Two oral surgeons join us for this week's episode. Dr. Chip Abraham is a fourth-year OMS resident at Indiana University, and Dr. Doug Orzel is a private practice OMS and practice owner in Grand Rapids, Michigan. These two oral surgery studs come on the podcast to talk all things oral surgery involving pediatric dentistry. We go through different tough clinical situations, as well as review a few listener Q & A's. Some of the topics we discuss:

Should pediatric dentists be extracting permanent teeth?

How do oral surgeons decide on a sedation modality? What agents and what doses?

Do oral surgeons ever elect NOT to sedate?

How do you suture a small extra-oral laceration?

Can a tough teenager have thirds taken out with just local anesthetic?

Imagine being a pediatric dentist for 44 years, and then still having the ambition to start a thriving fluoride and prophy paste company at 80 years old. It was a pleasure to interview the founder of Wonderful Dental and our guest today, Dr. David Epstein. In today's episode, we learn more about what pediatric dentistry was like in the 1970's, how our profession has changed, and why the most important thing we should be doing is looking for ways to do things better. Dr. Epstein lets us look inside of the world of manufacturing fluoride varnish and why there was a need to develop better fluoride at a more reasonable price point. We had a fantastic discussion and Dr. Epstein's detailed bio can be found below.

David W. Epstein, D.D.S., M.S.D. is a retired Pediatric Dentist in West Hartford, Connecticut. His education began with the study of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, a degree in Mathematics followed by a Doctor of Dental Surgery and a Master’s Degree in Pediatric Dentistry from Indiana University.

In 1970, he joined the original Dental School Faculty at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He began his private practice in 1972, which has grown into a group practice consisting of five Pediatric Dentists and two Orthodontists. For more than forty years the primary focus of this practice has been preventive care with an emphasis on active child and parent participation.

Dr. Julia Richman is a pediatric dentist and private practice owner in Washington. She joins us on the podcast to talk about a variety of topics, including her journey from being a long-term (10+ year) associate to starting her own practice and the challenges that go with it. Dr. Richman has an interest in forensic odontology that we discuss. She also is an avid diver, and we talk about how cold water therapy and just being outside in general can be a remedy for the stresses of being a pediatric dentist. 

Recorded in-person at the AAPD meeting in San Diego, Dr. Corey Hastings and I sit down at a hotel over a couple cold craft beers and talk shop. Dr. Corey has been a guest on the podcast before, and is a wealth of knowledge regarding the business side of dentistry. He has an MBA, and has built 5, 6?... 7? A lot of offices in the Missouri area in a very short amount of time.

In this episode, we discuss:

- What's a healthy overhead for a pediatric practice?

It doesn't take long reading iPedo posts and talking to other dentists to realize that burnout, stress, and difficulty finding work-life balance is a common problem among pediatric dentists. In this episode, Dr. Natalie Datien joins us to discuss her story about why she walked away from a busy practice.

Dr. Natalie bought a practice shortly out of residency with her husband, a general dentist in the Detroit area of Michigan. Together they grew the practice from an old-school, low-production office into a multi-doctor GP practice with Dr. Natalie running the pediatric side of things. They were seeing over 100+ new patients a month and booking out for weeks. After three years of sleepless nights, staffing issues, worrying about cash flow, and dealing with difficult families, Dr. Natalie and her husband set down the handpiece and sold the practice. She is now retired at 33 and happily spending time with her young family.

We have a really interesting conversation about what life is like after dentistry, reflections on what could have made things easier as a practice owner, advice for young start-up docs, and just in general what type of things burn us out as practice owners.

PODCAST NEWS:

If you are a pediatric dentist attending AAPD in San Diego, look for me (Casey Goetz) at the convention. I'd like to do some speed-dating style interviews with other pediatric dentists, maybe 10 minutes long, asking for pearls, tips, advice, and lessons learned. Keep an eye out for me and flag me down if you are interested in being part of this episode idea!

Dr. Gena Otto is an orthodontist and the owner of Otto Orthodontics in St. Louis, Missouri. Her office has grown tremendously to include three locations, 30+ staff, and a full time marketing specialist. 

I wanted to have Dr. Otto on the podcast because we work closely together professionally, and I've always loved her hip and energetic enthusiasm for orthodontics. She has a fantastic social media presence, along with really nice clinical outcomes and a passion for what she does. 

In this podcast, Dr. Otto and I discuss some of the following ortho-peds issues:

- How has competition changed the marketplace for ortho work? Are orthodontists recommending comprehensive ortho earlier?

This was a great conversation and a nice refresher course on practical clinical applications for ortho issues in our pediatric patients. 

Dr. Peter Nguyen is a pediatric dentist who started First Bite Pediatric Dentistry in Henderson, Nevada. Dr. Nguyen grew up as the child of Vietnamese war refugees. He did his pediatric residency at UCLA, before moving to the Las Vegas area and associating for a number of practices prior to doing his start-up.

Dr. Nguyen has a great sense of humor and as he puts it, "I'm not the smartest guy on iPedo so I have to make up for it with my sense of humor." I loved this podcast, I thought it was awesome to just laugh out loud and tell stories about ridiculous things that happen in our practice. We talk about Dr. Nguyen's start-up journey, then discuss crazy and ridiculous things parents and kids have done in our offices. 

We also talk about "verbal judo" and the art of communicating with parents when it comes to tough treatment plans or difficult situations. 

Dr. Cyrus Safizadeh is a pediatric dentist who opened a practice with his wife, a general dentist, shortly before COVID. They grew this practice together throughout the pandemic challenges to come out thriving on the other side.

Dr. Cyrus talks about the benefits of working closely with a general dentist and utilizing the skillsets and technology that his wife brings to the practice. He shares how they have balanced Medicaid patients to keep a healthy new patient flow on both the pediatric and adult side. He is kind of enough to open up and talk freely about his practice numbers and how he plans for growth. 

We also discuss how they made a 150k investment in a CAD-CAM unit, and Dr. Cyrus has ended up using it extensively in pediatric dentistry. After being exposed to so much general dentistry, he also talks about why he no longer starts sweating at the site of extensive permanent tooth decay and treatment plans.