Author: Sara Jung

[00:00:00.160] – Dr. Ken Serota

I had an opportunity today, actually I had an opportunity yesterday to meet Uli Volz and the conversation was supposed to be about SDS, you know, SWISS DENTAL SOLUTIONS. But it has turned into this incredible discussion about the mind. We’re not talking about teeth anymore, we’re talking about the mind. So I’m going to ask you to start the trigeminal nerve, that’s crazy beginning. We’re going to talk about the trigeminal nerve and everything that it relates to. So how do we begin with the trigeminal nerve and your perspective on how that part of the brain affects everything we are as a human.

[00:00:39.010] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah, the super interesting thing is for us, as dentists that I think we all, or the most of us, we underestimate how important our work is. There was one dentist, maybe the most famous of all times, Weston Price who used to be the president of the education and science of the American Dental Association about 100 years ago. He was already aware of the importance of the work of the oral system, oral cavity. But there are some more things we have to take into account. It’s the brain nerves, twelve brain nerves. And one of those is the trigeminus number five. And we dentists, we are working in this area of the number five. So, we should expect that each of the twelve would request the same space in the brain, but just the trigeminus is the equivalent of 50% of the space. So that shows this single nerve we are working in, the dentists, represents 50% of the space in the brain, what is preserved for the brain nerves and as well, it’s in the head. It’s So very close to the brain. The brain is the only organ we can’t transplant.

[00:02:14.730] – Dr. Ken Serota

Yes, exactly.

[00:02:15.520] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So maybe in 20 years.

[00:02:17.070] – Dr. Ken Serota

There are few people that need one transplanted, but not yet.

[00:02:20.660] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

It would not be so bad for some politicians. And so the point is that most of the senses are very close, like the smelling sense, the vision, the taste, all the senses are super close to the oral system. And so this shows how important is the oral cavity. And at the same time there is no other part of your body where so many, let’s say, strange materials placed into the teeth. Like I mean Amalgam. My doctor sees about amalgam, but it contains more than 50% of mercury. What is the most poisoning non-radioactive element on the planet.

[00:03:10.200] – Dr. Ken Serota

Your study was amazing. That was your master’s thesis, your PhD thesis on Amalgam?

[00:03:15.370] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah, actually my doctor thesis 35 years ago.

[00:03:18.970] – Dr. Ken Serota

35 years ago. You look like you’re 25. We’ll talk about how you stay healthy in a minute and you regress your age. But your doctoral thesis was done on Amalgam and you did it on soldiers, you said, right?

[00:03:30.250] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yes, actually I placed amalgam fillings into the wisdom teas of soldiers. They were due for extraction.

[00:03:36.750] – Dr. Ken Serota

Captive audience, of course.

[00:03:38.190] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And I extracted the teeth. I was still a student. I extracted the teeth after 24 hours, two days, one week, one month. And then we analyzed the quantity and the quality. So that like with a microscope. So size was very close to my university, so I was able to use the at the time most modern microscope REM. And on the other side, you did a neutron activation analyzes. So to see how much mercury moved from the filling into the tubes, and already within 24 hours, we could prove that the mercury was not just inside the tooth. It was not just inside the pulp. It was not just inside the shells. It was already inside the core of the shell.

[00:04:35.510] – Dr. Ken Serota

You know, when you think about it initially with Amalgam, the argument initially was, well, there’s one study on a lamb that one man wrote that’s substantial. And meantime, now Amalgam separators is gone. It’s eliminated from dentistry. You mentioned Dr. Price. I’m an endodontist. So most endodontists wanted to shoot Dr. Price. They would have liked to have done away with it. It’s okay. He was quite valid in what he did. I know Germany was very focused on endodontics being a source of sepsis in the body. But what was intriguing in talking to you is at various times in your life, on several different areas, you’ve embarked upon a path that diverged completely from the norm. So when you started to change, you brought a CEREC. You had one of the first CEREC machines in your practice. So somewhere along the line, you had to suddenly – there was an inflection point. You realized what danger there was and your whole perspective on health, how to achieve health, sustain youth balance, which we’ll talk about Dr. Norbekov in a moment. But the thing is sort of where it starts that you said to me, you said you weren’t uncomfortable, you had a stutter.

[00:05:48.400] – Dr. Ken Serota

Okay. You’re one of the most articulate, spectacular presenters. I watched you yesterday. The words flow. Your presentation flows. There’s such logic in your presentation, and yet you said you stuttered for a long time. You got it under control.

[00:06:04.150] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah.

[00:06:05.140] – Dr. Ken Serota

That’s awesome.

[00:06:06.450] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yes. I believe we should always – so if we face our biggest challenges and if you overcome those, that’s definitely the ones who will change our lives most. And so for me, that was my big issue, to talk in public. So it was like I was super afraid, super nervous, and I started to study, and I was super lucky, actually. It was in the US. So I took all the courses of Andy Robbins.

[00:06:40.390] – Dr. Ken Serota

Anthony Robbins, right.

[00:06:42.040] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Quiet famous in the US.

[00:06:42.682] – Dr. Ken Serota

Yes, for sure.

[00:06:42.790] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

I did all the courses. I even became on the level of master trainer. But I never worked for him because I did it for myself. So to overcome the stuttering

[00:06:53.890] – Dr. Ken Serota

How did that get perceived in Europe? I mean, Tony Robbins in America is a guru, and he has his I won’t say it’s cultish, but he’s a guru. Everybody sees him as leadership, empowerment, self actualization. Does that work in Europe? Is that kind of a concept, a culture that they understand or respect.

[00:07:12.630] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

To be honest the first course I attended was about 25 years ago. And at the beginning it was a little bit hard for me to get used to his style. So this is for us Europeans, a little bit hard to digest.

[00:07:38.400] – Dr. Ken Serota

Okay.

[00:07:38.860] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

It’s super straightforward and super strong marketing. So he forced us to go into the next level, next courses and so on. But actually I saw that he’s super honest and I mean, I’m following him now since 25 years. So every ten years I do some refreshment courses whatsoever and I see it really works.

[00:08:06.510] – Dr. Ken Serota

You know why he became who he is. He had a stutter. That’s how it started. It’s a little known fact Tony Robbins actually stuttered when he began. This is how he controlled it. That’s why I thought it was so fascinating, the discussion about the trigeminal nerve, the discussion about the stutter and the ability to control it. It’s the mind, it’s mind over matter. You can’t control the physiology and you’ve done that with every part of your life. Starting with the Amalgam, the switch to using CEREC, to using Zirconia. So when you switch to CEREC, it was probably the first unit, right? It was like the one that kind of it was hardly ergonomic at that point in time. How did you integrate it? How did it become part of the fabric of your practice?

[00:08:51.260] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah, actually when I started I wanted to not to be dependent from southern Germany. We have quite strong insurance system. So it’s a government insurance and about 97% of the population, they are inside this government insurance and everything is super restrictive. So they would just pay this time for Amalgam fillings. And I decided to start a private practice. What means I would be outside this system and I would have to focus on the 3% of the population which are outside of the government insurance. And on the other hand, I was the youngest dentist who ever started in Germany, a private practice I was 25 years old. And so I had to do something different. And I learned that and it was never in the past 32 years a matter of money or costs. It’s a matter of quality and service and commitment. So I decided not to do any Amalgam fillings because of the findings of my research. I started in a very, very small practice, just with one treatment room. Even the panoramic was inside the treatment room. So when we had to take a panoramic, the other patient had to leave the room. It was really strange.

[00:10:25.230] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

But I received so many new patients because I wanted to treat the patients like I want to be treated. And that is, I think is the trick and the base for any success. Because I mean, in many places where you go, even in practices or hospitals, you get treated like you not feel that you are a customer you’re something that is disturbing – you’re a product. A few years later, we already had 10/11 treatment rooms, 15 dentists. So it was my first clinic. And so we are growing extremely fast because there was a huge demand for this kind of treatment and always full of the metal free path beside the implants.

[00:11:25.840] – Dr. Ken Serota

Well, you did 12,000 titanium implants. It was interesting in assembling the research. You did your research on Amalgam. You proved the point. Dr. Price was your, I would say well, not your avatar. He was your point person, I guess, and all of the things that you’re talking about. The move to CEREC initially was dismissed. The use of Amalgam, the need to avoid the use of was dismissed. The thing that you did with Tony Robbins in the early days, he was viewed as cultish, right. The people that followed him were outside the norm. But you followed your path through all of this and assembled this into who you’ve become. You’ve walked your own path. You’re not concerned about what anybody else thinks. It’s your choice. And ultimately, even it all comes down to being very centered. At least that’s what I see. But you are actually doing that. You have a philosophy of selfcare, physical self care, obviously, mental selfcare as well. But can you talk about what you do to center yourself, to bring yourself into your core with Dr. Norbekov?

[00:12:34.930] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yes, I think in general, there’s a lot of things you could do. And I believe that any person on the planet should become his own health advocate, because at the end, when you’re going to die and you knock on heaven’s door, so there’s nobody you could blame. It was my doctor – my doctors fault – or the Minister of health. You have to become your own guide, your own professional. The really good thing and nice thing about our profession is that if we study all those techniques and ideas and knowledge and science about health, it’s at the same time our profession.

[00:13:31.180] – Dr. Ken Serota

Yes, it is.

[00:13:31.860] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Other people, they would have to do it at the end of the day after their daily work. If they are, for example, a banker in their free time, they have to study and to understand how health works. But every person has to understand because they’re responsible for their own health. So I think it’s important, especially for me, it’s the morning. So the first few hours, that is mine. So I think what is super important not to switch on the iPhone or whatever or the mobile or the computer before you have done all your routine, because then everything starts and goes into your brain. And from this point on, you are not more or less not the master of your time anymore, because you get so many notifications and requests and calls and whatsoever. So for me, for example, this morning, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning because of the time difference, and I started to work and it was beautiful because it was quiet and I could really go ahead with my mind – my mind was clear. And I think it’s super important sometimes to shut down and to just to think and to do nothing.

[00:14:59.890] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And for that we need to find certain places because at the end of the day, thinking is actually the metabolism. If you think, yes, you need the most energy even more than doing work out. And that shows how interesting, how hard it is. But it’s the most important to think.

[00:15:20.890] – Dr. Ken Serota

It’s the most important exercise to use our brain. We will get to implants, by the way. It’s coming, but your dad is very interesting, we will get to ceramics in a moment. So what was interesting in piecing all of this together. You just mentioned iPhones. Your clinic is literally there’s a barrier from electronics, right? Nobody can use iPhones. There’s no WiFi. There’s nothing. It’s all part of your sense of biology and immunology as it pertains to the health of your patient in your facility. They can’t get outside unless it’s hardwired. So there’s nothing coming. Can you talk about that for a second? I found that fascinating. You’ve created this sort of immuno bubble to do your work. It’s spectacular.

[00:16:05.920] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah, I can see you’ve really done a good research.

[00:16:08.620] – Dr. Ken Serota

I checked you out.

[00:16:12.120] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So the idea was I saw other clinics and in 2016 we decided to build another clinic in Switzerland, the SWISS BIOHEALTH CLINIC. And the idea was to kinda it should be a role model for other clinics. And I can see that a lot of other dentists started to copy us what is good, so it’s nothing bad. So we support them. All the materials are from Switzerland, so it’s Swiss oak. And even the pictures are from the photographer of this Ricola. Yeah. And the stone is from the Valsa Valley where the mineral water comes from. And we protected it so you would not have any mobile connection when you’re sitting inside. But we have a lot of cable connections. Just very few people know that you could go into the Internet with your iPhone while in the flight mode. That is something as a special plug what you need. And because there are even some peer reviewed published studies, they show and proof that the ostheo integration and the bone implant contact is compromised if the patient is exposed to WiFi and to mobile network.

[00:17:42.000] – Dr. Ken Serota

Okay, and this is peer reviewed?

[00:17:43.960] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah.

[00:17:44.590] – Dr. Ken Serota

Okay.

[00:17:45.330] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

I could give you the link on it’s, on PubMed. It’s really super interesting.

[00:17:48.430] – Dr. Ken Serota

I have to spend the rest of my life just trying to figure out what you’ve done. Because the research, the effort that you put into so much of what you’ve done, the thing that was most entrancing in all of this wasn’t just that SWISS DENTAL SOLUTIONS, these zirconium implants and what you do and we’ll talk about the business in a minute. But it’s this foundation that you’ve laid of sense of self, physical self, mental self, the assemblage of all of these things that you’ve put together. What was fascinating yesterday, for example, was again, we are going to get to the implants, I promise. But your whole sense of how to create a – and I was going to use the word holistic – it’s so wrong. It’s sort of a bioimmuneologically idealized state of being. And so vitamin D 3 and K 2. I’d like to talk about that if I could, for a minute. I think I mentioned to you yesterday, my daughter is an osteoporotic specialist in New York, so she works on the Upper East Side of New York. And every second person walking down Madison Avenue is osteoporotic. That’s just the reality of being too rich and too thin.

[00:18:51.400] – Dr. Ken Serota

But you basically have taken this, you’ve created products for your patients, you’ve done phenomenal research on the biochemistry. Can you talk about that as well?

[00:19:00.190] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yes, I was always thinking if there would be kind of a magic bullet for health, I would say today is vitamin D 3.

[00:19:12.150] – Dr. Ken Serota

Vitamin D 3.

[00:19:13.030] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah, because it’s produced from the sun. So there would be no life on the planet without the sun. One vitamin, what is produced by the sun, and then it’s processed into an hormone. And if you talk about testosterone, estrogen, melatonin or whatever, but the most important hormone in our body is vitamin D 3 or it’s a Calcitriol. And it’s responsible for some say 2000, others say 20,000 gene expressions. It’s responsible for all the immune system. And for us, dentists it’s super important. It takes care about the bone metabolism. And we dentist researchers, we focused on all the cells in the bone metabolism, most opportunities on our cells and whatsoever. But we completely forgot to have a look at something totally normal. What is the Calcitriol and the Calcitriol is so super important because it activates the osteoblast and it inhibits the osteoclasts. So if Geistlich would sell us a product, what would be able to do that? We would pay a lot of money for it, sure. And we get it for free, at least in nice places. You could live in Las Vegas, but if you supplement in 20,000 units per day, it might cost maybe one dollars or something like that.

[00:20:45.060] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So that’s nothing.

[00:20:46.620] – Dr. Ken Serota

But you made an interesting point. I thought the thing that you said yesterday was amazing. People do implants and they put a cow into a patient biowise they put a cow into the patient and 20 years later there’s still a cow inside that bone. Nothing’s changed. You, on the other hand, are looking at preparing a patient biologically and immunologically by addressing vitamins, Janitor cells, you’re a PRF advocate. So let’s look at that for a moment because you were very adamant that when you do implants, and again, we’re getting there, I promise. When you do the implants, you set your patient up for perfection. You leave no risk factor in place within your control. Could you talk about PRF and why you view it – you see it as such an integral part of your success. 350.000 implants or 400.000 implants later, it’s integral to what you do.

[00:21:38.670] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah, actually, I think what helps a lot that I’m already for so many years a surgeon. Now it’s 32 years. And when I started, there was no bone graft material available. So at this time, we used autologous bone and we used the memphic system, so like the tent pole system, and we created bone. And then came this period where we were told we should put everywhere bone grafting material. I mean, I use bone grafting material, but we should never forget what is the reason for bone grafting is to create a space and to kind of push away the periost or the endiost what is called Schneider’s membrane. But the more you condense, the more you put, the less space is for vascularisation. And any bone grafting material, if it’s not autologous bone, will need osteoclast to be resolved, but definitely do not want to have osteoclast in a new augmentation site.

[00:22:47.220] – Dr. Ken Serota

Right.

[00:22:47.580] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So actually, in my opinion, it’s not bone. A guided bone regeneration is guided bone augmentation.

[00:22:56.860] – Dr. Ken Serota

Okay.

[00:22:57.250] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Guided bone regeneration is what we do. We create a space not by bone grafting materials, but like we did 25 years ago with the umbrella screws or with our bone implant stabilization system, those cages, or just by the white tulip of the implants or by the disc on top of the sinus implants. And then, of course, we need to take care about the bone metabolism that the system is able to create new bone, like with vitamin D 3, K 2, magnesium, vitamin C, omega 3, all those things. And then we know that the blood and the stem cells in the blood, they tell the system where to build new bones. So, for example, if you extract the twos and the socket will always be filled with bone, and the top will be new keratinized gingiva produced by free apikalisation. And so that is open healing. We all do open healing every single day. But Professor Ghanaati, one of my dear friends, he created a concept where we do huge bone grafts. We do open healing all over the bone graft. And with that, the patient would not have any swelling, any pain. We do not compromise the vestibulum, and everything is going to create new soft tissue due to free apikalisation, will be keratinized gingiva and so this is something that we did much more free apikalisation 30 years before when I started as a young surgeon.

[00:24:42.000] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And then we started to do those crazy fancy techniques with deepitalization and split, and just like crazy, and it never worked. And today we’re kind of coming back to this. The interesting thing is, when I was a young immunologist, they told us the cavity for the implants should be perfectly congruent and the implants should be perfectly fitting into the cavity because the epithelium is growing so quick, and it would grow in between. So today we know that this is not true because no socket would be filled by bone. But there is one situation where the socket is not filled by bone, and it will be filled by epithelium. It’s a dry, socket because the blood is missing and the information is missing. So as soon as you have got blood information, stem cells in the socket, in the cavity, in the chamber, it’s going to create bone. There’s something what is even better than blood, that is blood concentrates, because it’s about 9 to 18 times. So if you draw blood, it’s about 9 ml, it will be half to one CCM of membrane or matrix. This is not a spacer.

[00:26:05.940] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

It’s not a spacer because it could be compressed to zero. But it’s information matrix, right. And it just delivers growth factors. And I started already 25 to go with PRP. Then I did PRGF and all those systems, and I think the development of Professor Choukroun regarding the PRF was incredible and changed the world. Because the PRF is a material which contains leukocyte, lymphocytes, monocytes, macrophages, and therefore it’s creating acute inflammation.

[00:26:43.090] – Dr. Ken Serota

Okay.

[00:26:43.470] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And we think inflammation is something bad, right? Yes, there is a bad inflammation. The chronic inflammation based on giant cells, but the inflammation based on leukocytes, lymphocytes, macrophages is a good inflammation. If you get hard or you scratch your skin or whatsoever, there’s always three stages of healing. It’s acute inflammation and the proliferation and the new formation of tissue, the growth of tissue, what takes 21 days if you use it’s, like a catalyst. The PRF is condensitude. Ten days you have a cause, if something heals in ten days instead of one day. It’s much safer.

[00:27:34.500] – Dr. Ken Serota

Sure.

[00:27:34.960] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And so we should not think that inflammation is something bad. We need acute inflammation. But the dangerous thing is, the chronic information, I mean, it’s actually the cause of all aging, of all chronic disease is chronic inflammation, and chronic inflammation equals chronic stress. So it actually is not so difficult to avoid chronic disease and aging. We just we have to take care about the chronic inflammation.

[00:28:03.420] – Dr. Ken Serota

But you’re doing that you do that with your sense of balance, with this. You call it Russian yoga, I think you said it was. You find the center of your body, you’ve centered your brain, you’ve centered your biochemistry. You’re conveying that to your patients. So all in all, do people look at you and go, well, you know, do you get a lot of pushback? Do people challenge this as if it’s esoterica, it’s not real? Do you get a sense that people are confrontational about it? Certainly no, people accept it. They’re understanding, they’re clear on it. Because that’s the draw that your patients have.

[00:28:41.530] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah, I mean, the point is, if you are – my situation. I’m now 58 and my energy is better than when I was 25. And when I do my courses, I’m on stage for two days in a row. And I could do that for three, four, five in a row. I would not get tired. And so they start to understand that there must be something, what I’m doing, what is working. So this Norbekov Russian Yoga is nothing special. I do a lot of things. I mean, at the end we have to take care about everything. What causes stress and chronic inflammation. And this actually starts in the mouth.

[00:29:33.960] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

There are infections, right?

[00:29:36.560] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So actually I’m totally against root canal treated teeth, sorry.

[00:29:41.140] – Dr. Ken Serota

It’s okay, I retired. No problem. I’m not practicing. It’s good.

[00:29:46.460] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

But a dead tooth is a dead tooth. There are tons of studies, they are not performed by dentists. They are performed by cardiologists, by immuneologists and by biologists. That organ always is going to release toxins. Yes. Mercaptan, thiolethanol and so on. And it’s impossible to do a root canal treatment. What will be not poisoning the patient. It’s impossible.

[00:30:21.460] – Dr. Ken Serota

There’s residue, without question. You’ll never get rid of the quality from units. I know, it’s true.

[00:30:26.740] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And I can tell you, I’ve treated so many from my clinic in Switzerland. We are receiving about 80% of chronically ill patients. Like Lyme disease is a very big group. Neutral degenerative disease, cancer, alzheimer’s.

[00:30:48.270] – Dr. Ken Serota

This is the focus of this is what your practice sort of centers itself around.

[00:30:52.910] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

It is. I would like to have more like healthier patients, it would make it easier, make life easier.

[00:31:00.150] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

We have about 10% of athletes. So at our clinic we have the equivalent of more than 20 Olympic gold medals. So we have a lot of very famous athletes. And I can tell you, none of them would have root canal treated teeth or some leftover, some metal based grounds or inlays. None of them would have a titanium implant.

[00:31:25.010] – Dr. Ken Serota

How did you come to Zirconium implants? How did that happen?

[00:31:28.600] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Actually, because of my doctor’s thesis. What was about Amalgam. And it ended up against Amalgam.

[00:31:38.580] – Dr. Ken Serota

Right.

[00:31:39.370] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

It’s obvious now, 30 years later.

[00:31:41.980] – Dr. Ken Serota

Three years, they knew you were right.

[00:31:44.520] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

But I mean, stock the Noble Prize winner in 1923 he, at this time, he said It will be proven. And it took another, let’s say almost 100 years. It was really a bad thing for humanity.

[00:32:00.460] – Dr. Ken Serota

Right.

[00:32:01.270] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And so I think I had the second or third CEREC machine, then the second DCS machine in the world. We started 97 to –

[00:32:15.780] – Dr. Ken Serota

DCS, I’m sorry, what is DCS.

[00:32:18.130] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

This was the first machine where you could mill a framework, but at this time it was a HIP. So just for one tooth, it took 5 hours, so it was really super tough. And I still placed titanium implants. And the patient asked me if I could not provide ceramic implants. And there’s nothing on the market. And I was super lucky that one day a new patient turned out to be the owner of that time world market leader in Zirconia hips. And I asked him if it would be possible to produce Zirconia implants. And he said, easy. Nothing. And I said, do you believe they are going to osteo integrate? He said, of course, we know. I said, okay, interesting. And so we started a study and approved by the ethics committee for implants. And I did the first cases in 2000, and I still am showing a case, eight implants. And so when the patient came back and said, oh, my God. When I saw the soft tissue, it was totally different than I was used to in Titanium. That’s cool. And I saw that the implant was super stable. It sounded perfect. I can tell you. All those implants are still in place.

[00:33:33.460] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And I just saw this lady with the first big case eight implants one year ago. Absolutely perfect, still. So that was when I started the beginning. Everybody was super interested into ceramic implants.

[00:33:48.040] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

“Wow – That’s super interesting.” I was invited doing lectures, and then it became suddenly kind of as a feeling, a little bit like a threat for some big business.

[00:34:00.710] – Dr. Ken Serota

Yeah, big business.

[00:34:01.690] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

But it was not from the industry, actually, to be honest, I would even say I’m friends with all titanium implant companies. And even one of my dear friends, Marco Gadola, is the former CEO of Straumann. And they all understood that the future will be Zirconia. And Straumann went into ceramic implants in 2012, right around ten years ago. And if you are the worldmarket leader in titanium, there is no need to go into a risky new technology. You would never do that, it’s against all books. But Marco Gadola is 100% convinced, and he was a speaker at our last JCCI JOINT CONGRESS for CERAMIC IMPLANTOLOGY in Switzerland last year. And he estimated that in the coming five years, the number of ceramic implants is going to multiply by 40.

[00:35:05.380] – Dr. Ken Serota

Okay.

[00:35:06.640] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

To be honest, I’m not so optimistic because it took now 22 years, and we are growing about 20-25, sometimes 50% per year. But still it’s a very little percentage. But the patients there but if you ask the patient as a survey, Straumann did 80% of the patients, and that’s already many years ago, they would go for the ceramic implant.

[00:35:33.910] – Dr. Ken Serota

Right.

[00:35:34.360] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And of course, at the beginning, we had to understand that the way is not to copy just a titanium implant.

[00:35:41.190] – Dr. Ken Serota

No, you can’t replicate it exactly.

[00:35:43.240] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Because it’s different in physics, immunology, biology, everything is different. So the zirconia implant has to just to give you one example, so if you grew an implant into the bone, you create friction. Friction means friction heat. In a metal based implant, the heat will be dissolved into the core of the titanium, so there is less risk for overheating the bone. But in Zirconia, it would stay on the surface. So it makes no sense to create an implant. A Zirconia implant will create a lot of friction heat. Because the risk to burn the bone is much higher. And this is why our implant looks totally different than all other implants. Because we are working with a lot of healing chambers. So we created, high stability with the tip of –

[00:36:35.590] – Dr. Ken Serota

Primary stability.

[00:36:37.540] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yes, We are creating a lot of healing chambers, we are creating new and denovo bone, what is highly vascularized and so on. So we had to understand and find out anything. What is the big advantage of our implant system? That I was the guy who placed the most implants. So I placed more than 25,000 ceramic implants.

[00:37:01.710] – Dr. Ken Serota

Right.

[00:37:02.050] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So I was my best customer.

[00:37:03.810] – Dr. Ken Serota

Good deal.

[00:37:04.590] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

And without me, –

[00:37:05.700] – Dr. Ken Serota

You got a discount 25,000 good discount.

[00:37:08.020] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Actually, I never got a discount and that was how I financed the company. And today I’m very happy. We’re the world market leader and we –

[00:37:18.060] – Dr. Ken Serota

You are the world market leader. Fantastic.

[00:37:19.920] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

We’re selling more than all the other companies together. And I think it is because I’m still in the surgery very often and I see and understand how it works, what doesn’t work. And then we are changing. And the nice thing is it’s all in one place. In Switzerland, there is the clinic education center. There. The research is SDS. It’s all in one big building. So it’s not something that was designed on the desk. And let’s see if it works. We know what works because we are working with it every single day. And I think that was the big advantage of SDS, that it was created by surgeons for surgeons. We understand the needs. I mean, I’m a surgeon for 32 years, so I know exactly the needs of the surgeons and of the patients, of course, as well.

[00:38:17.880] – Dr. Ken Serota

Well, you’ve done some amazing things. Like it was interesting, some of the only implant system that’s ceramic that I’m aware of in Canada was CeraRoot. And CeraRoot is I think the smallest is four, one at the neck or something. But you’ve actually brought it down. You have a three, three implant, so you can do lower in sizers. Basically, your implants are set up and again, single and two piece. Right. It was interesting the questions that were asked yesterday of you. We’ll address that in a minute. But it’s a mental shift to move away from screwing abutments and screw in prostheses. You could see the reaction like people are going, Wait a minute. So to go back, you basically are you’re biomimetic in contrast to titanium. From what my understanding of what it was yesterday, the integrations are different in a sense because of these chambers that you’re creating, the way the tissue, the platform is different. And in theory, you can prep the tooth. It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to melt the abutment to angle. You can do literally anything you want because your implants have that shape. You’ve now got the balcony implant to prevent trapping and as the tissue regenerates.

[00:39:24.570] – Dr. Ken Serota

And what was most impressive was the tissue growth. Okay, everybody, they’re worried about the emergence profile, the abutment, and this that. That doesn’t seem to be a factor in your case. The way your implant is designed, it doesn’t seem to be a complication for you. You don’t see the bone moving away. You have the foundation for the tissue, for the papilla, because you essentially, you’re almost like prepping teeth is what it came across in watching you yesterday. You’re prepping teeth. They may be made out of zirconium, not enamel and dentin, but you’re prepping teeth. So how did this all come about for you? How did you visualize this? Conceptualize it?

[00:40:02.080] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Yeah, actually I started my career with bonefit Straumann tissue level. And this is still the best titanium implant of all time.

[00:40:13.920] – Dr. Ken Serota

The Straumann, yes.

[00:40:15.430] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Still in all studies, but of course not the most prettiest.

[00:40:19.780] – Dr. Ken Serota

Yeah, totally aesthetic.

[00:40:22.200] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So they started to push it down to the bone level and then to come out of the gum with a nice white post. But the interesting thing is, if you look at the latest developments of the worldmarket leaders, Straumann so the BLX is a quite aggressive thread in the lower part of the implants, a micro thread in the upper part. So it looks very similar to what we created now 14 years ago.

[00:40:53.200] – Dr. Ken Serota

14 years ago.

[00:40:54.860] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So that is since I’m using this shape. And just our implant, to be honest, is much more elegant. So it looks much nicer I believe. But what is super new about this BLX implant and now there is a TLX implant, tissue level. Tissue level implant for immediate implant in titanium. I mean this is the worldmarket leader. And so they’re coming back.

[00:41:24.280] – Dr. Ken Serota

They’re waking up,

[00:41:25.450] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

They’re coming back to tissue level.

[00:41:27.220] – Dr. Ken Serota

Right.

[00:41:27.870] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

It’s interesting because tissue level always is better than bone level. Because bone level, you always you will have a second gap. And there’s some better connections, some are not so good. But if you take off the abutment, it stinks. That means there is there’s micro gapping always, that’s for sure. The only disadvantage was in tissue level titanium that the margin could be exposed. Then it was quite ugly because black and you were not officially not allowed to shape it. I know some dentists shape Straumann tissue level many years ago. I know that. Even I did it sometimes. But now we’ve got the material what we are allowed to shape. So the zirconia we use is the pure zirconia. We are not adding nothing like other metal oxide to make it like yellow, a 2, a 3, or even pink, what would be a nice color, but it would change the physics of the material. So we’re using the pure so called TCP Zirconia. So we are allowed to shape it if it’s FDA or if it’s the European authorities. And it would not lose any stability. And it’s wide. So now it would make no sense to push it down because a bone level implant in zirconia is even worse because it’s worse, a lot worse because there is no cold welding.

[00:43:09.420] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

So if you put zirconia on top of zirconia, it would be always a huge welding. In titanium, it’s a very flexible material. There’s a cold welding. Some systems, like Bicone, they don’t even use the screws.

[00:43:25.900] – Dr. Ken Serota

Just tap it.

[00:43:27.520] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Tap it inside and it works. It will never work like this in zirconia. It would either break or create a huge gap. And even I’ve already removed, just two weeks ago at my live surgery at my course in Switzerland, I had to remove a bone level because the smell was so bad that the husband of – She’s a dentist herself –

[00:43:50.500] – Dr. Ken Serota

Divorce was imminent. Is that what that meant? He’s leaving. Oh my goodness.

[00:43:59.850] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

The smell was so bad, for sure. And so in 22 years, never anybody questioned when I was saying the one piece implant tissue level with the margin exactly on the gum line and the crown cemented on the implant, not on the abutment on the implant is the best what you could place into your patient. There is nothing better. I always am asking my audience, do you have an idea if there could be something better? Never ever anybody was telling me what could be better than this.

[00:44:39.790] – Dr. Ken Serota

The woman yesterday was interesting. There was a lovely young lady who was very into what you were doing. And she kept saying, well, prosthodontists, they screw in the abutments, they screw in the crowns. And she couldn’t understand, like, what’s the difference between prepping on zirconium? As if you were prepping a tooth and cementing the zirconium crowned surface at tissue level with cement. So her point was, well, cement, it’s going to get caught on. But your point was perfect. You’re prepping a tooth. It’s not an implant you’re prepping yes, it’s an implant, but you’re prepping a tooth. So given that we’re going to run out, I want to talk about Clean Implant for a second, if that’s okay. You are one of the strongest advocates of the Clean Implant Foundation. Why?

[00:45:23.590] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

I designed or I went into ceramic implants because of immuneology. And so we have a responsibility to our patients. And I never thought about surfaces could be contaminated or not clean. Then I met a guy, Dirk Duddeck, ten years ago and I said, it is completely changed my world. And I said, okay, that is something I have to focus on. And it took many, many years and cost a fortune to make the implants clean. But actually today we are the Cleanest implant company. We are the only company in the world with two navigation systems accredited by Clean Implant.

[00:46:12.840] – Dr. Ken Serota

That’s AIM.

[00:46:14.140] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

AIM and SDS BOX are the only two. There are no more in the world and they’re both owned by SDS. And because there is another thing we should think, what we transport when we drill with a metal through the sleeve into the bone well, –

[00:46:30.750] – Dr. Ken Serota

This is yes – This is what Dirk’s whole thing is about. It’s just why it’s so fascinating. Yeah, you’ve embraced it like you’ve committed wholly to this. You see the vision of it, which is fantastic.

[00:46:43.010] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Always when I do something, I do it –

[00:46:45.580] – Dr. Ken Serota

a 110%, if that’s possible.

[00:46:48.250] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

120% –

[00:46:49.910] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

Because there was not even before we started. So Dirk said, okay, we could even do a double certification on the production level and on the manufacturing level. So we are the first company. And then so we actually did more than 100% because we went into areas like the navigation system where there was not even already like a certificate for that. But I can see and feel my patients. I mean, today all knowledge is available. So you just Google it and you get all the information, right? And before that, you had to go and to read a book and whatsoever to get information was super hard. Today, all information is available. The patients, they’re getting more and more concerned about what they want in their food, in their drugs, in their implants.

[00:47:48.660] – Dr. Ken Serota

It’s a polluted world.

[00:47:49.630] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

It’s a polluted world. And anyway, it’s a beautiful world.

[00:47:54.250] – Dr. Ken Serota

No, you’re the avatar for living it beautifully.

[00:47:58.590] – Dr. Karl Ulrich Volz

I would never like to go 100 years back, but this is our situation. We have to make the best out of it, and we have to understand that. We have to avoid some of the pollution and we have to detox. That is a part of our life, of our lifestyle. And I see there’s a huge interest in the patients and in the dentists. And so I strongly believe that the Clean Implant Foundation is something that is going to change the world. It’s still hard.

[00:48:31.610] – Dr. Ken Serota

There’s still going to be pushback. However, it’s the first time that there is a peer review of our corporate partners. It’s one thing to publish a paper and have other colleagues evaluated, but now colleagues are evaluated. Peer review of the corporate people, it’s becoming a true profession. It’s integrated. I know we’re going to run out of juice. Sorry. This was fun. We should do it again. I really had a lot of absolute, very much pleasure to meet you.