The Tooth Sleuth Podcast

A practice running $100,000 a month in card payments can hand over $36,000 a year just to get paid. This episode is about what payment processing really costs a dental practice, and how to keep more of what you collect without hurting case acceptance. Greg sits down with Nelson Martin, CEO of Aligned Payments, who has spent more than 30 years in the card payments industry. They cover why passing c...

Most practices don't find out how weak their IT support is until something goes down in the middle of the night. This episode is about what real IT protection looks like for a dental practice, and how to tell the difference before you need it. Greg sits down with Chris Gibson, Market President of Ntiva's Dental Division, to grill him on dental IT and cybersecurity in plain language. They cover wha...

Core values on a poster don't build a company. Core values you hire and fire by do. This episode is about holding a high standard while you grow, and getting people to follow you there. Greg sits down with Dr. Anushka Gaglani, co-founder and co-CEO of Areo Dental Group, a multi-location dental organization across Illinois and Indiana. They talk accountability without burnout, how Areo moved patien...

Most practices hire to fill a gap. The ones that grow hire to build a future. This episode is about why the right "who" matters more than any system you'll ever install. Greg sits down with Brian Passell, PhD, an industrial-organizational psychologist with DDS Recruit and the son of a Phoenix periodontist. They dig into why recruiting should start with the owner's goals instead of a job descriptio...

He renamed his own academy mid-conversation and it says everything about how he picks partners, trains surgeons, and decides who gets access to his cell phone number. Real partnership isn't about filling a room, it's about matching philosophy before you match calendars. Greg sits down with Dr. Rick Kapitan, oral maxillofacial surgeon and founder of the Clinicians Implant Academy (CIA), to unpack w...

Patients don't choose org names. They choose people. And yet most dental groups are building brand equity at the organization level while leaving their individual doctors invisible online. In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg sits down with Sam Gaynes, Enterprise Account Executive at rater8, for a sharp conversation on online reputation, AI search, and why the way DSOs think about doctor visibili...

Industry average for supply spend is five to six percent of collections. Most growing groups are running eight, nine, ten. And once it compounds, it is very hard to reel back.   That's the problem Brad Freeman built Source Club to solve - and he is one of the few people in dental who actually came up in the supply chain before he started selling into it.   Brad Freeman is the founder and owner of...

Seven hundred reviews and convinced you're ranking. You're not. You're just looking at yourself on your own Wi-Fi. That's one of the most expensive misconceptions in dental online reputation - and it's one Len Tau has been correcting for years across 11,000 practices. He's back on the Tooth Sleuth for a second time, and this episode is sharper than the first. Dr. Len Tau is a dentist, speaker, aut...

Most full arch surgeons measure success at final restoration delivery. Simon Oh is still seeing the same patients eight years later.   That long view - what it actually reveals about complication patterns, outcomes, and clinical truth - is what separates the chest pounders from the operators who are genuinely trying to get better.   Dr. Simon Oh is a full arch and All-on-X surgeon, co-founder of O...

The marketing didn't fail. The lead management did. That's the conversation most full arch practices never have - because it's easier to blame the ad spend than to look at what happens after the lead comes in. Tim Hines is the founder and president of Brightline Dental Lead Management and a four-time entrepreneur. His company sits in the gap between lead capture and consultation booked - providing...

Most dental practice owners only sell once. That's exactly why they lose.   The information gap between a prepared buyer and an unprepared seller is where practice value disappears — and it's a gap most brokers have zero incentive to close.   Ben Ellis is a former investment banker, M&A executive, and founder of Ellis & Associates, a sell-side advisory firm focused on helping dental practice owner...

When a dental practice sells, the numbers get handled. The people don't. That gap — between what brokers and lawyers manage and what actually determines whether a transition succeeds — is exactly where Christine Diehl works. Christine Diehl is a dental hygienist of over 30 years, published author of The Heart of the Handoff, podcaster, and founder of Dynamic Team Transitions. In this episode, she...

Some doctors build empires on paper while everything behind the scenes is falling apart -- Dr. Richard Low lived it and chose to talk about it.   What happens when the biggest opportunity of your life becomes the thing that's destroying you.   Dr. Richard Low went from podcasting in his closet to CEO of 35 denture and implant offices -- not by ambition, but by circumstance. In this episode, he sit...

Why Full-Arch Fails Without Human Connection (Lead → Close Systems) | Sarah Bogard & Naiara Wireman | TTS #160   Most practices don't have a lead problem. They have a conversion system problem. In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg sits down with two of the core operators inside GnA Consulting: Naiara Wireman – Lead Call & Conversion Systems Sarah Bogard – Case Acceptance & Closing Strategy This i...

Marketing in dentistry is not just about leads. It is about mindset, patient connection, trust, and what happens inside the practice after the lead comes in. In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg sits down with Matt Brown, co-founder of Energize Group Dental Marketing, for a conversation on abundance mindset, emotional connection, case acceptance, and why the best growth strategies go far beyond c...

Full-arch growth is not just about implants. It's about patient selection, workflow efficiency, clinical judgment, and knowing when not to push a case into a fixed solution. In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg sits down with Dr. Steven Nelson, board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon and founder of Fusion Implant Center, to talk through the real-world dynamics of modern full-arch practice....

Show Notes + Video Description Title Grit, Leadership, and Human Connection in Dentistry | Danielle Kramer | Tooth Sleuth Podcast #157 Description Success in dentistry is not built on systems alone. It is built on grit, leadership, human connection, and the willingness to keep moving when things get hard. In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg sits down with Danielle Kramer to talk about what it re...

  Why Most Dentists Stay Stuck (And How to Fix It) | EP. 156 | Dr. Alan G. Stern  Most dentists don't struggle because of clinical skill. They struggle because of misalignment, poor guidance, and lack of real systems. In this episode, Dr. Alan G. Stern breaks down the realities behind building a successful dental career—from early rejection and financial setbacks to long-term growth and fulfillmen...

How should dental practices approach patient financing without creating compliance risk or damaging trust? In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg Essenmacher sits down with Nancy Kay Coy, healthcare finance strategist, author, and founder of Finance Rx®, to discuss the realities of patient financing in dentistry and why the financial conversation has become one of the most important parts of case a...

Should dentists join a DSO, private dental group, or stay independent? In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg Essenmacher sits down with Rick Cromar, growth strategist at Valeri Group and leader at Peak Dental Studio, to discuss the evolving landscape of dental practice consolidation, private equity partnerships, and building enterprise value in dentistry. They explore how private groups differ fro...

Are you truly tracking where your dental patients come from — or are you guessing? In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg Essenmacher sits down with Harsh Bansal, Co-Founder of Remedo and ConvertLens, to discuss end-to-end marketing visibility for dental practices. They break down why most lead attribution in dentistry is flawed, how disconnected CRMs and practice management systems create blind sp...

Buy Back Time w/Dr. Rehan Shahid What does it take to move from busy clinician to confident CEO? In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg sits down with Dr. Rehan Shahid — practicing dentist, MBA, and multi-location dental practice owner — to discuss dental practice management, leadership, and the systems required for scaling a profitable dental business. Dr. Shahid shares how he helped build an $8M...

Building a personal brand in dentistry isn't about posting more — it's about positioning with purpose. In this episode of Tooth Sleuth, Greg sits down with Marissa Gonzales, Sparkle Success Manager at Our Thrive Tribe, to talk about authentic branding, social media strategy, and what dental professionals get wrong about visibility. If you've ever struggled with what to post, how to stand out on Li...

In this episode of The Tooth Sleuth Podcast, Greg Essenmacher sits down with wealth strategist and family office advisor Tim McNeely for a candid, eye-opening conversation about money, complexity, and why building wealth without protecting it often creates more problems than solutions. Tim shares how many high-performing dental entrepreneurs unknowingly lose 20–30% of their net worth over time due...

In this episode of The Tooth Sleuth Podcast, Greg Essenmacher sits down with Dr. Julia L. Jackson — better known as "Extraction Jackson" — for a powerful, deeply human conversation about passion, purpose, grit, and what it truly means to love the work you do. As a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon, educator, and founder of the International Implant Institute, Dr. Jackson shares her jo...