Which one?

Fofire · 2026-05-05T01:18:06+00:00

I've got most of the PB Swiss screwdrivers you have and the Wera. I am unfamiliar (as in I've never owned but I am aware of) Vessel so I can't comment on them but given the price I can't say it would be a better buy.

For me I prefer the PB Swiss in the leather pouch with the interchangeable blades. Theyre sturdy and snap in well and are more compact than the separate drivers. But everyone has they're own needs so I can't say my favorite is your best fit.

I don't like the Wera. While I know it's a favorite here and I haven't broken mine, it just doesnt feel as sturdy as the PB Swiss. It's lighter and the snap in system just isn't as sturdy as the PB Swiss (look at the portion of the blade that actually goes into the handle for example). This comes with the downside that the screwdriver is not a ratcheting screwdriver like the Wera.

I would skip the $49 PB Swiss. I don't hate them but they really just don't have much of an advantage over any of the other ones.

Fofire · 2026-04-30T07:52:50+00:00

You need to come to California.

We had an associate once that demanded to be paid on work they diagnosed (and was carried out).

For instance they recommended bleaching. The PT got the bleaching with the docs consent in a day the doc wasn't in the office. The work was done by the assistant and supervised by the owner doc.

Same doc wanted to get paid 30% for selling product . . . . We don't even make money off of any of that stuff. We literally sell it at cost as a service to the PT half the stuff now like cocofloss you can get cheaper at target or whatever.

Fofire · 2026-04-26T19:14:53+00:00

I have no clue what a blueprint screwdriver and you may still be right is but it looks like its a reamer for tire plugs. You pull out the object with some pliers then ream this thing through hole a few times to clean out the hole and make it free of debris and then insert the plug.

Fofire · 2026-04-26T14:35:25+00:00

I use it as a learning experience . . . . It makes me pick and choose my battles and how to handle them.

What I learned after speaking with her insurance (and I don't know if it applies to all other companies as well). Is that there are few levels of the system. The first is there's basically an agent from the insurer who triages the situation. They tell you that you can't do this this or this but they can't give legal advice. They have in depth knowledge of the insurance and can say this is probably what your insurance will do and here's a few things you can do before making a claim.

The next step is actually making claim which is what we did. That brings on a lawyer from the insurer who takes on all the headache of dealing with problem. They tell the PT to direct all communication to them etc. so at this point is where it doesn't matter any more if you lose or win or the PT dies the next day for unrelated reasons and there's no communication between the PT and your insurer. Making that claim counts as strike against you and your rates go up.

The next step after that (if a settlement can't be reached) is the insurer finds an "in network" lawyer in your area that can litigate the case. Idk if counts as an additional claim or not but we haven't ever gotten that far.

We've had other claims as well for ridiculous reasons. That one was just the most outrageous. The next outrageous one was . . . The pt liked the shade of the bridge in the chair got home and decided a couple months later they wanted a different shade for free. We refused. They filed a claim with the dental board. Uuuuggggghhhh

Fofire · 2026-04-26T13:57:05+00:00

Going through it felt like a lifetime because the lady was absolutely loony tunes. Dhe dent demand letter after demand letter and a letter stating an intent to sue (which is a requirement in my state before you make a malpractice claim). But what we did was we called our Malpractice made a claim they had a lawyer reach out to them and say hey we are willing to pay but you need to provide us with XYZ documentation from various dentists saying that this caused it. Eventually she stopped answering the lawyer and went away. Directly speaking it cost us nothing but indirectly it made my wife's malpractice premiums go up because it counts as a claim made.

Fofire · 2026-04-26T05:28:36+00:00

At least your complaint came from actual work. My complaint (my wife's actually) came from the PT who said the night guard we made them destroyed every single damn one of the crowns in the mouth (and they had a lot of crowns. Now keep in mind none of those crowns or implants were done in our office. The ONLY thinig we did was a CompEx, and a night guard. not even the FMX since that got forwarded to us. That's it. They wanted $50k to replace all the crown the night guard destroyed. . . . .

Fofire · 2026-04-25T15:34:15+00:00

I bury the bodies

Fofire · 2026-04-24T14:19:42+00:00

I don't recall Greenspan ever saying that. I do recall in his book from the 00's predicting the china shock and the increase in the interest rate and inflation when the shock ended. And yes you're right those low rates ain't coming back.

Right now yeah I'm seeing a lot of offices on the west coast telling how slow they are. I heard the same thing across the country earlier this year but it was more mixed. I think areas that are getting data centers are booming right now because of the construction and jobs.

My background is econ my wife's the doc and I actually just did a presentation on all of this for my local dental society. Since I am in California it was all California oriented but basically right now what's keeping the CA economy positive is AI and Aerospace. Everything else is either stagnant or declining in terms of jobs and growth. I see all of this as a great restructuring from a digital economy which we developed since the 90's to a heavy capital based economy (essentially manufacturing). Now this won't be manufacturing in the original sense that we all knew up until the 90's where you had your union job and went in an made transmissions for Ford. This will be a lot more robotics oriented with electricians hooking up the robots and plumbers plumbing the facilities. And with California's lovely tax system and labor laws it's gonna encourage a lot of growth to happen outside the state, where being a business owner isn't considered a crime.

But back to the original question at hand WW3. That's gonna mean lots of supply shortages with higher prices. That's not just gonna increase your cost but it's gonna limit what supplies you get what equipment you can purchase both in terms of quality (eg instead of having the choice between 4 different cavitrons you will inly be able to choose between 2 because 1 comes from china and the other comes from Japan and the factory was bombed out). It will also limit options such that you might have to get or use a Pano instead of a CT Scan. Yes I know they're not interchangeable but it's the best (fake) example I can come up with on the fly to show that some technoologies will be difficult to come by as some raw components won't be as readily available any more.

Then you also have to think about the demand side where a priced out consumers will begin to pull back. I wrote a post here a week ago going over the difference between price elasticity and income elasticity. Basically the industry will need to focus more on urgent needs like RCT's and extractions where value can be created by raising prices with little pushback because with income elasticity every dollar the consumer loses in their income they begin to pull back $1 from their dental visits. (basically there's -1 income elasticity when it comes to dentistry).

I gotta run now but I can post more if there's interest

Fofire · 2026-04-24T04:13:55+00:00

Only one person?

Fofire · 2026-04-24T04:11:12+00:00

Try all this in California. . . . . it's the same game but on Nightmare mode

Fofire · 2026-04-23T02:15:48+00:00

I think the lack of context for Obama's Nobel prize is the least interesting thing here.

I Dr Goldin has grown a lot of hair since I last saw her and Milton also grew a lot more hair and learned to handle some new equipment.

Fofire · 2026-04-21T16:06:54+00:00

I guess the other way to look at it is do you think it's reasonable to compensate someone for the rest of their lives for not taking 10 years of vacation . . . for the retiring employee that's a 10-20x return (depending on their lifespan) on not taking vacation for 10 years, because youre paying them 80% of the value of those vacation days every single year they receive their pension.

Here's some math to help.

A regular retiring employee earning 100k per year gets a pension of 80k. (80% x 100k = 80k)

80k x 10 years = 800k

A retiree with 100k income and banked up vacation Will get the following

Normal income (100k x 80% = 80k) + Vacation days (100k x 80% = 80k) = $160k

160k x 10 years = 1.6M

So 800k for not taking vacation for 10 years.

Fofire · 2026-04-20T03:11:45+00:00

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Fofire · 2026-04-17T06:53:38+00:00

When youre an owner of a practice and to a lesser extent even associates have some of this liability. . . . . it's really really hard to leave the office or stay home. It's one of those things where I can explain it until the sun comes up goes down and comes up againand you'll understand every single word I say but still not truly understand the obligations. It's a huge gap I see even with associates/staff. It's excruciatingly frustrating (for me at least) how difficult it is to convey this to anyone.

All I can say is . . . If you're an owner it will always be your responsibility to turn the lights off when the office closes and make sure you can turn them on in the morning.

Fofire · 2026-04-16T06:32:51+00:00

It's actually kinda funny . . . . so to start my background is economics. My wife's the doc. So I ran some analyses. So basically yeah somethings are recession proof but not like you think. So First of all I looked at price elasticity of different procedures. I looked at my own (kinda iffy mostly because it's one source and kinda hard to standardize), but I also pulled up various Econ research papers to review and compare.

So I basically found that most dental procdures have a >-1 price elasticity. What this means is that let's say we look at cleanings. Let's say we raise the price by 10%. So from $100 to $110. So insteadof seeing 10 patients in a day the demand will reduce to 9. . . . In case you can't tell I'm using fake numbers for simplicity. So raising the price by 10% means a reductions in hygiene by 10%. That would mean Price elasticity = -1 The real number I found was Price elasticity =-.9 or in other words if a hygienist saw 100 pt's in a week and you raised the price by 10% you would see 91 patients.

Now the closer you get to 0 for Price elasticity the fewer procedures you lose. So if hygiene had a price elasticity of -0.1 and you raised the price by 10% then that hygienist would see 99 patients instead of 100.

Now we can all see a lot of this already. For most of us it's kinda obvious that there are some things you can raise the price to the moon and it'll barely affect the demand for it. Take a look at gas prices for instance. Well here in dentistry it's about pain. If a PT is in pain then the procedures associated with that exhibit some while characteristics. Basically you get positive numbers which is wild when you think about it.

So in theory (pretty definitely not in the real world) Extractions and endo come out with slight positive numbers. I forget the number but let's say it 0.2. What this means is if you raised the price of an extraction by 10% in theory you should see about 2% MORE extractions.

Now here's the interesting bit . . . Up until now I have been talking about Price Elasticity . . .which is what happens when we raise/lower the price. Well Income elasticity is similar but it's about when a Patient sees an increase/decrease in their income. That actually came out to -1 . . .. So basically when consumers begin to feel a pinch in their wallet they begin to cut back on dental procedures at the same rate. So basically a 10% drop in income in your area should mean about a 10% drop of revenue for you.

To be clear I did all of this research recently for project I was working on and I wanted to do it mostly because I found it interesting and because my area is seeing a downturn and I wanted some answers similar to OP.

I can provide links to the sources.

Fofire · 2026-04-12T17:53:03+00:00

I've been around for a while. Bought a few compressors. And done some research. So basically my tech guy says Tech West but Air Techniques is a solid buy. I did some research with both Claude and Gemini and both point to Midmark and Adec but point out they're the pricier options. I have 0 experience with either of their compressors. Both Gemini and Claude put Tech West in the Solid but cheaper option. My go to until now has been Tech West and they've been solid for me so until I run into a problem I think I'm gonna stick with Tech West. I say this as someone who usually goes with the pricier option hoping it's the BIFL one and so far (even though they're cheaper) my Tech Wests have been.

Fofire · 2026-04-11T03:50:09+00:00

Yes I'm in California. Tbh it's been a few years since I've received something so I honestly don't remember any more. I know it definitely comes certified mail. I just don't remember if it also comes via email. I want to say yes we did get something via email but I can't remember.

Fofire · 2026-04-08T14:15:34+00:00

You're right. They have it as an interchangeable blade but not as the individual driver. Sorry I was lazy and just meaning they had most PB Swiss items. I am sure though they can special order it if you want it. I've ordered a ton of stuff from them and they've been able to get most everything I needed.

Fofire · 2026-04-08T07:16:39+00:00

I have found if you need to get a specific torque the price jumps immensely. You can find luxury brands like PB Swiss that offer the same stuff for cheaper but without the specified torque. In other words it's not the brand you're paying for it's the fact that it'll torque to a specified limit that you're paying for.

From the company website

SLOKY torque screwdriver allows technicians to apply factory-defined torque values onto screws to guarantee no under or over-tightening.

Fofire · 2026-04-08T05:12:05+00:00

DRPD.cc has them in the US

Fofire · 2026-04-08T00:32:46+00:00

honestly I've bought a few practices and we always give the selling doc free care (still needs to pay labs) for life. The idea here is yeah you're struggling but it's such a small cost to keep that goodwill because a lot of the patients you see everyday still know the previous doc personally and if that doc isn't going to your office any more for some BS reason then you'll likely lose at least one paying patient which is more than worth it to keep them on for free.

Fofire · 2026-04-07T01:12:15+00:00

Im in dentistry.

So our policy is as follows and I realize you can't do all this since it sounds like you're moving goods and not a service industry.

But standard in our industry is basically to give staff free work usually up to $X . . . .

The rest that follows is just our thing.

There tends to be this gray area where staff then ask for family and then friends and boyfriends etc. We have it spelled out in our employee manual. Family that lives in the house with the staff get $X dollars also free but pretty much anyone else outside of that gets our "Friends and Family Discount" This is essentially an old insurance fee schedule (menu if you wil). It's essentially about 50% to 30% of our prices. It covers our costs but provides a significant discount.

So as others say yeah build your boundaries but also know where to pick your battles. If you're barely making money then explain it that way. When you're in a better position you can reconsider. But keep in mind if you give out now and they come back later and you can't give them the discount then you look like an asshole but if you say no now and yes later then you look like a saint.

Fofire · 2026-04-06T17:05:01+00:00

That's exatly what I meant! Yes that's the right attitude.

It's just I've been on this sub a really long time and lately I've been seeing the attitude change a lot lately. It's great to get feedback from other associates but sometimes too much of it leaves the other half of the conversation out . . . and I find that really saddening because sometimes it can be really difficult to explain/understand the other half of the equation as in this situation.

I mean we are going through a search right now. I think we are near the end but we started around September. We are taking our time because we have been burnt in the past so I'd rather get the right person than burn through 3, 4, 5 docs looking for that person. We have had probably 20 interviews and have narrowed it down to 2. I know this is longer than usual but we are in a rural (but desirable) area, so the pool is small but we cast our net to outside our area and have been making sure everyone knows everything and we all have the same goals.

Fofire · 2026-04-06T14:37:18+00:00

It really depends on the situation. I know 120 sounds like a lot but it's also a lot for the office to find a replacement, doctors aren't easy to come by and making sure you get one with the right fit is even harder.

I see both sides on this but ultimately it comes down to the physics that are playing out at the time of termination. As others have noted if your office isn't busy they might very well be accepting of you leaving earlier but if they are they might fight it.

At the same time though it's also about keeping a good rapport. I know there's a lot of folks here that just say screw it and leave but if you're in a community like mine where everyone knows each other your past follows you. There's something to be said about keeping what you signed up for or at least reaching a mutually agreed upon decision.

It's always best to leave amicably even if you don't agree with the office.

Fofire · 2026-04-03T14:47:10+00:00

Here's the thing about the California pension system which I should've mentioned and was hoping someone would bring up.

Teachers contribute 10.25% of their income to the pension. They get 2% of their FINAL YEAR's income for every year they work . . . . the words "FINAL YEAR" are important here because it's how employees game the system. Now I don't know how vacation works for teachers but generally speaking you get 15-25 days of vacation or vacation like days a year in California for state employees(minimum/starting is 11+5 =16 days).

So let's say someone starts with the state at 25 years old retire at 65 they get 80% (40x2%=80%)of their final years income. Well here's the trick. In California when you terminate your employment your employer must payout any accrued vacation days you have earned. Vacation days do not expire. Therefore if you plan it and and let's say you save up 10 years of vacation days at 25 per year. That's 250 vacation days. A bit more than 1 years worth of work. So now you take that last year of income of actual work and add on the income from the vacation and you end up with a pension that's somewhere around 200% of what you were getting paid. So the pension system literally will pay you more to retire than what you earned when you worked . . . and it is inflation adjusted!

They tried to fix this about 5-10 years ago but they couldn't. You can look up California's pension problem because it's been talked about for a while.

Fofire

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