The Legacy of Implant Dentistry with Doctors Jonathan and Angela Misch

Joseph: Welcome to Marketing Matters with Weo Media. As the host of this episode, I'm honored to be joined by two very special guests, Drs. Jonathan and Angela Misch. First of all, thank you both for being here.

Jonathan Misch: Thanks for having us. Seriously. Yeah. Sincerely.

Joseph: It's our pleasure. If our listeners don't recognize the name Misch, I feel like I need to fill in some blanks here. We were just talking about the appreciation for some history and what your late father, Dr. Carl Misch, did for us as a pioneer in implant dentistry. He was the author of the book, Contemporary Implant Dentistry, which gave birth to terminology we take for granted today. The book is in its third edition and was translated into nine languages. He was the clinical professor and director of oral implantology at Temple University. He had more postgraduate degrees than we have time to mention. He would lecture in every state in the U.S., plus 47 countries, publishing over 250 articles and co-founding BioHorizons. We're talking about one of the great pioneers of implant dentistry, culminating with the founding of the Misch International Implant Institute in 1984, which was the same year I began coaching dentists on practice growth and improvement. The respect that people had for the Misch Institute was part of who I was. And then they would teach me what they'd learned, not clinically, but their appreciation for what they'd come to learn really became part of me because I was focused on practice growth and helping them accelerate their growth. You can imagine what happens when, particularly a general dentist starts doing implants. We're able to accelerate growth in a way that you really can't do any other way. Really, I've seen a little of it done maybe with cosmetic dentistry, but you're talking about the difference between a very select demographic for aesthetics versus a very broad need for implant dentistry. There's just no comparing the two.

Angela: The Misch Institute, I believe, was the first implant institute out there. So, the boom from general dentists in 1984, going from not having the hands-on training and not placing implants to going to Misch and doing that. And from there, the birth of other institutes, and it so happens that a lot of those guys, even now, were trained by dad.

Joseph: We're trained by Dr. Carl Misch.

Angela: I'd say most of them.

Jonathan Misch: People kind of said, "This looks like a good idea!"

Joseph: So, if you're going to learn how to do implants at an institute, would you not want to go to the mother of all implant institutes?

Jonathan Misch: Yeah, I think so. A bit biased, yeah, a little.

Joseph: I thought you might be. And then, of course, Angela, you were telling me that you were 16 years old when you learned that your father had a brain tumor and he would ultimately pass when you were 18. Up to that point, you had decided, I guess you said all your life you were thinking of being a veterinarian. But you grew up in a dental office.

Angela: I did, but everyone knew I was going to straighten my head out and see the light. I didn't have a choice, right? But, after my rebellious phase of not wanting to do what the family does, I took a good, long look at myself and asked, what do I want to do with my life? I wanted to honor my father's legacy. Dentistry, other than maybe family, was the most important thing in his life, and I wanted to continue that, his spirit, in whatever way I could. Then, I just found myself actually really liking the profession. I mean, I love working with patients. I'm a hands-on person; that's just how my brain works, very logical. But he's the guy who drove me, and I could say the same for Jonathan.

Jonathan Misch: You know what's funny? Angela and I have a very similar coming to dentistry story in that I'm very glad I ended up liking it. I mean, it's now a full-on passion. I'm nerdy about things that nobody should be nerdy about in perio and implantology. It's kind of weird. But I started it very similarly to Dad. Dad got into dentistry, he told the story all the time, because he wanted an ice cream cone when he was a kid. He asked his dad, "Can I have money for an ice cream cone?" And his dad said no. He said, "What job do I need so that I never have to ask you for money again?" And he was like five or six years old, and his dad said, "Either an attorney or a dentist." And he said, "I don't know what an attorney is. I'm going to be a dentist." So, he got into dentistry because when he was six years old, he wanted money for ice cream. I got into dentistry because after I graduated college, I was working in the wine industry. I was the sommelier at a restaurant in Las Vegas when my dad would have institute weekends, and he would bring his doctors to my restaurant. I'd be serving some of the best bottles on my list and would never have even tasted these bottles. I knew the plot they were from, I knew the elevation, I knew the soil types, I knew everything about the bottle. And I'm watching these guys just chug it like it's water, and then I was like, "What the heck? I'm in the wrong chair here. I need to be a dentist." So, I went back to school to become a dentist and now I love it.

Joseph: That's interesting.

Jonathan Misch: I'm glad that we ended up liking it, though, Angela.

Angela: Yeah, aren't we lucky?

Joseph: Well, sometimes these careers find us, don't they? And here you are, Angela, you're the COO of the Misch Implant Institute.

Angela: I'm proud to be.

Joseph: The brains behind the operation.

Jonathan Misch: She's the brains, for sure. There's no less than that. Come on, guys.

Joseph: That's really impressive. Your passion to see your father's legacy thrive, not just survive, but literally thrive because of all the advantages that you feel are unique to MISH is what we really want to spend some time talking about. And Jonathan, here you are, a respected periodontist yourself.

Jonathan Misch: I can't believe it.

Joseph: I could go on and on about your bio, but that would just embarrass you. But understand that your focus is on all the factors that influence peri-implant bone remodeling, right?

Jonathan Misch: Really, yeah. That's my primary focus. My thesis was on the impact of the prosthesis on peri-implant bone remodeling disease experience and physiological remodeling. It's kind of cool for me because I didn't choose to be interested in that. It just kind of ended up like my second year in residency. I kind of realized that I knew more about that than most people. People started asking me for recommendations on these things. Like, what about abutment height? What article was that? What about emergence contour? And all of a sudden, I start to realize this is actually the same thing Dad was really interested in, which was marginal bone loss. He attributed it to occlusal forces and wanted to understand how biomechanics impacted bone loss around implants. He really dove into biomechanics. That's why everything that his philosophy on implants, if you're going to sacrifice length, increase diameter, increase the number of implants for force distribution, all these types of things, his implants that he liked had square threads because biomechanically that made the most sense. And now today, we're starting to understand a lot more of the biology behind bone to implant contact and emergence profiles and bacterial load and how that impacts marginal bone loss. And that's what I got into, the biology behind it, realizing also that biomechanics plays into the biology of it. So, it's kind of cool. Like, I'm like, "Oh, hey Dad and I were kind of on the same thing," and now Angela probably is going to be also. So, it's not going to be an accident, but you're going to fall into this.

Joseph: That's got to be a thrill ride to be reading something and think, "Wow, that's part of my legacy." And a lot of what you seem to remember had its roots in your father.

Jonathan Misch: Yeah, definitely. I think it's fun to reflect back on like Institute weekends before I was in dental school, and Angela, I'm sure same for you. I was the kid running around the floor. Actually, I'm looking forward to the first alumnus that comes up to me at an institute weekend and says, "I remember when you were like four years old with nunchucks pretending to be a ninja turtle." I actually remember doing that. I mean, I can't wait for somebody to tell me that.

Joseph: How many alumni are we talking about when we're talking about the MISH Implant Institute?

Jonathan Misch: At this point, over ten thousand alumni. Dad had an incredible reach.

Angela: And they keep coming back. Many of them have taken our course more than once. And that's not because they didn't learn it the first time; it's because they want to see what's new, what's up. They loved it so much the first, the second time around, they want to bring their associates. A lot of them have children now who are dentists because, as we know, it runs in the family. So, they want to bring their kids. And it's really just crazy to see the family feeling around MISH.

Joseph: You see, that describes an organization that is not exclusive; it's extremely inclusive. It's one that's not just surviving; you're beginning to thrive because of the relationships that exist throughout the world. I know this is not just limited to the United States, is it?

Jonathan Misch: Yeah, and actually, I think primarily when Angela and I took control and started to reformat the way things were going with the Institute, the first thing that we spoke about was how we wanted to get back to the family feel of things. We felt like after Dad passed, we lost, obviously, a big part of the legacy and the foundation of the Institute. So, the first thing we wanted to do was try to bring back people that were a part of it from the ground up. Obviously, Heidi was, I think, the first person that we got in contact with and was like, "Hey, we want you to be a part of this." But then Steve from BioHorizons was, I think, possibly the second phone call. And thankfully, it didn't take much convincing. The first time I talked with him, he was just like, "Anything that I can do to continue this, I'm going to do." So, that's why we have BioHorizons now back with the Institute for the first time since I think 2016, right before Dad passed away. So, I'm so thankful to have that. Obviously, Dad being co-founder of that, but it also fits because the Institute, the way we restructured it, was based on Dad's philosophy of being centered in the most up-to-date literature and providing really the best education possible, which is why people would come in the beginning. And BioHorizons was centered as well because he was a part of that foundation. And when we went to the facility actually to visit, it was really cool to see how much of him was still present there. And how they would constantly talk about how everything is supported by rigorous literature and support to show, "Yes, this is why we do this." It's not just something we feel is right. And that's something that Dad was always very big on. It had to be supported by evidence. You know, because everything is biased. You could think you're doing one thing, it's working so well, but then when you actually track it, I actually had that experience myself. Dr. Saleh, one of our course directors, he tells a story that years into his clinical practice, placing implants, he ended up having to do something where he needed to surgery track his implants and do some numbers on failure. But he also looked at marginal bone loss while he was doing it, just out of curiosity, to see, you know, "Oh, I really like this implant system the most. Let's see how the other ones are doing, but I think this one's the best." And he says today still that it was the thing that opened his eyes because the system that he thought was far and above the best actually had a much higher failure rate and much more marginal bone loss. It was like third place, and it just kind of showed him that things need to be supported. It's not just, you can't just go with what you think is right, you know.

Joseph: So, all along, Dr. Carl, we'll call him, was not intent on doing it his way or wanting to convince everyone that his way was best. He was building an institute that could be supported by facts, by the most relevant current data available. And that's what your alumni have come to appreciate.

Jonathan Misch: And I think it happened that he was also very into performing research. So, everything that he was teaching happened to be supported by his research.

Angela: I was gonna say, uh, I think that he was right most of the time, but he also had the research behind him most of the time.

Jonathan Misch: Yeah, right. And that's the thing today. I mean, people know that it was always supported by facts.

Joseph: Not only do you have a loyal following with your alumni, but you also have a loyal following with your educators. I would love to know about that because this institute isn't the Jonathan and Angela Institute, is it? This has become just what your father had foreseen, really, that it would grow based on everyone that can, in fact, contribute to that legacy. And you're just, you're actually, even as COO and CEO, you're only a piece of that.

Jonathan Misch: In the '80s and '90s, it could conceptually happen where an individual knew everything there was to know at that time about dental implants, and maybe also performing all of those things at the highest level that evidence can provide. Today, I just don't think that's possible. I think periodontists do a great job, prosthodontists do a great job, general dentists do a great job, oral surgeons do a great job, but I think all of them can learn from each other, and I don't think one of them can really tell the full story. So, I'm a periodontist, but I know for a fact there are so many things that my prosthodontic colleagues need to teach me. And there are so many things that I can teach them. And there are so many things that the oral surgeons can teach me.

Joseph: The very discipline itself has become like a symphony, hasn't it? And an appreciation for that music, if you will, is where the MISH Implant Institute really shines with your appreciation for those interdisciplinary approaches to implant dentistry.

Jonathan Misch: Yeah. So, that's really what we've ended up doing with our faculty. We now have general practitioners speaking. We have periodontists, we have prosthodontists, we have perioprosthodontists, we have maxillofacial prosthodontists, we have ortho-OS dual specialists, we have oral surgeons. It's an absolutely balanced education where you're coming in, you're not just learning. Previously, we had a very strongly prosthodontic-focused education. And actually, when I sat in those classes as a perio resident, I would hear things and say, "I know that's different than what I just heard in my implant class," but that's because I was learning the perio side, and now they were being taught the pros side. Right? And so, that was something when Angela and I talked about restructuring, we really wanted to make sure we tried to balance that out and get everybody to be fully...

Joseph: So, when you have multiple instructors on a weekend, they're going to, they're not for general dentists. They're not for prosthodontists.

Jonathan Misch: No.

Angela: You're learning from the best person to hear about that topic. You're learning from the person who is doing the firsthand research, who is publishing the newest technique. You're learning from them exactly what you should be doing.

Jonathan Misch: That's exactly the perfect way to say it actually. So, each person that is coming to speak, whatever they're coming to speak on, they're speaking on it because they've shown that they are a leader in the industry for that topic.

Joseph: And knowing something about dentists, I'll just bet that even those educators are learning from each other because it's a continuous process, isn't it?

Jonathan Misch: I would say so, definitely. Actually, one of the things I say very often right now is it's exciting as the CEO of an institute to be able to say, "I'm so excited to go to my institute and learn this weekend."

Angela: I'm incredibly excited to take our courses and to take them more than once.

Joseph: So, all along, Dr. Carl, we'll call him, was not intent on doing it his way or wanting to convince everyone that his way was best. He was building an institute that could be supported by facts, by the most relevant current data available. And that's what your alumni have come to appreciate.

Jonathan Misch: And I think it happened that he was also very into performing research. And so, everything that he was teaching happened to be supported by his research.

Angela: I was going to say, uh, I think that he was right most of the time.

Jonathan Misch: Yeah, right.

Angela: He also had the research behind him most of the time.

Joseph: Not only do you have a loyal following with your alumni, you have a loyal following with your educators. I would love to know about that because this institute isn't the Jonathan and Angela Institute, is it? This has become just what your father had foreseen really, that it would grow based on everyone that can, in fact, contribute to that legacy. And you're just, you're actually, even as COO and CEO, you're only a piece of that. Describe the rest.

Jonathan Misch: I wish anybody could just fill Dad's shoes and stand up there on the podium and be somebody who was up to date on all the literature in every aspect of dental implants. And the fact is, dental implants have grown so much since the institute was born. In the 80s, in the 90s, it could conceptually happen where an individual knew everything there was to know at that time on dental implants, and maybe is also performing all of those things at the highest level that evidence can provide. Today, I just don't think that's possible. I think periodontists do a great job, prosthodontists do a great job, general dentists do a great job, oral surgeons do a great job, but I think all of them can learn from each other and I don't think one of them can really tell the full story. So, I'm a periodontist, but I know for a fact there are so many things that my prosthodontic colleagues need to teach me. And there are so many things that I can teach them. And there are so many things that the oral surgeons can teach me.

Joseph: The very discipline itself has become like a symphony, hasn't it? And an appreciation for that music, if you will, is where the MISH Implant Institute really shines with your appreciation for those interdisciplinary approaches to implant dentistry.

Jonathan Misch: Yeah. So, that's really what we've ended up doing with our faculty. We know, I mean, not only are our MISH educator positions, they're all the biggest names in the world. One of our things we wanted to bring back was the opportunity for people to learn from a pioneer of the industry. Because there are very few opportunities to do that, especially in an implant continuum. But we also wanted to try to make sure that we were bringing people from different disciplines. So, we now have general practitioners that are speaking. We have periodontists, we have prosthodontists, we have perioprosthesiologists, we have maxillofacial prosthodontists, we have ortho-OS dual specialists, we have oral surgeons. It's an absolutely balanced education where really you're coming in. You're not just learning. Previously, we really had a very strongly prosthodontic focused education. And I think almost every single one of the faculty was a prosthodontist really. And actually, when I sat in those classes as a perio resident, I would hear things and I'd say, "I know that's different than what I just heard in my implant class," but that's because I was learning the perio side and now they were being taught the pros side. Right? And so, that was something when Angela and I talked about restructuring, we really wanted to make sure we tried to balance that out and get everybody to be fully...

Joseph: So, when you have multiple instructors on a weekend, they're going to, they're not just for general dentists, they're not just for prosthodontists.

Jonathan Misch: No.

Angela: You're learning from the best person to hear about that topic. You're learning from the person who is doing the firsthand research, who is publishing the newest technique. You're learning from them exactly what you should be doing.

Jonathan Misch: That's exactly the perfect way to say it actually. So, each person that is coming to speak, whatever they're coming to speak on, they're speaking on it because they've shown that they are a leader in the industry for that topic.

Joseph: And knowing something about dentists, I'll just bet that even those educators are learning from each other because it's a continuous process, isn't it?

Jonathan Misch: I would say so, definitely. Actually, one of the things I say very often right now is it's exciting as the CEO of an institute to be able to say, "I'm so excited to go to my institute and learn this weekend."

Angela: I'm incredibly excited to take our courses and to take them more than once.

Joseph: Yeah.

Angela: I am, and I think it's a great experience for me, especially since I haven't learned. Well, I'd like to go into perio, but I haven't learned it yet. So, I'll be learning implants from my father's institute.

Joseph: Wow.

Angela: That's really important to me.

Joseph: That is great. Well, and you should be because he truly gave birth to something that is still living and changing and growing and evolving at a pace that who could have predicted this? I mean, you write a book on implants. And you think, okay, well, you know, how much more could you learn about implants? And yet, wow, that just what I saw again and again. We're dentists in two general camps. One that was just too intimidated to even go there and wanted to just kind of stay the course and refer it out. And the other one that was willing to make the investment and take the risk. And at some point realize that a weekend course or five weekend courses might not be enough to get them where they wanted to be. And they struggled with feeling like, "I should know this, but I'm afraid to work on my patients." And I know there's a reason we call it a practice, right?

Angela: And I've heard that story multiple times, that they pay so much, they take a weekend course or even a five-weekend course, and they go home really excited and they realize, "Oh crap, I have to do this on my patients now? I have to place my first implant on my patient?" After what? And they're unsure about the treatment plan. What if complications arise? And it's true, these are your patients, you're humans that you are responsible for. So, what we've done at the new MISH Institute is we've created a mentorship program, which is after you complete our course, we know that you are going to need help. We know that you're going to need handholding, and we don't expect you to know everything. I mean, who would? We don't know everything, or our educators don't know everything, obviously. So, you can book a weekly one-on-one Zoom meeting with our MISH educators and our MISH faculty. And you can upload your treatment plans, or you can upload your CT scans, you can talk about, you know, what sort of approach you think is the best for this patient, or you can retroactively say, "Do you think I did the right thing?" Or if there's a complication, you can ask about how to treat it. I mean, we're there for you. We want the best for you and for your patients.

Joseph: That would have meant all the difference in the world. If someone could have had that kind of mentorship to connect what they learned in class or even did on a model and what they're seeing in front of them right now. Or that they know they're going to be seeing next week again. And they've got a hole in their learning that, that needs to be filled with real-time mentorship. That would have meant all the difference in the world.

Joseph: So, when you have multiple instructors on a weekend, they're going to, they're not just for general dentists, they're not just for prosthodontists.

Jonathan Misch: No, you're learning from the best person about that topic. You're learning from the person who is doing the first-hand research, who is publishing the newest technique. You're learning from them exactly what you should be doing.

Angela: That's exactly right. Each person that is coming to speak, whatever they're coming to speak on, they're speaking on it because they've shown that they are a leader in the industry for that topic.

Joseph: And knowing something about dentists, I'll just bet that even those educators are learning from each other because it's a continuous process, isn't it?

Jonathan Misch: Definitely. One of the things I often say right now is it's exciting as the CEO of an institute to be able to say, "I'm so excited to go to my institute and learn this weekend."

Angela: I'm incredibly excited to take our courses and to take them more than once. I haven't learned everything yet, especially since I'd like to go into perio, but I'll be learning implants from my father's institute, which is really important to me.

Joseph: That's great. Well, you should be because he truly gave birth to something that is still living, changing, and growing at a pace that who could have predicted? You write a book on implants, and you think, okay, well, how much more could you learn about implants? And yet, wow. We're dentists in two general camps. One that was just too intimidated to even go there and wanted to just kind of stay the course and refer it out. And the other one that was willing to make the investment and take the risk. And at some point, realize that a weekend course or five weekend courses might not be enough to get them where they want to be. They struggled with feeling like, "I should know this, but I'm afraid to work on my patients." And I know there's a reason we call it a practice, right?

Angela: I've heard that story multiple times. They pay so much, they take a weekend course or even a five weekend course, and they go home really excited and then realize, "Oh crap, I have to do this on my patients now?" They're unsure about the treatment plan. What if complications arise? These are your patients, your humans, that you are responsible for. So, what we've done at the new MISH Institute is we've created a mentorship program, which is after you complete our course, we know you are going to need help. We don't expect you to know everything. Who would? Our educators don't know everything, obviously. So, you can book a weekly one-on-one Zoom meeting with our MISH educators and our MISH faculty. You can upload your treatment plans, or you can upload your CT scans, you can talk about what sort of approach you think is the best for this patient, or you can retroactively say, "Do you think I did the right thing?" Or if there's a complication, you can ask about how to treat it. We're there for you. We want the best for you and for your patients.

Joseph: That would have meant all the difference in the world. If someone could have had that kind of mentorship to connect what they learned in class or even did on a model and what they're seeing in front of them right now. Or that they know they're going to be seeing next week again. And they've got a hole in their learning that needs to be filled with real-time mentorship. That would have meant all the difference in the world.

Jonathan Misch: Honestly, I think the mentorship program is really a testament to our course directors. This was something that Dr. Saleh and Dr. Avita were adamant about. They really structured the program that we now have as the MISH Institute. They are responsible for conceptualizing what someone needs to learn and in what order to master implantology. It's not something that you can just say, "Okay, I'm going to take a couple of weekends and sit in class and hear and do it on a model a couple of times and then go do it on your patients and be good to go." That is such a naive thought process. If that's the thought process you're having toward adding implants into your practice, you're going to be very surprised when you get done with the courses and then go, it's a very scary thing to just jump into surgery at that point with no extra guidance.

Joseph: I can imagine.

Jonathan Misch: Yeah, so for those individuals that are taking courses and still feel like, you know, I need a little bit extra, which many people do, there are so many people that take an extra course, they take two courses, three courses, five different courses, and still haven't placed their first implant. We really wanted to have something where it was like, that's not going to happen here. You come to our weekend, you're going to learn from the best educators in the world, and then after that, you're going to implement that into your practice because we're going to be right there with you. If you want to treatment plan the case, let's say it's your first implant, let's look at it together. Let's plan out the incision site, the incision design together. Let's look at your guide together. Let's see the CBCT. What's the medical history like? All these considerations so that you can go into that treatment knowing full well you're prepared. This is the right thing to do. Everything's perfect. So, I think that I'm very happy with Dr. Saleh and Dr. Avita. I'm very glad that we have them.

You know, there's this very common saying you hear all the time that patients don't read textbooks. And that's just to say there's no patient that shows up with a mouth that looks identical to what you saw in the textbook. And there's not going to be many cases that look exactly the same as what you saw on that lecture screen or in that lab. So, often, I mean, there are so many scenarios that you cannot fit that into just a clinical course where, okay, let's say you have a little bit of a vertical defect on the mesial tooth and some bone loss on the distal tooth. Okay, what's my depth on the implant supposed to be like? That's not necessarily something that will have been covered in just that course that you took, you know? So, there are just so many scenarios. So, that will certainly arise as soon as you see your first patient, as soon as you do your first case. It makes sense now that the number of variables is infinite, isn't it? When you're talking about individual people being the individuals that they are. The other day I was joking around with the fact that how is it that pizza is like only five freaking ingredients and yet they all taste different. Well, that's just five variables. You know, that's just five. Think of that how that relates to human anatomy and the science behind replacing something that we use so much throughout the day. I've seen my share of clients who had failures, and it can destroy them, but I wish they would have had the kind of support that you offer at your institute. It's far more than just a course.

Angela: You know, it's funny that you say that because the more we talk, the more we sort of develop this personalized experience that we want our Institute to feel like. We want you to come with your goals, and we want you to learn from start to finish if you want or whatever you'd like to learn, and we want to help you through it. We've created this sort of personalized experience that we start with our courses, and then we'll move you through to the live surgery part of our course, where you'll work one-on-one with our directors or our faculty, and you get to pick exactly what surgeries you want to do. What surgeries you want to focus on. With the guidance of our educators, and then afterwards, even though you've placed a few implants, of course, you're not ready to do it on your own. And so, you continuously have the mentorship. So it's tailored to exactly what pace you want to go at, what you want to learn, how much you want to absorb from the situation. And you make the most out of it by engaging as much or as little as you want to.

Jonathan Misch: I think that's really well said, honestly. And I think that's probably one of the big points that we haven't touched on right now is just the personalization. Which is something that we've spent a lot of time trying to find the best way to format this personalized offering because when you have a five-weekend course and a live surgery and a mentorship program, on the surface, it looks like, okay, that's the package. But really, some people might say, "Okay, well, I can place implants. I just want to know more about immediate implants." Like, "I've been placing implants for a while." Our immediate implant course is one of the few that actually has topics on tissue shaping, and we have perioprosts, people that we can are perioprostodontists and maxillofacial prosthodontists and David Wong's a periodontist. But so it's very much not just on placing the immediates. But let's talk about immediate restos and how to tissue shape things like this. So, anyways, let's say you just want to get on immediate implants. You can come take that immediate implant course, come to the live surgery, do just immediate implants, take advantage of the mentorship. After that, you get a free month of mentorship at that point and do some immediate cases where you're sitting down. Show some photos, all these types of things. How's my implant location? Did it emerge the right way? Why did it tip this way or whatever? How's my tissue shaping? So, I think that's a, I love that aspect of what we've put together. And yeah, I think the personalization there, not everybody needs the same path, you know.

Joseph: Especially when you've already established the fact that there is no cookie-cutter course for dental implants. And so why would you not want to make it as customizable based on the needs of that dentist as possible? So, it isn't just when the Institute first began, was it generally tailored to a general dentist, or was it always towards every specialty?

Jonathan Misch: So, from an educational side, our father, it was never just a lecture just for general dentists. No, actually, one of our educators, David Wong, I just mentioned him. He was a periodontist, is a periodontist. He attended the course I think in 2007 or 2008, something around there. And he said that's where he got his advanced bone grafting training and some of the implants like he said, "This was a deeper dive into implants than what he had gotten in his residency." So it, although I think in dental school we learn very little about dental implants and placing implants. You're not really, that's not the focus of dental school. But it definitely takes a lot of time and training to perfect it. So it requires that type of education. So general dentists may feel like, okay, this is the avenue that they take in order to get it. But especially now that we have the level, the caliber of educators that we have, Mauricio Arrujo, Rodrigo Neva, Pierre Gallo, like these names are spotlight, headliner names. I mean, you can pay $10,000 just for a weekend for this one guy. So I, I'm, I know that right now this is something, I mean, even my co-residents at the University of Michigan, I want to go to this course. Like, I actually want to learn from these people. That's one of the reasons, like I said, that's one of the reasons I'm excited to go. Like, I want to see Rodrigo Neva and Pierre Gallo and learn about sinus and GBR from those guys. You're kidding me? That's freaking awesome.

Joseph: Ah, that puts it all in perspective. For me, that puts it into perspective. When you have an institute that is literally attracting the best of the best educators in the world and bringing them all together for a weekend, that's a tremendous amount of value.

Jonathan Misch: It's actually, we should, I honestly want to say a big thank you to our educators actually because some of them are not affiliated with dental institutes specifically because they didn't want to bucket their name into. And actually, I spoke with Marcus Blatts. He's a restorative dentist. He's the chair of the prosthodontic department at the University of Pennsylvania. He's got something like 150,000 Instagram followers also. Besides the fact that he's just an amazing clinician and researcher. He was named one of the, like number one dentist or one of the top dentists in the world. What, I don't know, like he's incredible. If you don't know him, Google him. Like, he's incredible. He's going to be a part of the course when we release that in 2025. When I called him and was talking with him on the phone, I, and I asked him, you know, would you consider being a Misch educator? And I'd love to talk with you about designing the prosthetics course, just to get your insights and all of that. He actually said, because of the reputation of the Misch Institute, he would love to be associated with the Misch Institute. And I hope he doesn't mind me telling that story. I don't think he would, because he was very adamant that he's excited to be a part of this. So, I thank him so much for allowing, or for being with us, but also just for all of these educators to have their name associated with ours. I think it's a testament to what Dad did for sure that they believe in this name so much that they're willing to be a part of this and to provide this caliber of education.

Angela: It feels like such an honor to be able to sort of usher this sort of education.

Joseph: You know, Angela, that, what you just hit on, is the why. I mean, one of the whys was, well, we don't want our father's legacy to die, you know, because, you know, the name is great and it's our name, so, you know, I that's one why, not that it's yours way down there in the basement, but when you're describing what you just did, that is a why that is so beyond any implant course I have ever heard described. That is more than just a legacy.

Angela: Well, that just brings another point about the mentorship. Something that we've really stressed is that we are going to match you with exactly who you need to talk to. So if you have an implant-related question or a prosthodontic-related question or some other question, you get to pick the faculty that you get to speak with, right? So, we have, we're going to have all the educators and faculty and multiple different people with multiple different times. You get to click on what you want your session to focus on, whether it be the prosthetic part, the implant part, what have you, and then you get to pick a time and who you want to speak with because of their specialty, because of their knowledge. And if you want to change, if you want to talk to a different specialty every week, like, be my guest. Okay. Bye. You know, learn as much as you can.

Jonathan Misch: Just to say also, saying specialty can come off as though it's only specialists. There are many general dentists that we have as educators that are doing phenomenal work, and they're going to be there to be able to also give the general dental mentorship there because I mentioned my buddy, Chris Bono, just a little bit ago. He's doing some phenomenal full arch cases. And I learned so much from him. He's going to be one of our mentors. So, yeah, it's something where by specialty, we mean something that they have specialized education in, and they're able to provide that. Obviously, we know general dentists can do phenomenal work. That's why we're excited to be able to train them, or to offer training to them.

Joseph: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. And it's based on experience, right? If you were speaking to just our listeners at Weo Media, what would you want them to know? What is there something we could do for them to get them registered for this course, for this Institute?

Jonathan Misch: Well, I mean, our courses are going to be starting here in March, on March second. Obviously, there's also going to be a discount for those members of Weo Media and for dentists that are working with Weo Media. I know Angela probably has the code for that.

Angela: WEO Media

Jonathan Misch: And I believe it's a 20 percent discount as well.

Angela: We're really excited to work with you guys, and obviously, all your clients know how awesome you guys are. So, we just want to welcome everyone with open arms and show them how great this can be.

Joseph: Sounds like a great partnership. I'm thrilled to, I feel fortunate to have been able to learn as much as I have tonight about not just where we are today with the MISH Implant Institute, but what tomorrow looks like and that, and how close that tomorrow really is. I'm excited to watch you guys grow.

Jonathan Misch: I just really quickly wanted to say you touched on just excited the excitement for this partnership. The first meeting that we had, I cannot tell you how excited I was when we hung up from that first Zoom and Angela and I talked afterward and we were just like, this is absolutely the group that we need to be with. Like, we always it, we gotta let everybody know you guys really hit the nail. You know exactly what is needed. We agreed with everything that you said. And the fact that you personally knew about Dad and his impact on the field and the history already was sentimental to us also, but it also just showed that you're not, it's not your first rodeo. You've been in the industry long enough to know the field and to know where things are. So, I'm very much excited for this partnership. I'm excited that we'll have you guys at the courses. Very excited to meet anybody that is working with you guys. And yeah, I just thank you for this time.

Joseph: This has been such an enjoyable experience, and thank you for all you've taught us and our listeners, and thank you for all you've taught us and our listeners, and we wish you the very best, and can't wait to see all that happens and evolves there at the MISH Implant Institute. Thank you for your time. 


Angela: Thank you so much for everything. I appreciate it. 


Jonathan Misch: Thank you very much.