Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran

In this four-guest roundtable — part three of the show's airway and sleep series — Howard Farran brings together a genuinely multidisciplinary panel: Patrick McKeown, an internationally recognized breathing expert, author of eleven books, and creator of MyoTape and the modern Buteyko approach; Dr. Felix Liao, an engineer-turned-dentist who coined "Impaired Mouth Syndrome" and developed Airway Facial Epigenetics through his AMD Academy Global; Nerissa Boggan, a myofunctional therapist and sleep-and-breathing educator with 25+ years in dental hygiene and author of the children's book My Dog Myo and My Nose; and Dr. Anthony Bolamperti, a second-generation laser dentist running Omaha Laser Dentistry and its Airway Institute. Together they approach the same overlooked problem — the airway — through four lenses: epigenetics, Buteyko breathing, myofunctional therapy, and laser dentistry. The conversation explores how a mouth-breathing habit reshapes the face and drives malocclusion, why restoring the airway can ease chronic pain and improve sleep and mood, and how starting with the nose — nasal hygiene, lip seal, tongue posture, and early intervention — changes outcomes from infancy through old age.

Throughout, Howard returns to his recurring theme of transferring hard-won knowledge to the next generation, asking each guest what they'd tell a newly graduated dentist. The answers converge: pay your dues and your loans, but don't stay siloed — see the whole patient behind the tooth, learn airway health, and think like an oral physician rather than a "trinket" dentist. The panel also confronts the sobering sleep-apnea funnel (only about five of every hundred sufferers are actually treated), the ongoing debate over tongue ties and frenectomies, and the profession's burnout crisis — united by the conviction that dentists, who see patients more often than physicians do, are uniquely positioned on the front line of whole-health care.

The American Sleep and Breathing Academy: https://asba.life/

Episode #1718 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard hosts a four-guest airway roundtable with breathing expert Patrick McKeown, "Airway Mouth Doctor" Dr. Felix Liao, myofunctional therapist Nerissa Boggan, and laser dentist Dr. Anthony Bolamperti.

Four disciplines — epigenetics, Buteyko breathing, myofunctional therapy, and laser dentistry — all treating the same overlooked problem: the airway. From why "straight white teeth is the wrong goalpost" to the sleep-apnea funnel where only ~5 of 100 patients ever get treated, this one connects the dots.

🎧 A must-listen on whole-health dentistry, breathing, and treating the whole patient behind the tooth.

#DentistryUncensored #AirwayHealth #Buteyko #Myofunctional #LaserDentistry #DentalSleepMedicine

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Brian Hanks, MBA, CFP — a national dental transitions expert, author, accountant, and Certified Financial Planner who has been directly involved in hundreds of dental practice transitions across all fifty states. Through his firm, Dental Buyer Advocates, Brian works exclusively with buyers, guiding them through due diligence, negotiation, financing, and transition. He joins the show to explain what recent turbulence in private credit markets could mean for dental practice valuations.

The conversation starts with the Blue Owl private credit situation and why a fund halting redemptions matters to everyday dentists. Brian explains how private equity and private credit have fueled the dental acquisition boom, and what happens when that fuel gets more expensive — specifically how EBITDA multiples compress as borrowing costs rise, and what that looks like in real dollar terms for a selling dentist. He also addresses why changes in credit markets typically take 12 to 24 months to show up in practice valuations, and how to tell whether the current moment is the start of a genuine shift or just a temporary blip.

From there, Brian offers practical guidance for both sides of the market: what dentists thinking about selling in the next few years should be doing right now, how a cooling acquisition market can create real opportunity for buyers, and the early warning signs brokers and advisors are already watching — longer timelines, fewer bidders, and more selective buyers. He closes with the single biggest mistake dentists make when selling, what a truly well-prepared practice looks like to a serious buyer today, and where he thinks valuations are headed over the next 24 months.

Episode #1717 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Brian Hanks, MBA, CFP — national dental transitions expert, author, and founder of Dental Buyer Advocates — to unpack what recent turbulence in private credit markets could mean for dental practice valuations.

Most dentists have never heard of Blue Owl. Brian explains why they should care — how rising borrowing costs compress EBITDA multiples, what that means in real dollars for a selling dentist, and why credit market shifts take 12–24 months to show up in what your practice is worth.

🎧 Essential listening for any dentist thinking about buying or selling in the next few years.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalTransitions #PracticeValue #DentalBusiness #PrivateEquity #DSO

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Eric J. Morin, MBA, Founder and President of Tower Leadership, a Forbes speaker and best-selling author who has spent more than two decades helping doctors build more profitable, scalable, and valuable businesses. The conversation focuses on the operational and financial disciplines that separate a practice that simply produces well from one that commands real enterprise value.

Eric explains how dentists can grow EBITDA without just doing more dentistry — by finding the profit quietly lost to overhead, inefficiency, weak scheduling, and poor case acceptance — and walks through the key KPIs every owner should actually be tracking to make better decisions. He and Howard dig into the most common operational blind spots, including why what looks like a production problem is often really a leadership, accountability, or systems problem. The discussion also covers how to scale from a strong single location into a larger, sustainable business without sacrificing culture, patient experience, or profitability, and closes with how owners should think about private equity, DSOs, and timing a potential exit before deciding whether to stay independent, keep growing, or prepare for a transition.

Episode #1716 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Eric J. Morin, MBA — Founder & President of Tower Leadership, Forbes speaker, and best-selling author who's helped thousands of doctors turn good practices into high-value enterprises.

From growing EBITDA without just "doing more dentistry," to the KPIs every owner should know, to what actually makes a practice valuable in today's market — Eric breaks down the business side dental school never taught.

🎧 A must-listen for any dentist thinking about profitability, scale, or an eventual exit.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalBusiness #PracticeManagement #EBITDA #DentalLeadership #PracticeValue

In this roundtable — part two of the show's airway and sleep series recorded around an ASBA gathering — Howard Farran sits down with three leaders working at the intersection of dentistry, sleep, and medicine: Dr. Luann Hall, a UCSF-trained "recovering pediatric dentist," minimally invasive advocate, and regent of the American College of Dentists; Dr. Manisha Witmans, a board-certified sleep physician, pediatrician, and pediatric pulmonologist who built the pediatric sleep program at Stollery Children's Hospital and recently learned she's been an OSA patient herself since childhood; and Dr. Janelle Crichton, an orthodontist and airway specialist whose practice ranks #1 in Canada for Invisalign volume and who is entering Stanford's Orthodontic Dental Sleep Medicine program as one of only six orthodontists in North America accepted.

The conversation opens on a philosophy of preservation — the idea that a tooth can outlive us but rarely survives the drill — and Dr. Hall's case for minimally invasive care, arresting decay and remineralizing rather than cutting. She also introduces two ventures she advises: Auris DX, an FDA-approved salivary test for oral cancer often described as a "pap smear for the mouth," and InHand Dental, a teledentistry tool built during the pandemic. That leads into a recurring theme of the episode: the artificial divide between medicine and dentistry, why oral cancer screening isn't reimbursed like its medical equivalent, and the panel's shared vision of collaborative care built around a single shared medical record and integrated practices where orthodontists, myofunctional therapists, and physicians work under one roof.

Much of the discussion centers on airway and sleep. The doctors walk through how mouth breathing shows up in the chair — lips apart, dry inflamed gums, high narrow palates, dark under-eye circles, brain fog, grinding, bite changes, crowding, delayed eruption, and white-spot lesions driven by reduced salivary buffering — and Dr. Witmans drives home the loop between poor sleep and systemic inflammation. She also highlights a striking inequity: women weren't included in obstructive sleep apnea research until 1993, decades after REM sleep was discovered, leaving today's screening tools heavily weighted toward men and countless anxious, exhausted, chronically-in-pain women underdiagnosed. Howard adds his own near-fatal kidney stone story as a vivid example of how men delay seeking care. The panel debates when children should first see an orthodontist — landing firmly on early, growth-modification-focused intervention rather than the traditional "wait until twelve" — and closes with practical, fear-reducing exam tips for new dentists, like asking a child whether their teeth feel "happy or sad" and letting patients tell you what they think is going on.

Episode #1715 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard hosts a powerhouse airway roundtable with Dr. Luann Hall, Dr. Manisha Witmans, and Dr. Janelle Crichton — a "recovering" pediatric dentist, a sleep physician, and one of North America's top airway orthodontists.

From why "you can survive without a tooth but not the drill," to the decay patterns that secretly signal an airway problem, to how women went unstudied in sleep medicine until 1993 — this conversation connects dots most dental schools never do.

🎧 A must-listen on airway, sleep, prevention, and bridging the gap between medicine and dentistry.

#DentistryUncensored #AirwayHealth #DentalSleepMedicine #PediatricDentistry #Orthodontics #SleepApnea

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Eric Recker — a dentist of 24 years, keynote speaker, author, pilot, mountain climber, and success coach based in Pella, Iowa — for a candid conversation about burnout and the path back from it. Eric opens up about how close he came to leaving dentistry entirely: he tried to sell his practice, and when the deal fell through, he was forced to confront the tension headaches, heart palpitations, and panic attacks he'd spent a decade dismissing as "just how it is" — including one attack that left him on his office server room floor on a Monday morning.

The conversation traces how COVID became an unexpected turning point, giving Eric the space to step back and ask what was really unsustainable about the pace he was keeping. He shares the concept that changed everything — "boundarying" his day, a phrase from his outside-dentistry mentor — and makes the case for having two coaches: one inside dentistry and one for life beyond it. Eric and Howard dig into the "false sense of urgency," the voice of should that runs like a background app draining energy, and the simple practice of writing those thoughts down and asking, "What can I do about it?"

Eric explains the framework behind his book, The Dam Analogy: we're all like a dam balancing stored energy (the lake) against our impact on the world (the river) — and while dentists are exceptional at output, most are terrible at refilling themselves. He describes retreating to a monastery for 24 hours as one way he refills, and lays out the choice between "Mountain A" (grumpy, doom-scrolling, being everything to everyone) and "Mountain B" (intentional living, self-care, and pursuing what matters most). Along the way, the two share practical hacks — protecting your Monday morning schedule, doing more of the dentistry you love and less of what drains you, firing the "Mrs. Murgatroyd" patients who exhaust the whole team, and using the freeing phrase "what you're asking me to do is unreasonable" to hold boundaries with patients. The episode closes on the importance of raising your hand and asking for help, and Eric's invitation to any struggling dentist to simply start a conversation.

5-Day Knock Back Burnout Challenge- https://ericrecker.com/knock-back-burnout/

Episode #1714 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Eric Recker — dentist, keynote speaker, author, pilot, and success coach — who nearly walked away from dentistry before turning his burnout into a mission to help others.

From panic attacks on the server room floor to "boundarying" his day, the Dam Analogy, and choosing "Mountain B," Eric shares hard-won, practical tools for any dentist quietly telling themselves "this is just how it is."

🎧 An honest, hopeful conversation about burnout, boundaries, and building a life you don't need to escape from.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalBurnout #WorkLifeBalance #DentalWellness #DentistCoaching #MentalHealth

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Randolph Cross, a private practice endodontist in Watsonville, California, and the inventor of the EndoCator — a first-of-its-kind chairside ATP test that tells clinicians, in five seconds, whether a root canal is truly clean before they close it. Dr. Cross traces the idea back to a finals-week breakdown during his residency at USC, when he realized the profession had no reliable, real-time way to confirm disinfection. Drawing on his biochemistry background, he bought a cheap ATP tester off eBay, tried it on extracted teeth, and watched the readings drop from dirty to clean as he worked — the moment he knew he was onto something.

Randy explains the science in plain terms: ATP is the energy molecule found in every living cell, and when it hits the enzyme luciferase, it emits light the device measures on a 1–100 scale. Because it detects ATP rather than culturing bacteria, it's more sensitive than traditional methods and picks up anaerobes and even fungi that cultures miss. He even demos it live, licking a test tube to show how a "clean-looking" sample still lights up as filthy. Along the way he shares the anecdote that crystallized it all — a case where a textbook-perfect obturation tested dirty while a squiggly-looking fill tested spotless — and how the patent office initially rejected the idea twice for being "too obvious."

The conversation dives deep into practical disinfection: why full-strength sodium hypochlorite and contact time still matter most, his use of Triton on necrotic cases, the trade-offs of lasers, heated irrigants, and ultrasonic activation, and his "apical barbarian" approach to working to length. Dr. Cross frames the EndoCator as smaller, faster, and cheaper than the alternatives — roughly $1,800 for the unit and about $7 per test, versus six figures for a GentleWave — and stresses that patients deserve to know their infection is gone before the canal is sealed. Howard and Randy also cover one-visit versus two-visit endo, the overprescription of antibiotics, posts and the ferrule effect, intentional reimplantation, and the realities of practicing endo in rural America, closing with candid advice for any dentist sitting on an idea: go for it, prototype early, and pass the baton when it stops being fun.

Episode #1713 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Randolph Cross — private practice endodontist and inventor of the EndoCator, a 5-second chairside ATP test that finally answers the question most dentists never ask: is this root canal actually clean before I fill it?

Born out of a finals-week epiphany in residency and a $20 tester bought off eBay, Randy's device gives real-time feedback on canal cleanliness — and the readings have humbled a lot of egos.

🎧 A must-listen on disinfection, invention, and why the pretty X-ray isn't the whole story.

#DentistryUncensored #Endodontics #RootCanal #DentalInnovation #EndoCator #DentalInventors

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Sompop Bencharit, a board-certified prosthodontist, innovation strategist, and Director of Innovation at the Austin Institute of Dental Medicine, who has led technology transformation at VCU, the Medical University of South Carolina, and High Point University. A Fellow of the American College of Prosthodontists with over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Bencharit also serves as president of HADEN — the Haptic and AI in Dental Education Network — connecting more than 70 educators worldwide.

The conversation opens by demystifying "haptics" — the virtual-reality, flight-simulator-style training that lets students feel the difference between drilling enamel and dentin, turning passive learning into muscle memory before they ever touch a patient. Dr. Bencharit argues that the single biggest barrier keeping dental schools from modernizing isn't money or expertise, but fear. He shares how he digitized VCU's dental school — flipping a program that once took 79 days to deliver a single crown into one where students routinely complete same-day, in-house digital restorations — and stresses that the real key wasn't machines, but workflow.

Howard and Dr. Bencharit dig into what a truly future-ready dental school looks like, the core digital skills every new graduate should master (intraoral scanning, 3D printing, same-day restorations, and implant planning with guided surgery), and why robotic implant placement is now the most accurate method available. They also take on the AI debate head-on — with Dr. Bencharit explaining that dentistry has quietly used AI for years, that generalists will increasingly perform work once reserved for specialists, and that his real concern isn't AI replacing jobs but its potential to fabricate undetectable research. The episode closes with a passionate discussion on the maldistribution of dentists, the crushing burden of student debt, and why subsidized dental education — like the tuition-free residency model at the Austin Institute — may be essential to serving underserved communities.

Episode #1712 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Sompop Bencharit — board-certified prosthodontist, innovation strategist, and president of HADEN, the world's largest community advancing haptic and AI technologies in dental education.

From flight-simulator-style "haptic" training and same-day digital dentistry, to why he says fear is the #1 barrier holding dental schools back, to how AI will reshape all 12 specialties — this is a candid look at where dental education must go next.

🎧 A must-listen for students, educators, and any dentist thinking about the future of the profession.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalEducation #DigitalDentistry #DentalAI #Prosthodontics #FutureOfDentistry

In this episode, Howard Farran welcomes back Dr. Densen Cao — physicist, prolific inventor, and founder and CEO of CAO Group and AMD Lasers — for his first return to the show in eight years. Mentored early in his career by Dr. Gordon and Dr. Rella Christensen, Dr. Cao has spent decades developing disruptive dental technologies at the intersection of physics, materials science, and clinical dentistry.

The heart of the conversation is his newly released LEAP procedure (Laser Endodontic Ablation Procedure), unveiled at AAE 2026 after five years of FDA review and more than 100 U.S. cases. Dr. Cao explains why disinfection — not obturation — is the true key to root canal success, and how LEAP uses a low-energy diode laser to ablate residual tissue and bacteria, paired with a proprietary LEAP solution of chlorhexidine and ethanol to reach the fins and side canals. The result, he says, is a five-nines (99.999%) bacteria reduction achieved in live patients, with an independent clinical study by Dr. Rella Christensen now underway.

The discussion then moves to prevention, where Dr. Cao introduces his caries risk testing strips — which measure salivary pH and buffer capacity with a simple lick — and "Cavity Fighter" mints designed to neutralize acid and remineralize enamel during the critical window after eating. Along the way, Howard and Dr. Cao explore why a small percentage of people never get cavities, the impact of vaping and dry mouth on caries risk, the physics of curing lights, and the history behind AMD Lasers. The episode closes with Dr. Cao's reflections on COVID and disinfection, the future of AI in dentistry, and what a lifetime in physics has taught him about trusting science and data above all.

Episode #1711 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard welcomes back his friend Dr. Densen Cao — physicist, inventor, and founder & CEO of CAO Group and AMD Lasers — eight years after his first appearance.

From a groundbreaking new laser root canal disinfection procedure (LEAP) that just earned FDA clearance, to caries risk strips and "Cavity Fighter" mints that could change how we prevent decay, Dr. Cao shares what happens when a physicist tackles dentistry's oldest problems.

🎧 A fascinating deep dive into disruptive innovation, science, and the future of dental care.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalInnovation #Endodontics #DentalLasers #AMDLasers #DentalTechnology

In this episode, Howard Farran reconnects with longtime friend Dr. Ben Wachter, a Mesa, Arizona native and 2017 graduate of A.T. Still University whose career has been shaped by service, perseverance, and a passion for caring for the underserved. Ben opens up about the mentor who changed his life — the late Dr. Tim Lukowski — who inspired him to leave a path toward medical school, took him on his first mission trips to Mexico, and believed in him through three rounds of dental school applications.

The conversation moves through Ben's remarkable commitment to charitable care, including 10 dental mission trips to Mexico, his work with Arizona Sunshine and the Arizona Mission of Mercy, and his role in helping create clinics that serve those who need it most. He also reflects on training under implant and sedation experts like Dr. Richard Feldhake and Tom Mattern, launching the first special care clinic with Pacific Dental Services in Scottsdale, and building his skills across oral conscious sedation, IV sedation, and general anesthesia for patients with special needs.

Howard and Ben also get candid about the realities facing new graduates — how to read a DSO contract, why the "owner doc" model can be misleading, the importance of looking closely at the numbers before taking a job, and the staffing and hygienist shortages that make rural practice both rewarding and challenging. The episode closes with Ben sharing the story behind his invention, the Nova Flow Adapter — an affordable, autoclavable, Arizona-made alternative to pricey isolation systems — and a shared reflection on why missionary dentistry has a way of resetting a burned-out clinician's soul.

Episode #1710 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with friend and fellow Arizonan, Dr. Ben Wachter — a Mesa, Arizona native and general dentist whose career has been built on service, grit, and a deep commitment to underserved patients.

From applying to dental school three times, to 10 mission trips to Mexico, to launching a special care clinic and inventing his own affordable dental tool — Ben's story is a reminder of why so many of us got into this profession in the first place.

🎧 An honest, heartfelt conversation about mentorship, mission work, and finding your place in dentistry.

#DentistryUncensored #MissionaryDentistry #DentalCareer #SpecialCareDentistry #GivingBack #DentalCommunity

In this two-hour roundtable recorded at a global airway, breathing, and sleep conference, Howard Farran sits down with three of the field's most passionate voices: Dr. Toshi Hart, Diplomate and President-Elect of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy; Dr. Kimberly Ann Meyer, current President of the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain; and Dr. Mark Levi, a Sydney-based diplomate who turned his own severe sleep apnea diagnosis into a career treating children.

The conversation centers on a provocative idea: that the malocclusion, crowded teeth, and breathing problems flooding modern dental practices stem from generations of underdeveloped jaws — driven by softer diets, less nursing, and mouth breathing. Dr. Hart shares how a single 45-minute lecture on craniofacial epigenetics redirected her career, leading to a study in which guided growth appliances produced a 76% reduction in decay. Dr. Levi makes the case for early intervention in children as young as three, explaining why the window to influence facial growth closes far earlier than most clinicians realize. Dr. Meyer connects the dots between nasal breathing, nitric oxide, tongue posture, tonsils and adenoids, and the cascade of downstream effects on sleep, behavior, and long-term health.

Along the way, the group tackles the fierce professional pushback they face, why mothers — not journals — are driving change, the relationship between bruxism, airway, and even implant failure, and how a single-chair, drill-free practice can outperform a traditional one. The episode closes with practical guidance for young dentists on where to begin, why education matters more than expensive machinery, and how building thriving children builds a thriving practice.

Episode #1709 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with a powerhouse airway roundtable — Dr. Toshi Hart, Dr. Kimberly Ann Meyer, and Dr. Mark Levi — three leaders changing how dentistry thinks about jaw development, breathing, and sleep.

From why 80% of kids have underdeveloped jaws, to a 76% reduction in decay through early intervention, to the pushback these "myofunctional quacks" proudly embrace — this is a candid, eye-opening conversation about treating the root cause, not just the cavity.

🎧 If you've ever heard a child grinding their teeth at night, this episode will change how you see it.

#DentistryUncensored #AirwayHealth #DentalSleepMedicine #PediatricDentistry #Myofunctional #CraniofacialEpigenetics