Brews and Tiny Teeth, The Unfiltered Pediatric Dentistry Podcast

Dr. Aruna Rao is a pediatric dentist, practice owner, and president elect of the Minnesota Dental Association. She also teaches one day a month at the University of Minnesota, where she helps run the clinic for dental students during their pediatric rotation. Dr. Rao comes on the podcast to talk about why it's critically important for private practice dentists to adjunct at their local schools...

Dr. Todd Gray is a pediatric dentist and the Chief Dental Officer at Dentaquest. Dentaquest is the largest Medicaid managed care provider in the country, and is responsible for delivering Medicaid dental services to millions of children in the United States. Dr. Gray spent 15 years in private practice as a pediatric dentist in the state of Nevada before making a career shift and working his way up...

After several weeks of compiling the data, the numbers are in! This episode finally sheds light on what real-life numbers you can expect for a pediatric dental start-up. I asked listeners the following questions: 1. What is the demographic of your practice? 2. How much did you produce/collect your first few years of practice ownership? 3. When did you break even? 4. When did you start paying yours...

Dr. Gerardo Martinez is a returning guest on the show. We met up at AAPD and decided to record a podcast after flying home. We begin the conversation around changes in behavior management, and why it's ok for kids to cry at the dentist. The key is parent expectation and good communication. Dr. Martinez is also a visionary and advocate for 3D printing in pediatric dentistry. He has spent the la...

Dr. Milca Ceballos is a pediatric dentist and owner of her start-up, Pawsitive Pediatric Dentistry. Her office is in rural Pennsylvania where she has experienced explosive growth, to the point of already trying to bring on an associate while she continues to expand her tongue-tie practice. This episode focuses on how she built her office for success. We discuss: - Who she hired to do a demographic...

Dr. Gerry Samson is a dual-trained pediatric/ortho legend and founder of Gnathos, a continuing education platform teaching pediatric dentists valuable orthodontic skills. He practiced for 40+ years and continues to lecture and teach at various institutions. His list of accolades is too extensive to list so just trust me on this... he knows a thing or two about occlusion and the growing dentition....

Dr. Patrick Micaroni is a pediatric dentist and practice owner from New York. We talk about just about every topic related to pediatric dentistry that you can think of, including: - How he bought an existing practice and kept the selling doc on as an associate - Why residency was truly "the good ol days" - Recurrent decay on teenagers - Why class IIs are terrible - Cloud-based dental sof...

Dr. Robert Mansman is a pediatric dentist who has turned a 3 million dollar practice into an 8+ million dollar practice with multiple associates and an orthodontic clinic. His practice is in Maryland, but he lives in Florida. Dr. Rob was fantastic in being transparent with his practice numbers, and talking about his growth strategies. Some things we discuss: - How he was able grow an already estab...

Dr. Jesse Defazio is a pediatric dentist and a "super associate." She has practiced in 15 offices over the last 11 years, following her husband's military career. She comes on the show to talk all about associateships and what to look for when trying to find that perfect practice. We cover some great topics including: - When does working for a DSO make sense? - Be cautious of second...

In today's episode, Dr. Craig Lustman and I have a great podcast talking about the unique philanthropic model Craig has developed in his dental practices. Craig has found an amazing way to support his passion for developing water, food, and athletic resources for the underserved in Africa. Every cavity-free recall allows his patients to contribute five dollars of profit towards his non-profit...

Dr. Oshmi Dutta is a pediatric dentist from Texas who has started, grown, and operated literally dozens of general and pediatric practices in his career. He joins me on the podcast with an after-work beer to talk all about a variety of business topics related to pediatric dentistry. We go on a lot of tangents, but this is a killer episode for anybody involved or interested in the business side of...

Dr. Craig Hollander is a legendary pediatric dentist in the St. Louis area. He was kind enough to drive up and meet me for coffee to reflect on his 30+ year career as a pediatric dentist. Dr. Hollander was a very welcoming presence when I moved to Missouri. I've always been impressed by the way that he balances a busy clinic schedule, leadership, organized dentistry, study clubs and teaching r...

Dr. Josh Samuel is a pediatric dentist who recently completed his journey in purchasing an existing practice. Josh did a great job compiling his notes and creating a 13 step process outlining the things he learned when it comes to pediatric dental acquisitions. In this episode, we break down those 13 steps and talk about common sticking points. This is a great episode for current associates who ar...

Outsourcing my insurance billing and A/R has been one of the best decisions I have made for my practice. I recently started using a new company called Pedo Billing to help me with this. They have helped me collect thousands of dollars in outstanding claims (including Medicaid claims) that we have been fighting for months to get paid. Pedo Billing only works with pediatric dentists, so I invited th...

Dr. Alexandra Markou-Guzman is a pediatric dentist who works in a public health center treating children from a Hasidic Jewish population in New York City. She shares her experience working with this population, and the cultural challenges that come with it. We discuss some of the unique dental considerations that come into play with treatment planning and working with these families. Dr. Alex is...

Dr. Amy Jones is a pediatric dentist from Mississippi. She comes on the show to talk about a variety of topics including: - How many chairs to have in a dental office - Medicaid limiting access to GA/OR in her state, and they combat this "scoring system" - Burnout and working 5 days a week - How to incorporate a therapy dog into the office - Challenges of taking time off for vacations as...

Dr. Jim Coll is a legendary pediatric dentist. With a career that spans 40 years in both private practice and academics at the University of Maryland, he has invested his time becoming a leading publisher of systematic reviews regarding pulpal therapies in primary and permanent teeth. Said another way... he's the guy authoring all of the papers in the AAPD journal with updated clinical trials...

Dr. Jessica Sliger is a former teacher who went back to school to become a pediatric dentist. She practices at a group practice in Arkansas where she is passionate about TOTs, seeing patients with special needs, using AI to help present treatment plans, and recently teaching new restorative techniques with the Bioclear method. She also helped Arkansas establish a dental school, with the goal of im...

Dr. Tiffany Green is a pediatric dentist from the Jackson, Mississippi area. We have a great lunchtime conversation regarding a variety of topics including: - Why dropping Delta Dental was the right move for her practice - How her love for running keeps her sharp as a pediatric dentist - Why DSOs are struggling - Dr. Green's experience and appreciation for Invisalign First, and how she incorpo...

Dr. Stefanie Meek is a pediatric dentist and partner at a large group practice in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is currently on maternity leave with a new baby, so we took the opportunity to have a discussion about all things pediatric dentistry. We talk about how much time to take off after having a baby, what her oral sedation cocktail consists of, and how her partnership buy-in was structured prio...

This episode is all about improving communications skills and becoming a better leader. This is a topic I haven't focused on with any previous episodes, so I'm excited to bring my listeners something a little different. Dr. Randy Weinshel is a pediatric dentist with a career that expands to include military service, academics, and private practice. Health issues forced him into an early re...

We are joined today by The Kindness Bro himself... Dr. Glenn Canares. Glenn is an academic pediatric dentist and the program director at the University of Maryland. Glenn shares his story of how he experienced bouts of panic attacks while in clinic, and he knew he needed to make some radical life changes. He talks about how he found success with weight training, giving himself grace, and expanding...

70,000 SDF applications and 11,000 ART fillings. Dr. Jonathan Norris and his partners own 10 practices across Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. They have built their entire practice philosophy on being minimally invasive. I love having these conversations because its so interesting to see how different pediatric dentists can practice. We have a great conversation and discuss: - The...

Dr. Lizzy Standish is a pediatric dentist from Lafayette, Indiana. We met at AAPD when she was telling me about her involvement and passion for comedy, specifically improv. I invited her on the podcast to learn more about how this skillset improved her communication with parents and made her a better pediatric dentist.

Dr. Diana Pelzer is a pediatric dentist and owner of The Nest Pediatric Dentistry in Waukee, Iowa. She opened the practice from scratch in 2020 in a large modern building that she constructed at the same time. After just 5 years of being open, she added an addition on the building along with a bringing on a new associate. Dr. Pelzer has a virtual adult beverage with me as we discuss start-ups, com...