The Organization That Changed Everything

So last week I spent some serious quality time with friends and family…in the Bahamas. And I was surrounded by about as diverse a group of fifty DDS-types as you can find in Los Angeles, North America, and beyond. But there was a common thread.

We were enjoying the company, the sunshine (and rain) and a purpose that none of us, save one, ever saw coming.

At the end of the day and the year, who knew 900 out of 70,000 GP dentists providing Invisalign care could garner 15% of the market? Who knew any of us would ever be part of the most productive and best trained group in the world?

For me, it all began with a recommendation coming from an Invisalign Territory Manager who would be on the job with our practice for a grand total of two weeks. And I’ll never forget Roslynn.

I hadn’t traveled outside of LA for training during the first 20-years of my career, but I haven’t stopped traveling since. So it was ironic that Roslynn’s offer was a short drive to the Universal Sheraton and two days of Reingage, “The course that changed everything.” And; turns out, it did.

The Doc with the vision, David Galler, had taught varying components of Invisalign care for years. In fact, I’d experienced a Galler Pasadena Invisalign drive-by several years earlier. And one reason why I was a Roslynn pushover and excited over the course was I’d learned Galler had stand-up comedy skills. Don’t know about you, but I love learning and I do it way better when I’m having fun (and…research backs me up on this one.)

Over the two days, Dr. Galler taught us every freakin’ tool in the Invisalign tool box and groomed us as a team of thirty. About half of us were Canadian and half from SoCal; but we also had doctors traveling from places like Oregon, North Carolina, and Missouri. Doc Galler promised to keep track of us and support our progress as long as we honored the commitment to provide the excellent care we were now capable of delivering. Galler even went so far as to arrange our visit to Costa Rica and the chance to meet the Invisalign technicians with whom we’d collaborate to provide excellent care.

I was closing in on 40-years of practicing dentistry and…I felt like a kid again. We all remained connected via email and later developed multiple chat groups. David was ALWAYS available to lend support. One day, I left a virtual meeting to visit a virtual restroom, only to be named “President” of my group, Los Aligners. Next thing you know, we were having our own convention in Dallas. Out of 500 members, over 300 attended.

For me, “family” is sacred; it’s the most beautiful, emotional word that I treasure and visualize, let alone use. “Family’s’ value actually comes from loss; and it’s unconditional and synonymous with “love.” I have team members who’re like daughters. And it took 20-years of practice for me to find and trust a mentor; the only true mentors I’d ever had were my parents and my brother. But even I can like, believe, and finally, trust. And now I have a Mt. Rushmore of mentors, including Dr. Galler. But brothers…?

So who knew that after 2-days spent in Nassau, shared with a United Nations of men and women from Nova Scotia to the OC and from Vancouver to Puerto Rico, I’d be flying home having spent serious quality time with fifty-one brothers and sisters.

This past week, we shared a family reunion. We planned, we brainstormed; we had fun and, as always, we learned and grew. And this time around, we emerged with a collective smiling confidence, seeing the world through a new global window.

We aren’t Reingage anymore; we’re not a series of courses. We’re now the organization that changed everything. We provide a pathway to innovative excellent clinical care and growth. We are the American Academy of Clear Aligners (AACA). And we are family.