Coco

Hello and welcome to the very first episode of the SDS Podcast. The SDS podcast is designed to provide our customers with exciting and informative conversations between members of the SDS family and specialists in the industry. The podcast will broadcast one episode every two weeks, which will then immediately be uploaded to the SDS Media Library. Today. It’s my pleasure to welcome Dr. Ulrich Volz. We will talk about what are the key pillars in the implant industry and how can these pillars be built? Dr. Volz will share some insights from his long professional experience in the industry and give an insight into SDS future plans. Hello.

Dr. Ulrich Volz

Hello Coco.

Coco

Hi dad. So my first question for you is what is the idea of this podcast that we are starting today?

Dr. Ulrich Volz

We know in those times that the physical meeting or event, of course, always is the best, but it’s a lot more time consuming and you have to go to a certain place at a certain time. So the next level, in my opinion, is the webinar where you have so you have to be there at a certain time, but you don’t have to travel. And the online course, you can do any time, but you can’t do something else at the same time, like traveling or walking or sitting in the train whatsoever. So I think it’s a great idea. And I mean in general, the idea of all what we do if it’s webinar or courses or online courses or congress or whatsoever, is to forward a lot of precious information from the big SDS and SWISS BIOHEALTH family and their friends to the user to make his or her life as a dentist better and more successful. That’s at the end is the idea of any area like webinar courses or this new podcast.

Coco

So let’s dive right into our next question. Why was SDS so successful last year?

Dr. Ulrich Volz

OK, actually it was a super successful year with a growth of almost 30%. But it was not something special last year because we had given in 2020 we had a growth of more than 15% the year before, 25%. So at the end I would say it’s like the Japanese, they say “cani” constant and neverending improvement. And it’s kind of the payoff of a really every day, step by step, millions of steps. And it’s now 21 years since I’m in this field of ceramic implants, producing ceramic implants, doing education, placing ceramic implants. And so it’s always a matter of time and we always totally overestimate what we can do in one year, or maybe with 1 million or with 50 employees, but we totally underestimate what we’re able to do within ten years or 20 years. And at the end, what I saw a lot of new ceramic companies coming up and being sold or being closed, whatever, in the past ten years. It’s not that easy. And at the moment we are still the world market leader with SDS. And I think it’s a consistency over 21 years now. And because after such a long time, we have even some team members and employees, they are now for those long period and maybe even longer in the team.

So 100% trustful, great persons with amazing knowledge. And we are always talking about the SDS and SWISS BIOHEALTH family, because it’s like a family. I mean, you Coco, you have grown up. You were more or less a little bit born before I went to the first ceramic implants. And so you grew up in this kind of family. That is why we call it the family. And we are a family because our family members are working in SDS. So my wife Nicole, and your sister Ann-Sophie. And of course, after such a long time, you know a lot of good people in the field. And so with some, you become friends. This is something that you can’t build up in two or five years. This is something that needs to grow over decades. Or some other people, they came from other areas or from other infant companies where I was a customer maybe 25 years ago, and now they’re working with SDS. So this is something that takes a long time. I mean, nobody likes to become older and getting gray hairs. The huge benefit of getting older is getting more experience, getting more knowledge, getting more people to know and to know what is dangerous or difficult, or whether possibilities for failures and so on, and how to move around obstacles, things like that.

And I believe that a big strength of SDS is that with my person as the founder, the inventor, the developer, and the 100% owner of the company of SDS and SWISS BIOHEALTH, it’s all in one person. And at the same time, I’m the one who has placed the most ceramic implants in the world. It’s no more than 25000, actually. I do not believe that there will be another person in the future who is going to place more implants than I. Because when I started, there was already a huge demand in the population, in the patient, but there was no experience, no offer. So the demand was much higher than what was offered by the dentist. And so I was invited in many big clinics to place implants. And I remember I had one year where I played with my own right hand, two and a half thousand ceramic implants. It was an incredible year, super tiring, but at the end, that made the experience. And so this is, I think, another important thing, that’s now more and more paying off, because SDS is 100% super based on experience, on practicing dentistry on a super high level.

And of course, like in the SDS company, for a clinic, it takes a lot of time and years to build trust and to get the best dentist, surgeons and prosthodontist.

Coco

In your clinic, would you say that the physical closeness between SDS and the clinic is another advantage for the company.

Dr. Ulrich Volz

I think there is another huge strength of our SDS SWISS BIOHEALTH family, that it’s not just that we are super close, but we are actually physically super close. It’s all in 200 meters in the same building the SWISS BIOHEALTH CLINIC, with ten dentists working there in the meanwhile. And the nice thing is that we have five medical doctors as well. So it’s not just a biological dental clinic. It’s as well as biological medical clinic with some of the best people in the field. Like Dr. Klinghardt is several times voted as one of the best biological or the best biological medical doctor in the world. So it’s in the same place like SDS, where all the employees of SDS are working. It’s the same place where the education center is located, where we are training the last two years, around 4000 dentists a year. And even the German company SDS Deutschland GmbH is just 2 km away. So we’re all super close, even physically. And I think that makes us super strong and quick and fast and we can put everything together. And at the same time, like this complexity. We have a huge complexity regarding the concept, because we are not selling an implant, because I didn’t develop implants and had the idea it’s a good business concept, I’m going to make a lot of money out of it.

There is the concept I’ve followed since 91 and for this concept I needed a ceramic implant. And that is because nothing was in the market. I invented it. And I was lucky that at that time, the market leader for ceramic hips, the owner of the treatment chair, and he helped me on that. So we started in 2000. But at the end, what we sell or teach is a concept, a treatment concept on a super high level, always outcome focused. That means we want the patient to improve and to make the patient healthier. I mean, this is why we created the slogan MAKING THE WORLD A HEALTHIER PLACE. And at the end we are kind of maybe even we are kind of consultants, because all our users, they tell us after some years they are so much more successful. They have mostly just got one problem left, that is finding and then hiring good dentists and nurses and employees and technicians whatsoever. And this is why they get all the information.

Firsthand and I was the youngest dentist who started a private practice 32 years ago. And I was the first dentist who started with a private practice based on the government insurance. So I have proven that I was able able to found and to run super successful practices and clinics over the past 32 years. And so I would say there’s always two ways you listen to a consultant who is in the first place, a consultant, but he never proved that he’s able to run the marathon under 2 hours, or you listen to somebody who run the marathon under 2 hours. And that is in my case, it’s the case that I think is another very important thing. So I think that is as well the reason why I was voted again as the president for the ISMI (International Society of Metalfree Implantology), which was founded about, I think eight years ago. And since I’m so long in the field and so well known, I was able to get different implant companies, bring different implant companies and very good speakers and organizations together to create the JCCI this year. What is the JOINT CONGRESS for CERAMIC IMPLANTOLOGY. Because my idea was there is on one side and SDS, but on the other side we have to move forward with ceramic implants and we have to join forces.

And there are a lot of ways that lead to Rome, and we all want to Rome, but there are different ways and paths to go to Rome. So actually I was able to bring several influence companies and organizations and amazing speakers together. And we had from zero to 100, we had more than 300 participants. It was super successful and it became the first year the biggest congress of its kind for ceramic implants. And so we are super happy and super proud about that. And I think that is as well kind of one of the pieces in the mosaic or in the jigsaw. What makes SDS so successful. I think all ceramic implant companies are becoming more and more successful in the coming years because we have now joined forces with other companies in the JCCI congress. And so ceramic is more and more getting into the brains of the patients and the needs, the demand becomes bigger and bigger by the year. Of course we know that titanium is getting a little bit under pressure in the past years because titanium oxide was banned by the European Union and many other things. And a lot of people are talking about bio, corrosion and so on.

But on the other side, in the past 21 years, the ceramic implant industry has managed to make their homework. And now today, if you choose the same diameter, our ceramic implants are more stable than any titanium implant with the same diameter. But this was not the case 20 years ago. And we have super well working shapes like our dynamic threads, so we can do even in upper Molars in 95% of the cases, immediate implants. So I don’t know any titanium implants that would be able to do so.

Coco

Did you discover a trend towards health and aesthetics within the last years?

Dr. Ulrich Volz

In the past year, more and more people started to care about their aesthetics and to care about their health. Because we have seen that this is the most important thing, like health, family longevity and so on. So this is that while the patient who could afford it is more and more asking for ceramic implants and we are more stable, we have the better shapes, we have the biology integrated as well, kind of like according to the Zeitgeist that the people are going for healthy, beautiful, nice aesthetic treatments.

Coco

Recently, SDS received the CleanImplant label. Can you tell us about that?

Dr. Ulrich Volz

We are super happy that we some time ago at the JCCI Congress received an implant label with SDS. And on one hand that there is no other company yet where this label two times, one is on the production side and one is on the manufacturer side. We’re the first company who has these two labels and we are going to certify a lot of our users for the user label. And at the same time we’re at the moment working on a navigation system which is going to receive the CleanImplant label as well. So we are going super clean. And because I think this is going to become a huge issue in the future, we know that from the silicon breast implants that this is going to be a really big thing. I strongly believe in that. And so my idea ten years ago when I first heard of it, I said you can’t beat him, meet him. And so we worked super hard and invested a lot of money, spent a lot of time and money to be able to be according to the really strict rules of the CleanImplant label and Foundation. This is something that is, in my opinion, really important as well.

And of course, there is no other material. Let’s say if you compare titanium and zirconia in titanium, I personally believe in zirconia. It’s much easier to be super clean on the surface. Why? Because the last process is a process with 1500 degrees, for example, this is going to burn off everything, what was there. And you just have to create a kind of interface how you get it out of the oven straight into the clean room. And then not to make it dirty again. But we’ve worked on that now for 20 years and we’re able to offer a super clean implant. And so I would say today at least, the SDS ceramic implant is on a much higher level in any aspects than any titanium implant. So I think that is the reason why we’ve been super successful in 21. And I believe it’s going to be the same, maybe even more in 22.

Coco

This is really exciting. And actually this brings me directly to my next question, which is what are the plans for this year? What are SDS’ plans for the year 2022?

Dr. Ulrich Volz

We are now working super hard, the whole  team. We’re using, let’s say, the time of Lockdown, what we always perfectly anticipated and forecasted, so we knew when it’s going to open again the last two years. And we have not planned any physical event at our education center. Actually, we’re using the time and we are making it at the moment again, investing money, making it again bigger and nicer and better education center. So we won’t have any physical event until end of April and we’re using the time to kind of build a structure into our huge concept. I mean, there is no other implant company definitely has got such four dimensional concepts, how to treat and how to make the surgeon’s life better and to improve the health of the patient. But to be honest, when you start it’s a little bit difficult. You have to be really dedicated to get into the “ALL IN ONE CONCEPT”, how we call it, what is on the medical side based on the biologically immunological side, based on the physicals concept, what are you approving in the clinic day by day. But it is, to be honest, a little bit like I would offer you a yoga course and we’ll ask you in the very first course to bend your foot behind your neck, for example.

So if you’re able to do so, it’s exciting and it’s great. And it proves that your flexibility is really great, but it’s too much and not attainable for many dentists out there because I still remember when I started dentistry 32 years ago. It is you improve year by year by year by year. Some are more talented, some are less talented, but at the end it is year by year you become better and better, definitely, if you stay healthy and energized. This is not their good dentist and not so good dentist. It’s like it has something to do with the experience, what you could collect by the years. But we do not want those dentists to have to wait for another ten years and collecting more experience before they would start with SDS ceramic implants. So we have built a lot of structure. I would say 22 will be the year of structure and support. So we have started to build a structure and have built three levels. So the first of those three levels will be generally we call it SDS Light, let’s say the beginner level, the basic level, the starter level. So to get the feet wet and to have successful, easy, quick access to ceramic implantology by SDS.

So this will be based on healed and delayed implantation sites. So with easy to reach goal, you would focus on the six basic shapes. What is the 3.8 and 4.6, 8, 11 and 14 millimeter. By the way, we are going to launch a new implant around April/May. What will be the 2.1 value implant. It will be a really nice implant, the same shape, but much easier and cheaper and already altogether with the post. So you just buy the implant and everything you have in the first place, so you don’t have to have a second order. What would be as well easier for us. And this will be just in the shape of 3.8 and 4.6, 8, 11 and 14 mm. But of course you can use the regular implant.

Coco

Will the regular implant also receive an upgrade?

Dr. Ulrich Volz

The regular implant will get an upgrade as well. Let’s say we already have the new upgrades in US now for two years. It’s SDS1.2 and SDS2.2. It’s exactly the same then the implants we have sold in the past year. But it’s beautiful packaging, it’s gamma sterilized and the package has a little window where you can see the implants of what you see, what you get. It’s even a little bit more stable and a little bit more precise in the thread. And it’s the one who has received the CleanImplant Lable. So it’s the cleanest implant ever. And we have already started to do kind of a silent or soft launch in the second half of the last year because we were not able to produce enough implants because of the huge demand of the SDS2.0 and SDS1.1. But the official launch will be around April and May. So stay tuned, we will inform you about that. What I wanted to say is that in this basic level you could start with the basic shapes of the, let’s say, premium implant and those six shapes but you could use as a one-piece or as a two-piece implant at the same time of the new 2.1 Value implant.

Then the next level is, let’s say, an advanced level where we are focusing on the immediate implants. I mean, in general, ceramic implants are way better than titanium implants if it comes to immediate implantation. Why? Because there are no free electrons on the surface. So there will never ever be an inflammation around a ceramic implant. Just if you take care about the biology and the immunology, that means that you take care about the vitamin D3 & K2 and some others. So in this level, we are taking care of D3 & K2, Omega 3, magnesium and vitamin C for example, with supplements. But in titanium it quite often works. But if something goes wrong, you’re going to face a huge defect because titanium has got free electrons on the surface. So there could be an infection, inflammation, but you will never see that on ceramic implants. The second thing is the shape plays a big role in immediate implantation because you need root shaped implant. One should be not tapered. So our implant is not a tapered implant. So we call it step implant because when it starts at the gum line it’s vertically, then it’s angled, then it’s vertically and it’s angled as well in the core adjust the outer shape.

That is what we call the dynamic thread is like parable whatsoever curve and that means that any place of the thread there is a different depth of the thread. So it starts with a very thin epical part. So you could easily get into the drilling hole even if it’s the angled side. Like when you drill for an incisor you always are going to drill palatinal into the socket. And if you would have a parallel implant or cylindrical implant it’s impossible to cut the thread into angled drilling side. So this is why the SDS implant works so well in any sites. And even we are able to do lower and upper molars as immediate implants. We have done thousands of those and they work perfectly. And with the development of the balcony implants we have a perfect emergence profile. So this second level. What is let’s say the advanced level for immediate implantation is able to place implants in all sites and to create even if you would not go in the middle. Like if you would use the palatinal socket or the distal socket in the lower through the balcony implant you would have a perfect symmetrical emergence profile which is quite wide because it’s 6 to 8 millimeters. Highest level like it was is let’s say the all in one concept where the SWISS BIOHEALTH CONCEPT comes to play.

And this is why this ALL IN ONE CONCEPT we are not anymore going to teach outside of the education center because we need the CLINIC right beside the EDUCATION CENTER. So it will be always part of the CERAMIC IMPLANTOLOGY WEEK. So that means the first day at the same time we are going to have a huge ALL IN ONE surgery and several times during the day we are going to connect to the surgery and have live hospitation at the same time. And especially on a Saturday we’re going to do a lot of practical education in the CLINIC. So it will be based on the first two levels. That is something those participants should have been educated before already. And then we will focus just on the ALL IN ONE CONCEPT if I come back to the yoga course. So the first step is like you would get with your fingertips. So the basic level if you get with your fingertips to the floor and the immediate implant level is maybe with the flat hand and then in the ALL IN ONE CONCEPT you would bend your foot behind your neck something like this. Another thing is that we are working very hard on the concept of navigation.

We have already last year launched the AIM system. What is system where what is an ad hoc navigation system where you don’t have to plan anything. You could just start with it but this is more for the experienced user and it’s more based into the ALL IN ONE CONCEPT but we are going to very soon we are going to provide very nice. Beautiful and especially super healthy and clean that is why we are going to go for the CleanImplant Lable for the navigation concept as well where you would receive where you would support the user there with the position of the implant and the shape and the position of the temporary and like other companies like Straumann “Smile in the Box” we’re going to support the user with everything you would need to do a guided surgery and to follow the completely digital workflow. That is something that is definitely new and will be another, let’s say vertical level, which of course you could use if it’s in the basic level, if it’s in the immediate implant level or if it’s the ALL IN ONE CONCEPT and as well we already have improved our prosthodontics concept where we are not just have integrated a method to test the perfect position for the bite with the method of Dr. Klinghardt, the Autonomic Response Testing but as well we’ve integrated Dr. Mosetter used to be the sports doctor of the US soccer team and he’s taking care of many Olympic gold medal winners and he is the founder and inventor of the Myoreflextherapy and this is something he’s training our participants on the jaw and neck muscles. So this is instantly within two or three minutes you will be able to relax all the muscles around the bite so if it’s the chewing muscles or the muscles in the neck and so that is what you need to test and install the perfect bite. So of course you could send your patient to a physician to relax the muscles but just when they come back and on the road being in a hurry whatsoever. Waiting too long at the traffic light they will be tense again and it will be impossible to find a perfect bite and as well we have started to address not just the upper chain but the lower chain as well that means it’s all connected and we are taking care now of the posture of the patient so we joined forces with a company with the world market leader of the inserts what you put into shoes so to make that even better so this is a really top top professional and outcome focused prosthodontics concept. And as last year we’re going to still have the weeks, like the CERAMIC IMPLANTOLOGY WEEK where at the end I’m going to teach in two days the ALL IN ONE CONCEPT. We will have the BONE AUGMENTATION WEEK, where we created very good structure for bone augmentation and a very nice system with our BISS-System “BONE IMPLANT STABILIZATION SYSTEM” where you could even place implants without

any contact to the bone and it works. We have proven that in many cases and we will have the ART FAST TRACK WEEK, we will have the PERFORMANCE WEEK, with some of the best doctors and speakers from the Sports medicine. You know, last year we had the annual Sports Medicine congress at our education center and it will be the same this year. So we have learned a lot from this area, what we have half implemented into our concepts as well. We are going to have some roadshows where I’m going to teach the concept about immediate implantation and we’re going to have a lot of micro events where we’re going to teach the first level. And so, as I said, everything will be perfectly structured and based on different levels. And as well, the education will be based on those levels as well. And inside those levels, as you know, we have every week one or two virtual shadowings. We will have from February on every week a webinar, what will be at 06:00 p.m., European Time Zone and in English at night, European Time Zone. So it will be perfectly accessible for our US community.

And we are taking a lot of tutorials. We have now these podcast. So I think education and staying and transport of information and support of our customers will be a very big focus this year. And of course, to finish with that, the most important event again will be the JCCI. And based on the huge success of the first year, we were able to now to have five ceramic implant companies. So beside SDS there will be Straumann, there will be Ceramex, there will be BreDent and there will be Patent. So it’s amazing that we’ll have five ceramic implant companies at the JCCI congress. We will have several organizations besides the ISMI, the Society for Blood Concentrates and biomaterials, which was founded by Professor Ghanaati, and we will have the DGOI, possibly one or two more and they’re going to bring the most amazing speakers to this venue, which is very hard to get in contact to in other places. So just to give you one example, we will have Professor Albrektsson, I mean, he’s one of the biggest pioneers in dentistry or especially in implantology, and he’s going to come to our place and many others on this level.

So this is really going to be a huge congress regarding the companies presented there, regarding the organizations presented there, regarding the speakers, and of course regarding the quantity, because we have already sold 96% of the physical seatings that you will have interactive Zoom and of course unlimited number of online participation reconstructing our education center. So to have another more 40 physical places and we’re expecting way more than 500 participants. So this will be a huge congress this year. And yeah, I think that should be all. And let’s say the most important thing, of course we’re working on a thousand things at the same time, but I would say this is the most important part of improvement on changes and benefits, what the SDS used and the community for income could expect from SDS in 22.

Coco

Yes, I myself feel a great sense of excitement for what is to come. And I’m even familiar with the concepts which are being developed currently. And I can tell you that great things are coming up. And, yes, I think we can close this episode. And it was very informative and it was great to talk to you. See you at dinner.

Dr. Ulrich Volz

Thanks a lot. It was a lot of fun and I think it’s a great format. It was your idea. And I think it’s a huge benefit for our users, for our community out there, to get more information in a special form where they can listen to it while driving. Always happily engagement.

Coco

Exactly. Thank you so much and bye.

Dr. Ulrich Volz

Thank you, Coco. Bye bye. See you.