ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 0:45

Welcome back to The FIX podcast. We are on here with a very special guest that we've been, uh, working to get on for quite some time. We've been, uh, uh, bending the ear of our, of our neo DT reps to talk to this guy'cause we've heard great things about him. Um, today we're on with Cliff Gratz. He is a product specialist, uh, with, should I say ENT or should I say Straumann Cliff?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 1:06

Uh, yes.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 1:08

Yes. Okay.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 1:09

just about.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 1:10

Yes, yes, that works. So, yeah, so the premise is, uh, something that we were really hoping to get a perspective on is, you know, so often we have doctors coming on here talking mostly about surgery, talking about the techniques that we do, but we don't really talk so much about the nuts and bolts, so to speak, of the things that we use. We don't talk that much about, you know, implant design and all the things that you wanna look for in an implant system. And so what we're hoping to do is, you know, for people who are just wanting to get into implants now. People who are maybe, uh, have been doing implants for some time, maybe your singles, uh, your occasional overdenture or something like that, they're looking to transition to full arch. Maybe you've been doing full arch for a while. You're looking to go into fixed, well, uh, sorry, excuse me. Remote Anchorage. You know what's really important is that you understand the system that you're using because there's so many implant brands out there, there's so many different designs that can be used in indications for that, and it can become really, really confusing. All the different tooling and things like that, you know, and you know, definitely in my journey early on. When I first started placing implants, you know, you, you kind of just get introduced to a system either through, you know, the, the owner doctor, if you're associating or maybe just, uh, the first course you take, they introduce you to a system and you know, people ask you how you like it and it's like, well, you know, I don't really have a barometer for that. This is the first system I've ever used, so I guess I like it. Um, but over time you learn about all these little intricacies of implant systems and it can get so incredibly complex. And so what I wanted to do is get someone on here not only to walk us through all the different aspects of an implant, as well as an implant system, um, but also why those things are there and why you might want certain, uh, things out of a system so that you can understand when you're going to look for one based on your uses. Uh, what's gonna be the best for you? Furthermore, I know this is a long intro. I also want us to talk a little bit about how these things get figured out, what goes into implant design, you know, why don't we have just one implant that works for absolutely everything? Why do we need different indications for different things? Um, my light's going a little bit crazy. I'll get that figured out. But anyway, I believe I've got the perfect person for that topic, uh, with Cliff Gratz. And of course we have Dr. Soren Papi on, uh, with us as well. So, uh, I think it's gonna be a really great episode. So after a very long intro with much Ado, welcome again. Cliff Gratz.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 3:20

Oh, that's awesome. No, thank you. I appreciate it. And hopefully those lights aren't with sirens. Hopefully they're not chasing

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 3:25

Yeah. No, no, no, not at all. It's just my cheap, uh, Taiwanese built, uh, sign that likes to go a little bit on the fritz every time I record, so.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 3:36

That's awesome. Well, uh, thank you both. I mean, I really appreciate you guys, uh, having me on

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 3:41

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 3:42

um, it's funny, things can look so calm when you're sitting down on a podcast like this and we're, we're just kind of chatting, going over the industry and dental nerd stuff. Three minutes before you guys text me and say, Hey, are you okay? I'm walking my puppy. We get to the door, go open the door. I go, come on. And I, I made the mistake of letting her off the leash. She looked at me and was like, boom. She

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 4:04

Oh no,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 4:04

She's running across the street. She's going after cars and dogs. And I'm like, oh.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 4:09

of course. Yeah. I missed, I missed the puppy stage.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 4:12

Good. You made it. You made it.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 4:15

That's great. I'm glad we made it on time. That's awesome.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 4:17

Yeah. No thanks. Um, yeah, I, uh, I love the intro. I guess. Uh, I saw you guys said a little bit about me. You were asking about, uh, the position. It's kind of

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 4:28

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 4:29

of Implant solutions,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 4:31

Okay.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 4:31

but, uh, I'm also a product manager for Neo now as well. So,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 4:35

Okay.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 4:36

you know, what the heck does that mean? I get phone calls, numerous phone calls a day from the reps. Uh, they line me up with doctors. We have conversations about problems or complications or something that, you know, went amiss with the product. Unfortunately, I get a ton of calls about third party parts. We get, have a whole podcast on third party stuff that they're trying to, you know, save four bucks on and put the

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 5:00

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 5:01

on a Morris Taper connection. Right. And it's

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 5:04

Yeah. Good luck.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 5:05

It's like, oh, it's

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 5:06

Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 5:06

one. So, um, so yeah, there's just like some of those things that happen and, um. I guess, I don't know, I guess maybe I should back up. What kind of credibility does this guy have?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 5:18

that would work. Sure.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 5:19

so I've been in the industry over 20 years. I started in spine, uh, I came to this little tiny company years ago called Noble Biocare.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 5:27

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 5:28

Had a blast and a, uh, a run over there. cut my teeth, learning everything about versus medical. Um, started my own implant center with an oral surgeon and a lab technician up in Philadelphia before, uh, ClearChoice was even up in the area.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 5:46

Wow.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 5:46

for several years and then I actually left and went to ClearChoice, believe it or not. So, um, I went over there early on in their days of, um, looking at the business valuation of choice and their model expand and look at private equity, expansion, everything else. So they got bought out. I got bought out again now Aspen, really interesting. So, um, had need time there and that was when I actually heard about this, uh, company called ent. And they were like, Straumann is gonna come in. And I was like, what? Ent? I said, nes, they said, no, NE said nes. They go, no,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 6:28

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 6:29

this. Show me this brochure way back when. And uh, and sure enough it said Odent on it and it looked like aggressive threaded implants. uh, and, and I guess I got a glimpse into that early on a lot of other folks being there because that was the catalyst to get odent to the United States. Um, and so, so anyhow, I've been here for just over 10 years now. So there you go.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 6:55

doing for Clear Choice?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 6:56

Clear choice. I was, uh, one of the account managers, so I would go around the country, I'd see, spent more time in several locations, but would bounce around to a bunch of others trying to. Provide, uh, modeling for the referral network. So they had done a, a really neat program to say, Hey, can we go out, can we talk to dentists around the area and help them with consultations, um, bringing in more of these cases and help them with some marketing and look for the opportunity. And also, um, it turned out to be, uh, you know, a very interesting stint while I was over there. Like I said, we proved this model and then we saw them just get acquired by larger private equity and just keep going. So at the time there was probably 28, 29 locations. I think they're at probably 120

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 7:46

Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 7:47

Yeah, yeah, there was, I'm in Denver and they, they started here, so, uh, I'm always curious. I'm always, because we've got, I think we've got three here alone. Um, and it's just fun to see their trajectory.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 7:59

Yeah, yeah. And you know, you know what they say, A rising tide.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 8:03

Lifts all boats.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 8:05

all boats. There we go. You know, so,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 8:07

That's right.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 8:08

put, they put full arch on the map. There's a lot of the, the

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 8:10

Yeah.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 8:11

locations, they, they wouldn't be able to do what they're doing today without the marketing. That was done by some of the, the bigger guys for sure.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 8:18

oh yeah. Oh my gosh. I mean, those guys used to pump, you know, tens of thousands of dollars a month in those areas

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 8:28

Mm-hmm.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 8:29

bet.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 8:30

And it, you know, one of the hardest things to do, I think, personally, with any kind of marketing is when you have to explain the marketing. When you have to talk a little bit about full arche reconstruction with dental implants, we have to explain all of that

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 8:46

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 8:46

do like a commercial. A 32nd commercial becomes a 62nd, and all I'm thinking is, I just cost more money. That's a lot of money, man. How am I gonna do this? So I, I need, and so now you get somebody like ClearChoice to help you, and you see all the centers and practices today and. this come a long way, you know?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 9:04

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I, I think we're kind of probably like the second or third generation of, you know, full arch, you know, people that are entering into the market and now I think we have a little bit more of an educated, uh, consumer base, and we don't have to spend quite as much time just explaining the, you know, the concept of it. You know, uh, one of, we say all the time, our favorite consultation is like a, you know, a, a clear choice, second consult, you know, someone that's looking for, you know, other options out there. And so, yeah, that, you're absolutely right. They, they spend a lot of money and they help us out a lot with, you know, educating the public and then, you know, guys like us, we can kind of, uh, figure out how to, you know, be the better option, you know, by comparison. So I'm very thankful for that. Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 9:42

And and there's plenty obviously to go around, so there's, everybody wins, right?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 9:45

right.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 9:46

That's a.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 9:47

Absolutely.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 9:47

definitely shown your experience. You've been, you've been in the game longer than, uh, Tyler and I combined, so, uh, that's great. Uh, I would, yeah.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 9:59

Um,

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 9:59

but yeah, let's, let's jump into to talking about implants. You know, I think, I think we really, uh, I think it'd be great to talk initially about, um, you know, when we're evaluating an implant system, you know, what, what should dentists be thinking about? Should, you know, and, and there's, I'd love to talk a little bit about if a, if a provider is mainly doing single implants, um, kind of getting their feet wet in implants, you know, what, what are systems that they should be looking at, and then maybe if they're in the transition to full arch, can they continue to use those implants that they're using? Or

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 10:32

Hmm.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 10:32

they consider using a different system that, um, is maybe a little bit more full arch focused with, with the multi-unit systems and stuff like that?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 10:40

Sorry. That is a really good question. Holy cow. My mind's spinning.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 10:44

I know we can chop that into a lot of smaller pieces.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 10:46

Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 10:47

yeah.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 10:48

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 10:48

uh, you know, there I would certainly say yes, there are some more sophisticated implants. Are available in the market today. I'm just gonna hold this up just as an example. I can

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 11:02

Sure.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 11:02

I happen to have this thing in front of me, right?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 11:05

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 11:05

But the, the, the bottom half or the apical half of this particular implant has these, uh, really aggressive threads,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 11:13

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 11:13

So I want them to grab or bite into something. And then at the top, the coronal half, if you will, of this is a more squared off trapezoidal thread. So that's gonna get secondary compression and help lock this thing in for good stability. It just happened to happen in front of like, ah, might as well use a prop. I'm always doing this one. I'm, you know, on a computer. But, um, I like that because of flexibility. So in this case, I'm talking about this, um, GM Helix implant. This is a lion's share of, of neogen implants placed by four arch, full arch guys because in our first four diameters. that the apex, a lot of doctors ask, what's the apex of your implant? What's the tip? And I know that these are a 1.65 in our first two diameters and a 1 7 5 in the next two diameters. So what? Who cares? Well, if you think about a ridge, you're knocking down 4, 5, 6, 7 millimeters of bone. You're basically shooting two plates of cortical bone with this soft, trabecular cancellous bone in the middle, right? So right away, doctors are going, man, worst case scenario, soft bone. I get in there, I just run the pilot drill, which is a two millimeter drill. I can drive any one of these first four diameters of implants and just let this baby go. I don't need versa, burs. I'm not a fan of those myself. Just let this thing do the work. Just let the tip grab and expand or compress that bone for you as an ceto around the implant. So that's, to me, that's a major benefit, obviously, uh, upfront, because that's one of your first milestones. I've gotta get primary stability

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 12:52

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 12:53

arch. And then Tyler, I heard you talking about remote Anchorage and I saw all of this at ClearChoice when it was like voodoo for the rest of the industry,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 13:02

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 13:03

are doing some really crazy things to throw in, uh, Well, heck, today we're talking about OIDs just as much or more

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 13:12

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 13:13

right? And now we've moved into this whole other world of trans sinus. We've been, I was doing these years ago in my practice, but, uh. Our guys were, we were doing these trans sinus, but now transnasal. So now it's, if you got bone somewhere in the maxilla, we're gonna find it. We're gonna throw in a screw, we're gonna get primary stability and we're gonna, we're gonna hang teeth.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 13:33

You got it.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 13:33

That's

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 13:34

So,

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 13:34

right.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 13:35

so, so that said, I don't mean to go off on a little tangent about that'cause I know we're, we're talking full arch and, and implant systems, but Yeah, we actually, we're even coming out with a system to, to dial it back a little bit and put balance back into torque because you want to, you want a really good implant. Where you can go, man, I'm in type one, or I'm in type four bone. Can I use one implant? Is that good for all types of bone? Right? Is there really a system out there that has that, or do we need to come out with something else? So for maybe somebody that's a little bit earlier in their implant journey, something that helps balance that torque and it says, follow this, follow steps A, B, and C, and we should get you a more predictable result standard implant care, ISTs and maybe more healed sites. Or, or, or something of that matter. So, you know, long answer, I, I really apologize to you guys, but yes, I think there are certain subtleties between systems and some are more user-friendly for the beginner and some are more advanced.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 14:38

Yeah, I, I, I think that you bring up a really interesting point there because when it comes to, you know, people that are just starting out and they're placing, you know, singles, you know, the in dente patients, right? I remember when I was first learning how to place implants, you know, I'm targeting somewhere between 30 and 40 Newton centimeters generally, and I'm being told, Hey, if I go in, if you go into 50, 60, 70, you're gonna get some pressure necrosis, you're gonna have crest bone loss, it's gonna be a big issue. And then you start going into remote anchorage and all of a sudden. You know, that goes completely out the window. We're like, you know, we, we want infinity torque. We want to like be turning the patient's head. Uh, you know, we, we want to just about be out fracturing buckle plates. Like we want torque all the time. Right. And there's implants that are really optimized for that. They have that aggressive thread pattern at the apex. They have compressive threads near the crest. Um, so, you know, for someone who's first starting out, should they be concerned about getting a more aggressive implant? And, and, and you know, maybe all they're trying to do is just place it in that edentulous number 30 spot. You know, should they go for a more aggressive implant or should they maybe hold off until they're looking to go into more full arch or just like you kind of alluded to? Is there some middle ground there?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 15:44

Really good question. I love it. So, I mean, it's more so for me, what are the ancillary parts or pieces to the system that help me? What are the bumpers that I put up, right? If I throw a bowling ball and I'm five years old down the lane, I'm probably throwing a gutter ball. If I can throw those, those, uh, what do you call those little borders up,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 16:04

Yeah, the bumpers. Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 16:05

right? And I'm, and I'm gonna hit pins, right? That makes it way more interesting for me, but it's also gonna assure me success. So along the same lines, that's probably more so a guided system. Do you have drill stops? Do you have, uh,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 16:20

Okay.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 16:20

an array of sizes? Because today there's a lot of convenience sizes to an implant system because we can plan something guided. And so I want my porage just right. Not too hot, not too cold. This is how much bone's available. Mesial distal. Buccal lingual. And it's like, right. So all,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 16:39

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 16:39

of that is really important to a system. Right? And then I, I really, I think today so many systems have already moved or they've followed suit with where the industry's gone to get better primary stability.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 16:51

Right.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 16:51

to, even Straumann alone, like Straumann used to be the king of place. It bury it, leave it, get a really good result, and, and wait and, and look where they're at today. I mean, they're, they're right there Nenet doing all of this stuff. Bone level and

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 17:08

Sure.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 17:08

threads and full arch and immediacy. That's all they, they pound too. So, I mean, the whole industry has gone that direction.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 17:15

Yeah, absolutely. So you, you bring up another interesting point, um, about, you know, the system and, and having, you know, sort of a user friendliness, you know, for people that are kind of looking into getting, uh, into implants. But I do also want to just kind of simplify, you know, the, the implant design. So let's kind of maybe just kind of put together a decision matrix based off of like the different features of an implant. You know, we're talking about the general overall shape. Is it tapered? Is it sort of a cylindrical shape, um, thread patterns? We're looking at connections, we're looking at, is it platform switch, things of that nature. Um, do you kind of like, uh, is there sort of an order of importance there that you think that should be considering when they're getting into implants?

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 17:57

Yeah, let's, let's dumb it down a bit for everybody, you know, and, and go, you know, apex, apex coronal aspect. Like what should people be looking

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 18:07

Yeah.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 18:07

Polish collar, internal. Um, I agree with Tyler. Let's talk a little bit about like what people should be thinking about stepwise.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 18:14

I, I, love it. It was, uh, it was absolutely a head spin for me coming over to Den initially in the beginning. I would think today, especially when you see all these companies that are following suit, I would say an aggressive thread, at least on the apical half, right? A tapered implant is more than 90% of the market today. There are not too many parallel walled implants anymore,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 18:41

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 18:42

And, and then if you see where we've come from, um, the threads have only gotten more aggressive. The question is, when do we get too aggressive? So there's, there's maybe a couple systems out there that are really good for soft bone. They're not great for. Type one bone or type two bone, right? And I've seen things like threads, uh, sheer off of an implant. It's crazy. But I've seen some of the strangest things because everybody comes at me with their problems. uh, and so a tapered implant, aggressive threads, at least on the apical half, it's okay to have something, you know, trap is a little more squared off later in the implant as it advances, because that's just gonna add, uh, further stability as the implant gets wider from that taper. Right? And we wanna soften up the aggression on the threads. But when you talk about a connection, totally different, man, it took me a minute. Nothing beats today in this industry. Nothing beats a Morris Taper connection. you know, I, I ask people all the time, um, I jump all over the, the country here and I do a lot of the singles, um, CE for, for Den and uh. True or false? Are all conical connections a Morris Taper,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 20:00

False.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 20:01

right? Are all Morris tapers conical connection? True,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 20:06

True. Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 20:07

true.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 20:08

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 20:08

is, the key is this thing has to be, this cone of a connection has to be 18 degrees or less,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 20:16

Okay.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 20:17

right. And so that's when something is aided by a screw. Because I know there's one guy that's gonna listen to this podcast and go, but that's not a true Morris taper. Right? And so Byon came out with an amazing four degree connection that you literally hit with a mallet.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 20:33

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 20:34

You tap this thing in. You guys seen this, right?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 20:36

Oh.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 20:36

that is a true Morris. We don't need that because now you're limited on what you can do prosthetically. So what? Who cares? You get me a Morris Taper. Okay? And the platform switch, I think everybody today, just about everybody today, has a platform switch. That switch is gonna help you with tissue. We're gonna change the emergence profile. It's gonna be more concave, right? And here's the other thing. For a Morris Taper implant, you can literally ask your doctor, here's crest level bone. Do me a favor, do put it down, sub crest, it say a millimeter, millimeter and a half, right? And so when you do this with a Morris taper and you, and you push this into the bone a little bit. Now when you put your abutment on, aided by a screw, we're only asking you to do 20 Newton centimeters, not 30, 35, whatever. They're relying on that abutment screw to hold those two pieces together. When you draw this thing in with a screw at 20, what you're doing is you're creating a cold weld. I don't want any motion, I don't want any mobility between the two pieces. I don't wanna worry about a gap between my implant and my abutment. If I do, then I'm gonna see bone loss or saucer around the neck of my implant, right? And so what you're seeing is there's starting to be more and more companies that are follow suit and going in that direction. But you know, to date, they still don't even do this. Neo, that's one of the only companies that says it, push it in Crest. Everybody else says bone level still. But the difference is what I'm literally seeing from a, a lot of my clinicians that I work with. We're doing a bunch of cases, we'll share stuff back and forth. I'm literally seeing this, this implant completely encapsulated by bone. I want that, right? And

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 22:23

Right.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 22:24

where even when I have this platform switch, I've got this narrow emergence profile between the implant and the abutment, right?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 22:34

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 22:35

something that's that's tight. When I see this, I see the bone come up over, right? And you're not gonna see this with things like an internal hex a conical connection. Not a more taper, but a conical connection. You'll never see that. You'll never see bone grow up and onto the ledge of the implant or the platform. What you will say is, because of the platform switch, sarn, you were asking me this earlier because I'm moving the gap in away from the bone. Now I'm able to keep bone crest on the outsides of my implant,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 23:08

You bet. Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 23:09

see it grow up and onto it. Does that make sense?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 23:12

Yeah, it does.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 23:14

Huge benefit.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 23:15

you have a really nice model that you just held up to the camera a moment ago. There was a cross section of the internal, uh, componentry of the implant. So that's showing us what a conical connection it actually consists of. Right. And how does that contrast with, say, an internal, I don't know if you have another model for just a simple internal HEC system. How would that look different?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 23:36

So I don't have one on me, unfortunately, in front of me, but the difference is you typically have a hex, you're taking a piece and sliding it in, and there's just too much movement or mobility. So

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 23:48

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 23:49

with, let's say, an abutment screw, most of your internal hexes, um, I hate to say this, they're the most copied connection in the world.'cause it's easy.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 23:58

Yeah. Straightforward.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 23:59

hate it, I hate it. Uh, but you know, if you, if you look, if you ask your laboratories, they're going to tell you. I get a lot more screw loosening. I get a lot more screws that break. You know, we go back to the basics. want this to happen. If there's something wrong, if there's too much movement, if you're in a mal occlusion, things have changed over years. If you're beaten down on this thing all day long, you want that screw to come loose. It's telling you there's a problem,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 24:27

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 24:28

What happens if it didn't come loose? What

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 24:31

It's just breaks shears.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 24:33

breaks. Okay. What's even worse, let's say it doesn't loosen, and the above and screw doesn't What happens next? There

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 24:41

The fixture breakage almost. Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 24:44

guy breaks and it's

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 24:45

yeah, yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 24:45

it's even worse. We got

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 24:47

yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 24:47

So, so,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 24:48

yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 24:49

so

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 24:49

yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 24:50

But I mean, I just, ah, I'm just, the internal hex thing has been around for a really long time, but we should just continue to push, stay curious, figure out what else is out there. And

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:01

yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:02

like we have, I mean, the, the Morris Taper connection has been around ready for this since 1864. Stephen A. Morris. Hold on. Hold

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:12

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:13

I mean, I tell everybody, I'm like, take a step back. Think about this. What else happened in 1864?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:18

Yeah. Civil war.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:19

flipping Civil War.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:22

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:22

long, this connections, but we've been using it in, we're

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:26

Right.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:26

in aerospace. We'll use it in medical. I mean, it's, it's tried and true. It is a very good connection. I also literally, I mean I could share some papers with you guys, but I say this to people all the time. It's gotta be a good connection. how they attach the engines to the wings of planes.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:42

Right. Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:43

They use a Morris Taper connection. There's no screw, It's

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:47

yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:47

safe if we're flying people all over the country with however many flights today, just while we're talking for an hour, right? And

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:55

yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:56

it's also in the landing gear. You've gotta make

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 25:58

yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 25:58

sometimes you come down hard onto the, onto the runways and all. So it's gotta be a very good connection. And obviously I'm very passionate about this because it was a challenge for me coming from somewhere else in the industry and not being familiar with a Morris Taper. So

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 26:14

yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 26:14

I took it personally. I've read a ton of papers on it and, and now I'm in, right? So,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 26:19

yeah,

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 26:20

So

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 26:21

I understand.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 26:21

since we're talking about the, the Morse taper conical connection, what are your thoughts on, um, changing the, the degrees? Right, so we have, I get people that talk about the 11 degree,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 26:33

hmm.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 26:33

the 16 degree, and you know, I've personally had, have experience with both and I, and I have my own like issues with the, the degree being, you know, you know, getting that too much of a

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 26:46

Too tight. Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 26:47

yeah,

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 26:47

Um, so I'm just curious like what, what you've seen and, and why you think Odent sticks with a 16 versus dropping down to like an 11. And I'm sure a lot of our, our listeners don't even know, you know, the difference between an 11 degree and a 16. So, so why do you think that? Um, it's, it's better to, and maybe not, maybe it's not better, but in my hands I like a 16 over an 11'cause I've seen a lot of issues with 11. But I'd love your opinion.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 27:13

no, that's, that's, uh, that is actually a really good question. So we initially started out with a tighter tolerance between our connection, right? We were closer to an 11 and a half degree, and, uh, and there was somebody else out there prior. And what everybody knew about a competitor that had a similar connection with a tighter tolerance, a tighter degree inside their cone. The first thing everybody noticed was bone maintenance. They're like, wow. Bone st. Thing around this implant. But the hard part was there were restorative problems,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 27:44

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 27:45

right? And so we come along and we try to obviously work on something, make something a little bit better, uh, index it, change maybe composition, make it a, a titanium alloy. You know, you try and do all these little subtle things, but we still found, you know, and you learn sometimes the hard way. We, we found that it's a little more challenging to work with those prosthetics to come in and out. So when you can open up that, that cone, if you will, of the Morris taper, but it still has to be 18 degrees or less, right? So when we open this up, we allow a lot more freedom of our products to come in and out our, our restorative products, right? I think we have more flexibility. So the other thing was the previous connection, tighter tolerance. Really deep. We were four point, I forget what it was, 4.1, and now we're like maybe 3.7 down inside the implant, inside our Morris Taper. Right? And so when you talk about something like an internal hex, this copied connection, most copied, it's easy, right? It's about two and a half

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 28:46

I

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 28:46

millimeters. It's a lot different. It's not as deep and you're cranking on the screw. So when we think about this screw, when you guys are talking about 11 degrees, 16 degrees, what's better for your, your sweet spot and your Morris taper? more important thing is I don't lose that benefit of that feature. I, I don't lose locking it up. So I get more from a prosthetic standpoint opening up the, the, um, the cone within the Morris taper itself, right? I get, um, more products that we can bring to, to market for, you know, flexibility. But I still have the Coldwell, that's key.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 29:23

Right.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 29:23

Yeah.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 29:24

So something you had a video on, on your website that I, that I really loved, and I was hoping you could kind of explain it to everybody for the show.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 29:31

yeah,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 29:31

it was comparing, um, issues that people were having with the CM connection, which was a lot tighter, just like you were talking about the load and a half or, or so, um, versus the gm. So what would happen, some of those restorative challenges like you were talking about were things were just cold. Well, like, you're trying to, you know, see a crown or, or some other prosthetic restorative component and it's just, it's stuck in the damn thing. It's not even screwed in, it's just stuck. You're having to like jam it, you know, and CM above, they do have some notoriety for having to be, you know, like hammered outta mouths. Like they really get stuck in there. What did change was, was it just that. To, or was there another design, uh, tweak there that helped it kind of back itself out?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 30:07

Oh, no, that's another really good question. Uh, I mean, these are, these are things that happen, right? You're like, oh man, what is going on? This thing's really stuck

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 30:17

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 30:17

king out. So yes, when you open this up, we can get the part out.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 30:23

Okay.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 30:23

bit easier. Right? And you still don't want it to be easy. If it was, then we'll just go back to an internal hex connection, right? So we can't make it easy. We gotta, the thing, the most important thing to me is we have to understand the why. So when people understand, then they back off a little bit. Blood pressure comes down, okay, this thing's stuck in there, I get it. Right? But like we've added tools. So now we have, uh, little remover tools. Let's say you even remove the screw completely out. We didn't even have removable screws when we first had the, the GM system. We had screws that literally had, here's the abutment screw, here's the abutment itself. And we had a ledge that we created. So when you back the screw up, the ledge would catch the bottom of the abutment and kick it up and out. Right?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 31:07

Cool. Okay.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 31:08

same thing now that we have removable screws. Now we can drop a tool in. We spin that tool clockwise. It actually goes down. I actually use this as an example. thing will go down in and through the abutment, right? Let's say the abutment iss on top of this implant, and it'll literally go down till it hits the bottom of the implant, which I can't even really demonstrate here, but it would. And as I'm turning this to the right, and it keeps passing down through the abutment, there's a couple threads inside our abutments now that kick the abutment up outta the implant. So the bottom of the tool hits the bottom of the internal portion of the implant

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 31:48

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 31:48

and kicks the abutment up. It's, it's a

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 31:50

Oh, that's brilliant.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 31:51

So pretty, pretty neat that we have these like little tools to help with these things, right? And, uh,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 31:57

Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 31:57

and then alleviate the, the problems we see around locking something in, uh, with that cold weld between the abutment and the implant.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 32:05

That's fantastic. Okay. Yeah. That, that really elucidates that for me.'cause that, that was always kind of a, a thing because I, I'd always heard, I never, you know, had the privilege of using, uh, cm uh, systems and I always heard they were just like this restorative nightmare. But then GM came along and it was like,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 32:19

Yeah,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 32:20

just, you have to earth. So it, it's, it's nice to kind of know some of the engineering that went behind that transition.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 32:25

yeah. I mean, we did a couple of subtle things that people don't realize, but you can put a driver into the abutment screw

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 32:31

Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 32:31

really rock it counter-clockwise. And what happens is guy comes loose and then there's, you know, just, uh, one of their little one is, let's say you have the, the handle on a mirror,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 32:43

yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 32:44

tap, tap on the facial aspect. you know that, that screw's loose,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 32:49

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 32:49

the seal as well. So there's just little, little things to tap, tap on the facial A, and then out it comes. So.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 32:56

reset.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 32:57

Well now, now we know. Yeah. A few times. Wow. That's fantastic. Yeah. Um,

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 33:04

that right now the, the depth is about a 3.7. Before it was like a, a 4.3. What are, what are the limitations behind the size of the implant

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 33:14

good question.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 33:15

a, um, uh, Morris connection and what is the, the, the absolute minimum height of an implant that can have that connection? Um, and then,'cause I, what I, what I've seen now, right. Are these, are these like super short implants, however, in reality the, the super short portion of the implant is, is threaded right. And then they have a polished color on the top in order to fit a ridge that maybe, like if you want like a, like a six millimeter implant, then it has to have some sort of polished color in order to place it retro ally.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 33:52

and I love this, you're walking me right down the path.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 33:55

Okay, good. Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 33:57

We, we literally came out with a helix short. Very aggressive thread. Right? And the shortest we have is a four.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 34:06

Okay.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 34:06

size up is a five five, right? And so those two helix short, I'm just using those two smaller ones'cause they're the lion share what everybody does. But like you said, they are so short of an implant, we have no room to create the proper connection inside. So if we can make it at tissue level, can give you this collar and then I get 1.8 millimeters of that collar above the treated portion of the implant, right, then I still gotta connection. I can still make it strong. But here's another one. This is really important. This is the part that most of the, uh, the sales reps miss or they don't communicate well with the doctors is now I'm actually moving the margin up from bone. No matter what, even if I wanna move the margin down as close as I possibly can on a tissue level implant, if we place the treated portion of the implant into the bone and we still have this little trumpet the tissue collar or titanium collar, that's polished, right? That sits just above the bone, I'm safe. I got the important part into the bone. I've got the tissue portion of the implant out of the bone, and now you can put the margin on the abutment wherever you want. Does that make sense? So clinically I wanna keep or maintain bone. It's really important. But like you said, making a tissue level so I can create some running room inside the implant for strength.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 35:34

Yeah, I, I wanted to, to give a, a little layup because I know that there's definitely some providers out there that are listening to this, that in their head they've been like, well, you know, my why, why don't my eight millimeter implants just go to, to six millimeters? And the reality is correct that the, in the internal hex is the, the biggest factor there. And then once we get into these shorter implants, a different system is needed because in, in order to drive that implant with the polished collar, it just changes the internal dynamics a little bit. Correct.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 36:08

Yep. Yep. You nailed it. And then the, the nice thing is you can still put a multi-unit abutment, right? An MUA on top, that universal 4.8 shoulder. And now you can tie this different implant with its different kit or different system. You can still tie that into the rest of the construct. Right?

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 36:25

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 36:25

That's the nice part. So you still put your helixes or whatever implant you want in your, your anterior, and then if you, you're, you're bought for something vertically in the posterior mandible, oh, I can use these shorts, right? And now I've got these added points of fixation. Yep.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 36:42

Great.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 36:42

a good one.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 36:43

Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 36:43

that one.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 36:44

that makes sense. And then another thing that I, I, when I first got into implants, I was placing hi Osen. And one thing that was just absolutely confounding for me was how many parts and pieces we had to keep track of, right? So you had, um, a mini, uh, platform that I think went up to like three five. And then if you wanted to go wider than three, five, you had to have a regular platform. And so you had to have multi-unit abutments for every platform, right? So you had to have minis for regulars, and it made inventory, um, kind of a mess. And then when I switched to a more universal system, all of a sudden the world changed. Like, I, a 30 degree was a 30 degree and I could use that in whatever. So I'm curious about, you know, what kind of design aspects, you know, allowed, uh, implant companies like Odent to make that sort of switch to where we could have a universal platform. Why didn't we always have that with any other.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 37:33

I, I think it goes back, honestly, I think it goes back to the, the mors taper. I'm back to it again. Right? If, if I know that that connection is that strong. Like using it in aerospace, right? Um,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 37:47

see. Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 37:48

if I know this, then I can now keep a consistent platform for you throughout. I can maintain bone, I can simplify your inventory. I can lessen confusion. I don't need to narrow and a regular and a wide, but I still need to know that I have that strength, right? And so when you look at, um, studies, stress test or finite testing, when you see forces displaced throughout an implant with a more steeper connection, there's no stress on the screw. It's a beautiful thing. You actually see the, um, fatigue that, or the stress and friction that's brought through, uh, axial forces or biting forces from your abutment. You see them displaced throughout the implant, but not the screw doesn't touch it. So can we keep a 3.0 platform or a platform for whatever system, right? Can you keep that in a more taper throughout? so in our case, we're lucky we've got seven different diameters of a Helix implant from an eight all the way up to a, uh, an 18 within that one system with one platform. But, but, but, but if you want to be the kings and queens of full arch, right? And one every two arches done in the United States at the moment is done with neo debt. So we have to continue to build this portfolio. We're gonna lose market share, right?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 39:10

Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 39:11

you have a 2.9 implant. It's got a different connection.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 39:15

sure.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 39:15

still have a multi-unit abutment that you can put on top of it. We call it a micro. We still have a helix. Short, tiny little guy. You can still put a 4.8 MUA on it. But can also move the other direction and say, guys have something? I mean, this is, you guys are hearing this first. I'd literally have something in, um. Right now that I'm getting approved, we are the second company that I know of in the United States that has our Helix long implants indicated TE Placement. I'm literally fixing a piece and sending it out on broadcasting this all over the United States, like next week. Right? But it's exciting for us that we actually have the indication because there's only one other company that does it. And so that and saying, Ooh, you could place a 20, a 22 and a half or a 25 and get here, Some guys do these other things like this. Some guys place some, you know, in other indications. But I mean, then there's gon, now what we're saying is from an eight millimeter length all the way up to a 55, we've got something for everybody. But the

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 40:29

That's amazing. Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 40:30

of that full arch stuff is done with those helix and those seven diameters right in the middle there with yes. One platform, but when you expand, then you gotta go into other platforms to adjust.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 40:41

So I, I am curious and, and you make a great point. And you know, that's one reason that we really love doing full Archer Nein, is we do all that array of techniques and we do it with the same, you know, system all the time, which is fantastic. Um, when you do go to a 2.9 millimeter diameter, what needs to change the connection to compensate for that?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 40:57

Mm. So I mean, you obviously can't have a 3.0 connection.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 41:02

Well, yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 41:03

It's

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 41:03

Fair.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 41:04

endpoint, right? So, so we still have a Morris Taper, but now it's a two three,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 41:08

It has to.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 41:09

so we still wanna keep, we wanna keep that wall in, in, uh, you know, intact and we gotta figure out what that is. So, from our previous 2.9 implant, we've increased the strength in that thing by, forget what it was, like 37%, something crazy with basically keeping a, a very similar design and keeping the Morris Taper connection intact. Right? Most important part.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 41:34

And is it always, uh, is it always gonna be gray for titanium?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 41:38

Uh, to my knowledge,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 41:40

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 41:41

our belief,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 41:42

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 41:42

I love that you said this. This comes up, this is stuff people talk about in

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 41:46

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 41:47

Holy cow. This is so

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 41:48

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 41:49

the people that forget, right? They talk about an implant, they go, I want it stronger. I want it bigger. I want it faster. I want you to blah, blah, blah. And you always have to do this. You gotta factor or figure in, like, if I make the implant stronger than what, what's it look like from a modulus of elasticity, the type of material that's in the bone? How is this thing gonna act under force when it's in bone? Right? Because now you're changing all of that up and, uh, again, just gotta start reading papers on this stuff. You gotta stay curious, right? And so people are like, yeah, but I can make the implant stronger, but that doesn't mean it's better for the body.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 42:30

Hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 42:30

Prove me wrong. Show me a bunch of papers that say we should all move to a grade five stronger type alloy titanium. Right? How many of those are out there? There's some, there's a couple, but there's not a ton. Right?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 42:46

Yeah,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 42:47

the body is way more accepting of a commercially pure grade four titanium, oh no, let's do it. Let's get it cold. Worked to make it stronger,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 42:55

sure. Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 42:56

about that? Fair enough?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 42:57

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it, it's, it, it's certainly nice. I mean, I, I, you know, occasionally you get patients that ask about, um, you know, allergy, right? Allergy to, to implant bio. It's, it's more than you would think. And, uh, you know, always the, the, our response to that is, well, it's great for pure titaniums. It's the same thing they put in hip implants, you know, medical devices, things like that. So, you know, it, it's the most compatible. I mean, some people haven't type to immuno allergy. The incidence is maybe one in 10,000 at most, um, you know, compared to a lot of alloy implants. So, uh, what I usually say is, Hey, if you ever heard of someone that was allergic to an implant, they might have had an alloy implant. It might have been some cheaper metals. They were react. So that, that, that's one that comes up, you know, quite,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 43:35

Yeah.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 43:35

yeah, no.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 43:36

um,

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 43:37

wild.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 43:37

about the the two nine implant, I'm curious, uh, about, you know, something that I always question is the, fact that, um, when we're using, you know, these mini implants, right? These, or I shouldn't say mini implant, right? But like a, a narrower implant. Um, is the, have you seen papers that show that in full arch treatment. Is there a lower, uh, a higher failure rate when placing these implants? And I have always placed, or I try to place above a four because I've seen like board issues with people that are placing, um, doing fixed art treatment where if they're placing under a four, there's not as much, um, there's not as many studies that show like that it's gonna hold up over time.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 44:29

Sure,

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 44:30

do you see that at all? Do you have any input in that?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 44:33

there's always so many different factors. So I go back to it again. I can't help it. Were others more narrow implants created with a Morris Taper previously? there's certainly been other narrow implants in the industry. I, I used to sell'em somewhere else, but I used to know that things like two screws in the package or, um, just kind of breakage and strength concerns, that kind of thing. So, um, I don't know. I know because I personally didn't spend enough time yet to dig in and find, it's a little harder to find these papers on full arch with a two nine. Um, I know it's, I know it's been done. I know that somebody has shared with me that they actually did a, a, a full arch in two nines.'cause they could, I wanna see what happens. And they're probably gonna try and document this stuff, but that's off-label, right? That's for the doctor to decide. That's my quick disclaimer to you guys and really putting in a two nine is, man, I blew something out. You know, buckle plate win and I'm, I'm bought, I've got no real estate left. I really wanna work something else in from this span, from my last implant here to this guy. And I've got maybe four, five implants in an arch. I'd love to throw one more in, throw the two nine in if there's room and there's that added point of fixation to regular implants throughout the arch, right? And so that. That's where I think this is really what it's, uh, intended for today, and we'll get more studies in the, in the future.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 46:03

you can imagine, we've seen everything under the sun as far as 18 mini implants holding up a fixed arch. You know, like, and, and going into that, what are, what are your thoughts? Just on the, the mini implants, not the two nines, but like the super mini

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 46:20

One piece.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 46:21

Yeah. Yeah.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 46:22

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 46:23

I mean, I, I don't know because, um, there was like a, a hot run on these with marketing and, um, if you told me somebody was a lot older their life and there was, uh, affordability issues and I wanted to try something to get them fixed teeth. Sure. But, that's just, that's just me speaking off the cuff personally. But I mean, we know, we know today there's just too much. Information. There's too many studies. There's too much about putting regular size implants in, and there aren't any studies on, there's no long-term studies, certainly on going direct to fixture either. So there's something about putting MUA on that implant and there's tons of documentation on it. So if that's what works, stay, stay there, stay safe. You don't need a liability in your practice, you know?

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 47:18

I also, I see a lot of marketing around, uh, service, treatment, uh, of implants, right? So, you know. I think what most implants or implant placing people are using is, is usually just a double acid etched, you know, implant. But, um, a lot of times you hear about, you know, hi hydroxyapatite coatings, you hear about like super hydrophilic coatings. Um, you know, I know Neo DT has the aqua course. Um, you also hear about young people buy these machines that are, uh, you know, making them super compatible, right? Like they're like ionizing their implants and it just makes the blood stick to it better, I suppose. Um, what's your take on that? Do you think some of that's marketing is some of that, you know, is, is there really advantage to that? That's it's worth, you know, paying 10, 20% more for your implant?

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 48:01

Uh, I mean if it's, if it's backed by research. If there's studies,

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 48:07

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 48:08

yeah. You know, and then if, I mean, man, I hate to say that, but you know, major companies, shame on them. If there's some marketing thing that they're trying to put out there and, uh, and let you guys be the Guinea pigs on without proper research or studies on it. I mean, Straumann's number one in the world, they've got literally two of these awesome implants. They've got an SLA active. And they've

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 48:31

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 48:32

got a aqua surface. So they're both a sandblasted acid etched surface, right? I mean, Straumann's got the part figured out. Straumann Group, it's awesome.

squadcaster-5fai_1_02-11-2026_173907 48:43

Mm-hmm.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 48:44

both have a, um, um, some type of additional treatment, if you will, to help with better healing and faster healing. So the difference within Strand Group is a nitrogen enriched chamber for an SLA active, and just like you said earlier, ironizing or, or bombing the heck out of the surface of this, uh, implant from neo dent with UV lights and statically charging the surface of this implant. I mean, this thing is just teeming, it's bouncing in the package. Right. It's excited. Right. And so you're, you're charging this implant, the extended FDA from two years to four years that it can sit on your shelf and then Yes, exactly. Like you said, the negative ions. The proteins of your blood to a positively charged implant. You're only gonna create this attraction, right? And then you're gonna have blood defy gravity, even if you just, I love on lowers. I'm like, just put it in. Leave it there for a minute.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 49:41

Capillary.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 49:41

Watch this thing run. Yeah, just runs up the threads. I'm like, yes. So, you know, is it pixie dust? Is it unicorn farts? Is it whatever? These people, no. I mean, look up these studies and check this thing out because you do get better healing, faster healing. Now, I don't care about faster healing. We're loading everything. We've got these aggressive threads on screws. We're getting'em in with this high insertion torque. But I mean, you tell me a smoker, bisphosphonates, um, maybe just soft bone grafted site. else? Right? I mean, you've got

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 50:14

Yeah.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 50:15

diabetic, you've got all these different things that might just, you know, I mean the smoking's probably worse, but

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 50:21

Yeah, I mean, if

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 50:22

healing.

ty_1_02-11-2026_163907 50:23

pretty much every patient applies to at least one of those things, if not multiple.

cliff-gratz_1_02-11-2026_193907 50:26

Right. And so, yeah. So if, if you're telling me that I can get better healing, absolutely. You know, I mean, we've got some amazing doctors with resonance frequency, right? And pegging the tops of their implants and checking these things. It's amazing. The numbers are, are out the roof and they stay there.