 Hello everybody, Andrew Majeski here with Dental L. So I went to the ODA convention last week, sorry, I thought somebody was there. We always get so many packages, so I have to keep checking. And I did order a lot from the ODA convention. So I am going to talk to you guys about that a little bit. I had just uploaded a video with all of the, you know, exciting products that I did order after learning about them from the ODA convention. So if you haven't seen that yet, have a look. Because I did talk a lot, probably too much, sorry. But in this one here, it will be specific for tips for the dental convention. So you might be like, what are you talking about, tips for the dental convention? But trust me, you will want to hear these. So if you have a dental convention coming up, listen here. Bring a backpack. Yes, it might not be the most attractive thing, but they have some nice backpacks. I got mine, or I was looking for mine on Amazon. They have tons. Bring a good size backpack, so not too small. A backpack helps because you will be getting a lot of samples, a lot of pamphlets, like just my toothbrush samples. I just happened to keep here. Like you will get samples, you will get pamphlets, you will get catalogs, and there's nothing worse than having to hold it in your purse or even a couple different person. I went to Maxwell, and I did get this amazing, oh, sorry, my webcam's out of focus. There we go. I got this amazing one right here. Check it out. Like isn't that so nice? It is huge, by the way. I had to wait a while to get it because the booth was full, but I'm like, I see that bag, I want it. It's awesome. But even then, having this to be full, can you imagine how heavy that would be? I only, like I was just excited about this because I wanted it, and my backpack was full. So that helped, and I did buy my Loupes that day too, and it came in a nice case, but it's like a long one. So, which I should be able to show you guys that. Hold on. Sorry guys, there we go. So, this did help to put that in there too. Nice say, but I will actually upload a video explaining my lovely Loupes, because they're amazing, amazing customer service. I was so impressed. But anyways, this is about ODA tips. So bring a backpack, I'm telling you, it will help you guys so much. Another tip is do not eat inside the convention. The food's expensive and it's not very good. I was so disappointed. I knew the food would be expensive, but to have like half of what you would normally get, I was not impressed, okay? In the convention, like near like the main floor or near the bottom floor where you walk out, like after getting all of your samples, I went to this like sandwich shop because all of the other lines were like full, and I had to go to a course like 20 minutes later, and I was so hungry. My sandwich was about 16 bucks. It was like a tiny sandwich with coleslaw and a pickle, I don't know. I ordered it and they literally like took it from like under the counter and said, here you go. Like in a box, but still, I was kind of like, okay, so that's not fresh. Probably not warm. Oh boy. But I was so hungry, like I didn't even care at that point and I was actually excited to have like a sandwich, I don't know, but 16 bucks for that, you guys. And no, it was not warm, it was cold, but I didn't have a lot of time. The next day, we went out to eat, like we just went out the doors of the convention center. There's tons of different places to eat. There's a subway, there's a pita pit, there's like a coffee shop, there's tons. We like, I got a pita dinner, somebody else got like a chicken dinner for $15. So it was a dollar less for more food and it tasted so much better. So do not eat inside the convention. Another tip, so I took courses back to back. So on Thursday, I took a course in the morning, I took a course in the afternoon and then Friday, I took a course in the afternoon. Make sure to not take like two courses per day if you can help it because you want time to get your samples. I spent two hours on the sample floor and I did not see everything that I wanted to see. So can you imagine, two hours. I had wished that I had like one more morning, one more afternoon to just look at everything. Two hours, you guys, and I did not see everything that I wanted to. Whoops, and the main reason why I say that is because if you have questions, there might be a lot of people there. So then you have to wait. Like I went to the water pick booth and they had so many people there. I'm like, okay, I don't have time to wait. So I'm just gonna go to another booth. But then I kept going back and they had so many people there. So there was no time for me to ask questions. So it would have been nice to have another day to go back to those areas where I didn't have a chance to. Sorry guys, I've been doing so much talking. I don't think I can talk anymore. But so don't pull courses back to back if you can help it because you want that extra time to look at the samples. You do, after each course, I think you have about an hour, two hours sometimes, but if you go out to eat for lunch, that might take up an hour. So then you only have an hour. So trust me, you want time to see those samples. And wear comfortable shoes. That's my next tip. I wore my Fitbit. I had about 14,000 steps each day. So I was so happy. I did not wear super comfy shoes, but I didn't wear heels either. Do not wear heels. I don't know what you guys are thinking. Don't wear heels. And you do not have to look your most amazing self either. Dress comfortable, seriously. I'm not saying come on in in a tank top and I don't know something, but dress comfortably. I saw people in high heels and pretty much a suit, which is good for you. That's awesome of you guys, but you will be hot. You will be tired after all of that walking and you'll be exhausted. So wear comfy clothes, like wear jeans and a nice top or something. I don't know. I don't even remember what I wore. I wore black jeans, so they kind of look like just black pants and a nice top. But I was either too hot or too cold in the courses. So my next tip is to bring a sweater, because in the courses it's freezing, freezing, freezing, freezing. I'm telling you. What other tips? When I was in the courses, I like to take a lot of notes. So I brought my iPad, but then I had realized that the presenters will actually email you. Their course PowerPoints or their notes. For some reason, some of the presenters did not want to give me their PowerPoints, even though I could have sworn at the beginning of the course, they said they would, and they gave me their notes or their website. And I was kind of like, okay, now I wish I did take notes. So it's up to you. If there's something important that you want to take notes of, you should, but don't take notes on every single thing, because then it's kind of hard to pay attention. What else? Those were just kind of my main tips. I'm just trying to think if there's anything different. Any other tips that I'm thinking of? When you walk in, you pretty much just have to sign up for your badge ahead of time. That does help so much, because if you have to get your badge on site, it's more expensive and you have to wait in quite a line. I don't know why people do that. It's cheaper online. All you have to do when you get there is to get that like hooky thing to like hook the badge on. And they will give you a booklet that will show you guys where all of your courses are. So make sure to pick that up, because then you won't know where your courses are. You can tell there's monitors, but there's a lot of courses, right? So like you would have to wait to see your monitor and your course. So just get one of those books easy. And in the book, there's typically coupons too. There was no coupons that I saw that actually applied to me unless I was a dentist. But look through the coupon book. Because you never know. Another tip is do not be afraid to ask for samples because a lot of them, don't just say, here you go. Like I went to the Opal Lessons booth for the whitening and you know, they were awesome, but they weren't really giving out samples. So then I had said, well, can I have a sample of your take home package so that I can try it myself? Cause I don't like to recommend things without trying it. They had given me like one tray. Like I was kind of hoping for more, but that's okay. So they had given me the one tray, but sorry guys, but that's at least something, right? I went to the Salka Brush booth. They're awesome. They had given me so much. And they're not expensive, but they're a Salka Brush, right? So I talked to them because there was nobody else there. I said, yeah, like I'm a dental hygienist. I see a lot of patients in nursing homes. I see just a lot of patients that they could really use one. Can I have some samples? Oh yeah, sure. And like I think she gave me like eight, which is so nice of her, right? And they did have a sale where if you order a hundred, it was darn, I can't remember the price, but at the convention, ask them too. Like if I were to order something, is there a sale? Is there a deal? Is there a sale if I order today? You know, ask them those things. And don't be afraid to go to different companies that sell the same thing. Loops especially. So I was actually not looking for loops per se because, but two of the hygienists that I work with are, or I should say were. So we went to the Orastoptic booth first because that was just like right there. And my first question is, are they on sale today? And it's like, yeah, they're on sale for a hundred dollars off, well, that means nothing to me. If I'm gonna spend $2,000 and I'm buying it, I want like more than a hundred dollars off. So I'm like, no, we're gonna go somewhere else. Yeah, we did. So we went to about four different places. The last place we went to, they were awesome. They took the time to answer all of our questions. We had many. We tried out a lot of loops and we were able to get a deal for just over $1,000 for loops and a light. But I like to ask for deals. So I pretty much said, hey, listen, like I would like to buy a pair of loops. I have two hygienists because they were actually in a course. So I went on my own. I have two hygienists, possibly more that want loops too. What deal can you offer us? They offered me a deal. I said, I can do a thousand. All in, how's that? I will buy today and bring two other people over at least. They said, okay, they made a phone call to their manager, you know, whoever. And then they said, yeah, hey, yeah, sure, awesome. The best part was, you guys, those two hygienists, they had bought a pair of loops because they were like, wow, this is a great price. And these are awesome, awesome, not heavy, easy, amazing. And then the dentist who we work with and then his wife, who's also a hygienist, bought a pair too. They're like, wow, that's a great deal. Let's have a look. They tried them on, they're like, oh my God, these are awesome. So four people bought loops. So they made a lot of money from me, okay? So they were very happy that I, you know, I was happy to get a discount and they all had the same one too. They were all able to get the same discount. How nice is that? So, but I will talk more about the loops afterwards. I will show you guys the case again. Amazing company, like amazing, but check it out, you guys. I had never heard of them, honestly, but hey, just because you haven't heard of them before, it doesn't mean they're not good. Orsgoptic, in my opinion, didn't have the best customer service. I'm sorry, I'm just being honest. Again, I don't like to say that because maybe I'm just super picky, but when I have to send off my loops, it takes like a month to get them back. I'm not happy, but I did not have to pay shipping. My loops, they got lost, but then they were able to find them. So, you know what? It's probably not the customer service. It was just my bad experience, but I didn't want to order from them again. But I'll talk more about my loops in another video. Thank you guys for watching. I hope you guys liked my ODA tips for the Dental Convention. If you guys have any more questions, let me know. I'm so happy to help. And I talk more about the convention in my course, the Mobile RDH Academy. So if you are a dental hygienist who wants to start her or his own practice, or you do have your own practice now, check it out because I offer everything in that course. I offer where to find certain products for the most amazing price, how to get discounts, how to get deals. I just offer everything in there. So I will leave the link for you guys on the bottom if you would like to check it out. Thank you guys so much for listening. Have a good day and I'll see you next time.