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In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Julia Sadove-Lopez - a dentist, parent advocate, and founder of Oris Wellness - to explore a side of pediatric airway health we haven't covered enough on this show: what it's actually like for the parents trying to navigate it.
We dig into Julia's personal journey from dental school through corporate dentistry, into holistic practice in Chicago alongside Dr. Kevin Boyd, and ultimately to a career pivot that took her to Portugal and led her to found Oris Wellness. She opens up about the mental health toll of clinical practice, the moment she realized she needed a change, and how she turned her passion for patient education into a coaching and advocacy business.
We also tackle some of the most frustrating problems in our field, including why parents are hearing completely conflicting recommendations from provider to provider, why our diagnostics are all over the map, and why the interdisciplinary nature of airway care makes things even harder for families. Julia shares what she hears from parents every day, how she helps them cut through the noise without ever telling them what to do, and what clinicians can do better to move families from fear and confusion toward clarity and action.
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In this powerful episode, I sit down with Melissa Methven - a former flight attendant turned dental hygienist, widow, author, and breathwork facilitator - to discuss the hidden mental health crisis in dentistry. Melissa shares the story of her husband Scott, a beloved dentist in Wasilla, Alaska, who died by suicide in March 2022 after years of suppressing the pressures of the profession: student debt, perfectionism, emotional labor with patients, chronic pain, and escalating substance use.
Melissa opens up about her own suppression and the physical toll it took on her body, the signs she wishes she'd seen sooner, and how she found healing through community, faith, and breathwork. She also reads from her book The Truth Behind the Smiles and offers actionable solutions for dental schools, including mental health education, peer communities, and a dental-specific crisis hotline. This is a raw, important conversation about breaking the silence around depression and suicide in the dental profession, and the hope that comes from living your truth.
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I'm excited to welcome Nicole Vento back to The DOC Podcast for the fourth installment of our five-part series with the Vento family on creating generational wealth. Nicole is a financial advisor, CPA, and CFP who leads the investment committee at her family's firm, and she brings a rare dual perspective with her CPA background combined with institutional trading experience at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
In this episode, we dig deep into the investment and tax-efficiency side of wealth planning, breaking down retirement accounts, ETFs vs. mutual funds, estate planning, 529 plans, the student loan crisis, Trump accounts, charitable giving strategies, and the discipline and mindset it takes to achieve financial freedom. Whether you're just starting out or you've been building wealth for decades, Nicole delivers practical insights you can apply to your own financial journey. Be sure to pick up a copy of the Vento family's book, *The Generational Wealth Code*, linked in the show notes below.
**Chapters & Timestamps:**
- 0:30 — Episode Intro
- 3:06 — Welcome Back, Nicole
- 11:09 — Why You Need a Fiduciary
- 16:50 — Understanding Retirement Accounts
- 47:02 — ETFs vs. Mutual Funds: Tax Treatment
- 54:46 — Estate Planning & Step-Up in Basis
- 1:03:35 — Education Planning & 529 Plans
- 1:10:05 — The Student Loan Crisis
- 1:22:44 — Trump Accounts: A New Savings Vehicle
- 1:27:36 — Charitable Giving Strategies
- 1:33:11 — Discipline, Delayed Gratification & the Margin Mentality
- 1:37:39 — Closing & Contact Info
- 1:38:54 — Disclosure
**Links & Resources:**
Connect w/Dr. Mike:
Connect w/Nicole:
Dr. Bret Christensen is an Army veteran, orthodontist, and one of only five orthodontists in the country board-certified in sleep medicine through the American Sleep & Breathing Academy. He owns and operates Christensen Orthodontics with locations in Lewiston, Grangeville, and Moscow, Idaho. In this emotional and wide-ranging episode, Bret opens up about losing his son, surviving a widow-maker heart attack at 45, undergoing open-heart surgery and getting a pacemaker, all while transforming his practice from traditional extraction-based orthodontics to a data-driven, airway-focused approach.
He shares thousands of patient records showing that skeletal expansion dramatically improves nasal airway volume, his discovery that toddlers as young as two-and-a-half can be treated, and why he believes the AAO is standing in the way of progress. Plus, a surprise visit from his granddaughter Everly - the child who changed everything.
⏱️ Timestamps / Chapters
0:00 — Cold Open
0:13 — Introduction & Guest Bio
2:53 — Farm Kid Roots & Education
7:16 — Military Career & Orthodontics
11:32 — Building a Practice from Scratch
13:48 — The Shift from Extraction to Expansion
17:05 — Discovering Sleep Apnea Through His Father
21:02 — Surviving a Widow-Maker Heart Attack
25:55 — Training in Sleep Apnea & The Rhinometer
31:35 — Meeting Kevin Boyd & Airway Health Solutions
33:38 — Adult Expansion: Schwartz to MARPE
43:12 — Patient Transformations
56:34 — Host's Reflection on the Journey
68:46 — The AAO Pushback & Speaking Out
78:52 — Everly's Story: Treating Toddlers
89:58 — Orthodontists Need to Become Doctors
1:43:59 — Surprise Visit from Everly
1:49:34 — Closing & What's Next
KEY TOPICS: Early orthodontic intervention • MARPE for adults • Rhinometry data on thousands of patients • Nasal volume changes (3-8 cubic centimeters) • Treating children as young as 2-3 years old • The connection between sleep apnea and heart disease • Overcoming professional opposition • The future of orthodontics
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In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Erick Galindo, a pediatrician from Guadalajara, Mexico, whose approach to caring for children has evolved dramatically over his 20+ years in practice. After beginning as a traditional pediatrician focused on sick visits, vaccines, and growth charts, Dr. Galindo's discovery of the importance of tongue ties and oral function launched him down a rabbit hole that fundamentally changed how he sees his patients. Today, he works closely with dentists, orthodontists, myofunctional therapists, chiropractors, and other specialists to understand the whole child from their very first breath.
The conversation covers why standard pediatric screening protocols omit airway and breathing assessments, how the current medical system prevents physicians from spending meaningful diagnostic time with patients, and what a truly comprehensive pediatric consultation looks like - from pregnancy and birth history through craniofacial evaluation, posture analysis, and nervous system regulation.
Dr. Galindo shares powerful patient stories, including a one-month-old with fascial tension and a 12-year-old with chronic bedwetting linked to craniofacial dysfunction, illustrating how early detection and interdisciplinary care can change a child's entire health trajectory. The discussion closes with a deeply personal reflection on what it will take to transform pediatric medicine, not just systemically, but by reconnecting with our shared humanity.
**Timestamps**
0:00 — **Cold Open**
Dr. Galindo highlights how young children are losing interdental space and why snoring is a late-stage sign of airway dysfunction.
0:38 — **Introduction**
Dr. Mike introduces the episode and Dr. Galindo's background, from traditional pediatrics to a holistic, interdisciplinary approach focused on breathing, sleep, and craniofacial development.
3:22 — **Connecting Through Social Media**
How an Instagram connection over a white paper review brought the two doctors together, and the power of social media to educate and empower patients.
5:16 — **From Traditional to Transformational**
Dr. Galindo shares his career journey from conventional pediatric training in Mexico City to a transformative discovery of the importance of tongue ties, oral function, and breathing.
9:43 — **Seeing Patients Differently**
The fear and excitement of learning new things mid-career, how early intervention with infants can prevent cascading dysfunction, and the emotional impact on families when their child's trajectory is changed.
17:42 — **The Pediatric Screening Gap**
Dr. Mike walks through the AAP's recommended well-child screening list and highlights what's glaringly missing.
29:47 — **Breaking Free from the System**
How private practice and opting out of insurance allows Dr. Galindo to spend 45–60 minutes per visit, and why conventional medicine's "prescribe and see what happens" model is losing ground.
40:20 — **Inside the Consultation Room**
A detailed walkthrough of what a first visit looks like.
43:31 — **The Power of Bodywork**
Why Dr. Galindo considers bodyworkers (chiropractors, craniosacral therapists, OTs, PTs) essential collaborators, and how fascial tension, torticollis, and container baby syndrome impact feeding, breathing, and nervous system regulation.
56:50 — **Screen Time & Modern Parenting**
The compounding effects of screen addiction, poor feeding practices, pacifier overuse, and lack of movement on children's neurodevelopment and sleep, and why being healthy has become a privilege.
1:04:24 — **Colleague Pushback & Professional Isolation**
Dr. Galindo's candid account of feeling isolated from his pediatric peers, facing skepticism and ego-driven resistance, and finding kinship instead with dental specialists and bodyworkers.
1:08:10 — **Changing Trajectories: Outcomes & Early Detection**
How treating root causes rather than symptoms leads to children tapering off ADHD medications, and why early detection matters more than chasing outcomes for already-complex cases.
1:16:37 — **Reconnecting with Our Humanity**
Dr. Galindo's deeply personal answer to how we change the system: by reconnecting with what makes us human, trusting our instincts, and finding the inspiration to keep learning and growing.
1:23:17 — **Closing & Contact Info**
Final thoughts and how to connect with Dr. Galindo on Instagram.
1:26:26 — **Outro**
Closing remarks and information on The Doc Podcast resources, CE courses, and community.
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Episode Description:
Join me for an in-depth conversation with sleep medicine specialist and quadruple Board Certified Physician (Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine, Sleep Medicine), Dr. Sima Tahir, as we discuss the critical role that sleep plays in overall health. Dr. Tahir shares her journey from working on the COVID-19 frontlines to opening her own boutique sleep practice in Manhattan, and why she believes sleep should be at the forefront of medical care.
Key Topics Covered:
Why Sleep Medicine Matters
Recognizing Sleep Disorders
The Diagnostic Challenge
The Multidisciplinary Approach
Sleep Quality vs. Quantity
Practical Sleep Hygiene
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In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Louise Oliver, an NHS general practitioner, functional breathing practitioner, and founder of Breath Doc Programs, who discovered the profound impact of dysfunctional breathing after her own struggles with perimenopausal snoring. We dig into why physicians are rarely taught about airway and breathing dysfunction, the biochemistry of over-breathing and "air hunger," and how retraining your CO2 tolerance can be life-changing.
We also explore how daytime breathing habits shape nighttime breathing, why puberty, pregnancy, and menopause reshape airway function, the troubling gaps in sleep apnea research for women, and a nuanced take on mouth taping. It's a wide-ranging conversation that challenges assumptions about one of the most basic things we do every moment of our lives: breathe.
TIMESTAMPS
- 0:00 – Introduction
- 3:47 – Meet Dr. Louise Oliver
- 3:49 – Dr. Oliver's journey to functional breathing
- 9:59 – What actually counts as evidence-based medicine
- 14:04 – Why traditional medicine overlooks breathing dysfunction
- 19:28 – The mechanics of over-breathing and air hunger
- 25:23 – How to retrain your breathing
- 33:28 – How over-breathing affects the whole body
- 38:42 – Breathing and the autonomic nervous system
- 46:16 – Why daytime breathing habits shape nighttime breathing
- 52:51 – Women's health, hormones, and breathing
- 53:38 – Breathing through puberty, pregnancy, and menopause
- 1:14:50 – The gap in women's sleep medicine research
- 1:20:10 – The truth about mouth tape
- 1:25:46 – Closing thoughts and where to find Dr. Oliver
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In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Mark Cruz - general dentist, former assistant director of the UCLA Center for Aesthetic Dentistry, and a pioneer in airway-focused dentistry - for one of the deepest conversations we've had on the show. We get into the medical and dental comorbidities of pediatric sleep-disordered breathing, the ongoing debate over whether malocclusion is driven by genetics or environment, and why I believe orthodontists are uniquely positioned, yet often reluctant, to lead in airway health.
Mark walks me through his personal journey, including the terrifying night his six-year-old son stopped breathing, and how that experience reshaped his entire clinical philosophy. We dig into the evidence (and lack thereof) behind long-held orthodontic dogma, the anthropological data showing just how dramatically our facial skeletons have changed in only 500 years, and the evolutionary story of why our jaws and airways are in crisis today. We close out by tackling the "no evidence" myth head-on, most notably the claim that tooth extraction and tongue space have nothing to do with airway, and Mark breaks down exactly where that argument falls apart.
If you care about early intervention, craniofacial growth and development, or evidence-based practice, get ready to take notes.
**Timestamps:**
- 0:00 — Open
- 0:51 — Meet Dr. Mark Cruz
- 2:15 — Mark's Path to Airway-Focused Dentistry
- 16:57 — Which Dental Specialty Has the Strongest Evidence?
- 17:26 — Why Orthodontics Is Positioned to Lead on Airway
- 18:25 — The Airway as the Keystone of the Face
- 25:24 — The History of Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome
- 27:34 — How Our Facial Skeleton Has Changed in 500 Years
- 35:22 — Rethinking Medical and Dental Education
- 43:46 — The Airway as the Nexus of Health
- 56:07 — Why Is This So Common? The Anthropology of Malocclusion
- 61:32 — The Evolutionary Story: From Hunter-Gatherers to Modern Jaws
- 70:15 — Debunking the "No Evidence" Myth on Extractions and Tongue Space
- 79:03 — Closing Thoughts
- 81:53 — Outro and How to Reach Dr. Cruz
Know someone who'd make a great guest, or want to be one yourself? Email me at [email protected], and don't forget to join The Doc Community on Facebook. Thanks for listening, and remember, you've been blessed with the ability to do amazing things.
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In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Funke Afolabi Brown, a triple board-certified sleep physician, founder of Restful Sleep MD, and best-selling author. We go way beyond the basics of sleep, exploring what "good sleep" actually means, why sleep medicine gets so little attention in physician and dental training, and why that has to change.
Dr. Brown and I dig into the full spectrum of sleep-disordered breathing (it's so much more than just obstructive sleep apnea), the strengths and serious limitations of polysomnography versus home sleep testing, and why relying only on the AHI can cause us to miss patients who are genuinely struggling. We also spend a lot of time on the far-reaching effects of poor sleep in kids - behavior, learning, emotional regulation, and how sleep issues so often masquerade as ADHD.
We talk candidly about why snoring and chronic mouth breathing should never be treated as "no big deal," why interdisciplinary collaboration between sleep physicians, pediatricians, ENTs, dentists, orthodontists, and myofunctional therapists is essential, and why I'm genuinely optimistic about where sleep medicine is headed.
TIMESTAMPS
If you found this conversation valuable, please share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, follow DOC Podcast on Instagram, and subscribe to the channel on YouTube so you never miss an episode.
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In this episode, I sit down again with Christine Vento Conway, Senior Vice President at Inland Securities, to dig into the real estate side of building generational wealth. We pick up where we left off with her family, this time focusing specifically on how real estate's tax advantages (1031 exchanges, DSTs, depreciation, and Qualified Opportunity Zones) can help investors defer, reduce, and even eliminate capital gains taxes.
Christine breaks down the numbers, walks through real timelines and rules, and we compare these strategies to REITs so you know exactly which tool fits your situation. Whether you're a seasoned real estate investor or just getting started, this conversation will give you a clear framework for thinking about real estate as a tax strategy, not just an asset class.
TIMESTAMPS
If this conversation gave you a new way of thinking about real estate, please don't keep it to yourself. Send this episode to your financial advisor or CPA, since many of them aren't familiar with DSTs. Pick up a copy of *The Generational Wealth Code* to go even deeper, and if you want to explore these strategies for your own portfolio, reach out to Christine directly at [email protected]. And if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could benefit from a smarter approach to real estate and taxes.
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