job description

I own and manage a full-service dental laboratory. The way it works is that you go to your dentist and he or she prescribes what needs to be done for your teeth. The dentist writes a lab slip, like a medical doctor would write you a prescription, which comes here to the dental lab. We manufacture crowns (artificial "hats" that are put on top of damaged teeth), bridges, dentures, and partial veneers (thin, custom-made materials that cover the front of the teeth and are painted to match the exact color of the surrounding teeth). Then, we send the product back to your dentist, who cements them into your mouth.

We work directly with dentists. We have over 400 dentists that we work with.

My specific job is to oversee all operations of the lab. This includes marketing, sales, payroll, and development strategies.

I spend most of my time coordinating. I make sure that cases (orders) leave and are delivered on time to the dentists. I problem solve, both in the lab and in the dental offices.

Today, for example, we had to deliver a bridge (a denture fixed in the mouth that replaces missing teeth) to a patient. Sometimes the bridges are left to cure (which is the process of changing the physical properties of a resin by chemical reactions, ultimately hardening the product) overnight. This morning, there was a crack in the porcelain of a bridge. It is no one's fault, it just happens sometimes. I decided that we would send half of the order to the patient today, and the other half we are going to work on and rush it, so that the patient will have it tomorrow.

The most satisfying aspect of my job is to have the dentist happy with the quality of the work. If the dentists are happy, that means that their patients are very happy. It gives me satisfaction to make sure that the patients are happy. We receive pictures from patients, and a lot of letters from doctors saying, "Thank you for your work" and "Thank you for doing this, the patient is happy." Patients have said before that because of us, their life has changed, or they used to be subconscious about smiling and put their hands over their mouths, but now they proudly let their teeth show. Dentists are especially grateful when they request fast turn around times and we accommodate their requests.

education & career path

I went to the University of California, Irvine (UCI), majoring in biological sciences and minoring in biochemistry. I also graduated from a police academy. I do not use the biochemistry degree - and I never have - but I do not regret studying it. I wanted to be a doctor at one time. I took the medical school test (the MCAT, specifically), and got accepted, but could not leave for various reasons, including the fact that my parents are older, and I was taking care of them. Because I could not go and pursue my dream, I switched to business. I did not get a Masters of Business (MBA). Everything I know in business was learned on the job.

When I was fourteen, I worked at an ice cream factory, making the ice cream. I worked at a service station fixing tires. I worked as an emergency room nurse for two years. Then I worked at a hospital in the human resources department. I did all of this was while I was going to school, attending UCI. I also worked as a banker, a real estate mortgage loan officer, and a cop. I worked as a real estate investor, holding a real estate license that I never used. At one time I owned 52 properties. I was in the gas station business thereafter. I owned a maintenance company with over 35 employees. The list goes on.

I have liked all the jobs I have had before. I learned something from every industry that I worked in, even when I got fired. (Laughs.) No, actually I never got fired. But, seriously, I like this work now. It is very satisfying.

Most businesses are the same. You need to be consistent and honest. You need to look at the long term, and not take short cuts. Remember, success is a journey, not a goal. Ultimately, I got out of the different industries for the challenge of doing something new.

I wanted to do something challenging that I had never done before and knew nothing about. It is stimulating for me to do something new, learning about it as I do it, and being able to excel at it. Everything else I thought of required knowledge of business, banking, etc, which I already had experience in, through working in various fields before. I wanted a challenge, something that I really knew nothing about. I started talking to people, and someone who works in the dental industry suggested, "Well, why don't you try dental?" I said, "Okay," and I did.

my day

I came to work in the morning, checked my email, and drank some coffee. Every day, I go on the Internet for a maximum of 30 minutes, regardless of what else is happening. I checked my email, which only takes about two or three minutes to check and send, because I do not get a lot of emails. Email is not my primary source of communication. I looked through a couple of cases (orders) that had problems or questions. My neighbor called me because his house alarm was sounding, so I drove one mile back home to help him turn it off. I came back to work, and finished working on an advertising brochure. Later today, I am going to return a car I rented. That is it for today. It is an easy day because it is the holiday season.

I am here everyday from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., five day a week. Of course, during the day, I leave to take care of various things. I do not punch a clock. I can sleep in if I want to, but I try to make it a habit to be here early.

My day provides a lot of variety and I enjoy this. Not one dentist that I talk to is exactly like another dentist; everybody has his or her own little differences. I enjoy the variety and I love coming to work.

My favorite part of working is the end of the day, when a whole day has gone by and I do not have any complaints. Sometimes, when a problem occurs with an order and they cannot solve it downstairs, it comes to me. For example, there might be a question on a particular charge or we cannot do a rush case (meaning four days or less) for a doctor. The doctor might want to try to override the time it takes for various reasons, like the patient is going into surgery or out of town. So I have to look at the schedule to see if we can comply and complete the order quickly. I am like the second coordinator between the dentists and the lab itself; if the problem cannot be solved by the other workers, I get involved. My phone hardly ever rings, but if it does it is usually a big problem.

salary & lifestyle

Someone who works as the general manager of a lab of this size could make about $160,000 to $190,000 per year.

I do not have a family, so I do not know about the family life. Socially, working with here has improved my life by allowing me to get to know dentists on a working level, learning how they work and how they run their businesses.

Yes, it does. The last time I took a vacation was probably three weeks ago. I went to Las Vegas. I take a vacation every month or so. Some are short vacations and some are long. Sometimes I am gone five days, and others times I am gone two weeks.

None, I made no sacrifices to work here. I live one mile away; I love it.

I am probably retiring sometime before the next ten years. I actually already retired when I was 27, from the gas station business, but I came back to work three years thereafter.

A good economy reflects back on the stability of this job. When the economy is good, employers hire more people, more people have insurance, more people go to the dentist, and more people at the dentists equals more cases or orders coming into the lab. It affects us in a positive or a negative way, depending directly on the economy. However, it is a low risk job because just as you need food or gas, you need to fix your teeth. Patients can put off cosmetic issues, but when they have pain or a cavity, then they have to fix their teeth regardless of the economy. The economy slows down our business a little, but it is not as affected as a more elastic businesses, such as a video rental store in a poor economy, which causes people to stop renting or find alternative means such as downloading videos more inexpensively online.

There are a lot of things that you can go into, but I think that I would go back into the dental industry.

pros, cons & trends

Yes. The dental industry is going from using materials made with porcelain fused to metal to a metal-free industry. For example, fillings used to be metal or metal and resin. Now it is all metal-free. There are fewer removable appliances like dentures, because more people are doing implants. (This means that they put a screw into the bone of the patient's jaw and put the implant on top of that.) In the future, a patient will be able to get his or her crowns at the dental office. The dentist will make them right there, and people will not need labs anymore. There will be no more labs around within the next ten years or so. The quality will probably be the same, or maybe better than the quality of the existing laboratories.

Yes, that is exactly why I plan on retiring soon. These transitions affect the way we are running the business. We don't want to push anything beyond ten years. For example, we are not taking out loans for more than ten years or writing things off for more than ten years. We are working within our current means.

Outsourcing is really bad for our industry because, for example, in order for a dentist to save $5 on a crown made in China, he or she is getting an inferior product. Additionally, the dentist does not know what the chemical composition of the crown is. Specifically, you do not know if the metal has lead in it. So what if you have a crown that has lead in it that is put into your mouth and it interacts with the saliva? It can slowly poison you for the next 20 or 30 years without you even knowing or feeling it. Foreign laboratories are not under direction of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) like U.S. laboratories. Besides that, if the lab does not have work, it will close down and Americans will lose jobs. On a large level, it is killing the economy of the country, but the dentists do not notice that, they just want to save $5.

Do some American labs also engage in partial outsourcing?
A: Yes, there are some labs that do a lot of outsourcing. I could make much more money doing this, just sending a driver to pick up the finished product, but that would leave my employees without a job and cause health concerns. If dentists do not know what is being put into their patients' mouths, they could slowly poison and weaken patients' bodies.

It affects us a lot. We are competing within highly regulated laws and procedures. The dental products that are being imported are not being regulated at all, neither at their point of origin nor once they reach the U.S. This creates a competition for us because we also have to pay worker's compensation and unemployment that businesses in other countries do not have to pay. We have had to cut our profit in order to compete, which has caused a lot of American labs to go out of business or to open labs outside of the country, hiring people from that country

advice

Learn as much as you can, and do not move up to the next step unless you know the previous step really well. A lot of employees come in and say, "I have been working four years and am a master of ceramics." We give them a job and they can only do 60 or 70 percent of the job that they are supposed to do, because they learned the step before, but they were not good at it so they just skipped to the next level.

I learned through hands-on training, by asking questions and analyzing. I set it up in my mind to learn everything I could about the industry. I am pretty good at picking up things very quickly.

Yes, a student can go to a lab and learn on the job how to become a dental technician (someone who makes dental appliances). A student can also go through a two or four year program, and get a bachelor's degree. If the student learns on the job, they are getting paid and can learn everything well. However, if the student gets a degree and does not like being a dental technician, he or she can go into something else more easily.

I wish I knew to be patient flexible, and to not demand that things be my-way-or-the-highway. For example, 15 years ago, I would make a decision that did not have the outcome I wanted. Sometimes, I needed the patience to wait and look at things from different directions and perspectives before making a different decision. Also, I had principles and ideas I wanted to stick to in business, and it cost me a lot of money in order to do exactly what I believe in. Now, I have learned to give and take, be politically correct, within the politics of business only. This is something I have learned within the last few years. Now I take care of Frankie first. I still have to force myself to do that.

Patience and planning have most contributed to my success. I have always planned what I want to do and where I want to be in ten years. Also, doing the right thing and never taking short cuts contributed because short cuts always come back to haunt you. The ability to read people's personalities in order to understand them and to adjust to that personality has also been a useful skill. This helps me make the right decision based on that person. For example, are they telling the truth? Are they sincerely promising you something? This has helped me make many decisions in the past.

Yes. I think I have lived the American Dream. Actually, I have lived my own dream. My dream was to be able to do what I wanted to do. Every since I was a little kid, I said that if I want to go out and become a fashion designer, I am going to go out and become a fashion designer, which I have also done before. I am very satisfied with my life.