HTM On The Line with BRYANT HAWKINS SR.

"Hidden Gems in HTM: Exploring the Booming Dental Equipment Repair Industry"

• Bryant Hawkins Sr. • Season 2 • Episode 13

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Are you ready to take your career to the next level? The dental equipment repair industry is an often-overlooked niche, even less known than the biomed field, yet it’s full of untapped potential and financial rewards. This hidden gem offers incredible opportunities for growth, whether you’re a seasoned biomed professional or just starting out.

Recently, I had the pleasure of discussing this exciting industry on my podcast, HTM on the Line, with three amazing guests: Oscar Gutierrez, a visionary entrepreneur; Matthew Lau, a dedicated biomed expert; and Bill Bassett, a pioneer in HTM. Their insights confirmed what I’ve long believed—this industry is not only ripe for innovation but also offers a chance to build a lasting legacy.

If you’re eager to explore new horizons, don’t miss out! Tune in to the latest episode of HTM on the Line to hear firsthand how you can break into this promising field. 

And if you’re inspired, Plan to attend UptimeServices Summit in Nashville, TN, from October 3-6. This is your chance to connect with industry leaders, gain hands-on experience, and start your journey in dental repair. The time to act is now!

Let’s push the boundaries of what’s possible in HTM together. 

"We are immensely grateful to our partners—The College of Biomedical Equipment Technology, A.M. Bickford, UptimeServices, PM Biomedical and Talent Exclusive—for their support in making this podcast possible. Their dedication to advancing the Healthcare Technology Management industry is truly commendable. For more information about their contributions and services, please visit their websites:



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Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Welcome to HTM on the Line, the podcast that is for HTM by HTM. I'm your host, bryant Hawkins Sr. And today we're exploring an industry that's often overlooked but overflowing with potential the dental equipment repair industry. Whether you're a seasoned biomed professional or someone just starting out, this episode will open your eyes to opportunities you never knew existed. We've got three incredible guests with us today Oscar Gutierrez, a visionary entrepreneur who's building a legacy in dental repair. Matthew Lau, a seasoned bowel man who's found new life in the dental world. And Bill Bassett, a pioneer in the HTM industry. Together, we're going to explore the untapped potential of dental repair, how it can elevate your career and why now is the time to get involved. So get ready for a conversation that could change the course of your professional journey. Welcome to HTM On the Line. I have three special guests with me today. I have Oscar Guterres, bill Bassick and Matthew Lau. But first, before we get into this conversation, I want you guys to just tell me a little bit about yourself. We'll start with you first, oscar.

Oscar Gutierrez

So my name is Oscar Gutierrez. I've been in the dental industry for about 15 years now. I started the dental world back at Patterson Dental when I started. Let me bring that back Before Patterson Dental. I started with a small company locally. We grew that company and then we sold, went to go work for Patterson a couple years. Finally I started my company five years ago and now I'm in lead dental equipment repair. We basically service most of Texas. We service a lot of DSOs. We're up to 25 technicians right now within the five years, and recently we just hired two more technicians as well too. And here we are today.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you, matthew, can you?

Matthew Lau

tell us about yourself, sir. Absolutely, you bet so. I did 22 years as a biomed in the United States Air Force. I taught for six years biomed for Department of Defense. When I retired from the military I went to work with a company called Dental.

Matthew Lau

Fix. I created their well, I shouldn't say I created. I improved their training program for their franchisees. I was with the company for roughly two years. I started. I actually bought a franchise, ran that for roughly four years, sold the franchise still was basically doing both working at corporate and I had the repair business. Sold that directions. I partnered with a friend in a biomed company. We're doing government contracts Went very, very well. We basically parted ways and I was trying to figure out my next chapter in life and that's when I received the phone call from Uptime saying basically that they wanted to create a new system in the dental world and basically creating what the biomed world had for the dentists and I just got really excited and then I decided, well, okay, this is my next chapter in life. So now I'm a senior operations manager there and I also work with the CBEC College and we're creating an actually accredited, certified dental equipment repair program. I couldn't be more excited about it.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Thank you very much, and we're going to round this off with Mr Bill Bassick. Everyone knows you, bill, but give us some information.

Bill Bassuk

Hello everyone, I'm Bill Bassick. I've been in the industry numerous years I don't want to say how many specifically gives my age away but I started off doing specialized equipment in laboratory and from there I went to biomed, became a manager, worked that for about five years and then started my own business, cer Technology, a service repair company in medical devices, and then I became the founder of CBET and I met Uptime Services. I met Ganesh and really liked his ideas that he had, and once he took over the company we went ahead and signed an agreement with him and started Root Dental. So not only do we run a medical service company, but we also have a dental service company, and one of the things I'm here to discuss on this podcast is the benefits of biomeds getting into dental and why they should.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Thank you very much. Why do you think the dental industry is not known as far as being a repair option for biomed technicians?

Bill Bassuk

Now we're trying to fill slots for all these people retiring. Well, the dental industry. The only exposure I ever got from dental industry as a biomed tech was through the military school, and so I think if they were out there to advertise more about dental and why people should get into it, maybe more people would take a look into it. Oscar has a different story, how he got into the field. He wasn't a biomed. He went directly to dental because he went directly to the OEM schools. But biomeds don't really know how to get into this or where to get training at. The only place I know right now where to get training for dental repair equipment was the military. Or you have to go to an OEM to get some sort of certification. Besides our school now the College of Biomedical Equipment Repair, which are technology, which is going to start teaching dental here in the next couple of months.

Oscar Gutierrez

And also Billy too. I mean, when people ask what are you doing, you tell them you're a dental technician. They have no clue exactly what a dental technician is. They think we work inside a lab or making crowns in a dental office. So I mean, people don't know about this. You know, they don't know about everything that requires to be a dental technician, all the way from, like, compressors, vacuum, extras. I mean it's, it's a lot. But, like Bill said, you know, I feel like there should be more schools out there, cause if you try to look for for a biomed dental school, how many schools out there? Really none. I mean most of the people that you talk to in the dental world they learn everything from, uh uh, going to work for one of the big companies and getting training on the job or being sent out to the different manufacturers to get trained.

Matthew Lau

Correct. And to add on to that equation, the dental industry is very political, extremely political, and it's controlled by three major companies and those three major companies do a great job at controlling the equipment sales, the supply market.

Matthew Lau

They control the industry. So you know what the shift now is is. You know, thanks to Bill, thanks to Uptime for coming in and saying look, we're going to make people aware of this industry and we're going to help them get into this industry, we're going to give them the education they need, we're going to give them the access they need to the parts, to the equipment, and we're going to help them basically make a lot, a lot of money. I'm pretty sure Oscar is doing OK right now and I have no bills doing okay right now.

Oscar Gutierrez

So, and in top of just like making a lot of money, I mean you know it's helping the clients. I got let go from one of the big companies because they way, they the way they work right. It's just a completely different animal. For a long time, yes, those big three companies were just controlling the market, and even nowadays too, I mean there's a lot of manufacturers out there that you can call in and they won't give you support.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Let me ask you guys this question. I guess I'll ask you, Oscar, if we're talking to the power meds out there, what are some of the positive things? We're talking about the challenges here? What could we tell a power med that would attract him to want to get into dental repair? And I'll give each one of y'all a chance to answer it after Oscar.

Oscar Gutierrez

I mean I guess everybody has different goals, right? I mean I'm trying to build a legacy, I'm trying to build something. The way I see it is it's late for me, but I'm trying to build something for my kids, kids, kids, like, I'm trying to build something that goes for generations. Right, and as long as you do it right, this field can make you a lot of money. All right, um, I'm going with the five years. Uh, with the company, um, I, just, like I said, I just hired my, my number 25th employee, um, and just bought two more uh, uh, or transit events to put them out in the road. If you get the right training, if you follow the right training, if you follow the right directions, man, you can grow.

Oscar Gutierrez

And there's a lot of business out there for the dental world. If you drive around, there's probably five, six dental offices within the next two, three blocks. I mean there's so much dental offices in Dallas-Fort Worth, in Texas and basically just everywhere. They're opening daily. When I was at Patterson one year just one year this is before COVID we did $55 million as a branch. I mean just Dallas-Fort Worth. Can you just imagine this? Everything that is out there that we're not even touching. So I mean there's so much opportunity for the biomets out there because people don't know about this industry and nobody else is teaching it my introduction to where the money really was in this industry happened while I was still in the military.

Matthew Lau

I had gone. I was contacted basically by a friend who worked for a dentist who had their sterilizer basically go down, and she called me. He's like hey, maddie, can you fix our sterilizer? I was like, yeah, I can fix a sterilizer all day long, no problem. So I went into the office, I looked at the sterilizer. I knew that I didn't have the parts to fix it, so I asked her you know, will the doctor let me take it? And she said, oh, I can fix this all day long, no problem. He said, okay, well, what's it going to cost me? And I truly was doing this as a favor for my friend and I told the doctor that he goes. Well, that's a lot better than $180 an hour. I get charged now. And I was like what? And he said, yeah, the company I use charges me $180 an hour. And I was blown, absolutely blown away, and that's where I decided, okay. So what most biomass don't realize is I mean, we have the skillset to work on dental In the military. There's no differentiation between dental.

Oscar Gutierrez

Plus. You're forgetting the travel charge that everybody charges.

Matthew Lau

Correct and the travel charge on top.

Oscar Gutierrez

Yes, sir, the travel charge is basically you're booking, you're calling to book an appointment and automatically everybody charges $75.

Matthew Lau

Yep Before they even walk in the door.

Oscar Gutierrez

Correct.

Matthew Lau

You know, in the military there's no differentiation between medical and dental equipment. We treat it as the same creature. For some reason that's different. So, as a biomed, most biomeds have the troubleshooting skills and the whatever we're going to call it the mindset to repair dental equipment. They just don't think about it because they haven't been trained on it. What they don't realize also is the startup costs.

Biomed Transition to Dental Equipment Repair

Matthew Lau

To get started in the dental world are literally a quarter and I know Bill can speak on this a quarter of what it is to start a biomed company, but your hourly rate is 25 to 50% higher than what it is in the medical world. So it's it's to me it's a. It's a very easy transition for a biomed. It's just, you know, again, all goes back to the training. It's not even training, it's exposure. You know, getting exposed to the equipment, how it works, how it operates. And they, most bio meds we work with, realize real quick that it's, it's not complicated equipment, it's just something that haven't dealt with. And once they wrapped your head around it, boom, their business blows up and they, they take on the best, one of the best things about also the dental world.

Oscar Gutierrez

you can call any manufacturer most of them 80, and they will provide you with technical service, like they will walk you through everything, like every single thing. It was step by step. You just gotta be patient. But I mean, there's a beautiful thing about dental world, right? And then again, uh, starting a dental company. I got fired from one of the companies and on the first three months I had no clue what to do. Finally, october 1st, I decided to open up my own repair service, dental repair service company, and I probably had left about $1,500 in my bank account and purchased a 1998 Ford truck, went to go buy a couple of tools at Home Depot and and I started knocking doors. That's how I started and you don't really need not much money to get started.

Bill Bassuk

What's your thoughts, bill, my thoughts on it. They're both spot on with that. The other thing that I would say to encourage biomed is that they want to make a difference and truly change an industry. The dental field is not regulated like the biomed. There are no, I don't know they do PMs, but none of them are really required. They're a reactive industry right now, and one of the reasons we got into it as a biomed company was to change the reactiveness to being proactive, thus saving the dentist more money. Because of their proactive, their equipment don't break as quickly or at all, for that matter. And so my thought was is I truly want to make a difference? So we we spoke with the ADA, shared our vision with them, our business plan. They loved it and we want to make a difference in the industry, not only for ourselves by, you know, earning a good living but also for the patient, making sure that they're safe.

Bill Bassuk

Right now, with the industry without it being regulated, there is that little bit of liability of patient safety when it comes to dental devices.

Bill Bassuk

But when the biomed comes in and we do everything according to the standards that we're used to doing having the verification checklist I know Oscar's company does that, having the verifications checklist and all this stuff and then telling the dentist the benefits of PM contracts and having someone truly look over their equipment, and then with the sophistication of the database that we now have from Uptime Services, it makes all the difference in the world. So I would encourage every biomed technician to at least take a look in dental, not just to start their own business. The business is not for everyone. Maybe they just want to work on dental equipment, which it is easier than medical equipment in some areas. Some areas could be just as sophisticated with their imaging that they have and their lasers that they work on. But it's a different specialty and I would highly encourage anyone to at least take a chance to look in the dental, whether they want to do it as a technician or start their own business doing it. Very good point, bill. Very good point.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Let me ask you this question because we get this a lot in the hospital. Let me ask you this question because we get this a lot in the hospital when they become, when they refer to dental equipment, I admit this, but we don't really look at it as something that's going to say life support.

Oscar Gutierrez

So it might not get as much attention as a?

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

ventilator. But how do dental professionals, doctors, practices? How do they typically view the repair side of their practice?

Bill Bassuk

Is it something that they look at as a?

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

critical component, or is it something that they often overlook?

Bill Bassuk

No, when they go have a device that is down, they want service right away. They want it stat just like a doctor in the ER would, because to them that's their livelihood. So they have a compressor that's down, they're not able to work on patients, they're losing revenues every day. So to them it's life-saving. You know, maybe not as life-saving as what you're saying to an anesthesia equipment, but it's just as important to them as it would be.

Oscar Gutierrez

And you also got to think about something. There's dental practices, a lot of the private-owned dental practices. It's not like a hospital where you know most of the dentists I mean most of the doctors they go work for the actual hospital, but the dentist is also the owner of the practice, so he has a lot more in his plate. He needs to make sure that that equipment is working right, to be able to make payroll, to pay rent. I mean, there's so many things behind it as well too, and that's why, if they have one room that is down, that's basically, you know, pushing their schedule back and they're not able to perform like they're supposed to.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Well, let me ask you this question. We're talking about equipment and things of that nature. We touched on it a little bit with educating, making people aware of the industry. What ways could y'all think of ways of making it aware? Besides, maybe, a podcast, is there any other avenues you might want to take? Well, let me ask you this Do they have something called like a? We have a biomate associations. Do they have a dental association? No, we have a biomate associations. Do they have a dental association?

Oscar Gutierrez

No, I don't think so.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

No.

Oscar Gutierrez

I don't think so. No, there there is. There is something out there that is uh, on social media that I had actually met so many, uh, dental owners or, um, independents we'll call them independents Um, I think mainly social media will be a great deal to like. Let other people know. You know what's out there as well too.

Matthew Lau

And the big thing we're doing at Uptime Services is this year we're having our summit in Nashville October 3rd through the 6th and we're inviting every biomed we can get there, because we want to make people aware of this industry and we want to let them know hey, if you need training, we can get you manufacturers training. You can go to the CBEC College for training, we'll get you trained. We'll get you the access to the vendors you need access to. To actually again to Bill's point, not everybody wants to be a business owner, but there's a lot of companies out there that if you, as a motivated biomed, go to your boss and say, hey, look, we have this opportunity to make, you know, several hundreds of thousand dollars extra by going into this dental world. I'll get trained on this and I'll be the lead tech and I can you know.

Matthew Lau

So, yeah, we, I am absolutely jazzed, being a biomed at heart but working in the dental world, I'm just super, super excited about this year's summit and, you know, getting the Oscars of the world, the bills of the world, talking to the biomeds and saying, hey, look, this is an easy industry to get into, you can make a lot of money. Or you know, it's the bills's point and Oscar's point. At the end of the day, it's not just about making the money, it's taking care of the customer. So yeah, again, I'm really excited about this year's summit.

Bill Bassuk

The other thing I would suggest, brian, is if people in the dental industry would advertise through MD Publishing or the 24-7 in the journals that we have in the biomed industry, that would get more exposure too. Now MD Publishing is in Nashville, matt, just so you know, and it might be a good idea to talk to John Krieg, who's the owner of that, and invite him to your trade show and, if anything, I can maybe give him a call too and see what he says. But that would be one way to start. And then he gets exposure. He's a businessman, businessman, and he'll think how he can incorporate and get you guys much more exposure than what you're getting now.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Awesome, awesome. Do you guys think about reaching out to the biomed associations? I?

Bill Bassuk

have done that, brian. I've reached out to a few. I've reached out to about four companies now that are highly interested in getting into dental, but what we're trying to do before they do get into it is have it set up where we can get them trained correctly, instead of waiting for specific dates from the OEMs. Right now, our college has agreements with numerous manufacturers, along with Uptime Service. We work with the same manufacturers. They've been donating equipment, and Oscar's willing to donate equipment, matter of fact.

Bill Bassuk

That's what we're going to talk about in the next week, oscar and myself, and then we can start the training immediately. We've already developed the courses. What we need now is just the hands-on equipment for them to go to a place whether it's Oscar's facility or the college and get them trained fairly quickly. No one's going to get trained overnight. It doesn't work that way. They got to at least be in the field for three months to feel comfortable. That's just the way it is when you learn something new. But we'll have the fastest way of getting them from ground zero to being able to hit the streets running repairing dental equipment fairly quickly.

Oscar Gutierrez

And it's funny that you say that because, like a lot of my guys that I actually have worked for me or work for me right now, I will say maybe 80% of them they never done dental. They learn everything from me, I. They come work for me the first three months when they're fresh. They ride with me every day because I'm still out there in the field. Uh, they, they're with me basically every day for three months. Um, the first couple of weeks I, I'm doing the work, they just kind of like shout on me. Then I started, uh, hands-on. It's like all right, remember this. Yeah, okay, I want you to do this, I want you to do this, I want you to do that. And it's not hard, I mean, as long as you have good training and that's what Uptime will do for you. They will go ahead and make sure that they give you the requirement training, help you to get the correct training with the manufacturers and you're set.

Oscar Gutierrez

I mean, if a lot of these biomed companies are really doing biomed and fixing beds, fixing hospital sterilizers, there's really nothing different to a dental chair, a dental unit. I mean, I don't find it hard at all Ourselves we do work with several hospitals that we do some medical equipment. We also work with a lot of veterinarians, that we do a lot of their vet equipment. That is all very similar to each other. There's really nothing different about it. So I would definitely definitely recommend a lot of the biomed companies out there to look into the dental world, because it's a different animal but it's not hard at all.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Oscar, it's like you inside my head, man. I was just about to talk about the veterinarian world, because that's exactly they have the same thing. I know dogs go get their teeth cleaned. You know people have dogs. They cook their teeth clean. So they have dental equipment also. Honestly, I don't know anybody. I mean, power med is a field that's not really broad known about, but dental is probably 10 times yeah, it is 10 times less.

Bill Bassuk

The problem with dental right now is some people may be just they could be the office janitor and they get trained that way on site and there's nothing wrong with that. But no one tests them. Once they feel like they're trained, they're released. Oscar truly tests his technicians. He does not cut them loose unless he knows that they know what they're doing.

Oscar Gutierrez

And we do training every Friday. Every Friday every Friday Sometimes there's days that we skip something. Basically, at 3 o'clock we cut. We cut our schedule three to five. All the guys come in, we start talking about our week. We may, we might, pick a piece of equipment. We start talking about our week and I start going around the room. So what problem that you're running this week that you have never done before or you have never deal with before. And the conversation starts and one guy starts telling the other guy oh yeah, I've done this before. You should do this next time. That's how you learn. That's how I keep my team. I might give you my secrets, but that's how I keep my team up to date, because we learn from each other. Every day is a learning process in this industry. Every day you learn something new, every day.

Bill Bassuk

One of the things, too, that we would encourage bio-meds to get into dental is they're not going to be on their own Between Uptime Services, elite Dental, our college and the people that I know willing to support anyone that gets into it, not saying financially but technically, and give them advice and just to help them out.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Now I'm going to ask you this question, matthew. You can probably answer it. What is your vision for the future of the dental repair issue? Not the repair industry, but the dental repair industry. How do you see it in the future?

Building Stronger Dental Repair Relationships

Matthew Lau

So Bill kind of touched on it. And again, as biomeds you know, we're used to whatever piece of equipment, x has to be PM every six months, has to be calibrated once a year. That's, that's just our world and that's how we operate. The dental world is absolutely reactive. They use their widget, they use their widget, they use their widget, they use their widget, they use their widget. It could be up to five, maybe even 10 years before somebody actually goes in and does a PMI. So the doctor keeps using it, using it, using it, using it, using it, and it breaks Again.

Matthew Lau

The big suppliers in the industry that's what they want, because Oscar kind of touched on this part of it where they want the doctor to use that piece of equipment for 10 years and when it breaks, their tech goes in and says, oh, it's obsolete, you need a new one, and they sell them a new one. Goes in and says, oh, it's obsolete, you need a new one, and they sell them a new one. What we want to change is creating an actual maintenance cycle, which we were actually working on this already, creating maintenance cycles for dental equipment where you can go to the doctor and say, hey, doctor, look, we're going to come in every six months. We're going to go through everything in your office, top to bottom. We're going to log it, we're going to document it and we're going to make sure that it doesn't break ever. You're going to have this piece of equipment that you normally would use for 10 years. You may get 20 years out of it, because now it's actually being maintained.

Matthew Lau

So, you know, the technician, the dental repair business. However we're going to look at it, they win because they have constant business. The doctor wins because we're saving him money, because he's not having to buy his equipment all the time when it breaks. We're helping him make it last longer. So, to use Ganesh's scenario, he wants to create, or we want to create, a world where one plus one equals three, where everybody wins.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

In this scenario, Right Bill, I got one for you. You always the evolving brain thinking. How do you see this industry evolving and what steps you think need to be taken to ensure that it continues to get the recognition deserves? Because they haven't got there yet, but we talk in future. No steps we think we could take that can ensure that recognition continues to stay right there in the dental all right.

Bill Bassuk

There's a few things that I I looked at in this industry. First of all, to be successful, we have to be engaged with the industry not just from technicians, but with dentists. Right, we have to do a paradigm shift with the way that they think. Right now they think if I'm not paying for service, I'm saving money. When my equipment breaks, I'll call. We have to let them know your equipment is going to break a lot if it's not BMPM, and they know that the older equipment does. Going to break a lot if it's not BMPM'd and they know that the older equipment does. If it's BMPM'd correctly and they have us watching over their equipment the technicians that repair it we'll be able to show them like a business plan that reduces their costs. They can see how much downtime they had versus when they didn't have the proactive ways of working on equipment. The other thing to involve is we've been working with the ADA and they're very supportive of our vision.

Bill Bassuk

The ADA is trying to get more revenue as well.

Bill Bassuk

I think they said that they were at 60 percent and they want to be at 100 percent, with all dentists getting involved with it.

Bill Bassuk

So what we're going to try to do is work a cost share where we they lower the cost to become an ADA member with the ADA and they get their benefits from that.

Bill Bassuk

The dentist gets their benefits because now if they choose our company to work with, we automatically sign them up with the ADA.

Bill Bassuk

So the other thing that we're going to do is try to get newsletters out through e-blast to the dentist, saying or like what I'm going to do now is I have fortunately, I have a dentist that lives across the street who's a head of like 50 dentists in an association, and so I'm going to be able to speak to them and educate them. So one of the things that we need to do is go to the shows where the dentists go to and teach them and educate them on the benefits of being proactive. I believe this will be easier done with the newer dentists out there, like as they graduate, startup, but there's larger corporations now buying up these newer dentists. You know they're paying off their loans because it costs them like five, 600,000 to get their degree, so they they want as expenses, to be as low as possible when they start their office. So that's one of the things we have to educate dentists to show them all the positives of having a proactive maintenance repair versus a reactive.

Oscar Gutierrez

So that's and also again too, the reason where a lot of these dentists are not doing that is because, I mean, for a very long time, all you had was the big companies, right, and the hourly rate was ridiculous. I mean, matthew, I believe you touched about this, but nowadays it ranges between $380 to $450 an hour Just for them to walk in the first hour. Either they do any, they flip a switch, they do whatever. It is they charging you that first hour, no matter what. That's another reason dentists are scared to call any of the manufacturers. They just wait until it's broken in order for them to call anybody, or they try to fix it themselves.

Oscar Gutierrez

Independents out there, to you know, help them and at a better hourly rate and maybe even sometimes doing better, better work, better job, because industry is changing. I know a lot of technicians out there. They work for the companies. They have no clue what they're doing. They hire them and they throw money in the streets. That's it Like go do, go do what you got to do, and a lot of the guys are trained to. They walk into an office and like, oh, it was broken, buy a new one. That's it Like go do what you got to do and a lot of the guys I train to. They walk into an office and like, oh well, it's broken, buy a new one. That's it. They're not service technicians. And a lot of the biomed guys I believe they're very well knowledgeable that I think they can get the right training and have a great career in biomed dental.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Let me ask you this question. Oscar says it seemed like you'd be on the front line more than your other two counterparts here. How can you build a stronger relationship between the dental practice and the dental repair technician? How would you suggest that? How would you build that relationship? Because all the dentists not neighbors like build neighbor. So how can you suggest that? How would you build that relationship? Because all the dentists not neighbors like build neighbor. So how can you build that? How can you get that relationship built? Because you repair the equipment, yeah, but as we all know, you have to build that relationship in order for you to keep going back. So what would you suggest to? We talk into the dental repair people at the moment? What could you suggest to a company? How can they build a stronger relationship with the practice? What could?

Oscar Gutierrez

you suggest to a company, how can they build a stronger relationship with the practice? I mean, one of the things that I do and I tell my guys all the time Before you leave the office, make sure you talk to a dentist. Hey, sir, we came in, we took care of this, we got you up and running. Hope you have a nice day and always introduce yourself to the office manager and ask him how's your day going. You know, and just let them know that you're there, because a lot of people walk in, walk out and that's it. They don't know who you are. They got to know you by name.

Dental Industry Career Opportunities

Oscar Gutierrez

Honestly, I think I'm to the point where I have about 8,000 plus offices that we service. We service a lot of the big DSOs and I can promise you that I can walk in any of my offices. Well, I call them my offices, right, but I can walk in any of my office and everybody knows who I am. We know who Oscar is. They know me because I've been there. I walked in there before. There's times where I'm driving by and I stop by. Hey, how you guys doing Everything. You need Nothing. Okay, cool, nice to see you. Bye. It's more of, instead of being a corporation, more personalized, and I do talk a lot, so I share a lot of my stuff, but I mean you just have to have more of a personalized relationship instead of just being a number.

Bill Bassuk

That's one of the reasons I'm so successful too, because he's got personal. The dental world is much more relational than the biomedical world. Dentist offices are all based on relationships, you know, and you got to say what you do, or do what you say. If you don't, that'll ruin your reputation with the dentist.

Oscar Gutierrez

So if you promise the dental world is so big that, at the same time, the commuter is so small. It's so so small. I got business from a dental group it's kind of like the dental moms dental moms group. I got business and I literally picked up about 36 offices just because we did something for a doctor and she gave us a good review on her dental page, her dental group. The next day we they were calling us. Hey, we need you to come out. I was like we heard about you and that's all you have to do. Just do one right thing and then we'll all talk to each other.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Let's see Oscar, that's the key point there to bring an awareness to the dental repair industry. Because by you having good customer service, that's raising that profile of the dental repair industry, because someone is going to say, oh man, my guys that repair my equipment is awesome. So that might inspire someone to want to get into this industry because you get all those positive reviews coming from people saying how great you take care of the equipment. So you having that relationship with the client is extremely important to bringing awareness. Now let's shift back to uptown services here. I know Matthew mentioned and Bill talked about this summit coming up. Let's talk about that a little bit. The summit I think you said October 3rd and 4th, I think you mentioned.

Oscar Gutierrez

What's going on?

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Yeah, what's going on at this summit? Give me a little walk by. I'm a bowel man. I'm curious about coming to it. What about coming to it?

Matthew Lau

So at the summit we're going to have multiple, multiple equipment vendors, we're going to have industry leaders, we're going to have basically anybody who's interested in the dental equipment repair industry. They will be able to get any question asked at this summit. At this summit, Again, what I'm most excited about is making the connections with the biomeds and the dental repair guys. Simply because, to Oscar's point, the dental repair community is a very, very tight-knit community and we're all willing. There's so much pie to go around. We're all willing to help each other out, to teach each other, to help each other get started.

Matthew Lau

That making the connection with you know a biomed call it in San Antonio, biomed in Dallas, wherever you know Bill or Oscar are, make that connection. So you know, say Oscar's got an oral surgeon and he's got a physiological monitor. Well, you know, oscar's guys may not know how to calibrate that physiological monitor, but making the connection between him and the biomed, now he can take care of that customer better because he's got a connection. The biomed on the flip side he starts saying okay, you know what I, oscar, is it okay if you know, joey rides with you for a week just to see what this is all about? I know cause Oscar has done it already.

Matthew Lau

I know Oscar would be willing to do that. I'm sure Bill would have his, his guys do that. So, yeah, making the connection with the biomeds and the dental guys, then making the connection with the equipment vendors out there and saying, hey look, if you need whatever this widget, here's the company to talk to. They got the best widget available. Things as simple as you know, how do I get my business insurance? Well, we can help them out with that. We plan on having tool vendors there. It's it's anything somebody wants to know about becoming or going into the dental repair industry. We are going to have it at this summit and it's going to be a whole lot of fun too.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

What if you're a biomed that works for in-house program or ISO? Can they get training or some type of assistance to go back to their hospital and start repairing equipment?

Matthew Lau

Absolutely, and this goes back to what Bill was saying earlier. You know, not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, Not everybody is built for it. But for a we'll call it an in-house biomed say they're working at a facility that has a dental clinic or they have an oral surgeon, whatever the case may be, yes, we can get them trained, we can get them spun up, and now that healthcare organization wins because now they're not having to outsource at you know, like Oscar said, $300 an hour they have an in-house guy. So now their equipment gets maintained and their equipment, when it does break, it gets repaired a heck of a lot faster.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Most importantly, it gets repaired a heck of a lot cheaper will they be able to get parts from, because they're not part of the OEM, so they can get repair parts to fix the equipment.

Oscar Gutierrez

Yeah, man, there's a lot of things out there. I mean even there's manufacturers, and one of the things that I tell dentists, when a lot of the big companies they say, oh well, yeah, you're going to buy this chair that is no longer manufactured, yeah, but there's companies out there, third-party companies, and they still make the parts. When you buy a car after your warranty expires, do you go back to the dealership every time? No, you don't. You go to AutoZone, you go to O'Reilly's. I mean there's a lot of companies out there that you can buy the brakes from the tires, whatever. Same thing on the dental world. I mean there's companies out here that they make parts for those chairs and a lot of those parts are universal. They basically a syringe is a syringe, right, a water reel is a water reel, it will work and it will fit. And most of those big companies they use the same ones.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Right All right guys. We're going to kind of wrap this up and what I want you guys to do, each one of you two. We probably have some bio match listening. I want you to talk as if you're talking directly to them and share with them why the dental industry can be a great option to get involved with. We'll go with you first, bill.

Bill Bassuk

All right, that sounds good. Well, it's different. For one, I believe, the dental field is less stressful than the biomed field. You don't have to worry about 24-hour coverage. They usually don't call you in the middle of the night. It's very rare if they do. Second of all, there's more money to be made in dental than there is in general biomed, because every time a piece of equipment is sold, if the lead came from you, you actually, the way the dental industry set up, you get a commission off of that. So that's kind of nice.

Bill Bassuk

Now, if you're an in-house person, you may have to negotiate something with your boss. You know, do a business plan with your boss. You know, do a business plan. And if I'm a boss and someone comes to me and says, hey, I'd like to work on equipment and I can sell like five sterilizers in six months, you know, is there anything extra? Of course I'm going to incentivize them, you know, give them incentives to want to sell, because the more stuff that's sold, the more they can make. So it's just different than the medical repair industry. To me it's a lot of fun, it's exciting, it's challenging, and the fact that there's a lot of fixing to be done, not only just with the equipment, but with the way the industry thinks. That's a challenge for me and it's. I think the biomeds would be a great added value in the dental field. They're just unaware of it. They're not exposed to it because I didn't get exposed to it until last year.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

So yeah, that's a great point. You mentioned about fixing the equipment and you're fixing the mindset of the end user. So great point, oscar. You're talking to a bio-med now. Man, what would you tell them to come join you?

Oscar Gutierrez

Like Bill said, I mean there's a lot of money to be made out there. I mean, before I started this, yes, I was making okay money, good money, but in the last five years, yes, I put a lot of hard work into this, but I mean, ever since I started my own company, life changed completely changed For me, for my kids, for my family, not just for me but for my employees. Right, I mean, if you're looking for, like, a career where you know you're going to stay here for a long time, this is it. And right now the industry is changing. The time to jump on this is now. It's today. There's so many dental offices opening from left to right. I'm going to add something to this, all right, within five years. Add something to this, all right, within five years. Okay, I just purchased my second Lamborghini, so you just tell me how good of a you know career this is. So I'm just going to leave it at that.

Matthew Lau

Man, I thought that was a Pinto Oscar, yeah.

Oscar Gutierrez

So I want my second one, just so that way mean, if you put hard work to it, it will pay off yeah, yeah.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

I like the part you mentioned about you sharing your secrets. You can share all the secrets in the world, but if they don't have the work, I think exactly yes, sir.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

Yeah, well, man, we could have probably went on another two, three hours, man, so we got to do this again, but I thank you for coming on and you're welcome to come back anytime we can go into more detail, because it looks like you guys have so much to share. We probably can talk about one topic for the whole hour, and so maybe that's something we can look into, because this is I thought baume was the only thing unknown. This, this is amazing Something that's less known than Baomed.

Bill Bassuk

Yeah, crazy right.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

I appreciate you guys and you're welcome to come back anytime. Thank you, you guys have a good evening.

Bryant Hawkins Sr.

You too, thank you, and that wraps up another enlightening episode of HTM on the Line. I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our guests, oscar Gutierrez, matthew Lau and Bill Bassick for sharing their invaluable insights and experiences. Their stories are a powerful reminder that opportunities are everywhere, even in the most unexpected places. If today's discussion sparks something in you, don't let it in here. The dental repair industry is not just a career option. It's a path to building a legacy, making a difference and achieving financial success. Remember, the time to act is now. If you're eager to explore the world of dental repair, don't miss the Uptime Services Summit in Nashville, tennessee, from October 3rd through the 6th. This event is your opportunity to connect with industry leaders, explore vendor innovations, gain hands-on experience and take your first step into the dental repair industry. As always, thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave us a review and share it with your network. Stay inspired, stay curious and, until next time, keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in healthcare technology management.

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Bryant Hawkins Sr.

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