JBC and Company Orthodontics

    By Art Nadler

    Getting dental braces put on can be a devastating experience for some youngsters. Taking them off is a time for celebration - briefly - until the dentist informs your child that he or she will have to wear an orthodontic appliance (a.k.a. retainer) for a couple years. Not cool.

     

    But Priscilla and John Mier of JBC and Company in Las Vegas may be able to ease family tensions a little for you. They've taken those ugly pink retainers and spruced them up, for example, with green and red watermelon designs, spider webs, seashells and starfishes, butterflies and even the American flag. Very cool.

    The Miers manufacture 62 different colors of orthodontic acrylic resins used in the retainers. JBC is only one of two companies in the United States that makes the colored resins, which they sell to orthodontists.

    Mier says their company did approximately 12,000 retainers in 1999 under its second company, Cypress Orthodontic Appliances. Customers either come in with their own designs, or she works something up for them. One of Mier's most unusual designs included the use of the eye of a peacock feather, which she embedded into the resin.

    "I wanted to create a headache," Mier jokingly says of the amount of patience it took. "Now that dental offices are offering different colors for retainers, this allows for more patient involvement,"

    Mier says that only 20 percent of the dentists today opt to use traditional pink retainers.

    The Miers' third company is Walstib Orthodontic Models, which is run by their daughter, Bethany, and her husband, Matthew Hackley. They make plaster molds for dentists.

    Before coming to Las Vegas two years ago, the Miers operated a lab in Yorba Linda, Calif., for 26 years. Now they are located in a 1,800 square-foot facility, especially equipped with a fire and waterproof room where they make various colored bead resins.

    Mier says projected sales for 2000 should be approximately $750,000.

    JBC sells its acrylic resin products and orthodontic appliances worldwide. Company literature states that 90 percent of all orthodontic appliance work is processed within 48 hours.

    For information, contact: JBC and Company, 6280 S. Valley View Blvd., #122, Las Vegas, NV. 89118-3810. Phones: 1-888-521-9488. Fax: (888) 830-3088.