It’s been a while since I wrote to you but today I felt compelled. I don’t know why, perhaps it’s being away from work with time for reflection or perhaps it’s just an outpouring of gratitude. Maybe both? Either way, here we are again and it feels like the right time for an update...

Last time I wrote I was sitting in a small street cafe in Geneva. I remember it well. I was describing how it felt to have found the Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT) holy grail. I still stand by that sentiment.
Today I’m in Riyadh, sitting in a beautiful garden, beside a 600 year old olive tree, drinking something called a ‘sweet harmony’. It’s a blend of carrot, ginger and lemongrass and I chose it because the description matched how I see myself as a clinician working with GBT today. Harmonious, balanced, coordinated and at peace with my direction. 

GBT changed my life. I know you know this. I’ve told you before and I’ve sung it from every available platform. I still have a lot of platforms to reach and my determination to introduce this protocol to every clinician in the world remains unwavering. Not because I want to make a name for myself but because it’s ‘the answer’ 
Whatever the question, GBT is nearly always the answer. Think about it. Think about almost every complaint that comes through a hygienists door daily and what do they all need? Effective biofilm disruption and good education. It doesn’t matter what they’re complaining of - GBT is the answer. Sensitivity, gingivitis, periodontal disease, soft tissue complaints, staining, peri-implant disease, denture stomatitis, caries, anxiety, halitosis, you name it. And how do I resolve nearly every case? With GBT of course. In one way or another, GBT is always the answer. 

When have we ever been able to say that before? 

I originally started out with an AIRFLOW MASTER PIEZON^®. I LOVED that unit. We worked hard to pay it off month by month but it was worth every penny. I didn’t once wince at the cost. For my peace of mind, for the reduced work load, for the standard of care I was delivering, for the results I was seeing, for the control it gave me and for the sheer joy I’d once again found in my work, it was a small price to pay. I couldn’t imagine it could get any better. 
Then, to my utter amazement the prophylaxis master arrived on my door step. I was speechless  and beyond grateful but nevertheless, to my shame, I didn’t connect it up straight away. For a couple of weeks it sat in the corner of my room, undemanding and quietly tucked away. Watching. Waiting. I’m still not sure why? It certainly wasn’t that I didn’t want it so perhaps it’s that I didn’t feel I needed it. I was somehow so attached to my loyal old friend that I wasn’t sure it was right that this shiny new imposter should come in and upstage us. We were doing just great on our own. 
One day, as I sat scratching my head over a particularly sensitive and challenging patient, I looked across at the box, still sitting patiently in the corner and I wondered. What was so special about this new kid on the block. Why was everyone so confident it could do a better job. Maybe it really did heat the water to 40 degrees. Maybe it was the answer to my problem. Maybe in resisting the next generation of unit I was doing exactly what the clinicians I lectured to were doing when they resisted advancing to GBT... 
That was it! With a clap of my hands I was up and tearing open the bubble wrap that surrounded the components of my shiny new machine. My inner child came bursting out as memories of tearing off wrapping paper on Christmas morning came flooding back to fill my belly with joy. 

EVERYTHING about the new machine was different. Not only did it look different - a smarter, more streamlined design but it handled differently too. It was lighter, more slick and somehow just more intelligent. Patients immediately noticed a difference with almost all of them asking “are you using a different machine today? It felt different”. “Different how?” I would ask, although by the end of the first morning I already knew the answers; “warmer, less sensitive, quicker” they would reply. 
I could NOT believe it. EMS had actually gone & done it. They’d reinvented the very wheel that I’d absolutely sworn couldn’t be reinvented. It was like they’d taken every single aspect and made it better. The design, the powder consumption, the water heater, the foot pedal, the self-cleaning element. Even the clear powder pods made more sense. Fickle or not it took all of one patient for me to toss my loyalty to the old machine out of the window and declare I had fallen in love all over again! 

Interestingly the old machine was relegated to our 2nd hygiene surgery and used only on the days when we had a second hygienist in. It didn’t take long for patients to recognize that the water spray when they received treatment in the second surgery was cooler than when they received treatment in my surgery. Guess what? Patients started declining appointments with our second hygienist, preferring instead to wait until we could guarantee the new machine would be used. They didn’t mind which hygienist they saw but they did mind which machine was used. The comfort and treatment experience had become more important than the clinician. Perhaps this is the first sign that even hygienists will one day be replaced by technology...