E46: Podcast: Scott Dupont from Cynosure, discusses why dentists should consider laser tech

Dr. Kevin Coughlin:  Welcome! My name is Dr. Kevin Coughlin. You’re listening to Ascent Radio. This is Ascent-Dental-Solutions, with a focus on knowledge, consultation, development and training. As always, I’d like to give special recognition to Mr. Doug Foresta. Without his expertise and his company, Stand Out and Be Heard, this podcast could not be put on on a regular basis. His editing and professionalism have made it a huge success.

Today, our topic is Lasers. I want to emphasize to our listeners. This is lasers outside of the box. Or what I mean, outside of the mouth. We, as health care professionals, many times look right through the mouth and many times we miss some of the most subtle things that are most important to our patients and that’s the areas outside of the mouth.

In this particular case, I’m proud to represent and introduce Mr. Scott Dupont. Scott Dupont is a Sales Representative for Cynosure. Cynosure has been around for the last 25 years. They are located in Westford, Massachusetts and they have over 20 different platforms for lasers.

Scott, can you tell us a little bit about your company and how you see the market and the marketplace moving and the advances in lasers as you see it and your company sees it?

Scott Dupont: Thanks Kevin for the introduction. I appreciate it. We’re a locally company to western Massachusetts, world headquarters. We’ve been around for about 25 years, just celebrated our 25th anniversary. We have, as Kevin mentioned, over 20 different platforms, anything from tattoo removal, skin revitalization, wrinkle reduction, laser lipolysis, CO2 laser systems for external skin revitalization and much more.

The world that we’re in now, a lot of people are seeking aesthetic treatments, facial treatments but with zero downtime. Years passed, when the CO2 lasers came out for resurfacing, that was really the only device on the market that could produce real results. But along with real results came about seven to ten days of downtime.

Kevin, the way the market is shifting, people want treatments, they want wrinkle reduction, they want skin revitalization, they want to get rid of vascular lesions, pigmented lesions on their face, but they want zero downtime. That’s the way the market place is going. They want to look beautiful, feel great with absolutely zero downtime. So that’s the direction of the market currently.

Kevin: Let me tell the listeners an interesting story. I’m a general dentist that has been practicing cosmetics since 1983. I’ve been doing Botox and dermal fill, tooth whitening, implant surgery, temporomandibular joint treatment, almost all aspects of dentistry. Since I started implementing dermal fill and Botox over the last three years, it became enormously obvious to me that I was missing the boat.

As a clinician, I looked immediately inside the mouth, and I was amazed. I believe you can talk on the statistics that it’s estimated that about 30 million people just in the United States have tattoos on their body. And almost 85 percent of those individuals over the age of 40 are trying to remove the tattoos. We as wet finger dentists, clinicians, see tattoos around the head, the neck, the face, but actually throughout the whole body and individuals are trying to remove these tattoos.

Can you talk for a little bit about what your company has and the different wavelength s that are necessary to remove the black, the blues, the greens, and the purples, and the reds from these tattoos and the uniqueness of your company and their systems?

Scott: Yeah, that’s a great topic. Even furthermore, when you go see a tattoo artist, a lot of tattoo artists won’t tattoo over somebody else’s work. So what you are seeing now are tattoo parlors partnering up with an establishment like yourself, Kevin, where they are referring patients to you to receive tattoos removal. That way they have a blank canvas to do their work over. So it’s a pretty unique time.

We were the first company to come out with a picosecond laser technology, 755 nanometer wavelength that would effectively get rid of all colors: reds, greens, blacks. One wavelength, 755 nanometers, and that was FDA cleared to get through all colors. What is really cool about the picosecond technology versus the Q-switch technology, which has been around for 20 to 30 years, is picosecond technology will allow you to get rid of the tattoo in almost half the treatments. Before, where a person was going to get rid of the tattoo and it may take 20 treatments, PicoSure technology can pretty much cut that tattoo removal process in half.

The box has a 755 nanometer wavelength to treat all colors, particularly blacks. It also has a 532 nanometer wavelength in the box as well to help with the more aggressive reds, greens, yellows and oranges. That’s a little bit about the picosecond technology.

Kevin: Scott, not to just beat a dead horse here, but when we’re talking about Pico, for some of our listeners, can you explain the technology? What actually is a Pico? Am I correct that it’s one trillionth of a second or is it one billionth of a second, one millionth of a second? Just explain a little bit about the technology because most of us, dentists, are really in to the technology aspect of providing care and treatment?

Scott: Yeah, Kevin, it’s one trillionth of a second. It’s firing almost ten times on average faster than a standard typical Q-switch laser.

Kevin: I think for consumers, which we as dentists are looking for the best and the brightest, I do believe that your company is offering something that’s quite unique to the market. And as you alluded to without tooting your own horn, if you can take a Mr. or Mrs. Smith and remove or eliminate the colors of that tattoo in four to eight visits rather than 16 to 20 visits, you’re doing a great service, you’re saving a lot of time and a lot of potentially post-operative discomfort. Although it’s not enormously painful, it’s still something that does provide a little bit of a jerk. It’s almost like a little electric shock, am I correct? How would you describe it to the dentist thinking to get involved with tattoo removal?

Scott: I would probably describe it more like a rubber band snapping. If you were to take a rubber band and snap it against your skin, your forearm but really, really fast, that’s the kind of sensation of what a tattoo removal laser would feel like.

Kevin: Can you talk, again, a little bit again about the technology here? How do you and your company control the heat or the temperature? I believe some of your systems have a cooling system involved. Is that correct?

Scott: Yeah. Some of our systems have a cooler system built into the systems; PicoSure. What we would sell separately is a Zimmer system, it’s a Zimmer Chiller. Basically it’s a — I like to call it a mobile air conditioning system. So when you’re doing something like tattoo removal, you have a separate cooling system that sits beside the device. You turn it on and all it does is blow cool air. So as you’re doing the treatment, technically, there is a couple of different ways they do it. They’ll use the chiller to maybe flash in their face just to cool their overall body down and then after the treatment, they’ll take the chiller just to hit the spots that were treated, just to cool it down faster. So it is a separate chilling system, separate from the PicoSure technology.

Kevin: Scott, I’d like to move the topic to probably the biggest marketplace. Being a male, perhaps I’m just isolated, but with two daughters, and getting into the Botox and dermal fill, I was amazed at the number of females and also males that were interested in hair reduction to hair removal and the unwanted hair underneath the nose, around the lips, by the ears, underneath the chin area. Your systems have quite a unique, again, technology behind it. Can you talk a little bit about hair reduction and hair removal with the current systems that Cynosure offers?

Scott: Obviously, hair removal remains to be one of the top procedures requested by individuals in this marketplace. There’s two types of ways of getting hair removal. We have a couple of systems; one is called an Elite+. It has a 755 wavelength in it for skin types I, II and III. I also has a 1064 wavelength in it to treat skin types IV or V and VI. Basically, what the Elite is doing, is super fast hair removal, strictly doing hair removal, bigger spot sizes to do, bigger areas on the body. We’re talking chest, arms, legs, back and things like that.

On the face, a lot of people are tending to switch gears and using a Redscan piece on an Icon system that we have, which is an IPL system, an Intense Pulsed Light system. Smaller areas: upper lips, facial hair, ears, nose, forehead, areas that are really tiny to get a laser into, a lot of people are using the IPL system.

Then we have a Diode Laser system called the Vectus, another very high-speed hair removal system where you can do a man’s back in about ten minutes. The cool thing about the Vectus is it has proprietary technology in it called the Skintel. Skintel is a live melanin reader that will give you a live melanin index of the areas that you are treating on a body.

Say for summer months, you notice the patient you’re treating is skin type III but they’re tanned so you’re really not sure what kind of settings to use on the Vectus. You take three scans with our Skintel reader that scans the area that you’re treating and Bluetooth wirelessly sends those settings to the device based on the melanin index of that patient. Basically Skintel is an insurance policy. You think you know the skin type, you take a scan with Skintel, it will send the settings to the device based on the readings from that Skintel system, which is really cool.

Kevin: I think some of our listeners will have a different level of understanding, but basically with most lasers, you’re using the Fitzpatrick levels I, II, III, IV, V and VI, with IV, Vs and VI being mostly, let’s just say, your southern Europeans, your Hispanics, your African American’s darker pigment. The concept basically is the darker your skin is, the more the laser would get absorbed. So you’re classifying your client or patient as a I, II, III, IV, V or VI and the ability to improve and standardize those classifications will give you a better outcome. Am I correct on that?

Scott: That’s correct, yes.

Kevin: I think it’s critical again to discuss another area that I think we, as dentists, are uniquely qualified to treat, examine and discuss and that’s skin revitalization. We spend so much time trying to get the perfect shade of teeth, the perfect line for a smile, to broaden the smile, whiten the smile, close spaces, do cosmetic or orthodontic dental care. But in the end, the ability to see a better tightness, texture, and overall health of the skin is critical. And the younger that the patients start undergoing treatment, the better.

You touched a little bit about the Intense Pulsed Light or IPL. Perhaps you can discuss a little bit about skin rejuvenation and the improvements that are available, and how it certainly is a significant improvement over your conventional facials that you might get at some day spa that does not have a laser. Can you comment on that, Scott, a little bit?

Scott: I think the Icon system, the Icon which we have is the IPL system. If you’re looking for something to really address your patients’ needs and concerns — the truth be told, people have vessels on their face, they have them on their neck, on their chest, they have pigment on their upper chest area. Women, for example, have décolleté. On your nose you could have little telangiectasias, you could have sun damage. All these different types of things that really concern patients, you can control and handle with the one platform that we have, the IPL systems which is called the Icon.

Once you clear the vessels, clear the pigment, people also are going to discover we have wrinkles maybe around their eyes, or some laxity on their jaw area or chin. The fractionated laser technology which we have on the Icon, the 1540, will allow you to non-invasively stimulate collagen and create more uniform elastin. It also treats moderate wrinkles, acne scars it treats stretch marks if you wanted to do body procedures, it treats surgical scars, trauma scars, melasma, and it does skin resurfacing.

So it’s one system that you can start with the IPL, clear the vessels, close them out, take care of the sun damage, reds, browns, melasma, anything like that with the IPL, and then go over it right away with the 1540 fractionated laser resurfacing. So it’s a nice system where you can address all of your patient’s concerns.

Kevin: Scott, you touched on another point that I think we as dentists sometimes overlook. For someone like myself, I’m doing orthodontic care, bands, brackets removable, fixed and functional appliances. And in many cases, this orthodontic care is done on adolescence, somewhere between the ages of 13 and 15. And we’re focused on improving their teeth to improve their self esteem, but so many times these young men and women are suffering from facial acne. And rather than dope these young men and women up with drugs like Accutane, which have some significant effects long-term medically, the laser, quite honestly, can do a wonderful job, not just eliminating and reducing the scars from acne, but improving the overall skin condition and reducing the outbreaks of acne. Is that correct?

Scott: Yeah, that’s a 100 percent correct. When you have patients that have had severe acne issues and problems and you can treat it — after acne has been healed and diagnosed and you have scarring and irregularities over the tissue, you’d be surprised and amazed how powerful this 1540 is. It really changes those patients’ lives. A 13 , 14 year old, saying you can go several treatments with the 1540, it will completely restore their confidence back in that patient. So acne scarring, surgical scars with the 1540 will do an amazing job.

Kevin: The last topic I just like you to touch on is we hear so much about different competitors and different systems out there, but your company has also addressed the remodeling of adipose, the reduction and eliminating of adipose tissue or fatty tissues, on not only around the neck region, but throughout the body. Can you comment on what Cynosure is doing and how their system stacks up against some of the other systems on the market?

Scott: We really put one of our body contouring systems on the map in 2006 with our introduction to Smart Lipo. If anybody on the call knows Smart Lipo, it is a gold standard in laser lipolysis. The focus big areas of any patient, male or female, are abdomen and flanks. The system came out in 2006. We did a big direct consumer marketing campaign. And now when people search for Laser lipolysis, Smart Lipo comes up. It’s been branded and it’s very well-known in the industry.

What’s really cool about that, about two years ago, we launched a product called Sculp Sure. It’s our non-invasive body contouring system. It’s FDA approved for lipolysis, permanent fat destruction over the skin. So no topical, no anesthesia, no surgery. There are flat applicators that go over the skin and it’s using a 1060 Diode laser to go through the skin — any skin types I, II, III, IV, V and VI — and destroying the fat cells. Being non-invasive, your lymphatic system is naturally going to get rid of the fat cells over a 6 to 12-week process.

We have launched a direct to consumer marketing campaign for Sculp Sure so the people on the call now, if you haven’t seen it, you will probably start to see Sculp Sure billboards, Sculp Sure on transit systems, Sculp Sure in publications, Women’s Health, Men’s Health, People. So we’ve launched our non-invasive version of Smart Lipo, essentially called Sculp Sure, about two years ago and it’s our hottest product that we sell here at Cynosure.

Kevin:  Scott, once again, your expertise and your company, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you doing this podcast to educate the healthcare professionals, but in particular, dentists. In full disclosure, I am an owner of Cynosure. I went to their continuing education courses. I was a true skeptic. I felt that there was no need for me to get involved with it. But Ascent Dental Solutions is a Radio Station and a podcast and an information forum to share ideas. And I could tell you, I was so impressed, not only with what these lasers could do, but with the way the company represented themselves, the way they taught me and trained me and educated my team.

I can just tell you, what we ultimately want to do? We want to produce the highest level of care and service for our patients. And in my opinion, anything around that head and neck, should be available to the dental profession and to our patients.

I also would tell you without any disregard or nervousness at all, these procedures are quick, they’re effective, and for the first time, I’m seeing people really say, “Thank you, Dr. Coughlin. I am so glad you were able to offer this. I had no idea you as a dentist could be doing this or would be offering it”.

So to our listeners, I would strongly recommend that you educate yourself in these areas. Each State has certainly different by-laws and regulations and perhaps we could discuss that in a little greater detail in a future podcast.

But Scott, I want to tell you at this point, your company has been outstanding. Everything that you have said that you would, do you have delivered on. And I’ve been more than impressed and that’s why I wanted you on this podcast.

Before we close, Scott, could you just give the listeners an idea of the cost structure in the various ideas of the systems that you would probably recommend for the dental community? Just so they come away with a little bit of information, and also the best way for them to reach out to have questions answered by you and your company and how they could contact your company.

Scott:  As far as cost structure, it’s kind of hard to put a number on it. I can give some parameters based on the different technologies that you’re looking to add to the practice. If it’s one technology, two technologies, three technologies, I could say a safe ballpark would be anywhere from — depending on the system — 65 to 75k thousand dollars to anywhere upwards of — depending on how many systems that you’re going to purchase, you could go to 300k, 400k, 500k. But I think every single situation is different and that’s where the salesmen at Cynosure become your consultants. So depending on what you’re looking to do and what you’re looking to treat, we can come up with a package for you.

Kevin, I really appreciate you taking the time to have me on here. If anybody needs to reach me, my name is Scott Dupont and my cell phone number is 603-231-2603. If you are not located in my immediate region, then I can definitely get you in front of the right person that would definitely take care of you, in whichever state you appear to be in.

Kevin: We’ve been listening to Cynosure, located in Westford, Massachusetts. My guest today was Mr. Scott Dupont.

Before we close, I want to share this story. We as dentists, day in and day out, for the vast majority of us, deal with insurance codes. What’s insurance going to cover or not cover, what’s the limitation of this plan? As I ventured into dermal fill, Botox, and laser treatment, there were no real insurance codes. These are fee for services procedures, they are elective procedures, and I can’t tell you how enjoyable it is to offer our patients something that they want and need, and we can provide without all the BS and the paperwork that’s associated with so much of health care today.

Scott, Mr. Dupont, I should say, thank you so much for your expertise.

You’ve been listening to Ascent-Dental-Solutions. The focus is on education knowledge, development and training. You’ve been listening to Ascent Radio. My name is Dr. Kevin Coughlin. Thank you so much for listening.

In closing, I want to thank Mr. Doug Foresta and his expertise on producing this podcast, and his company, Stand Out and Be Heard.

Thank you everybody and I look forward to our next podcast very soon. And Mr. Dupont, thank you and your company for offering this information to the health care professionals and dentists in particular.