one of those hygiene patients, and it was just a nightmare. So, can you talk a little bit more about the prisms? Because this is such, I think, a critical thing. I've seen so many people develop neck problems from incorrectly calibrated loops. Right.
SPEAKER_00So, with loops, it's so important to have your deflection at 45 degrees. And this, like I said, prisms are made in this fashion now, and they come in different magnifications. But this deflection gives you the ability to look straight out without moving your neck. That means I'm looking forward, I'm able to keep my neck and back in straight alignment. So I'm gonna demonstrate it for you. So as you can see, I am looking out, but I have my neck and back in alignment. However, even though I'm in this position, I can still read very clearly. Our mission is to identify support and invest in high growth. So this is where the doctors need the most precision. We need to make sure the deflection is correct, 45 degrees. We need to make sure their interpupillary distance is measured correctly. That is the eye pupil to eye pupil. And with that, it gives you the working distance that's necessary for the doctor to operate without pain. And at a 3.0 magnification, your working distance is 450 to 550. So that gives the doctor the ability to work without any pain because the working distance has been established correctly based on that interpupillary distance. And everyone's interpupillary distance is different. One eye may be closer to the bridge of the nose, and this one may be further out. And that all needs to be captured in the loops when you order them to make sure the doctor has perfect position of the eyes. That is the one thing that I'm glad that we don't grow and change over time. Once we become adults, our craniums are set, our eyes don't move anymore. So, therefore, getting the PD correct from the very beginning is paramount to the success of the practitioner.
SPEAKER_01Now I'm gonna say, wow, because I think that is such phenomenal information, and I'm so excited about the the ability to improve our work-life health. And that is so important for the longevity for everyone who's so passionate about providing patient care, and oftentimes leads to the reason why sometimes careers get cut short, don't you find Dr. Berry?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes, yes, that that would be me.
SPEAKER_01That would be you. I was just talking to the preaching to the choir here. So so with that, so with that in mind, though, you created like a screening um questionnaire, and we're gonna include the link to that in the show notes so that way our listeners can take this questionnaire. But can you say a little bit about what that is so that when they go to this form and they fill it out, they will kind of I don't want to say too much, you describe it for us.
SPEAKER_00I don't want to give them the link. Yeah, no worries, no worries. Thank you, Linda, for that. Um, the questionnaire is a journey for the doctor to, or I should say any practitioner, dental assistant, hygienist, dentist, it doesn't matter. The journey is to understand the pain points that you're experiencing right now. So if you're wearing loops, you know, what are your pain points? If you're not wearing loops, what are your pain points? And if you're not wearing loops, why not? Because it is definitely a game changer in making sure that your efficiency and your procedures at its top level. So the pain points that we take through the journey are are your loops working for you or are they working against you? How long does your battery pack last? Is your PD um correctly calibrated? Are you able to use your loops throughout the day without any pain? Do you experience neck pain or back pain? Is your wires constantly um causing your battery pack to go slinging across the room? You know, all of these pain points are very important because even with that battery pack as an example, the waist battery pack that we break a lot, okay? If that is the case, then the neck battery pack may be a better option for them. But with Z loops, it doesn't matter because with Z Loops, you get a neck battery pack and a waist battery pack. Because I want to make sure I'm addressing both male and female options, not just making sure that they only have one option. And they get this at a value of $3,500. And they get both battery packs, gesture control, light, everything, the whole suit, nuts and bolts. Z Loops is here so that you can make sure that you have a system that you can stay with and you can live with from the beginning of your career until the end of your career.
SPEAKER_01Fantastic. Thank you. And with that, we just so appreciate you joining us today for this podcast. And before we wrap up, I will mention to our listeners that we'll include that link to that screen questionnaire so they can determine and identify some of the pain points that they are experiencing and really just take time to reflect on their own personal health. And as you mentioned, anybody who's currently wearing loops, dentist, hygienist, assistants, and those thinking about moving into the world of loops. And then we'll also include in the show notes a link to your website so they can reach out and contact you as well. So thank you for joining us. So as the compliance diva, thank you. So as the compliance divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating the regulatory world to keep you on focus. We ask you to subscribe to our podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecompliancedevas.com. All the resources that we mentioned today will be in the show notes, so don't forget to scroll down and check those important resources out. And you will also be able to leave us a like or a review or a comment as well. And we look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Thank you.