Dr. Zina Berry: So the just control works by having a small little device on the side of your glasses that allows you to be hands free.
All you do with the device is you turn it on by just waving your hand. If you want to increase your illumination, you just take your hand out and bring it back in, and the light will change based on the intensity that you need.
Anne: Hello everyone, it's Anne Duffy I'm so happy you're with me today. And I have a dear friend. We go back a couple of years, we're fast friends she's been to our retreat and she's just, an amazing innovator and executor.
In everything she does. Let me tell you a little bit about her. Dr. Zina Berry is a dentist with 25 years of experience and the founder of Z-Loupes. A serial entrepreneur and a 2025 NYS champion of innovation. She created the first smart gesture controlled surgical loupes to eliminate occupational pain for clinicians, a fun fact, she had a napkin moment.
She invented the concept of Z-Loupes By chance during a casual dinner discussion, and she's a pale Glot and author. Dr. Zina Berry, welcome I'm so glad you're here. How are you today?
Dr. Zina Berry: Thank you. I'm doing great.
Anne, thank you for inviting me. I love dental entrepreneurs for women. I've been a member for a few years. I have met and engaged with so many professionals on a level that I never knew existed. So thank you for having me and thank you for creating Duke.
Anne: Well, you are so welcome. One of the things I love about do, and then we were talking about earlier is like you work with dentist, When you were doing, everything on the napkin, you created loupes specifically for dentist, where did that come from and why? Is it specifically for dentist,
Dr. Zina Berry: I'm gonna go back to the napkin moment. So I was actually at a neighbor's house across the street from me and I was telling Linda, my friend, that I wanted to change the fact of how we wore a battery pack.
It was the pain of my existence for years in my practice where heavy. The waste battery pack on your shoulder, the wires hanging out, the batteries go flying one way, you're going this way, I've dropped so many battery packs and purchased them, so I was like, we have got to have another option.
And so I was on the napkin and I was drawing out a neck battery pack concept and I was like, you know, I think this will work because this would be ergonomically shaped like your neck, but it gives you the ability to not have to wear something sinking wise through your body, putting a battery pack on.
And it's lightweight. So I thought of it like the bowl system. You know how the bowls music system? Yeah. So I really wanted to model that concept to give it some light. It's close to your body, you don't have to worry about the weight. And it was a natural thing. And then her son, who's an engineer, walked in the door and that's how Z Luke got started.
Okay. Oh, so it was, oh
Anne: my
gosh.
Dr. Zina Berry: you know, it's one of those moments in life those aha moments. That was an aha moment. Okay. Because who knew that her son was an engineer from Syracuse University in the biomedical field of which I'm in. So when he looked at it, he was like, oh yeah, I could do that da, da, da.
And it took 10 minutes for him to actually draw out the actual concept And there you go. We end up forming Z-Loupes, and here I am.
Anne: That is a fabulous story. I have goosebumps. because I'm sorry, that's like a god wink.
I mean, how do those things happen? Right? I mean, and most inventions, I think You saw a need, you see the pain and then you decide you wanna fix it. But the fact that he was right there, it's like you can't turn your back on that. That's incredible.
Dr. Zina Berry: No, no. It was like the answer to what my, questions were in a solution, a viable solution to help not only myself.
But help all other clinicians and particularly women because a waist battery pack is not something that we wear all the time. Okay. Yeah. We don't wear a belt. We like our fashionable clothes. We wear skirts, we wear dresses. We don't always have a belt. So where does battery pack goes? It goes into our pocket of our Clinical coat. And that wire sticks out. It's almost like hooking a fish. It hooks onto everything you don't want while you're work. Yeah.
Anne: Every operatory, arm, every, okay, so what I, love your loupes. First of all, they're so gorgeous. They're just a, beautiful loop. it lends itself honestly, to very fashionable people because it's like, look at your glasses right now. I mean, you always have it going on. So are you saying to me the battery pack goes around your neck.
It kinda lays on like a collar.
Dr. Zina Berry: Absolutely. Very comfortable, very lightweight.
Anne: Oh, yes. My God. I'm almost picturing the comfort of the, the airline pillows that go around your neck, and it's yummy. because you see people walking through the airport with them.
I said, what? It's like a fashion statement. that is super cool and so genius. I love the fact that your friend's son, young man had the innovation. I mean, that's what we need. We need those young brains that are right in there in the school and they're learning and he's like giving it on a platter to you.
Okay. We are off to the races. this is, you know, my word of the year is giddy up. Let's gid up. Up. I love it. so you often call dentistry a silent epidemic regarding health. And what do you mean by that? Dr. Berry?
Dr. Zina Berry: Oh my God. So, you know, during my clinical career and purchasing my first pair of loupes, which was about 20 years ago, let me, I, my first 10 years, you know, loupes weren't a thing.
And then, yeah, right about 10 years in my career, I was like, wow, I need to get something that allows me to see my procedures in a magnified way. So when I did buy loupes, I didn't know anything about. Pain points, problems. I didn't know anything other than the fact I wanted something to mag about. Well, the fixed loupes that you purchased back then, you had to find your procedure wherever it was.
So you bent your neck, you did whatever. You contorted your body, you did this. Patients that don't wanna lean the um, you need do a lot physically. It is very demanding.
Anne: Yeah.
Dr. Zina Berry: And what I found is that I was starting to feel limitations in regards to my neck. My back, my spine, you know, all of the misalignments I was going through because on a daily basis I was stretching myself in angles that I shouldn't have.
Yeah. dentistry is like an athletic sport. Yeah. But they don't equip us with the right augmentation. And the correct augmentation should be wearable. It should be lightweight, shouldn't cause strain and it shouldn't have battery packs that flip a battery pack out your window. Yeah. It should be comfortable and it should be a part of protecting us, not only for our patients, but for ourselves.
And that's the point that we miss in dentistry. That's the silent epidemic. 'cause we slowly, just over time, very silently suffered. Yes. We don't say a lot, you know, we don't ask patients to move their head. they tell us they can't do anything and then we're trying to see over. So, you know, my latter years in practice, I was like, no, we have to have a compromise.
I can't do it. You can't do it. So let's figure out position where we can be successful. And you'd be surprised when they have a number two root canal and they need to have the service done. You'd be surprised how wide they can open their mouth. So when you have motivation behind you, a lot of things happen.
So the same thing in this augment area of wearing medical loupes. You have to have the proper protection. Lightweight has the light intensity, having battery pack option. All of those are very important.
Anne: Well say more about the gesture controlled. I I. So tell me about that.
Dr. Zina Berry: So the just control works by having a small little device on the side of your glasses that allows you to be hands free.
All you do with the device is you turn it on by just waving your hand. If you want to increase your illumination, you just take your hand out and bring it back in, and the light will change based on the intensity that you need. So say like, I'm, placing a composite restoration on a molar, and I need, some light, but I don't need bright intensity light for two reasons.
One, I wanna be able to see the difference in color between dent and enamel. And if your light is too bright, those color merges. And if I can get the light down so I can clearly see the dentin, then I'm gonna do a better job at prepping and also placing my restoration. So that's why the intensity is important, but you should never have to stop.
You shouldn't have to touch anything, and you should be able to work very comfortably just by waving your hand and getting your procedures done. No longer am I asking my dental assistant to reach over my head and say, can you, turn a light down. can you adjust?
Or whatever. I don't touch 'em. Now I can make those adjustments without touching.
Anne: Wow. I'm really glad we're having this discussion because I, love your loupes. I personally loupes 'cause they're so fashionable. I practiced for 46 years for couple things. I can't imagine practicing.
Dental hygiene or dentistry without loupes. Right. Once you have loupes on, you can't turn back from that.
Dr. Zina Berry: No.
Anne: And I can't believe how heavy they've been in the past, and I can't believe that you can wave your hand You've taken care of so many problems that we have.
This is so cool. I'm so glad. This is the future of loupes. Forget the Future of dentistry. We had the future of loupes here because. You know, So many people actually different verticals are using loupes. So that is a silent epidemic. And you said something.
Interesting. We don't ask our patients to move, or you'll have somebody come in and say, oh, don't put the seat back. And I mean, that's just herculean, athleticism to be able to practice for 30 years and not have all sorts of problems. And if you don't feel good, you don't, your work is gonna suffer.
And and hence the patient will suffer. So this eliminates a lot of problems in clinical dentistry. So, f. Thrilled that you actually have a friend that you could talk to, and she just happened to have a napkin and a pen, right next to her. This is how genius and inventions start.
So this is just really cool that that's how your, Z-Loupes company was founded. also, I love the fact that you were talking a little bit about Do Dental Entrepreneur Woman, which we've got our 10th anniversary coming up. you're such a dental entrepreneur, woman. I mean, you, abide by so many of our principles of just being a good person and a good listener, and a, generous with your time and your talent.
Why is it important that Z-Loupes is a female founded device company?
Dr. Zina Berry: I'm gonna address it this way.
I feel as though it's important for. A female to design something that fits our face and that fits our cellular structure, and be able to have a comfortable, fashionable, you know, and just making sure we elevate what we need to wear.
Our bodies. So the fashion piece becomes something where we don't look like we inspect a gadget when we're working on a patient.
Anne: Yeah.
Dr. Zina Berry: We wanna look, presentable and professional Most of the time our loupes are worn here because they have a strap and we put 'em right here.
But once you put 'em on. You just don't wanna look like you're out in space. You want to kinda look like you're still working. So with that in mind, that's why I felt like it was important when I, wore different loupes over my career and I've purchased four of them. it was almost like every five, seven years I was buying a new pair of loupes because a new feature would be out.
So like the last pair of loupes I bought, it allowed me to change my magnification. 3.5, 4.5 5.5. But if if I'm working on a patient, I'm, and I love placing implants, and I would say, okay, I am looking. I'm like, man, I need higher magnification. I would have to stop, pull my gloves off, change the magnification, reset da, da, da.
And I know 10 minutes doesn't seem like a whole lot, but if you shave off 10 minutes throughout your day, what you're gonna end up with is about 60 minutes. At the end of the day, that's a whole hour that you could have done a procedure on somebody else. It affects revenue. It affects your ability to have a balanced work life.
And it also affects your physical being because now you're stretching yourself more than you should have when you can be a lot more efficient and have the work life balance that you need. And I think that's the perspective as a woman that I bring to the table.
Anne: That is beautiful. And you know, 60% of the graduating.
Dentists are female, and it's just blows me away that so much of the technology is geared toward men. And we love men, right? We love men, but female features are different. can you imagine? I mean, like even the strength of our muscles in all of those things, yes.
We don't have that. And, and I've seen oral surgeons that are little petite. Beautiful women and to wear that, heavy, loop. And then again, the idea of being able to switch the magnifications, all of those things, it seems like you've addressed every problem. But we do need to really focus on the female structure, the female body, the female musculature, all of those things when we're practicing.
And it's super cool that you've addressed those issues, especially being a woman yourself.
Dr. Zina Berry: you even have to take into account the, some of the anatomy that's a little different than men. So let's just take a look at the bridge of our nose. The bridge of our nose is not as deep with males.
They have a little bit more deepness of the steep of the nose. So this bridge right here, okay? A lot of females don't have a lot of space here, so therefore the glasses always slide down. So the heaviness of that glass makes a difference when you have a depressed nose bridge. you should have a variety of glasses that anyone can choose from that best fits them.
So for you and I, we have cat eye kind of glasses on. Yeah. But a lot of people do round glasses. Some people do rectangular glasses. We're not limited anyone. So now what I've been able to do is bring boutique style glasses that you would wear every day. To the loupes industry. So we look fashionable, but we're also efficient.
Oh, and that's the game changer. Being efficient in dentistry, but looking good at the same time. I think that's a game changer.
Anne: I think that's a game changer too, because I mean, you always perform better when you feel like you look good. It's just, science. I'm so happy we're doing this podcast and that we can understand. So tell me, okay, so how do we get in touch with you? How do you buy a pair of loupes? And learn more about the ergonomics of what you're presenting with your device.
Dr. Zina Berry: so you can find me or find us at www dot z dash loupes and loupes is spelled L-O-U-P-E-S.
And although this is made by a dentist for a dentist, but it is also very, very well suited for the medical. in particular my daughter is a medical doctor and she uses loupes. She does wound care healing and she is a physician that does travel to go see patients. And what she does, she likes the fact that the loupes is hands free when she's trying to operate on the patients wound care, changing bandage and da, da da.
The sterility is important no matter where you are.
Anne: Oh, yeah.
Dr. Zina Berry: So thank you you, Anne. I just wanted you to know it is applicable not only to dentists, but it's applicable for medical as well. When you go to our website, you'll see a signup list. Join our wait list. If you join the wait list, we will keep you updated however you want.
If you're interested in buying, you can click right there to purchase Z-Loupes. What will happen is you make a virtual appointment with our optometrist. You actually get a nice kit for four to five frames. It has all of the information in it. Once you receive the kit, you make a virtual appointment with optician and she is guiding you through the process getting your inner pupillary distance and your working distance correct.
After all that is said and done, you close the case back up. You send it out, it initiates your Z-Loupes to be made specifically designed for you. And in about six weeks, you'll have the loosen your hand.
Anne: Oh great. Gosh, I wish I was still practicing clinically 'cause I miss it and this would've been a game changer for me.
Oh my gosh, Zina, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so proud of you and it's lovely to have you among the dental entrepreneur, women, I mean, when we started do you know, wasn't it about being an entrepreneur? Women are entrepreneurial. They find a problem and they figure out how to fix it.
That's, and so you are the epitome of a dental entrepreneur woman, and I appreciate you being with me today. Can't wait for your loupes company to continue to take off, and I can't wait to see where it's gonna go in the future. Thank you for joining me today. Thank you. Thank you,
Dr. Zina Berry: Anne. And thank you to do I love it so much.
Anne: Oh, you're the best. And if you're listening here, remember the most important thing for everybody is to keep doing you. Thanks everybody. Thank you, Zina. I'll see you all the next show. Alright, dear.
Dr. Zina Berry: Okay. You got it.
