The Dental Handoff

Researcher and author Susan Wingrove spent part of this summer catching up with colleagues in Milan and Norway. She came back with news for hygienists: a hygiene-driven treatment for peri-implant mucositis and early peri-implantitis is already in use in Europe. Until now, she says, hygienists have had to refer these patients. She hopes the treatment reaches the US and Canada later this fall, or by early 2027.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Susan and Dr. Kelly Tanner talk about how that treatment works, why she thinks a subgingival air polisher belongs in every hygiene operatory, and the laser-assisted protocol she recommends with 3% hydrogen peroxide, a 980 diode laser and Cervitec Plus. She also covers red light photobiomodulation after periodontal treatment, and why she is cautious about using both red light and desiccant therapy around implants.

Susan explains why she waits three to six months before probing a healing site, what the real barrier to air polishing usually is, and how her research has turned into instruments and products for the profession. Read the guide at https://wingrovedynamics.com/articles (listed as “Clinical Cervitec Plus Applications: Hygienists & Doctors”).

This conversation is for clinical hygienists, implant teams and practice owners who want to know which perio and implant tools are worth adding now and which ones to wait on.

Susan has a new research project underway, and we hope to have her back to talk about it. Follow The Dental Handoff wherever you listen so you catch that conversation.

This episode was partially sponsored by Ivoclar North America.

Connect with Susan Wingrove:

Website: wingrovedynamics.com

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

Anyone who has coordinated a dental hygiene clinic knows how much time goes into clinical competency tracking, chasing down students and pulling records together for accreditation. Sara Taft, the dental hygiene program director at Waukesha County Technical College, spent three to four hours a week on that tracking as a second-year clinical coordinator. As workload hours went down and enrollment went up, it was all happening in spreadsheets.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner and Sara talk about the Friday in December when she decided to build her own system, and how a software development graduate at her college’s commencement led her to that program’s coordinator, and then to Jeff, the developer who became her business partner. Together they built Upscale Assessment, which handles clinical grading, skill evaluations, competency tracking, faculty calibration and remediation alerts, and feeds the reports Sara pulled during her own accreditation visit in April.

Sara also talks about the police career that came before hygiene, building a company with a partner she has met in person twice, why Jeff says the platform will never be done, and why she thinks coding works a lot like occlusion.

This conversation is for program directors, clinical coordinators and faculty in dental hygiene, dental assisting and dental therapy programs, and for any clinician who has thought about building the tool they wish they had.

Connect with Sara Taft and Upscale Assessment:

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

Emme Sanders, RDH has spent more than 30 years in dental hygiene as a clinician, speaker, executive coach, and writer. She is the author of “Welcome to Work: Inspiring Positive Change in the Workplace” and, with Lois Banta and Dana Watson, co-founder of COLLABricon, a two-day team-synergy summit for entire dental teams.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner and Emme talk about the negative self-talk that doesn't fully go away no matter how experienced or credentialed you become, where Emme's own self-talk started (something she says she has never shared on a podcast before), and the “ladder” she uses to describe how far a dental hygienist's role can grow. They also get into the real reason COLLABricon exists: teams would leave a conference energized, go home, and watch the plan fall apart, and Emme, Lois, and Dana built a format to fix exactly that.

This conversation is for dental hygienists, practice owners, office managers, and anyone who has ever caught themselves repeating a negative thought they'd never say to another person.

Connect with Emme Sanders:

Website: https://www.emmesandersrdh.com 

COLLABricon: https://www.collabriconcrew.com 

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

After doing well on her national board exam, Kathryn Gilliam was invited into the next dental class. She decided not to go. Looking back, she says she would change that, and that she would have her own dental hygiene practice if she were starting over. She built a career in dental hygiene instead, with decades in clinical care and a coaching career that grew alongside it.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner talks with Kathryn about growing up as a dentist's daughter, how journalism led her to hygiene, and the opportunities open to hygienists beyond clinical care, including writing, speaking, coaching, sales and teaching. She shares why she believes hygienists should speak up and own "the business within the business," what imposter syndrome taught her, and why she says probably half of what she learned in school is no longer true.

Kathryn also talks about "loving people back to health," the idea behind her upcoming book, High Impact Hygiene, and why she says she has not been burned out in 40 years.

This conversation is for hygienists wondering what else their career can hold, students deciding where to start, and any dental professional who has said no to something that made them nervous.

PerioLinks: periolinks.com/meet-kathryn

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kathryn-kamish-gilliam-18062bb3

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

Wendy Bebey's first job out of dental hygiene school didn't sit right with her, from how instruments were handled to whether the role was helping her grow, and she knew it. So she left, and started a path that would eventually take her from clinical hygiene into more than 20 years across Professional Relations, Sales Management, and continuing education at companies like Procter & Gamble, HuFriedyGroup, and Young Innovations. Today, she chairs the ADEA Corporate Council Administrative Board.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner talks with Wendy about the jobs that weren't the right fit, the chance connections and mentors that changed her direction, and what it actually took (real patience, deliberate networking, about four years of positioning herself) to make the jump from clinic to industry. Wendy also shares her belief that leaving clinical practice doesn't mean leaving the profession: "once a hygienist, always a hygienist."

This conversation is for hygienists wondering if their current job is the right fit, and anyone considering a move from clinical practice into industry, education, or leadership.

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

Debora Carrier, RDH, spent more than 30 years in the dental industry as a hygienist and CPR instructor. She got into hygiene school at 17, after a guidance counselor told her she never would, and left as the youngest person ever to sit the state boards in Illinois. She built a parallel runway modeling career alongside hygiene, co-founded The CPR Sisters with her own sister 31 years ago, and started Twice As Nice Uniforms, a temperature-regulating, antimicrobial scrub line. At 55, where she's now Founder and CEO.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner talks with Debora about what happened about four months before this recording: a certification guideline change made her CPR company's virtual business model unworkable almost overnight, and on the same day, her uniform factory of 15 years shut down. Debora walks through what it took to rebuild both, including the "no goal networking" approach she credits for most of her opportunities, and why customers who'd gone quiet for a decade came back with bigger orders than ever.

This conversation is for dental hygienists thinking about a side business, practice owners who've had a business model disrupted by something outside their control, and anyone who needs a real account of what it looks like to start over more than once.

Debora Carrier, RDH Founder & CEO, Twice as Nice Uniforms | Co-Founder, The CPR Sisters | 2025 Sunstar GUM/RDH Award of Distinction – Entrepreneur Category Winner

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

Michael Cembrola spent more than 20 years on the payer side of dental insurance, including six years running the national sales team for Delta Dental of California and all their affiliated states. He has been inside FBI investigations into dental fraud. He has sat in rooms where insurance companies decided which new technologies, they would not cover. And he has watched the gap between carriers and providers quietly damage both sides while patients absorb the cost.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Michael to talk about what fraud looks like from the inside, why most of it is unintentional, and what happens when an honest coding mistake turns into a six-figure fine. Michael is building an AI behavioral fingerprinting tool that detects fraud in one month versus the carrier average of one year. Kelly also tells the story of her first dental job as a 22-year-old baby hygienist, the office manager who tried to pin an embezzlement charge on her, and why not knowing what petty cash was is what saved her.

This conversation is for dental hygienists, dentists, practice owners, office managers, DSOs, and anyone working with dental insurance. If your practice files claims or accepts insurance, this one is directly relevant.

Company: MJC Growth Advisors | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mikecembrola

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, MAGD, built Dentaltown in 1999 because he believed no dentist should ever have to practice alone. Since then, he has grown it to 250,000 plus members in 43 countries, hosted 1,700 plus episodes of Dentistry Uncensored, lectured in 50 countries, and written Uncomplicate Business: All It Takes Is People, Time and Money.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with the man who made dentistry talk about money when talking about money was considered gross. Howard brings his blunt, warm, and wildly practical perspective to fear as the root cause, the invisible sell, the parking lot test, one-chair practices, three strikes firing, and why the man in the mirror is the only thing standing between most dentists and the practice they actually want.

This episode is for every dentist, hygienist, and practice owner who has ever blamed Delta Dental, their associate, or the economy for a problem that started with a decision they made themselves.

Connect with Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, MAGD:

Dentaltown: dentaltown.com  |  Personal site: howardfarran.com

Practice: Today's Dental  |  9633 S 48th St, Suite 200, Phoenix, AZ 85044

Email: [email protected]  |  Phone: (480) 445-9712

Facebook: HowardFarran

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

Dr. Shahin Safarian, DMD, MBA, graduated from Tufts School of Dental Medicine in 2001 with $400,000 in debt. By 2008 he had three locations and $2 million in debt. He pressed restart. Today his practice is 800 square feet, one operatory, powered by AI, and running on $30,000 a month in overhead.

Before dentistry, he was a professional soccer player for the Puebla F.C.A.s and the San Diego Sockers. He lettered in six sports in high school in Utah, got cut by every team for his first two years in San Diego, trained seven days a week until he made it, and then applied that same grit to dental school at 29.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Dr. Safarian to talk about radical self-responsibility, burnout as over-leverage, the 50% payroll rule, the hygiene profitability squeeze, and why AI diagnostics accuracy is already above the human average.

This episode is for dentists, practice owners, and any dental professional who wants to understand the business side of dentistry through the lens of someone who got it wrong, rebuilt from scratch, and built something leaner, smarter, and more sustainable.

Connect with Dr. Shahin Safarian, DMD, MBA:

LOVE BITES Dental: lovebitesdental.com  |  858-255-9689

Capital Dental Group: capitaldentalgroup.com

YouTube:@drshahinsafarian

Weekly Live Show: Dr. Shahin Safarian on YouTube at @drshahinsafarian

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

Dr. Jay Neugarten, DDS, MD, FACS, is a world-renowned oral and maxillofacial surgeon who was class valedictorian at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, earned his medical degree from Stony Brook, and completed his OMFS residency at Long Island Jewish. He is the Managing Partner and Medical Director of the New York Center for Orthognathic and Maxillofacial Surgery, an associate clinical professor at Weill Cornell, North Shore, and LIJ, and the founder of the Zaga Center New York City.

He is one of the earliest adopters of the Yomi robotic dental surgery platform and in 2024 published a landmark study in the International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Implants showing that haptic robotic guidance is more accurate than any other implant placement method. He has placed more than 800 implants robotically since 2020.

In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Dr. Neugarten to talk about the philosophy behind everything he does, the technology transforming how he delivers care, and the three pillars he gives every young clinician he mentors: care, get involved, and find mentorship.

This episode is for dentists, dental hygienists, dental educators, and any dental professional who wants to understand where surgical robotics is headed, what world-class mentorship actually looks like, and why the standard you set for yourself matters more than the technology you use.

Connect with Dr. Jay Neugarten, DDS, MD, FACS:

Practice: nycoms.com |  501 Madison Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY

LinkedIn: Jay Neugarten DDS MD FACS | Zaga Center NYC: zagacenters.com/zaga-network/dr-jay-neugarten/

Where to Find Dr. Kelly:

Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance.

https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min

Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com