Podcasts about pankey institute

Let's be honest – the occlusion after Aligner cases can be a little ‘off' (even after fixed appliances!) How do you know if your patient's occlusion after aligner treatment is acceptable or risky? What practical guidelines can general dentists follow to manage occlusion when orthodontic results aren't textbook-perfect? Jaz and Dr. Jesper Hatt explore the most common challenges dentists face, from ClinCheck errors and digital setup pitfalls to balancing aesthetics with functional occlusion. They also discuss key strategies to help you evaluate, guide, and optimize occlusion in your patients, because understanding what is acceptable and what needs intervention can make all the difference in long-term treatment stability and patient satisfaction. https://youtu.be/e74lUbyTCaA Watch PDP250 on YouTube Protrusive Dental Pearl: Harmony and Occlusal Compatibility Always ensure restorative anatomy suits the patient's natural occlusal scheme and age-related wear. If opposing teeth are flat and amalgam-filled, polished cuspal anatomy will be incompatible — flatten as needed to conform. Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! Key Takeaways Common mistakes in ClinCheck planning often stem from occlusion issues. Effective communication and documentation are crucial in clinical support. Occlusion must be set correctly to ensure successful treatment outcomes. Understanding the patient’s profile is essential for effective orthodontics. Collaboration between GPs and orthodontists can enhance patient care. Retention of orthodontic results is a lifelong commitment. Aesthetic goals must align with functional occlusion in treatment planning. Informed consent is critical when discussing potential surgical interventions. The tongue plays a crucial role in orthodontic outcomes. Spacing cases should often be approached as restorative cases. Aligners can achieve precise spacing more effectively than fixed appliances. Enamel adjustments may be necessary for optimal occlusion post-treatment. Retention strategies must be tailored to individual patient needs. Case assessment is vital for determining treatment complexity. Highlights of this episode: 00:00 Teaser 00:59 Intro 02:53  Pearl – Harmony and Occlusal Compatibility 05:57 Dr. Jesper Hatt Introduction 07:34 Clinical Support Systems 10:18 Occlusion and Aligner Therapy 20:41 Bite Recording Considerations 25:32 Collaborative Approach in Orthodontics 30:31 Occlusal Goals vs. Aesthetic Goals 31:42 Midroll 35:03 Occlusal Goals vs. Aesthetic Goals 35:25 Challenges with Spacing Cases 42:19 Occlusion Checkpoints After Aligners 50:17 Considerations for Retention 54:55 Case Assessment and Treatment Planning 58:14 Key Lessons and Final Thoughts 01:00:19 Interconnectedness of Body and Teeth 01:02:48 Resources for Dentists and Case Support 01:04:40 Outro Free Aligner Case Support!Send your patient's case number and get a full assessment in 24 hours—easy, moderate, complex, or referral. Plus, access our 52-point planning protocol and 2-min photo course. No uploads, no cost. [Get Free Access Now] Learn more at alignerservice.com If you enjoyed this episode, don't miss: Do's and Don'ts of Aligners [STRAIGHTPRIL] – PDP071 #PDPMainEpisodes #OcclusionTMDandSplints #OrthoRestorative This episode is eligible for 1 CE credit via the quiz on Protrusive Guidance. This episode meets GDC Outcomes A and C. AGD Subject Code: 370 ORTHODONTICS (Functional orthodontic therapy) Aim: To provide general dentists with practical guidance for managing occlusion in aligner therapy, from bite capture to retention, including common pitfalls, functional considerations, and case selection. Dentists will be able to – Identify common errors in digital bite capture and occlusion setup. Understand the impact of anterior inclination and mandibular movement patterns on occlusal stability. Plan retention strategies appropriate for aligner and restorative cases. Click below for full episode transcript: Teaser: The one thing that we always check initially is the occlusion set correct by the aligner company. Because if the occlusion is not set correctly, everything else just doesn't matter because the teeth will move, but into a wrong position because the occlusion is off from the beginning. I don't know about you, but if half the orthodontists are afraid of controlling the root movements in extraction cases, as a GP, I would be terrified. Teaser:I don’t care if you just move from premolar to premolar or all the teeth. Orthodontics is orthodontics, so you will affect all the teeth during the treatment. The question’s just how much. Imagine going to a football stadium. The orthodontist will be able to find the football stadium.  If it’s a reasonable orthodontist, he’ll be able to find the section you’re going to sit in, and if he’s really, really, really good, he will be able to find the row that you’re going to sit in, but the exact spot where you are going to sit… he will never, ever be able to find that with orthodontics. Jaz’s Introduction: Hello, Protruserati. I’m Jaz Gulati. Welcome back to your favorite dental podcast. I’m joined today by our guest, Dr. Jesper Hatt. All this dentist does is help other dentists with their treatment plans for aligners. From speaking to him, I gather that he’s no longer practicing clinically and is full-time clinical support for colleagues for their aligner cases. So there’s a lot we can learn from someone who day in day out has to do so much treatment planning and speaking to GDPs about their cases, how they’re tracking, how they’re not tracking, complications, and then years of seeing again, okay, how well did that first set of aligners actually perform? What is predictable and what isn’t? And as well as asking what are the most common errors we make on our ClinChecks or treatment plan softwares. I really wanted to probe in further. I really want to ask him about clinical guidelines for occlusion after ortho. Sometimes we treat a case and whilst the aesthetics of that aligner case is beautiful, the occlusion is sometimes not as good. So let’s talk about what that actually means. What is a not-good occlusion? What is a good occlusion? And just to offer some guidelines for practitioners to follow because guess what? No orthodontist in the world is gonna ever get the occlusion correct through ortho. Therefore, we as GPs are never gonna get a perfect textbook occlusion, but we need to understand what is acceptable and what is a good guideline to follow. That’s exactly what we’ll present to you in this episode today. Dental PearlNow, this is a CE slash CPD eligible episode and as our main PDP episode, I’ll give you a Protrusive Dental Pearl. Today’s pearl is very much relevant to the theme of orthodontics and occlusion we’re discussing today, and it’s probably a pearl I’ve given to you already in the past somewhere down the line, but it’s so important and so key. I really want to just emphasize on it again. In fact, a colleague messaged me recently and it reminded me of this concept I’m about to explain. She sent me an image of a resin bonded bridge she did, which had failed. It was a lower incisor, and just a few days after bonding, it failed. And so this dentist is feeling a bit embarrassed and wanted my advice. Now, by the way, guys, if you message me for advice on Instagram, on Facebook, or something like that, it’s very hit and miss. Like my priorities in life are family, health, and everything that happens on Protrusive Guidance. Our network. If you message me outside that network, I may not see it. The team might, but I may not see it. It’s the only way that I can really maintain control and calm in my life. The reason for saying this, I don’t want anyone to be offended. I’m not ignoring anyone. It’s just the volume of messages I get year on year, they’re astronomical. And I don’t mind if you nudge me. If you messaged me something weeks or months ago and I haven’t replied, I probably haven’t seen it. Please do nudge me. And the best place to catch me on is Protrusive Guidance. If you DM me on Protrusive Guidance, home of the nicest and geekiest dentists in the world, that’s the only platform I will log in daily. That’s our baby, our community. Anyway, so I caught this Facebook message and it was up to me to help this colleague. And one observation I made is that the lower teeth were all worn. The upper teeth were really worn, but this resin bonded bridge pontic, it just looked like a perfect tooth. The patient was something like 77 or 80. So it really made me think that, okay, why are we putting something that looks like a 25-year-old’s tooth in a 77-year-old? But even forgetting age and stuff, you have to look at the adjacent teeth in the arch. Is your restoration harmonious with the other teeth in the arch, and of course is the restoration harmonious with what’s opposing it? Because it’s just not compatible. So part one of this pearl is make sure any restoration you do, whether it’s direct or indirect, is harmonious with the patient’s arch and with the opposing teeth and with their occlusal scheme. Because otherwise, if you get rubber dam on and you give your 75-year-old patient beautiful composite resin, it’s got all that cuspal fissure pattern and anatomy, and you take that rubber dam off and you notice that all the other teeth are flat and the opposing teeth are flat amalgams, guess what? You’re gonna be making your composite flat, whether you like it or not. You created a restoration that’s proud, right? That’s why you did not conform to the patient’s own arch or existing anatomical scheme. So the part B of this is the thing that I get very excited to talk about, right? So sometimes you have a worn dentition, but then you have one tooth that’s not worn at all. It’s like that in-standing lateral incisor, right? Think of an upper lateral incisor that’s a bit in-standing, and you see some wear on all the incisors, but that lateral incisor does not have any wear in it because it was never in the firing line. It was never in function. It was never in parafunction. Now, if you give this patient aligners or fixed appliances, you’re doing ortho and you’re now going to align this lateral incisor. So it’s now gonna eventually get into occlusion and it will be in the functional and parafunctional pathways of this patient. Do you really think you can just leave that incisor be? No. It’s not gonna be compatible with the adjacent teeth. It’s not going to be compatible with the opposing tooth and the occlusal scheme. So guess what? You have to get your bur out or your Sof-Lex disc out, and you have to bake in some years into that tooth. Or you have to build up all the other teeth if appropriate for that patient. You’ve just gotta think about it. And I hope that makes sense so you can stay out of trouble. You’re not gonna get chipping and you can consent your patient appropriately for enamel adjustment, which is something that we do talk about in this episode. I think you’re in for an absolute cracker. I hope you enjoy. I’ll catch you in the outro. Main Episode: Doctor Jesper Hatt, thank you so much for coming to Protrusive Dental Podcast. We met in Scandinavia, in Copenhagen. You delivered this wonderful lecture and it was so nice to connect with you then and to finally have you on the show. Tell us, how are you, where in the world are you, and tell us about yourself. [Jesper] Well, thank you for the invitation, first of all. Well, I’m a dentist. I used to practice in Denmark since I originally come from Denmark. My mother’s from Germany, and now I live in Switzerland and have stopped practicing dentistry since 2018. Now I only do consulting work and I help doctors around the world with making their aligner business successful. [Jaz] And this is like probably clinical advice, but also like strategic advice and positioning and that kinda stuff. Probably the whole shebang, right? [Jesper] Yeah. I mean, I have a team around me, so my wife’s a dentist as well, and I would say she’s the expert in Europe on clear aligners. She’s been working for, first of all, our practice. She’s a dentist too. She worked with me in the practice. We practiced together for 10 years. Then she became a clinical advisor for Allion Tech with responsibility for clinical support of Scandinavia. She was headhunted to ClearCorrect, worked in Basel while I was doing more and more consulting stuff in Denmark. So she was traveling back and forth, and I considered this to be a little bit challenging for our family. So I asked her, well, why don’t we just relocate to Switzerland since ClearCorrect is located there? And sure we did. And after two years she told me, I think clinical support, it’s okay. And I like to train the teams, but I’d really like to do more than that because she found out that doctors, they were able to book a spot sometime in the future, let’s say two weeks out in the future at a time that suited the doctors… no, not the doctors, ClearCorrect. Or Invisalign or whatever clear aligner company you use. So as a doctor, you’re able to block the spot and at that time you can have your 30 minutes one-on-one online with a clinical expert. And she said it’s always between the patients or administrative stuff. So they’re not really focused on their ClearCorrect or clear aligner patient. And so they forget half of what I tell them. I can see it in the setups they do. They end up having to call me again. It doesn’t work like that. I would like to help them. [Jaz] It’s a clunky pathway of mentorship. [Jesper] Yes. And so she wanted to change the way clinical support was built up. So we do it differently. We do it only in writing so people can remember what we are telling them. They can always go back in the note and see what’s been going on, what was the advice we gave them, and we offer this co-creation support where we take over most of the treatment planning of the ClearCorrect or Clear Aligner or Spark or Invisalign or Angel Aligner treatment planning. So we do all the digital planning for the doctor, deliver what we think would be right for the patient based on the feedback we initially got from the doctor. And then the doctor can come back and say, well, I’d like a little more space for some crowns in the front, or I would like the canines to be in a better position in order to achieve immediate post disclusion. And so we can go into this discussion back and forth and adjust the digital setup in a way that is more realistic and predictable and do it all for the doctors. So they, on an average, they spend four to six hours less chair time when they use that kind of service compared to if they do everything themselves. And on top of that, you can put your planning time. She was responsible for that and it works quite well. I still remember when we initially got on all these online calls and we would see fireworks in the background and confetti coming down from the top and all of that. [Jaz] Exactly. So excuse that little bit, but okay. So essentially what you’re doing is, for an aligner user myself, for example, you’re doing the ClinChecks, you are helping, supporting with the ClinChecks, the planning. And I’ve got a lot of questions about that. The first question I’ll start with, which is off the script, but there’s probably a hundred different mistakes that could happen in a ClinCheck, right? But what is the most repeatable, predictable, common mistake that you’ll see when a new user sends a case to you to help them with their planning? What’s the most common mistake that you will see in a setup? [Jesper] Two things, actually. The one thing that we always check initially is the occlusion set correct by the aligner company. Because if the occlusion is not set correctly, everything else just doesn’t matter because the teeth will move but into a wrong position because the occlusion is off from the beginning. And so we always check that as the first part. How does this— [Jaz] So let’s talk about that ’cause that might be confusing for a younger colleague because they’re like, hey, hang on a minute. I scanned the bite left and right. What do you mean the occlusion is wrong? Because surely that gets carried through into what I see on the ClinCheck. So what do you think is the mechanism for this to happen? [Jesper] Two different reasons. I’m from a time when I graduated in 2003, so that was before digital dentistry. So when I went to the Pankey Institute and learned everything about functional occlusion and all of that stuff, I also found out that most of my patients, when I put silicone impression material between the teeth and asked the patients to bite together, they would always protrude a little bit unless I instructed them to bite hard on the posterior teeth. And when we got the scanners, when we put a scanner into the cheek and pull the cheek, most patients, when we asked them to bite together to do the intraoral scan of the bite, they also protruded a little bit, not much, but enough to set the bite wrong. So that is the one challenge when the technicians of the aligner companies put the models together. The other challenge is that some of the aligner companies, they let the technicians set the models. We always, as the first thing when we see a case, we always look at the photos, the clinical photos. And that’s why the clinical photos have to be of great quality. So we look at the clinical photos of the patient— [Jaz] And also in those clinical photos, Jesper, you have to coach them correctly to bite. You have to notice if they’re biting wrong even in the photos ’cause then it just duplicates the error. And that’s why good photography and actually being able to coach the patient is so imperative. [Jesper] Yes, that’s correct. But we compare the two and usually if we see a difference, we ask the doctor, is what we see in the photo correct, or is what we see on the digital models correct? And because we don’t like differences. So that would be the first step to look for. And what’s the second? The second thing is that when you look at the setup, the anterior teeth are usually—I’m trying to show you—the anterior teeth are very, very steep. Typically with aligners it’s a lot easier to tip the crowns. So when you have a class II patient, deviation one, where the anteriors are in a forward position, proclined, and you have a lot of space between the anteriors of the maxilla and the mandible, then the easiest thing on a digital setup is to just retrocline the anteriors of the upper to make them fit the lowers, which you could then procline a little bit, but usually you have very steep relationships between the two and this— [Jaz] So you’re more likely to restrict the envelope of function, functional interference anteriorly. You are obviously reducing the overjet, but you may end up reducing like a wall contact rather than an elegant, more open gate. [Jesper] Yes. And there’s another dimension to this because when we work with orthodontics, one of the most important things to look for is actually the profile of the patient. Because let’s say I’m trying to illustrate this now, so I hope you get a 90— [Jaz] So describe it for our audio listeners as well. So we’re looking at a profile view of Jesper. [Jesper] Yes. So I’m turning the side to the camera. I hope you can see my profile here. So let’s say I had flared anterior maxillary teeth and I wanted to retrocline them. It would have an effect on my upper lip, so the lip would fall backwards if I just retrocline everything. And every millimeter we move the anteriors in the maxilla in a posterior direction, we will have a potential lip drop of three millimeters. In addition, if we don’t get the nasolabial angulation correct, we risk the lower face will simply disappear in the face of the patient. So soft tissue plays a role here, so we cannot just retrocline the teeth. It looks great on the computer screen, but when it comes to reality, we’ll have a functional challenge. We’ll have a soft tissue support challenge, and in addition we’ll have long-term retention challenges as well. Because when you have a steep inclination, the anterior teeth in the mandible, they don’t have any kind of support. They will not be stopped by anything in the maxillary teeth, which you would if you had the right inclination between the teeth, which would be about 120 degrees. So why do aligner companies always set the teeth straight up and down in the anterior part? We wondered about this for years. We don’t have a strict answer. We don’t know exactly why it’s like this, but I have a hunch. I think there are two things to it. First of all, the easiest thing to do with aligners is to move the crown, so we can just tip the teeth. You take them back, you make a lot of IPR, and then you just tip them so they’re retroclined. Secondly, all aligner companies, they come from the United States. And in the United States there is a higher representation of class III patients. Now why is that important? All our patients can be put into two different categories in regards to how they move their mandible. They are the crocodiles that only open and close, like move up and down, and then we have the cows. And then we have the cows that move the mandible around, or the camels. I mean, every camel, if you’ve seen a camel chew, it’s just moving from side to side. [Jaz] Horses as well. Horses as well. [Jesper] They kind of do that. [Jaz] But I’m glad you didn’t say rats ’cause it’s more elegant to be a crocodile than a rat. [Jesper] Exactly. And I usually say we only tell the crocodiles. So why is this a challenge and why isn’t it a challenge with class III patients? Well, all real class III patients act like crocodiles, so they don’t move them side to side. From a functional perspective, it’s really not a problem having steep anterior inclination or steep relationships as long as you have a stable stop where the anteriors—so the anteriors will not elongate and create the red effect. So they just elongate until they hit the palate. If you can make a stop in the anterior part of the occlusion, then you’ll have some kind of stability with the class III patients. But with class II patients, we see a lot more cows. So they move the mandible from side to side and anterior and back and forth and all… they have the mandible going all kinds of places. And when they do that, we need some kind of anterior guidance to guide the mandible. I usually say the upper jaw creates the framework in which the mandible will move. So if the framework is too small, we fight the muscles. And whenever we fight the muscles, we lose because muscles always win. It doesn’t matter if it’s teeth, if it’s bone, if it’s joints, they all lose if they fight the muscles— [Jaz] As Peter Dawson would say, in the war between teeth and muscles or any system and muscles, the muscles always win. Absolutely. And the other analogy you remind me of is the maxilla being like a garage or “garage” from UK, like a garage. And the mandible being like the car, and if you’re really constrained, you’re gonna crash in and you’re gonna… everything will be in tatters. So that’s another great way to think about it. Okay. That’s very, very helpful. I’m gonna—’cause there’s so much I wanna cover. And I think you’ve really summed up nicely. But one thing just to finish on this aspect of that common mistake being that the upper anteriors are retroclined, really what you’re trying to say is we need to be looking at other modalities, other movements. So I’m thinking you’re saying extraction, if it’s suitable for the face, or distalisation. Are you thinking like that rather than the easier thing for the aligners, which is the retrocline. Am I going about it the right way? [Jesper] Depends on the patient. [Jaz] Of course. [Jesper] Rule of thumb: if you’re a GP, don’t ever touch extraction cases. Rule of thumb. Why? Because it is extremely challenging to move teeth parallel. So you will most—especially with aligners—I mean, I talk with a very respected orthodontist once and I asked him, well, what do you think about GPs treating extraction cases where they extract, you know, two premolars in the maxilla? And he said, well, I don’t know how to answer this. Let me just explain to you: half of my orthodontist colleagues, they are afraid of extraction cases. And I asked them why. Because it’s so hard to control the root movement. Now, I don’t know about you— [Jaz] With aligners. We’re specifically talking about aligners here, right? [Jesper] With all kinds of orthodontic appliances. [Jaz] Thank you. [Jesper] So now, I don’t know about you, but if half the orthodontists are afraid of controlling the root movements in extraction cases, as a GP, I would be terrified. And I am a GP. So I usually say, yeah, sometimes you will have so much crowding and so little space in the mandible, so there’s an incisor that is almost popped out by itself. In those cases, yes. Then you can do an extraction case. But when we’re talking about premolars that are going to be extracted, or if you want to close the space in the posterior part by translating a tooth into that open space, don’t. It’s just the easiest way to end up in a disaster because the only thing you’ll see is just teeth that tip into that space, and you’ll have a really hard time controlling the root movements, getting them corrected again. [Jaz] Well, thank you for offering that guideline. I think that’s very sage advice for those GPs doing aligners, to stay in your lane and just be… the best thing about being a GP, Jesper, is you get to cherry pick, right? There’s so many bad things about being a GP. Like you literally have to be kinda like a micro-specialist in everything in a way. And so sometimes it’s good to be like, you know what, I’ll keep this and I’ll send this out. And being selective and case selection is the crux of everything. So I’m really glad you mentioned that. I mean, we talked and touched already on so much occlusion. The next question I’m gonna ask you then is, like you said, a common error is the bite and how the bite appears on the ClinCheck or whichever software a dentist is using. Now, related to bite, vast majority of orthodontic cases are treated in the patient’s existing habitual occlusion, their maximum intercuspal position. Early on in my aligner journey, I had a patient who had an anterior crossbite. And because of that anterior crossbite, their jaw deviated. It was a displaced—the lower jaw displaced. And then I learned from that, that actually for that instance, perhaps I should not have used an MIP scan. I should have used more like centric relation or first point of contact scan before the displacement of the jaw happens. So that was like always in my mind. Sometimes we can and should be using an alternative TMJ position or a bite reference other than MIP. Firstly, what do you think about that kind of scenario and are there any other scenarios which you would suggest that we should not be using the patient’s habitual occlusion for their bite scan for planning orthodontics? [Jesper] Well, I mentioned that I was trained at the Pankey Institute, and when you start out right after—I mean, I spent 400 hours over there. Initially, I thought I was a little bit brainwashed by that because I thought every single patient should be in centric relation. Now, after having put more than 600 patients on the bite appliance first before I did anything, I started to see some patterns. And so today, I would say it’s not all patients that I would get into centric relation before I start treating the teeth. But when we talk about aligner therapy and orthodontic treatment, I think it’s beneficial if you can see the signs for those patients where you would say, hmm, something in the occlusion here could be a little bit risky. So let’s say there are wear facets on the molars. That will always trigger a red flag in my head. Let’s say there are crossbites or bite positions that kind of lock in the teeth. We talked about class III patients before, and I said if it’s a real skeletal-deviation class III patient, it’s a crocodile. But sometimes patients are not real class III skeletal deviation patients. They’re simply being forced into a class III due to the occlusion. That’s where the teeth fit together. So once you put aligners between the teeth and plastic covers the surfaces, suddenly the patients are able to move the jaws more freely and then they start to seat into centric. That may be okay. Usually it is okay. The challenge is consequences. So when you’re a GP and you suddenly see a patient moving to centric relation and you find out, whoa, on a horizontal level there’s a four- to six-millimeter difference between the initial starting point and where we are now, and maybe we create an eight-millimeter open bite in the anterior as well because they simply seat that much. And I mean, we have seen it. So is this a disaster? Well, it depends. If you have informed the patient well enough initially and said, well, you might have a lower jaw that moves into a different position when we start out, and if this new position is really, really off compared to where you are right now, you might end up needing maxillofacial surgery, then the patient’s prepared. But if they’re not prepared and you suddenly have to tell them, you know, I think we might need maxillofacial surgery… I can come up with a lot of patients in my head that would say, hey doctor, that was not part of my plan. And they will be really disappointed. And at that point there’s no turning back, so you can’t reverse. So I think if you are unsure, then you are sure. Then you should use some kind of deprogramming device or figure out where is centric relation on this patient. If there isn’t that much of a difference between maximum intercuspation and centric— [Jesper] Relation, I don’t care. Because once you start moving the teeth, I don’t care if you just move from premolar to premolar or all the teeth. Orthodontics is orthodontics, so you will affect all the teeth during the treatment. The question’s just how much. And sometimes it’s just by putting plastic between the teeth that you will see a change, not in the tooth position, but in the mandibular position. And I just think it’s nicer to know a little bit where this is going before you start. And the more you see of this—I mean, as I mentioned, after 600 bite appliances in the mouths of my patients, I started to see patterns. And sometimes in the end, after 20 years of practicing, I started to say, let’s just start, see where this ends. But I would always inform the patients: if it goes totally out of control, we might end up needing surgery, and there’s no way to avoid it if that happens. And if the patients were okay with that, we’d just start out. Because I mean, is it bad? No. I just start the orthodontic treatment and I set the teeth as they should be in the right framework. Sometimes the upper and the lower jaw don’t fit together. Well, send them to the surgeon and they will move either the upper or the lower jaw into the right position, and then we have it. No harm is done because we have done the initial work that the orthodontist would do. But I will say when I had these surgical patients—let’s say we just started out with aligners and we figured, I can’t control this enough. I need a surgeon to look at this—then I would send them off to an orthodontist, and the orthodontist and the surgeon would take over. Because then—I mean, surgical patients and kids—that’s the second group of patients besides the extraction cases that I would not treat as a GP. ‘Cause we simply don’t know enough about how to affect growth on kids. And when it comes to surgery, there’s so much that is… so much knowledge that we need to know and the collaboration with the surgeons that we’re not trained to handle. So I think that should be handled by the orthodontists as well. [Jaz] I think collaborative cases like that are definitely specialist in nature, and I think that’s a really good point. I think the point there was informed consent. The mistake is you don’t warn the patient or you do not do the correct screening. So again, I always encourage my guests—so Jesper, you included—that we may disagree, and that’s okay. That’s the beauty of dentistry. So something that I look for is: if the patient has a stable and repeatable maximum intercuspal position, things lock very well, and there’s a minimal slide—like I use my leaf gauge and the CR-CP is like a small number of leaves and the jaw hardly moves a little bit—then there’s no point of uncoupling them, removing that nice posterior coupling that they have just to chase this elusive joint position. Then you have to do so many more teeth. But when we have a breakdown in the system, which you kind of said, if there’s wear as one aspect, or we think that, okay, this patient’s occlusion is not really working for them, then we have an opportunity to do full-mouth rehabilitation in enamel. Because that’s what orthodontics is. And so that’s a point to consider. So I would encourage our GP colleagues to look at the case, look at the patient in front of you, and decide: is this a stable, repeatable occlusion that you would like to use as a baseline, or is there something wrong? Then consider referring out or considering—if you’re more advanced in occlusion studies—using an alternative position, not the patient’s own bite as a reference. So anything you wanna add to that or disagree with in that monologue I just said there? [Jesper] No, I think there’s one thing I’d like the listeners to consider. I see a lot of fighting between orthodontists and GPs, and I think it should be a collaboration instead. There’s a lot of orthodontists that are afraid of GPs taking over more and more aligner treatments, and they see a huge increase in the amount of cases that go wrong. Well, there’s a huge increase of patients being treated, so there will be more patients, just statistically, that will get into problems. Now, if the orthodontist is smart—in my opinion, that’s my opinion—they reach out to all their referring doctors and they tell them, look, come in. I will teach you which cases you can start with and which you should refer. Let’s start there. Start your aligner treatments. Start out, try stuff. I will be there to help you if you run into problems. So whenever you see a challenge, whenever there’s a problem, send the patient over to me and I’ll take over. But I will be there to help you if anything goes wrong. Now, the reason this is really, really a great business advice for the orthodontists is because once you teach the GPs around you to look for deviations from the normal, which would be the indication for orthodontics, the doctors start to diagnose and see a lot more patients needing orthodontics and prescribe it to the patients, or at least propose it to the patients. Which would initially not do much more than just increase the amount of aligner treatments. But over time, I tell you, all the orthodontists doing this, they are drowning in work. So I mean, they will literally be overflown by patients being referred by all the doctors, because suddenly all the other doctors around them start to diagnose orthodontically. They see the patients which they haven’t seen before. So I think this is—from a business perspective—a really, really great thing for the orthodontists to have a collaboration with this. And it’ll also help the GPs to feel more secure when they start treating their patients. And in the end, that will lead to more patients getting the right treatment they deserve. And I think that is the core. That is what’s so important for us to remember. That’s what we’re here for. I mean, yes, it’s nice to make money. We have to live. It’s nice with a great business, but what all dentists I know of are really striving for is to treat their patients to the best of their ability. And this helps them to do that. [Jaz] Ultimate benefactor of this collaborative approach is the patient. And I love that you said that. I think I want all orthodontists to listen to that soundbite and take it on board and be willing to help. Most of them I know are lovely orthodontists and they’re helping to teach their GPs and help them and in return they get lots of referrals. And I think that’s the best way to go. Let’s talk a little bit about occlusal goals we look for at the end of orthodontics. This is an interesting topic. I’m gonna start by saying that just two days ago I got a DM from one of the Protruserati, his name is Keith Curry—shout out to him on Instagram—and he just sent me a little message: “Jaz, do you sometimes find that when you’re doing alignment as a GP that it’s conflicting the orthodontic, the occlusal goal you’re trying to get?” And I knew what I was getting to. It’s that scenario whereby you have the kind of class II division 2, right? But they have anterior guidance. Now you align everything, okay, and now you completely lost anterior guidance. And so the way I told him is that, you know what, yes, this is happening all the time. Are we potentially at war between an aesthetic smile and a functional occlusion? And sometimes there’s a compromise. Sometimes you can have both. But that—to achieve both—needs either a specialist set of eyes or lots of auxiliary techniques or a lot more time than what GPs usually give for their cases. So first let’s touch on that. Do you also agree that sometimes there is a war between what will be aesthetic and what will be a nice functional occlusion? And then we’ll actually talk about, okay, what are some of the guidelines that we look for at the end of completing an aligner case? [Jesper] Great question and great observation. I would say I don’t think there’s a conflict because what I’ve learned is form follows function. So if you get the function right, aesthetics will always be great. Almost always. I mean, we have those crazy-shaped faces sometimes, but… so form follows function. The challenge here is that in adult patients, we cannot manipulate growth. So a skeletal deviation is a skeletal deviation, which means if we have a class II patient, it’s most likely that that patient has a skeletal deviation. I rarely see a dental deviation. It happens, but it’s really, really rare. So that means that in principle, all our class II and chronic class III patients are surgical patients. However, does that mean that we should treat all our class II and class III patients surgically? No, I don’t think so. But we have to consider that they are all compromise cases. So we need to figure a compromise. So initially, when I started out with my occlusal knowledge, I have to admit, I didn’t do the orthodontic treatment planning. I did it with Heller, and she would give me feedback and tell me, I think this is doable and this is probably a little bit challenging. If we do this instead, we can keep the teeth within the bony frame. We can keep them in a good occlusion. Then I would say, well, you have a flat curve of Spee. I’d like to have a little bit of curve. It’s called a curve of Spee and not the orthodontic flat curve of Spee. And then we would have a discussion back and forth about that. Then initially I would always want anterior coupling where the anterior teeth would touch each other. I have actually changed that concept in my mind and accepted the orthodontic way of thinking because most orthodontists will leave a little space in the anterior. So when you end the orthodontic treatment, you almost always have a little bit of space between the anterior teeth so they don’t touch each other. Why? Because no matter what, no matter how you retain the patient after treatment, there will still be some sort of relapse. And we don’t know where it’ll come or how, but it will come. Because the teeth will always be positioned in a balance between the push from the tongue and from the cheeks and the muscles surrounding the teeth. And that’s a dynamic that changes over the years. So I don’t see retention as a one- or two-year thing. It’s a lifelong thing. And the surrounding tissues will change the pressure and thereby the balance between the tongue and the cheeks and where the teeth would naturally settle into position. Now, that said, as I mentioned initially, if we fight the muscles, we’ll lose. So let’s say we have an anterior open bite. That will always create a tongue habit where the patient positions the tongue in the anterior teeth when they swallow because if they don’t, food and drink will just be splashed out between the teeth. They can’t swallow. It will just be pushed out of the mouth. [Jaz] So is that not like a secondary thing? Like that tongue habit is secondary to the AOB? So in those cases, if you correct the anterior open bite, theoretically should that tongue posture not self-correct? [Jesper] Well, we would like to think so, but it’s not always the case. And there’s several reasons to it. Because why are the teeth in the position? Is it because of the tongue or because of the tooth position? Now, spacing cases is one of those cases where you can really illustrate it really well. It looks really easy to treat these patients. If we take away all the soft tissue considerations on the profile photo, I mean, you can just retract the teeth and you close all the spaces—super easy. Tipping movements. It’s super easy orthodontically to move quickly. Very easy as well. However, you restrict the tongue and now we have a retention problem. So there are three things that can happen. You can bond a retainer on the lingual side or the palatal side of the teeth, upper, lower—just bond everything together—and after three months, you will have a diastema distal to the bonded retainer because the tongue simply pushes all the teeth in an anterior direction. [Jaz] I’ve also seen—and you’ve probably seen this as well—the patient’s tongue being so strong in these exact scenarios where the multiple spacing has been closed, which probably should have been a restorative plan rather than orthodontic plan, and the retainer wire snaps in half. [Jesper] Yes, from the tongue. [Jaz] That always fascinated me. [Jesper] Well, you’ll see debonding all the time, even though you sandblast and you follow all the bonding protocol. And debonding, breaking wires, diastemas in places where you think, how is that even possible? Or—and this is the worst part—or you induce sleep apnea on these patients because you simply restrict the space for the tongue. So they start snoring, and then they have a total different set of health issues afterwards. So spacing—I mean, this just illustrates the power of the tongue and why we should always be careful with spacing cases. I mean, spacing cases, in my opinion, are always to be considered ortho-restorative cases. Or you can consider, do you want to leave some space distal to the canines? Because there you can create an optical illusion with composites. Or do you want to distribute space equally between the teeth and place veneers or crowns or whatever. And this is one of those cases where I’d say aligners are just fabulous compared to fixed appliances. Because if you go to an orthodontist only using fixed appliances and you tell that orthodontist, please redistribute space in the anterior part of the maxilla and I want exactly 1.2 millimeters between every single tooth in the anterior segment, six years later he’s still not reached that goal because it just moves back and forth. Put aligners on: three months later, you have exactly—and I mean exactly—1.2 millimeters of space between each and every single tooth. When it comes to intrusion and extrusion, I would probably consider using fixed appliances rather than aligners if it’s more than three millimeters. So every orthodontic system—and aligners are just an orthodontic system—each system has its pros and cons, and we just have to consider which system is right for this patient that I have in my chair. But back to the tongue issue. What should we do? I mean, yes, there are two different schools. So if you have, let’s say, a tongue habit that needs to be treated, there are those that say we need to get rid of the tongue habit before we start to correct the teeth. And then there are those that say that doesn’t really work because there’s no room for the tongue. So we need to create room for the tongue first and then train the patient to stop the habit. Both schools and both philosophies are being followed out there. I have my preferred philosophy, but I will let the listener start to think about what they believe and follow their philosophy. Because there is nothing here that is right or wrong. And that is— [Jaz] I think the right answer, Jesper, is probably speak to that local orthodontist who’s gonna be helping you out and whatever they recommend—their religion—follow that one. Because then at least you have something to defend yourself. Like okay, I followed the way you said. Let’s fix it together now. [Jesper] That’s a great one. Yeah, exactly. [Jaz] Okay, well just touching up on the occlusion then, sometimes we do get left with like suboptimal occlusions. But to be able to define a suboptimal occlusion… let’s wrap this occlusion element up. When we are completing an orthodontic case—let’s talk aligners specifically—when the aligners come off and the fixed retainers come on, for example, and the patient’s now in retention, what are some of the occlusal checkpoints or guidelines that you advise checking for to make sure that, okay, now we have a reasonably okay occlusion and let things settle from here? For example, it would be, for me, a failure if the patient finishes their aligners and they’re only holding articulating paper on one side and not the other side. That’s for me a failure. Or if they’ve got a posterior open bite bilaterally. Okay, then we need to go refinement. We need to get things sorted. But then where do you draw the line? How extreme do you need to be? Do you need every single tooth in shim-stock foil contact? Because then we are getting really beyond that. We have to give the adaptation some wiggle room to happen. So I would love to know from your learning at Pankey, from your experience, what would you recommend is a good way for a GP to follow about, okay, it may not be perfect and you’ll probably never get perfect. And one of the orthodontists that taught me said he’s never, ever done a case that’s finished with a perfect occlusion ever. And he said that to me. [Jesper] So—and that’s exactly the point with orthodontics. I learned that imagine going to a football stadium. The orthodontist will be able to find the football stadium. If it’s a reasonable orthodontist, he’ll be able to find the section you’re going to sit in. And if he’s really, really, really good, he will be able to find the row that you’re going to sit in. But the exact spot where you are going to sit, he will never, ever be able to find that with orthodontics. And this is where settling comes in and a little bit of enamel adjustments. [Jaz] I’m so glad you said that. I’m so glad you mentioned enamel adjustment. That’s a very dirty word, but I agree with that. And here’s what I teach on my occlusion courses: what we do with aligners essentially is we’re tampering with the lock. Let’s say the upper jaw is the lock. It’s the still one. We’re tampering with the key, which is the lower jaw—the one that moves—we tamper with the key and the lock, and we expect them both to fit together at the end without having to shave the key and to modify the lock. So for years I was doing aligners without enamel adjustment ’cause my eyes were not open. My mind was not open to this. And as I learned, and now I use digital measuring of occlusion stuff and I seldom can finish a case to get a decent—for my criteria, which is higher than it used to be, and my own stat—is part of my own growth that’s happened over time is that I just think it’s an important skill that GPs are not taught and they should be. It’s all about finishing that case. And I think, I agree with you that some adjustment goes a long way. We’re not massacring enamel. It’s little tweaks to get that. [Jesper] Exactly. I like the sound there because sometimes you hear that “ahh,” it doesn’t really sound right, but “tsst,” that’s better. [Jaz] That’s the one. You know, it reminds me of that lecture you did in Copenhagen. You did this cool thing—which I’ve never seen anyone do before. You sat with one leg over the other and you said, okay guys, bite together. Everyone bit together. And then you swapped the legs so the other leg was over the other and bite together. And then you said, okay, whose occlusion felt different? And about a third of the audience put their hand up, I think. Tell us about that for a second. [Jesper] Well, just promise me we go back to the final part because there are some things we should consider. [Jaz] Let’s save this as a secret thing at the end for incentive for everyone to listen to the end—how the leg position changes your occlusion. Let’s talk about the more important thing. I digressed. [Jesper] Let’s talk about the occlusal goals because I think it’s important. I mean, if you do enamel adjustments in the end—so when we finish the treatment, when we come to the last aligner in the treatment plan—I think we should start by breaking things down to the simplest way possible. Start by asking the patient: are you satisfied with the way the teeth look? Yes or no? If she’s satisfied, great. How do you feel about the occlusion? “Well, it fits okay.” Great. Now the patient is happy. There’s nothing she wants to—or he wants to—change. Then you look at the occlusion. Now, it is important to remember that what we see on the computer screen, on the aligner planning tools, will never, ever correspond 100% to what we see in the mouth of the patient. And there are several reasons for that. But one of the things that we have found to be really interesting is that if you take that last step and you say, okay, the occlusion doesn’t fit exactly as on the screen, but it’s kind of there… if you use that last step and you don’t do a re-scan for a retainer, but you use the last step of the aligner treatment as your reference for your aligner retainer… We sometimes see that over six months, if the patient wears that aligner 22 hours a day for another three to six months, the teeth will settle more and more into the aligner and create an occlusion that looks more and more like what you see on the screen. Which to me just tells me that the biology doesn’t necessarily follow the plan everywhere in the tempo that we set throughout the aligner plan. But over time, at the last step, if it’s just minor adjustments, the teeth will actually move into that position if we use the last stage as a reference for the retainer. Now, if we do a scan at that point and use that as a reference for creating an aligner retainer, then we just keep the teeth in that position. Now, if the teeth are a little bit more off— [Jaz] I’m just gonna recap that, Jesper, ’cause I understood what you said there, but I want you to just make sure I fully understood it. When we request, for example, Align, the Vivera retainer, it gives you an option: “I will submit a new scan” or “use the last step.” And actually I seldom use that, but now I realize you’re right. It makes sense. But then on the one hand, if the occlusion is—if the aesthetics are good and the patient’s occlusion feels good, what is your own judgment to decide whether we’re still going to allow for some more settling and occlusal changes to happen over a year using the Vivera retainers based on the ClinCheck last-aligner profile, rather than, okay, let’s just retain to this position? What is making you do the extra work, extra monitoring? [Jesper] To me, it’s not extra monitoring. It’s just basic. I mean, it’s just part of my protocol. I follow the patients. And honestly, to me, it’s just time-saving to just use the last step in the aligner. Because I mean, if the plan is right and if the teeth have been tracking well, they should be in that position. Why do I then need to re-scan for Vivera retainers or for other kinds of retainers? Now, if the occlusion is a little bit more off—and in a minute you’ll probably ask me when do I see which is which, and I can’t really tell you; it’s about experience—but that’s the beauty of this. If I see there’s a little bit more deviation and I like some teeth, the occlusion isn’t really good on one side compared to the other side, I would rather have a bonded retainer from first premolar to first premolar in the mandible, combined with a Hawley or Begg or something like that retainer for the upper. And you can order them with an acrylic plate covering some of the anterior teeth so they keep that position, but that allows the teeth to settle. And over three months you should see some kind of improvement. If you don’t see enough improvement and let’s say you still have a tendency for a kind of an open bite on one side, you can always add some cross elastics, put some buttons on the upper, on the lower, instruct the patient to use these, and then in three months you will have the occlusion you want. Now, once that is established—you have that kind of occlusion—you need to keep the teeth there for at least six months before you do some kind of equilibration or enamel adjustment. Because if you do the enamel adjustment right after you have reached your final destination for the teeth, the teeth will still settle and move. So you do the equilibration, two weeks later everything looks off again. You do the equilibration, two weeks later things have changed again. So I prefer to wait six months before I do the final equilibration. Now, in this equation what we’ve been talking about here, it goes from very simple to more and more complex. And then we have to consider, well, did I expand the mandible posterior segment? If so, I can’t just use a bonded retainer on the lower and I need to add something to keep the teeth out there in combination with whatever I want in the upper. Do I want to keep the Begg retainer or the Hawley, or do I want to change to something differently? So these kinds of considerations have to be there from the beginning of the treatment because, I mean, it costs additional money to order a Begg retainer compared to just an aligner. [Jaz] A Begg retainer is the same as Hawley? [Jesper] Well, no. It has a little different design. [Jaz] Oh, a Begg as in B-E-G-G? [Jesper] Yes. [Jaz] Yeah, got it. Got it. Okay. [Jesper] And then in Denmark we use the Jensen retainer, which is a Danish invention, which goes from canine to canine or from first premolar to first premolar but with a different type of wire which keeps the teeth more in place compared to a round wire. So there are different variations. The most important part here is it allows the posterior teeth to settle so they can move, which they can’t in an aligner to the same degree at least. Now, this is all really nice in teeth that only need to be moved into the right position, but most of our patients are adult patients, or they should at least be adult patients. Most of my patients were more than 30 years old. So if you have a patient with anterior crowding and you move the teeth into the right position where the teeth should be, the teeth are in the right position, but they still look ugly because they have been worn anteriorly by the position they were in when they were crooked. So when we position them, we still need to do some restorative work. Then what? We still need to retain those teeth. The patient wants to be finished now as fast as possible, so we can’t wait the six months to make the final touches. So we have to figure out: what do we do? And then we have to think of some kind of retention strategy to keep the teeth in place during that restorative procedure. And I mean, at the end of an aligner treatment or any orthodontic treatment, two days is enough to have relapse in some patients. Some patients it’s not a problem. The teeth are just there to stay in the same position for three months, and then they start to move a little bit around. But other patients—I mean, you just have to look away and then go back to the teeth and they’re in a different position. You can’t know what kind of patient you have in your chair right now. So you have to consider the way you plan your restorative procedure in regards to how you retain the teeth during that phase. So if you want to do anterior composites or veneers, do it all at once. Put in a bonded retainer, scan, and get your aligner retainer as fast as possible. Or use a Begg or a Hawley or something like that that’s a little bit more flexible. If you want to do crowns, then we have a whole different challenge and then we have to consider how do we then retain the teeth. [Jaz] Okay. Well I think that was lovely. I think that gives us some thoughts and ideas of planning sequence of retention, which is the ultimate thing to consider when it comes to occlusion. Okay, yeah, you get the occlusion, but how do you retain it? But in many cases, as the patient’s wearing aligners, the occlusion is embedding in and is fine. And you take off the aligners, the patient’s happy with how it looks. They bite together. It feels good. You are happy that yes, both sides of the mouth are biting together. Now, it might not be that every single contact is shim-hold, but you got, let’s say, within 20 microns, 40 microns, okay? Then some bedding happens. In that kind of scenario, would you be happy to say, okay, I’m gonna scan your teeth as they are because I’m happy with the occlusion, the occlusal goals are good, and they’re near enough the ClinCheck, and go for the retainers to that position? Or is your default preference as a clinician to go for the Vivera or equivalent based on the last aligner, on the ClinCheck projection? [Jesper] I would still go for the last aligner because I think the planning I’ve done is probably a little bit more precise than what I see clinically. However, I still expect that I will have to do a little bit of enamel reshaping at the end after six months, but that’s okay. I mean, the changes are so small, so you can still use the last aligner or the Vivera retainer that you already have ordered. So it’s not that much of a problem. [Jaz] Which goes back to your previous point: if it’s a big deviation, then you’ve gotta look at the alternative ways, whether you’re gonna go for refinement or you’re gonna allow some occlusal settling with a Hawley and a lower fixed-retainer combination, or the elastics like you said. Okay. Just so we’re coming to the end of the podcast—and I really enjoyed our time—I would like to delve deep into just a final thing, which is a little checklist, a helpful checklist for case assessment that you have for GDPs. [Jesper] Yeah, thank you. First of all, one of the big challenges in a GP practice is being able to take a full series of clinical photos in two minutes without assistance. I think most dentists struggle with that, but that is a foundational prerequisite to any aligner treatment. Once you have the photos, I would sit down with the photos and I would consider six different steps. One: is this a patient that I could treat restoratively only? Because that would be the simplest for me to do. Next, moving up in complexity: would be, do I need periodontal crown lengthening? Or next step would be: do I need to change the vertical dimension, or is there something about centric relation that I should consider? Moving up a little bit on the complexity: are there missing teeth? Do I need to replace teeth with implants? Next step would be orthodontics. So this is step five. The next most complex case we can treat is actually an aligner case—orthodontics in general. And the last part would be: are the teeth actually in the right position in the face of the patient, or do I need surgery to correct the jaw position? So these six steps, I think they’re helpful to follow to just think, how can I break this case down into more easy, digestible bits and pieces to figure out what kind of patient I have in front of me? Now, if you consider it to be an orthodontic case or ortho-restorative case, here comes the challenge: case selection. How do you figure out is this an easy, moderate, complex, or referral case? And here’s the trick: do 500 to 1000 treatment plans or treatments with clear aligners. And then you know. But until then, you really don’t. This is where you should rely on someone you can trust who can help you do the initial case selection. Because you can have two identical patients—one is easy and one is super complex—but they look the same. So it’s really nice if you have done less than 500 cases to have someone who can help you with the case selection. And I don’t say this to sell anything, because we don’t charge for that. Because it’s so essential that we don’t do something that is wrong or gives us a lot of challenges and headaches in the practice. I mean, the practice runs really fast and lean-oriented, so we need to make things digestible, easy to work with. And I think that’s really important. [Jaz] It goes full circle to what we said before about having that referral network, staying in your lane, knowing when to refer out, cherry-picking—it all goes back full circle with that. And not even orthodontics, but restorative dentistry—case selection is just imperative in everything we do. [Jesper] Yes. And there is—we always get the question when we do courses and we do consulting—can’t you just show me a couple of cases that are easy to start with? And it works with implants, kind of. But with orthodontics where we move—I mean, we affect all the teeth—it’s just not possible. I know the aligner companies want to show you some where you say, you can only just do these kinds of cases and they are really easy. The fact is they’re not. But they want to sell their aligners. [Jaz] I get it. They are until they’re not. It’s like that famous thing, right? Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face. So yeah, it can seemingly be easy, but then a complication happens and it’s really about understanding what complications to expect, screening for them, and how you handle that. But thanks so much. Tell us—yeah, go on, sorry. [Jesper] There are three things I’d like to end on here. So, first of all, we’ve been talking together for about an hour about a topic that, if you want to take postgraduate education, it takes three years to become an orthodontist. And there is a reason it takes three to four years. However, I want to encourage the listener to think about this: Mercedes has never, ever excused last year’s model. Meaning that they always strive for perfection. So if we go into the practice and we do the very best we can every single day, there is no way we can go back and excuse what we

Sometimes, your “ideal dentistry” isn't ideal. In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Christopher Mazzola and Dr. Charlie Ward, faculty members at the Pankey Institute, to share what to do when things aren't black-and-white for your treatment plans. To learn the systems that will lead you to success, listen to Episode 972 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Ward & Dr. Mazzola:Join Dr. Mazzola on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.d.mazzolaFollow Dr. Mazzola on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherdmazzoladdsSend Dr. Ward an email: charlie@bmoredentalarts.com Follow Dr. Ward on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcwardddsRegister for Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward's Mastering Dental Photography course (July 30, 2026 to August 1, 2026): https://pankey.org/course-category/mdp/?courseId=17781Register for Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward's Mastering Treatment Planning course (September 10-12, 2026): https://pankey.org/course-category/mtp/?courseId=22975Register for Dr. Ward's Mastering Aesthetic Restorative Dentistry course (November 19-22, 2026): https://pankey.org/course-category/mard/?courseId=19847Follow CASE TXP on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/case_txpMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaDownload ACT's BPA app on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/best-practices-association/id6738960360Download ACT's BPA app on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actdental.join&hl=en_USJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 972:...

Do you ever feel behind, inadequate, or unworthy of praise? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Charlie Ward and Dr. Rachel Ward, faculty members at The Pankey Institute, to share how to overcome the comparison trap in dentistry that is sabotaging your practice. If you're constantly questioning yourself, this episode is for you! To learn how to reframe your thinking and focus on the positives, listen to Episode 971 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Charlie Ward & Dr. Rachel Ward:Send Dr. Charlie Ward an email: charlie@bmoredentalarts.com Follow Dr. Charlie Ward on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcwardddsWatch Dr. Charlie Ward's webinars: https://restorativenation.comJoin Dr. Rachel Ward on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelWardDMDFollow Dr. Rachel Ward on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelwarddmdMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaDownload ACT's BPA app on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/best-practices-association/id6738960360Download ACT's BPA app on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actdental.join&hl=en_USJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 971: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosRead Good to Great by Jim Collins: https://bookshop.org/p/books/good-to-great-why-some-companies-make-the-leap-and-other-s-don-t-jim-collins/ec0b317c56aaceb4?ean=9780066620992&next=tRead The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy:...

Raj Ahlowalia's remarkable 33-year journey in a single practice reveals what true dedication to the craft looks like. From almost missing university entirely to becoming an internationally recognised authority on functional occlusion, his story challenges everything we think we know about dental careers. The son of a polyglot interpreter who hitchhiked from India to the UK, Raj stumbled into dentistry through a teacher's intervention, then methodically built expertise that took him from Biggleswade to the stages of Pankey and Spear. His time on Extreme Makeover taught him the crucial difference between patients who want cosmetic work and those who genuinely need rehabilitation—a distinction that shaped his entire philosophy of practice.In This Episode00:07:15 - Father's extraordinary hitchhiking journey from India00:19:20 - The accidental path to dentistry00:39:25 - First job and VT experience00:44:15 - Extreme Makeover TV breakthrough01:13:15 - Teaching at Pankey and Spear institutes01:28:00 - Blackbox thinking01:31:40 - Forced retirement due to spinal issues01:34:05 - Photography passion and flying adventures01:59:25 - Learning NLP and hypnosis techniques02:03:40 - Patient litigation experience02:15:00 - Fantasy dinner party02:15:25 - Last days and legacyAbout Raj AhlowaliaRaj spent his entire 33-year career at one practice in Biggleswade, evolving from VT to an internationally recognised expert in functional occlusion. He taught at both the Pankey Institute and for Frank Spear, appeared on the Extreme Makeover TV show, pioneering the first implant shown on British television, and developed a comprehensive approach to full-mouth rehabilitation that emphasises function over pure aesthetics.

Hap Gill takes us on a fascinating journey from his early days "bashing the Nash" to becoming a pioneer in comprehensive dentistry and communication. With characteristic honesty, he shares how a transformative experience at the Pankey Institute opened his eyes to occlusion and patient care, whilst his unexpected background as a dating coach revolutionised his approach to patient communication.From team management crises to clinical breakthroughs, Hap reveals the mindset shifts that transformed both his practice and his patients' lives, proving that being brave enough to step outside your comfort zone can lead to extraordinary results.In This Episode00:01:45 - Early career struggles and "bashing the Nash"00:05:00 - Discovery of the Pankey Institute00:07:00 - First day revelation: "Design your ideal day"00:08:40 - Born brave or shaped by upbringing?00:09:20 - Growing up in Hounslow with teacher father00:11:45 - Privilege and parenting perspectives00:17:40 - Career advice: Communication trumps clinical skills00:23:25 - Dating coach secrets applied to dentistry00:34:35 - Team management crisis: Three resignations in one week00:40:30 - Blackbox thinking00:49:45 - Clinical stories and treatment philosophy00:57:20 - Occlusion aha moments: Anterior guidance revelation01:06:25 - Biggest case: RTA patient reconstruction01:11:05 - Best lecture ever01:16:25 - Fantasy dinner party01:21:40 - Last days and legacyAbout Hap GillHap Gill qualified as a dentist in 1991 and spent his early years working in NHS practice before discovering comprehensive dentistry through the Pankey Institute. Based in Richmond, he runs a private practice focused on restorative dentistry, occlusion, and exceptional patient communication. Known for his innovative approach to treatment planning and team management, Hap combines clinical excellence with business acumen, drawing from diverse experiences including an unexpected stint as a dating coach.

You love your spouse or partner. But is working with them a good idea? In this episode of the Best Practices Show, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Charlie Ward, visiting faculty member at The Pankey Institute, along with his wife and fellow dentist, Dr. Melody Ward, to share the benefits and challenges of working together and their secrets for making it work. To learn how they've done it for over a decade, listen to Episode 915 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Charlie Ward & Dr. Melody Ward:Send Dr. Charlie Ward an email: charlie@bmoredentalarts.com Follow Dr. Charlie Ward on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcwardddsWatch Dr. Charlie Ward's webinars: https://restorativenation.comFollow Dr. Melody Ward on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mwardperioLearn more about their practice: https://www.baltimoredentalarts.comMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaDownload ACT's BPA app on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/best-practices-association/id6738960360Download ACT's BPA app on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actdental.join&hl=en_USJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 915: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosMain Takeaways:Have the conversation about why you want to work together and your goals in doing so.Learn about each other's personalities to improve understanding and communication.Make the time to get away from your practice and your family with your spouse.Be intentional about your time off. Going to CE doesn't count as vacation!Set clear rules and boundaries so you limit bringing work back home.Check in regularly with your spouse. Things are always changing.Snippets:0:00 Introduction.2:13 Dr. Charlie Ward's background.3:46 Dr. Melody Ward's background.5:04 How they make it...

In this episode, Dr. Schmidt talks with , an experts in restorative care. In the podcast, they take an engaging and highly educational look at the complexities of occlusion, the evolution of restorative philosophy, and the practical clinical tools available today. The conversation is especially valuable for clinicians who want to deepen their understanding of aesthetics and long-term restorative success. Dr. Melkers is a 1994 graduate of the Marquette University School of Dentistry and currently on faculty at Rīga Stradiņš University in Riga, Latvia and The Pankey Institute; and a lead educator for RIPEGlobal. He maintains a private clinical practice in Hanover, New Hampshire, with a focus on comprehensive adult restorative care.

More than ever, labs and practices are going digital. In this episode of Clinical Edge Fridays, ACT shares one of their latest Master Classes with Dr. Daren Becker, visiting faculty member at the Pankey Institute. He shares some of the key aspects of a digital workflow that will make your dentistry more efficient, precise, and comfortable for patients. Embrace and master these workflows to elevate your practice! To learn how, listen to Episode 900 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Becker:Send Dr. Becker an email: docbecks@mac.com Follow Dr. Becker on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doc_becksMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaDownload ACT's BPA app on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/best-practices-association/id6738960360Download ACT's BPA app on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actdental.join&hl=en_USJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 900: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosMain Takeaways:Create a system for scanning every new patient.Digital is a helpful tool in planning, patient education, and motivation.Scanners are great digital tools, but you need to have a system for using them.Everyone on your team should be trained to use the scanner. It is that important.If your labs do digital, send them scans. If they do analog, send them impressions.Don't forget your principles in doing digital. Do a complete and thorough diagnosis.Snippets:0:00 Dr. Becker's background.5:17 How to get in touch with Dr. Becker.6:16 Course objectives.7:52 More about Dr. Becker.11:20 Disclosure of conflict of interest.13:10 Digital dentistry.17:10 Using digital for diagnosis.20:28 Have a system for using these digital tools.37:44 Q&A: Do your auxiliary team members support these systems, or is it all you?42:02 Q&A: What is your opinion on scan path for wand scanners?43:33 Mounting the upper scan.48:43 Mounting the lower scan.50:06 Evaluating centric stops digitally.55:28 Going from digital to analog.1:02:25 Digital occlusal splint...

Are you a dentist who is an artist, scientist, or maybe even a therapist? In this episode of Clinical Edge Fridays, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Charlie Ward, visiting faculty member from The Pankey Institute, and Joshua Polansky, owner of Niche Dental Studio, to share how success in dentistry requires both hemispheres of your brain. Dentistry isn't just fixing teeth! To learn why both sides matter and how to develop the different skill sets you need, listen to Episode 867 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Ward & Joshua:Send Dr. Ward an email: charlie@bmoredentalarts.com Follow Dr. Ward on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcwardddsLearn more about Dr. Ward's practice: https://www.baltimoredentalarts.comWatch Dr. Ward's webinars: https://restorativenation.comFollow Joshua on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nichedentalstudioLearn more about Joshua's dental lab: https://nichedentalstudio.comRegister for Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward's Mastering Treatment Planning course (October 2-4, 2025): https://pankey.org/registration/?courseId=17004&tuition=0&lodging=trueRegister for Dr. Ward's Mastering Aesthetic Restorative Dentistry course (June 17-20, 2026): https://pankey.org/course-category/mardRegister for Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward's Mastering Dental Photography course (July 30, 2026 to August 1, 2026): https://pankey.org/registration/?courseId=17781&tuition=0&lodging=trueLearn More About ACT Dental:ACT's webinars: https://www.actdental.com/135ACT's website: https://www.actdental.comACT's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actdentalACT's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/actdentalACT's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actdentalACT's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3137520/admin/feed/posts/ACT's Twitter: https://twitter.com/actdentalMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association:

According to our guest, Dr Stephanie Vondrak, if you want to make sure your restorative work is going to last, you need to know about the entire occlusal system, and that includes the TMJ. So Dr. Vondrak sought out CE courses taught by TMJ experts which have given her not only the ability to understand and diagnose TMJ disorders, but to actually treat them. She starts with protective therapy and then if necessary, proceeds with corrective therapy. Treating TMJ disorders in house is not for every GP, but, understanding the options for your patients is certainly the responsibility of the general dentist. Dr Vondrak owns and operates a private practice in Elkhorn, Nebraska. She has pursued over 600 hours of post-doctorate education in TMD, occlusion, orthodontics, and sleep apnea including the Pankey Institute, the Schuster Center, and the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain. Thanks to our episode sponsors: Ivoclar - https://www.ivoclarusa.com/finder/makeitemax/index.php 3M - https://www.3m.com/clarity-aligners-flex/

Our latest podcast features Kevin Kwiecien, DMD, MS, who joins AGD Podcast host and vice president George Schmidt, DMD, FAGD, to address opportunities to create systems that build strong teams and enhance dental practice performance. Dr. Kwiecien has more than 25 years of private practice experience, most of which overlapped in academia. He shares tips he teaches on connecting clinical and practice management systems to ensure dental offices are performing optimally and creating growth opportunities. Dr. Kwiecien graduated from Oregon Health and Science University School of Dentistry and holds a master's degree in health care administration. He is the owner of K Squared Facilitation and the founder/coach at The CCO Solution. He was an assistant professor of restorative dentistry at the OHSU School of Dentistry and also had faculty roles at Spear Education and L. D. Pankey Institute, where he provided education to AGD constituents across the U.S. Listen now.

You're a dentist — not a hammer! Stop forcing treatment on patients and start guiding them toward it instead. To help you make that happen, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Christopher Mazzola and Dr. Charlie Ward, visiting faculty from the Pankey Institute, to share what they've uncovered about the new patient process and how to find the things that matter to them most. To start decoding your patients' minds to establish trust and improve retention, listen to Episode 803 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward:Join Dr. Mazzola on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.d.mazzolaFollow Dr. Mazzola on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherdmazzoladdsSend Dr. Ward an email: charlie@bmoredentalarts.com Follow Dr. Ward on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcwardddsRegister for Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward's Mastering Treatment Planning course (October 2-4, 2025): https://pankey.org/registration/?courseId=17004&tuition=0&lodging=trueRegister for Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward's Mastering Dental Photography course (October 29-31, 2026): https://pankey.org/registration/?courseId=17781&tuition=0&lodging=trueRegister for Dr. Ward's Mastering Aesthetic Restorative Dentistry course (SOLD OUT): https://pankey.org/course-category/mardMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttSee the ACT Dental/BPA Live Event Schedule: https://www.actdental.com/eventGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 803: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosRegister for the Essentials courses at Pankey: https://pankey.org/?s=essentialsTry Weave's phone system: https://www.getweave.comRead...

781: What to Say When a New PPO Patient Calls Your Out-Of-Network Office – Dr. Barrett Straub & Dr. Christopher MazzolaA new patient calls your office. They're PPO and ask the dreaded insurance questions. What do you say to bring them in? If you're feeling stuck, keep listening to this episode! Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Barrett Straub, ACT's CEO, and Dr. Christopher Mazzola from the Pankey Institute to share the best strategies and verbal skills to attract PPO patients into your out-of-network office. To learn how to wow your patients and keep them long term, listen to Episode 781 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Straub & Dr. Mazzola:Send Dr. Straub an email: barrett@actdental.com Join Dr. Straub on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barrett.d.straubRegister for Dr. Straub's GAPs Method workshop session #2 (September 6, 2024): https://www.actdental.com/gapsJoin Dr. Mazzola on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.d.mazzolaFollow Dr. Mazzola on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherdmazzoladdsRegister for Dr. Mazzola's Mastering Dental Photography: From Start to Finish course (October 10-12, 2024): https://pankey.org/course-category/mdpRegister for Dr. Mazzola's Mastering Treatment Planning course (October 2-4, 2025): https://pankey.org/course-category/mtpMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttSee the ACT Dental/BPA Live Event Schedule: https://www.actdental.com/eventGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 781: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosMain Takeaways:Support your admin team members. Don't leave them to figure it out for themselves.Patients who ask about insurance are not bad people. That's all they know to ask.Sharpen your verbal skills and also learn to listen to your patients' concerns.When patients call in, schedule an appointment

Empowered Sleep Apnea: THE PODCASTSeason 2: STORIES FROM THE FIELDEpisode 10: LEXINGTON~ ~ ~ ~ ~To listen to this episode on Buzzsprout, click HERE.To listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, click HERE.To listen to this episode on Spotify, click HERE.For a PDF transcript of this episode (includes the cartoon! HUZZAH!), click HERE.Climb aboard the Beautiful Blue Balloon for a trip to LEXINGTON KENTUCKY, to discover the real meaning of patient care, with the help of a teacher...who ironically teaches NOTHING AT ALL.Join person-centered dentistry champion Dr. Paul Henny for his transformative tale about a hot day, a long walk, and the man who changed everything, at a time when professional burnout seemed inevitable...To view the cartoon for this episode, "Choice Cuts", click HERE.Storyteller for this Episode:Our Storyteller for this episode, Dr. Paul Henny, maintains an esthetically-focused restorative practice in Roanoke, Virginia. Additionally, he has been a national speaker in dentistry, a visiting faculty member of the Pankey Institute for Advanced Dental Education, and visiting lecturer at the Jefferson College or Health Sciences.Dr. Henny has been a member of the Roanoke Valley Dental Society, The Academy of General Dentistry, The American College of Oral Implantology, The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, and is a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantology. He is Past President and co-founder of the Robert F. Barkley Dental Study Club.Dr. Henny is the author of the book: Co-Discovery: Exploring the Legacy of Robert F Barkley DDS.More information: https://paulhennydds.com/about-dentist-roanoke-va/Our Website: https://www.empoweredsleepapnea.comOfficial Blog: "Dave's Notes" : https://www.empoweredsleepapnea.com/daves-notesTo go to the BookBaby bookstore and view the BOOK, click HERE!

Elvis and Barb are back again this week recording wonderful people at the Jensen Dental (https://jensendental.com/) booth at the Florida Dental Laboratory Association (https://www.fdla.net/) Symposium. THANK YOU JENSEN! (go get MIYO) First up is MIYO (https://miyoworld.com/) expert, teacher, guru Terry McQuiston. Terry talks about his dental journey that eventually landed him at Jensen Dental teaching everyone the wonders of this amazing liquid ceramic. His role now is onboarding labs and making sure they have their "ah ha" moment and not become "missing in action". Then we meet the new VP of Global Sales for Argen (https://argen.com/), Juston Gates. Juston is new to not only Argen, but also our industry. He talks about where he came from, how it compares to our profession, and some exciting things that Argen has just released. We wrap up the episode with everyone's favorite person to see at a dental show (and if you don't know her, go be her friend), Nina Rapuano. Nina talks about joining Jensen Dental as her first "adult job", why she loves the people and culture, and giving back every year and swimming during the Race For the Future (https://dentallabfoundation.org/news-events/race-for-the-future/). Introducing Ivotion Digital Dentures (https://www.ivoclar.com/en_us/products/digital-processes/ivotion) from Ivoclar (https://www.ivoclar.com/en_us) – Experience unparalleled precision and efficiency with Ivoclar‘s state-of-the-art digital denture workflow. Ivotion is available in their patent pending monolithic disc that combines denture base and tooth materials in one seamless puck. Or if you lab needs more flexibility, Ivotion is also available as stand-alone discs - Ivotion Base, Dent and Dent Multi all in 98mm width to fit your favorite milling machine. With Ivotion you can streamline your lab's processes, reduce production time, and enhance patient satisfaction. Elevate your lab's capabilities with Ivotion Digital Dentures – where innovation meets perfection. Discover the future of dentures today with Ivoclar." Thanks for your continued support of the podcast Ivoclar. Join the GOLDEN BENCH CLUB! All you have to do is leave us a 5-star review and comment on the Apple Podcast app (or any other app and email us a screen shot) and we will read your review on the podcast and welcome you to the Golden Bench Club. This super elite club is only for the best of the best. Special Guests: Juston Gates, Nina Rapuano , and Terry McQuiston.

One of my favorite episodes I've ever recorded, Dr. Rachel Ward DMD (@rachelwarddmd) is what this podcast is all about: being open and honest, helping one another, and becoming better for our patients. We break down: - Breaking bad news to patients - Asking the right questions to get the best insight - Having difficult conversations like telling someone they need a lot of treatment - Unresolved cases that haunt you and people you never hear from again - Saying I don't know - Creating patient loyalty when you're the new kid on the block and more! And Rachel has so graciously offered listeners a $500 discount if you are interested in signing up for Pankey Institute!!! When signing up mention Just A Quick Pinch Podcast or Dr. Rachel Ward and you will automatically get $500 off! https://pankey.org/ For more of the info we talked about today in bite sized readable format, sign up for our email newsletter HERE: https://just-a-quick-pinch.beehiiv.com/subscribe IG: @drconniewang, @justaquickpinch

749: When is the Right Time to Take the Right CE? – Dr. Christopher MazzolaContinuing education is critical for your practice. But if you don't take the right ones at the right time, it could be harmful for you and your team! To help you optimize your CE experience, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Christopher Mazzola, a CE provider from the Pankey Institute, to share his insights into when, where, what, and how to take courses that will elevate your practice. To learn how to stop wasting time and money when taking CE, listen to Episode 749 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Mazzola:Join Dr. Mazzola on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.d.mazzolaFollow Dr. Mazzola on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherdmazzoladdsRegister for Dr. Mazzola's Mastering Dental Photography: From Start to Finish course (October 10-12, 2024): https://pankey.org/course-category/mdpRegister for Dr. Mazzola's Mastering Treatment Planning course (October 2-4, 2025): https://pankey.org/course-category/mtpMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttSee the ACT Dental/BPA Live Event Schedule: https://www.actdental.com/eventGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 749: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosRead The Song of Significance by Seth Godin: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/736958/the-song-of-significance-by-seth-godinRead Hidden Potential by Adam Grant: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/719611/hidden-potential-by-adam-grant/?ref=PRH0ACEFFE3D63E&aid=43830&linkid=PRH0ACEFFE3D63EMain Takeaways:Are you going to CE for education or edutainment?Work on the health of your practice before taking any CE.CE can drive a wedge into your team if you're not aligned first.Remember that your team can become

#153 - Dentistry Unmasked Round Table | Tooth Or Dare Podcast with Toothlife.Irene Welcome to the 153rd episode of the Tooth or Dare Podcast with Irene Iancu (@toothlife.irene) this week is an episode from SmileCon. About Dr. Chad Duplantis Dr. Duplantis received his D.D.S. degree from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Dental School in 1999. He continued with postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Dentistry, earning a certificate in Advanced Education in General Dentistry in 2000. He has also applied for, and been confirmed for his Fellowship degree from the Academy of General Dentistry this coming July. About Dr. Pamela Maragliano-Muniz Pamela Maragliano-Muniz, DMD, is the chief editor of Dental Economics. Based in Salem, Massachusetts, Dr. Maragliano-Muniz began her clinical career as a dental hygienist. She went on to attend Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, where she earned her doctorate in dental medicine. She then attended the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Dental Medicine, where she became board-certified in prosthodontics. Dr. Maragliano-Muniz owns a private practice, Salem Dental Arts, and lectures on a variety of clinical topics. About David Rice, DDS Founder of the nation's largest student and new-dentist community, igniteDDS, David R. Rice, DDS, travels the world speaking, writing, and connecting today's top young dentists with tomorrow's most successful dental practices. He is the editorial director of DentistryIQ and leads a team-centered restorative and implant practice in East Amherst, New York. With 27 years of practice in the books, Dr. Rice is trained at the Pankey Institute, the Dawson Academy, Spear Education, and most prolifically at the school of hard knocks. Contact him at drice@endeavorb2b.com. For more information and to connect with our guests, check out their social media profiles: Instagram: @ignitedds  @drpamela_maragliano @toothdoc_dup If you made it all the way down here, hit a like and share a comment. Until next time, Peace out peeps! ✌️ _______________________________________  

Host Jeremy C. Park talks with Drs. Kevin and Taylor Reed, who discuss the importance of oral health and highlight the third-generation, family-owned practice that is celebrating 75 years of serving the Mid-South community. The dental practice is run by the father-son duo with offices in Millington and Covington, Tennessee.During the interview, Kevin shares some of the history going back 75 years with his father, and then how he entered the business and now is working with his son, Taylor. They talk about their whole patient approach of "treating people, not just teeth" and why oral health plays such an important role in overall health and wellness, and preventing diseases. They discuss their dental services, which include preventative, restorative, cosmetic, periodontal care, TMJ disorder, and more. Kevin talks about the importance of their training and participation with the Pankey Institute, which is a renowned institution at the forefront of dental education and professional development, and why that training allows them to better serve and help the local community. They then highlight the importance of community engagement and giving back, discussing their support of Church Health, current efforts with Donated Dental Services (DDS) and how they provide free dental care to qualified patients in the community.They wrap up with information and an invitation to their 75th anniversary celebration and community open house on Thursday, May 2 at their Millington Office and where you can watch a short documentary film honoring the family's legacy and the team's 75 years of service.Visit www.reedfamilydentistry.com to learn more.

Welcome to the 151st episode of the Tooth or Dare Podcast with Irene Iancu (@toothlife.irene) and this week's guests Dr. Sam Low and Craig Stevens from Perio Protect (@perioprotect).  Treating and preventing periodontal disease in patients can be hard. What if you told them it could be as simple as wearing a tray for just a few minutes per day? If that sounds too good to be true, it's time to educate yourself on the Perio Protect Method. Hear the science behind the innovative Perio Tray™ from experts Dr. Low and Craig, and how it could benefit your practice and patients. Samuel B. Low, DDS, MS, M.Ed As an associate faculty member of the L.D. Pankey Institute for 25 years and Professor Emeritus, University of Florida, College of Dentistry, Dr. Low's many years' experience training dental professionals is evident in his straightforward, informative, and entertaining teaching style. His presentations focus on creating positive interactions between dentists, periodontists, and dental hygienists through communication skills and continuous quality improvement to enhance esthetics, tooth retention, and implant placement. Dr. Low provides periodontists, dentists and dental hygienists with the tools for successfully managing the periodontal patient. He is past President of the American Academy of Periodontology, and current President of the Academy of Laser Dentistry. He was selected “Dentist of the Year” by the Florida Dental Association, Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Texas Dental School, and the Gordon Christensen Lecturer Recognition Award. He is a Past President of the Florida Dental Association and past ADA Trustee.  Craig Stevens:  During his eight years at Perio Protect, Craig has assisted thousands of offices in implementing Perio Tray™ therapy. In addition, he provides support, extra training, and any other assistance that an office requires to succeed. He is committed to helping patients attain optimal oral and overall health at home by utilizing cutting-edge technologies that extend beyond the dental chair. He enjoys his family of 5, playing the guitar, and telling way too many dad jokes than is appropriate. For more information about Perio Protect and to connect with Dr. Low and Craig, check out their social media profiles: Instagram: @perioprotect Perio Protect for Providers: providers.perioprotect.com Dr. Sam Low's Website: drsamlow.com Craig Stevens on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-stevens-672256270/  If you made it all the way down here, hit a like and share a comment. Until next time, Peace out peeps! ✌️ _______________________________________  

In this two-part interview, our host Dr. Dennis Hartlieb and guest Dr. Gary DeWood explore the journey that led Dr. DeWood to his dentistry career. From traveling the West Coast in a van and learning from his childhood dentist, to his experiences in dental school and partnership with his wife in private practice, they delve into these pivotal moments.They discuss Dr. DeWood's role in the Global Diagnosis Education study club and his experiences teaching at the Pankey Institute and Spear Education. For a video version of the interview, highlights and more, check out⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠our blog post⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Dr. Dennis Hartlieb and the DOT Team! Subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. | Follow us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. | Learn about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠becoming a DOT Member⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

In the latest episode, Dr. Schmidt talks with Samuel B. Low, DDS, MS, MEd, professor emeritus at the University of Florida College of Dentistry and associate faculty member of the Pankey Institute. They discuss a wide range of subjects including periodontics, laser dentistry and implant placement. They also address techniques for caring and working with Boomers to Gen Z, and how to create strong connections with people. Low will lead several courses at AGD2024, July 17-20 in Minneapolis. Low is also a diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology and past president of the American Academy of Periodontology. He is currently on the board of directors of the Academy of Laser Dentistry. Low provides dentists and dental hygienists with the tools for successfully managing the periodontal patient in general and periodontal practices and is affiliated with the Florida Probe Corporation. He was selected Dentist of the Year by the Florida Dental Association and Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Texas Dental School, and he is a recipient of the Gordon Christensen Lecturer Recognition Award. He is a past president of the Florida Dental Association and a past American Dental Association trustee. Listen now.

Dr. David RiceFounder, CEOAs seen on the Doctors, founder of the nation's largest new dentist and student community, Dr. David R Rice travels the world speaking, writing, and connecting today's top young dentists with tomorrow's most successful dental practices.In addition to igniteDDS,David is the Chief Editor of DentistryIQ and leads a team-centered, restorative, and implant practice in East Amherst, NY. With 28 years of practice in the books, he's trained at The Pankey Institute, The Dawson Academy, Spear, and most prolifically at the school of hard knocks.Home - igniteDDSdavid.rice@ignitedds.com

We've all seen patients with a worn dentition with loss of vertical dimension of occlusion. Is this a big deal? Well, it can cause TMJ issues and even sleep issues. And when it comes to preparing a single crown, we're often challenged with little occlusal clearance. So what is the simplest and best way to open up the VDO prior to doing your restorative dentistry? To tell us all about it is our guest Dr. Stephanie Vondrak. Dr. Vondrak owns and operates a private practice in Elkhorn, Nebraska. She has pursued over 600 hours of post-doctorate education in TMD, occlusion, orthodontics, and sleep apnea including the Pankey Institute, the Schuster Center, and the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain. Thanks to our episode sponsors: 3M - https://www.3m.com/clarity-aligners-flex/ BISCO - https://www.bisco.com/

In this two-part interview, our host Dr. Dennis Hartlieb and guest Dr. Gary DeWood explore the journey that led Dr. DeWood to his dentistry career. From traveling the West Coast in a van and learning from his childhood dentist, to his experiences in dental school and partnership with his wife in private practice, they delve into these pivotal moments.They discuss Dr. DeWood's role in the Global Diagnosis Education study club and his experiences teaching at the Pankey Institute and Spear Education. For a video version of the interview, highlights and more, check out⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠our blog post⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Dr. Dennis Hartlieb and the DOT Team! Subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. | Follow us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. | Learn about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠becoming a DOT Member⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Welcome to the 147th episode of the Tooth or Dare Podcast with Irene Iancu (@toothlife.irene) and this week's guest Dr. David Rice (@ignitedds). Call this episode a book report. Irene's an avid reader and the new book.“Is Everyone Smiling But You?” David's new book title can hit a little too close to home. If you've ever felt the struggle of balancing your work, health, and relationships with loved ones, you're not alone. David shares lessons he learned going through the challenges life threw at him.  How do you lead confidently if you lack organizational skills? What's the right thing to do when an employee needs extended bereavement leave? What if your marriage doesn't feel right from day one?  Using your instincts to know if people are the right ones for you.  Follow your gut instinct.   Through exercises and self-reflection, David coaches those who are willing to put in the time and effort to make a change. Irene read the book while on a outdoor trip, cover to cover while in the woods and brought forward some personal questions that linked to David's story, this episode is really a perspective shift for those of us who perhaps are also in limbo between achieving “success” and being happy. David discusses how we should be creating 3 buckets of things in our lives in order to full those buckets up evenly, listen to this episode if you're ready to think about a perspective shift in order to clean things up.   Irene shares a recent tragedy in her practice losing an employee and David provides support with how to continue to be a leader during a real tragedy.    Dr. David Rice: As seen on the Doctors, founder of the nation's largest new dentist and student community, Dr. David R. Rice travels the world speaking, writing, and connecting today's top young dentists with tomorrow's most successful dental practices. In addition to igniteDDS, David is the Chief Editor of DentistryIQ and leads a team-centered, restorative, and implant practice in East Amherst, NY. With 28 years of practice in the books, he's trained at The Pankey Institute, The Dawson Academy, Spear, and most prolifically at the school of hard knocks.   For more information and to connect with Dr. David, check out his social media profiles:   Instagram: @ignitedds Ignite DDS Website: https://ignitedds.com/ David's Book, “Is Everyone Smiling But You?”: https://a.co/d/5w0Abrq    If you made it all the way down here, hit a like and share a comment. Until next time, Peace out peeps! ✌️ _______________________________________  

Meet Dr. Susan EllisonDr. Susan Ellison graduated with honors from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston. She was nominated and accepted into the Mu Mu Chapter of Omicron Kappa Upsilon Honor Society for her character and achievements in academics in dental school. She has been practicing in Houston for over 30 years and Dr. Ellison has been serving the community and families with exceptional dental care and customer service ever since. She attended the L.D. Pankey Institute for Advanced Dental Studies in Key Biscayne, Florida and completed extensive advanced training at The Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies where she was trained in the most advanced techniques for Cosmetic Veneers, Occlusion, and Full Mouth Reconstruction. Dr. Ellison is a participating member of Reingage, a network of over a thousand dentists committed to changing lives and smiles with Invisalign® and advanced alignment techniques. Dr. Ellison has one lovely daughter in college and loves visiting and going to their football games. College sports are so much fun for her. She also loves being outdoors running, exercising, skiing and going to the beach or the mountains and has even run several Houston marathons over the years. She loves her work and her family and friends and is committed to overall health and wellbeing, always striving for herself and others to be the best they can be.

In this episode of Jaw Talk, I'm thrilled to have Dr. Pete Lemieux, a renowned restorative dentist with a focus on temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, as our special guest. With over 25 years of experience and a passion for comprehensive care, Dr. Lemieux shares his insights and journey into the world of TMJ diagnosis and treatment. Join us as we explore the intricacies of TMJ disorders, the role of modern imaging in diagnosis, and the power of interdisciplinary care. Dr. Peter Lemieux maintains a comprehensive restorative practice in Winter Park, Florida, with a strong focus on temporomandibular joint diagnosis and treatment utilizing both CBCT and MR imaging. He has been a student of the L. D. Pankey Institute for Advanced Dental Education, Spear Education, the Dawson Academy, and the Piper Education and Research Center. Dr. Lemieux graduated with honors from the University of Florida College of Dentistry in 1997, and has been recognized with fellowship in the American College of Dentists, the Pierre Fauchard Academy, and the International College of Dentists.We talk about:[0:00] Intro[01:20] Dr. Lemieux's Passion[02:26] TMJ Mindset[04:40] Pediatric TMD Patients[06:47] Intake Process[10:20] Working with an Interdisciplinary Team[14:02] Restorative Dentistry After Jaw Surgery[16:39] Continuing Education for the Young Dentist[20:52] AES Presentation[29:22] Resistant for TMJ Diagnosis & Treatment[35:01] Modern Dentistry & Tech Advancements[37:11] What Dr. Lemieux is excited forMentions:https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/temporomandibular-joint-imaging/233657Connect with Dr. Lemieux here:https://winterparkdentist.com/Connect with Tiffany here:Courses: https://www.tmdcollective.com/courseshttps://www.instagram.com/tmd.collective/Support the Show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2170917/supportSupport the show

What exactly is a health-centered practice? What's the advantage of being a health-centered practice? How does it grow your practice and really make you love what you do? To answer these questions is our guest Dr. Stephanie Vondrak. She owns and operates a private practice in Elkhorn, Nebraska. She has pursued over 600 hours of post-doctorate education in TMD, occlusion, orthodontics, and sleep apnea including the Pankey Institute, the Schuster Center, and the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain. Thanks to our episode sponsors: COLTENE - https://www.coltene.dental/viva-hyflex/ Shining 3D - https://www.shining3ddental.com/

Injection molding. What can it do for your practice and how can it be a perfect fit for your patients? To tell us all about is Dr Tal Wilkins, a dentist who loves this technique and uses it often. He says the patient can get a full mouth rehab at a third of the cost of veneers. Dr. Wilkins maintains a private practice in Aiken, South Carolina and is a visiting faculty member and serves on the Board of Advisors at the Pankey Institute.

Are you asking the hard questions about practicing sleep dentistry while running a GP office?  This is definitely the episode for you!With nearly 40 years experience in the dental and dental laboratory professions and recently in the dental manufacturing industries, Mark has a gestalt perspective of the various functions and relationships. A long standing role with the Pankey Institute in Key Biscayne has had significant influence on this point of view. After receiving various awards and honors within the dental profession and selling his very successful practice in 1998, he drifted towards a more global industry view and role serving with Dental Technologies Inc. and as a consultant to several manufacturers and suppliers for dentistry and the laboratory profession.Currently, Mark is the Lead Faculty for ProSomnus Sleep Technology in the Bay area and practices Dental Sleep Medicine part time in Rochester Hills MI and is on the faculty at UDM school of dentistry snd the Pankey institute.Specialties: Dental Sleep Medicine, strategic planning, change management, implementation oversight, performance metrics and motivational speaking.

668: Your Practice Within Your Practice – Dr. Brent BushDo you want to better serve your patients, but don't feel like you have the time? One solution is to create a practice within your practice. To help you get started, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Brent Bush from The Pankey Institute to share his journey and experiences that changed his practice. You can slow down and still get busy! To hear how you can be a better dentist for your patients — no matter where you are — listen to Episode 668 of The Best Practices Show!Episode Resources:Send Dr. Bush an email: info@bushfamilydentistry.com Join Dr. Bush on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bushfamilydentalFollow Dr. Bush on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bushfamilydentalSubscribe to The Best Practices Show podcast: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttSee ACT's Live Events Schedule: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/act-dental-live-workshops-306239Get The Best Practices Magazine for free! https://www.actdental.com/magazineWrite a review on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show/id1223838218Main Takeaways:You can't afford not to do CE.Go and seek the people who will help you.Do the legwork of going to CE and workshops.Choose to do the work that brings you the most joy.Bring your team along with you on your learning journey.Block out time to help your team implement your learnings.Quotes:“I had another buddy of ours from dental school, David Hedgecoe in Fayetteville. He was one of those practices where I was like, ‘How is he so busy? What is he doing different than I'm doing? I feel like I'm so busy and I'm going to burn out here. Why is he so busy doing cool stuff?' I was busy and good. But, oh, boy, it was hard. And no joy, really, after you do your thousandth MOD. So, I realized that there was more to [dentistry], and I asked Todd [Davis], ‘What do I do?' He said, ‘Well, you need to go learn.' And so, I started to get on the CE train and do some workshops and seminars, and I hit it hard. That's that thing where if you are going to bet on anybody, bet on yourself. I invested a bunch of money and a bunch of time — I didn't think twice about it — to go learn how to be a better dentist for my patients.” (7:26—8:25)“I think as a young dentist out there — and I was this way too. I'm no different than you are. If you're the young one out there listening, I'm no different than you are. I just saw that there is a different way and maybe a more comprehensive way. To me, [having a practice within your practice] meant that there's the everyday, bread and butter, do the fillings and crowns, but there's also this niche that you can work for yourself, whether it's orthodontics, or placing implants — for me, I became the bite guy — where you have an interest that inherently shows up, and you do more of it. The more you do it, the...

DOT - Use the Code DENTALDIGEST for 10% off https://www.oneplacecapital.com/ Follow @dental_digest_podcast Instagram Follow @dr.melissa_seibert on Instagram Connect with Melissa on Linkedin   James Otten, DDS Bachelor of Science in Zoology & Minor in Microbiology University of Arkansas 1977 Doctor of Dental Surgery, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry 1981 General Practice and Hospital Dentistry Residency-Certificate, Veterans Administration Medical Center in Leavenworth, Kansas 1982 Center for Advanced Dental Studies, St Petersburg FL, Completion of Curriculum in Advanced Restorative Care and the Evaluation, Diagnosis and Treatment of Occlusal and Temporomandibular Disorders 1989-1993 The Pankey Institute, Key Biscayne FL, Completion of Curriculum, Continuum I-VI plus Advanced Studies, 1991- present Piper Education and Research Center, St Petersburg FL, Seminars I-III, Advanced Diagnosis, Management and Treatment of TM Disorders, 1994-2013 Other: Compiled over 3500 hours of Continuing Education in the study of Occlusion, TM Disorders, Facial Pain, Esthetics, Invisalign Certification, Implant and Prosthodontic Restorative care. Associate Professor Prosthodontics University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry 1982-83 Fellow, American College of Dentists Visiting Faculty, L.D. Pankey Institute -1996-current Visiting Faculty, Newport Coast Orofacial Institute, Newport Beach CA 2010- present L.D. Pankey Institute – Associate/Lead Faculty 1999 – current Provost, L.D. Pankey Institute 2005 -2012 L.D. Pankey Institute Board of Directors/Advisors 2005 – current Medical Staff Lawrence Memorial Hospital Department of Surgery-current Private Practice Lawrence Kansas 1984 – present   Drew McDonald, DDS, MS Dr. McDonald attended dental school at the prestigious Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Known for it's rigorous academic curriculum and intense clinical training, Dr. McDonald received many academic accolades while at Creighton including inductions into Omicron Kappa Upsilon (National Dental Honor Society) and Alpha Sigma Nu (Honor Society of Jesuit Universities). He also served in leadership positions as class president and student body president and on alumni relations committees. After graduating Cum Laude from Creighton, Dr. McDonald was accepted as one of only three residents nationwide into the University of Missouri-Kansas City Orthodontics program, a renowned two-and-a-half year, full-time residency known for its clinical excellence. Dr. McDonald graduated in December of 2016 with his certificate in orthodontics and master's degree in Oral and Craniofacial Sciences. When away from the office, Dr. Drew is a “girl-Dad” to two daughters, a self-proclaimed grill master, and minimally talented yet enthusiastic golfer, you can find him taking in a Lobo game, and spending time outdoors with his family.

DOT - Use the Code DENTALDIGEST for 10% off https://www.oneplacecapital.com/ Follow @dental_digest_podcast Instagram Follow @dr.melissa_seibert on Instagram Connect with Melissa on Linkedin   James Otten, DDS Bachelor of Science in Zoology & Minor in Microbiology University of Arkansas 1977 Doctor of Dental Surgery, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry 1981 General Practice and Hospital Dentistry Residency-Certificate, Veterans Administration Medical Center in Leavenworth, Kansas 1982 Center for Advanced Dental Studies, St Petersburg FL, Completion of Curriculum in Advanced Restorative Care and the Evaluation, Diagnosis and Treatment of Occlusal and Temporomandibular Disorders 1989-1993 The Pankey Institute, Key Biscayne FL, Completion of Curriculum, Continuum I-VI plus Advanced Studies, 1991- present Piper Education and Research Center, St Petersburg FL, Seminars I-III, Advanced Diagnosis, Management and Treatment of TM Disorders, 1994-2013 Other: Compiled over 3500 hours of Continuing Education in the study of Occlusion, TM Disorders, Facial Pain, Esthetics, Invisalign Certification, Implant and Prosthodontic Restorative care. Associate Professor Prosthodontics University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry 1982-83 Fellow, American College of Dentists Visiting Faculty, L.D. Pankey Institute -1996-current Visiting Faculty, Newport Coast Orofacial Institute, Newport Beach CA 2010- present L.D. Pankey Institute – Associate/Lead Faculty 1999 – current Provost, L.D. Pankey Institute 2005 -2012 L.D. Pankey Institute Board of Directors/Advisors 2005 – current Medical Staff Lawrence Memorial Hospital Department of Surgery-current Private Practice Lawrence Kansas 1984 – present   Drew McDonald, DDS, MS Dr. McDonald attended dental school at the prestigious Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Known for it's rigorous academic curriculum and intense clinical training, Dr. McDonald received many academic accolades while at Creighton including inductions into Omicron Kappa Upsilon (National Dental Honor Society) and Alpha Sigma Nu (Honor Society of Jesuit Universities). He also served in leadership positions as class president and student body president and on alumni relations committees. After graduating Cum Laude from Creighton, Dr. McDonald was accepted as one of only three residents nationwide into the University of Missouri-Kansas City Orthodontics program, a renowned two-and-a-half year, full-time residency known for its clinical excellence. Dr. McDonald graduated in December of 2016 with his certificate in orthodontics and master's degree in Oral and Craniofacial Sciences. When away from the office, Dr. Drew is a “girl-Dad” to two daughters, a self-proclaimed grill master, and minimally talented yet enthusiastic golfer, you can find him taking in a Lobo game, and spending time outdoors with his family.

Today we'll be talking about how single shade composite systems can decrease chair time, lower overhead and create exceptional esthetic results. Our guest is Dr. Stephanie Vondrak, who owns and operates a private practice in Elkhorn, Nebraska. She has pursued over 600 hours of post-doctorate education in TMD, occlusion, orthodontics, and sleep apnea including the Pankey Institute, the Schuster Center, and the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain.

Webinar Description:Considering a shift from restorative dentistry? Tired of drills, fillings, and that ever-present backache? Dive into the world of sleep dentistry with our dynamic panel webinar. No crowns, no complaints—just sleep.Why go sleep-only?Transitioning means more than escaping the drill—it's about embracing a specialized, impactful niche. By addressing sleep disorders, you not only elevate patients' health but also revitalize your work-life balance. The rising demand in this field promises a lucrative horizon, all while fostering enriched collaborations with physicians. It's not merely a shift; it's a professional evolution.As a restorative dentist, you've got questions:What is the start-up cost?Is sleep-only financially viable?How do I get patients?Where do I find physician referrals?Watch as our panelists share their experience of how they made the PIVOT to sleep-only!Meet the Speakers!Dr. Steve Carstensen - Bellevue's sleep maestro, a trendsetter, and the benchmark of dental sleep medicine. Currently working at Bellevue's Premier Sleep Associates, he is the American Dental Association's consultant for sleep-related disorders, a role that showcases his vast expertise. Since gaining his DDS from Baylor College in 1983, he's immersed himself in sleep medicine, earning a fellowship with the Academy of General Dentists for his dedication to advanced learning. Dr. Carstensen isn't just a practitioner; he's a trailblazer. As the sleep education director at prestigious institutions like the Pankey Institute and Spear Education, he shapes the industry's future. Moreover, he holds an exclusive certification from the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine since 2006.Dr. Kent Smith - Over 10,000 sleep patients helped. Founder of the DSM Roundtable. A pinnacle of sleep in Texas! A cornerstone of Sleep Dallas has an illustrious 25-year career addressing sleep-breathing disorders across his two DFW locations. Double board-certified in dental sleep medicine and president of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy, his influence extends globally, pioneering a sleep-disordered breathing curriculum and leading seminars worldwide. Beyond the clinic, he's deeply committed to family, cherishing scuba diving escapades with loved ones and ardently supporting Dallas sports teams. His expertise, paired with his approachable demeanor, ensures patients both the pinnacle of care and genuine warmth. Entrust your sleep to a professional who seamlessly merges excellence with empathy.Dr. Mark Murphy - A cocktail of humor and decades of sleep dentistry wisdom. He's not just here to speak; he's here to inspire. A Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine is the Lead Faculty for Clinical Education at ProSomnus® Sleep Technologies and the Principal of Funktional Consulting. He also serves on the Adjunct Faculty at the University of Detroit Mercy and oversees the Practice and Financial Management Curriculum at the Pankey Institute. He lectures internationally on Leadership, Practice Management, Communication, Case Acceptance, Planning, Occlusion, TMD and Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Mark has been involved in Sleep Dentistry for over 25 years, is an AADSM member, and has trained with several of the leading sleep dentists and training institutes. He is an informative and entertaining speaker, blending a stand-up style of humor and anecdotes with current evidence-based research that you can take home and use in your practice right away.Thank you to our sponsors for making this education possible:Nierman Practice Management, ProSomnus Sleep Technologies, Kettenbach Dental, and Sleep Apnea Leads

We are joined by Dr. Suzanne Ebert to discuss Avoiding Practice Transition Pitfalls and more!Dr. Suzanne Ebert, DMD, FAGD, is a graduate of the University of Louisville School of Dentistry. She grew up in northern Kentucky and earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of Kansas. Following her graduation from dental school, she chose to move to Ponte Vedra Beach with her husband and two children to establish her dental practice. Dr. Ebert is committed to enhancing her dental knowledge and has been regularly attending classes at one of the country's premier dental education facilities, the Pankey Institute, since 2003. Additionally, she obtained fellowship status in the Academy of General Dentistry in 2007. This much-coveted award involves a rigorous examination and requires at least 500 hours of qualified continuing education credits. Dr. Ebert is a member of the American Dental Association, as well as the Florida Dental Association and the Academy of General Dentistry. In addition to investing time in continuing her dental education, Dr. Ebert considers it a privilege to live in the community along with her husband of 17 years and two teenage daughters. She is active in the community and can often be found on the softball fields with her daughters on most weekends. Dr. Ebert also considers it essential to give back to the city that supports her by regularly volunteering at the Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless.Learn more:https://www.adapracticetransitions.com ***** SPONSOR: – Omni Premier Marketing: https://omnipremier.com/dental-marketing/ CONNECT: – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedentalbrief/ – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedentalbriefpodcast/ – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dental-brief-podcast-564267217 – Patrick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pchavoustie/– Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd08JzybKfNH0v12Q9jf50w WEBSITE: – https://dentalbrief.com/

The 3-Step Process in Adopting Digital DentistryEpisode #620 with Dr. Daren BeckerWhether you know it or not, you're using digital technology somewhere in your dentistry. It's time to embrace it! To reveal how adopting digital dentistry will transform your practice, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Daren Becker from the Pankey Institute to share three important steps to successfully modernize your workflow. If for no other reason, go digital for your patients! To learn about the advantages that digital can offer, listen to Episode 620 of The Best Practices Show!Episode Resources:Send Dr. Becker an emailJoin Dr. Becker on FacebookFollow Dr. Becker on InstagramLearn more on Dr. Becker's websiteSubscribe to the Best Practices Show PodcastJoin ACT's To The Top Study ClubJoin ACT's Master ClassSee our Live Events Schedule hereGet the Best Practices Magazine for Free!Write a Review on iTunesLinks Mentioned in This Episode:Register for Dr. Becker and Dr. Cranham's Digital Workflow course (June 13-15, 2024)Main Takeaways:Master the tried-and-true occlusal, restorative, and esthetic principles.Figure out where digital technology fits into your practice.Find a mentor or people that will support you.Start by getting an intraoral scanner.Go digital for your patients.Quotes:“Pete Dawson said in 2005, ‘Digital dentistry in the absence of sound, occlusal, esthetic, and restorative principles will only allow a dentist to screw up mouths even faster.' To me, that's everything because everybody is jumping on the digital thing. He's right. The same way you could screw up a mouth if you didn't pay attention to sound occlusal principles, or good biologic principles with your margin design, and good restorative principles with your prep design, and good esthetic principles — if you didn't do that in the analog world, you're going to screw things up.” (9:36—10:19)“For most people, the start [to adopting digital] is an intraoral scanner. We've had conversations about this on the podcast before. There are lots of scanners out there. I'm not here to tell you which is the right one. I happen to use iTero. I love my iTero. I have two of them, actually, and we use them for everything. We do wellness scans in hygiene. Once a year, we scan every patient, kind of the opposite of having radiographs made. It's a great way to monitor changes. It's incredible because you put the screen up in front of a patient — I think it's called TimeLapse. It'll flash between the two years ago scan and the new scan. They can see the change. They can see the shifting of the teeth, or...

This week we sit down with Robert M Haberkorn, DDS, MBA, MLD to discuss oral cancer. Dr. Haberkorn graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and attended a surgical mini-residency at Baylor University for dental Implants. Immediately after graduation, he purchased a dental practice and began his career serving his patients in both metro and rural areas. His interest in treating oral cancer patients began in 1987, and he began his oral oncology career providing diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care for the patients within his own practice, as well as those referred to him by other health care providers. He has been a huge proponent of early diagnosis and awareness of oral cancer and continues his crusade to make the communities he serves aware of the risk factors.  Dr. Haberkorn acquired his first laser in 1990 and has since earned his Master's in Laser Dentistry therapy utilizing soft tissue and hard tissue lasers as innovative treatment modalities for dental issues and for oral cancer patients needing diagnosis, treatment, and post-operative pain relief. He has earned an MBA from The University of Notre Dame. Dr. Haberkorn is an alumnus of the Pankey Institute, a member of the American Academy of Oral Medicine, The Academy of Laser Dentistry, The American Association of Facial Esthetics, The Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, The International Society of Oral Oncology, and is currently studying at The University of Florida for additional knowledge for the treatment of patients with Oral Cancer and Oral diseases in their Department of Oral Oncology and Oral Medicine.  You can find more information on the Oral Cancer Foundation here.  

In today's podcast we'll be addressing and debunking some of these myths and misconceptions about the intraoral scanner and revealing how it can actually be incredibly positive for the dental practice. Helping us put all this in perspective is our guest, Dr. Franklin Shull. Dr Shull maintains a private practice focused on comprehensive care and has extensive expertise in digital workflow. He shares his experiences through lectures and workshops throughout the US and is visiting faculty at the Pankey Institute. He is also part time faculty at Spear Education teaching Digital Adoption.

Solutions to the Hygiene CrisisEpisode #600 with Dr. Sam LowWe're all asking how to attract hygienists. But there's another question you should be asking. How do you keep the ones you've got? To help you motivate the right hygienists who are already in your practice, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Sam Low, associate faculty member of The Pankey Institute, with his insight into what hygienists truly want and the best ways to provide it. To learn how to keep your hygienists happy, listen to Episode 600 of The Best Practices Show!Episode Resources:Send Dr. Low an emailLearn more on Dr. Low's websiteSubscribe to the Best Practices Show PodcastJoin ACT's To The Top Study ClubJoin ACT's Master ClassSee our Live Events Schedule hereGet the Best Practices Magazine for Free!Write a Review on iTunesMain Takeaways:Don't wait to give your great hygienists a raise.Empower hygienists with CE and provide opportunities.Add technologies that can decrease your hygienists' stress.Understand what your hygienists actually want from your practice.Hire hygienists for their people-person personality, not just their skill sets.A huddle is not an option. Do morning huddles with your team every morning.Quotes:“I know that dentists have always appreciated a hygienist. But I'm sure they never appreciated them till they didn't have one.” (2:07—2:20)“When we go to any kind of service, we like to see the same people. We don't like somebody different. Like likes like. And so, our patients, who are used to Sally being their hygienist for 20 years — now, Sally's gone. Now, Martha's there. ‘Who's Martha? I don't know. Martha's going to be in my mouth. Is she the same as Sally?' And then, they say, ‘Well, maybe I don't want to go back there.' Especially if you have, what? Constant turnover. How many times have you heard patients say, ‘I don't know what's going on over there. Every time I go over there, there's somebody different'?” (3:44—4:28)“The most frequent, perfunctory appointment in a dental office is a dental hygiene prophylaxis. Nothing else repeats itself like that. It's predictable. You kind of know what's going to happen. So, if that's the situation, to me, it would be like a process. First of all, how much time do you want for each one of those perfunctory appointments to occur? Now, here's going to be your problem. There is no way, with third-party reimbursement, that you can pay for a dental hygienist and the operatory with what you're going to get off of a prophylaxis in one hour. We've worked the numbers. It's impossible. In fact, if you're not careful, it'll be kind of like Medicaid — you're going to be paying them.” (7:14—8:16)“Dental hygienists spend 50% of their time scraping on teeth — 50% of their time at that one hour — with antiquated scalers and curettes that they will not let go of because that's the way they were taught, and they were taught that, ‘If I ever give them up,

Dr. Sterling Stalder is a native to Oklahoma, born and raised in Oklahoma City. Dr. Stalder attended Southern Nazarene University for undergrad studies, and then Dental School at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Stalder has been in practice in SW Oklahoma City for 30 years. He has attended several CE courses and continuums over the years including courses at the Pankey Institute, Pride Institute, DOCS Sedation Training, Pinnacle Leadership Courses, and a Crown Council member now for over 20 years. He is also a member of American Society for Geriatric Dentists as well as the American Dental Association and Oklahoma Dental Association. In 2001 Dr. Sterling Stalder started a Mobile Dental company that travels into Long Term Care facilities to treat what he considered an under-treated population. Sterling Dental quickly became the leading provider of mobile dental services in Oklahoma in just a few short years. We now provide dental services to Long Term Care Facilities and special needs patients across the state of Oklahoma. In his free time, Dr. Stalder enjoys riding his Harley and spending time with his wife and 2 sons, and traveling to fun and new places.

Risks and Benefits with PatientsEpisode #568 with Dr. Lee BradyEvery dental procedure has risks and benefits. How well are you communicating them to your patients? If you're unsure or don't know how to get started, don't miss this episode! To empower you with risk communication, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Lee Brady, director of education for the Pankey Institute and founder of Restorative Nation. She shares her insight for managing patients' expectations, reducing fears around procedures, and helping patients take ownership over their decisions. To learn how to advocate for patients through your communication skills, listen to Episode 568 of the Best Practices Show!Episode Resources:Dr. Brady's website: https://leeannbrady.comDr. Brady's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drleebradyDr. Brady's social media: @drleebradyRestorative Nation: https://restorativenation.comSubscribe to the Best Practices Show PodcastJoin ACT's To The Top Study ClubJoin ACT's Master ClassSee our Live Events Schedule hereGet the Best Practices Magazine for Free!Write a Review on iTunesMain Takeaways:Learn how to communicate risks and benefits.Be mindful of what constitutes a risk for your patients.You have the gift of time. Slow down your conversations.Focus on risks and benefits that are most relevant for patients.Advocate for your patients by giving them information and education.Quotes:“I think about all of my communications with my patients as being about risks and benefits. It's the core of patient communication. And often, as dentists, we do think of that as a technical thing, like one procedure has certain technical risks over another one. But I actually think it's a much bigger conversation than that because, for my patients, they think of the cost of one procedure over the other. One might be a risk or a benefit. A common one is how long it takes for a procedure to get done. So, with implants, we want all of our patients to do implants. And sometimes, they still ask about doing what we would call an old-fashioned bridge. Well, one of the benefits to a bridge is, chop, chop, you're all done in three to six weeks, where implant dentistry sometimes takes six to nine months. To us, we go, ‘Well, that's a no-brainer.' We want the best thing, technically. To a patient, that may be a tipping point decision.” (3:26—4:24)“Some people consider any surgical procedure a risk, no matter how much we tell them it's easy and straightforward. Or the discomfort. There are a whole range of things that we can put in our risks and benefits box that actually are more tied to the logistics of the dentistry for the patient, or the emotional side of it for the patient, than they are about the stuff we learned in dental school.” (4:27—4:50)“For me, if I need an informed consent, that says to me that I...

Improve your child's health from birth by understanding the vital role of the mouth in practically every aspect of developmental health, physically, mentally, and even emotionally. Your children will thank you! You can help ensure your child has the best future possible by starting their oral health right!Oral health is possibly the key to many child development issues and can help ensure every child achieves their physical and mental capacity in their later years! Our special guest today is Dr. Lauren Ballinger, a board-certified pediatric dentist and a certified specialist in oral facial myology. She practices pediatric airway-focused dentistry and orthodontics in Western Mass. She is the founder of Good To Grow Pediatric Dental Wellness, Airway Growth and Sleep Solutions, and the Nurture Frenectomy Center. Dr. Lauren founded the Endeavor Group of the Global Assembly of passionate health professionals promoting awareness of optimal breathing and airway health solutions for children under age 6.She's also the pediatric Dental Chapter Leader for the AAPMD, the American Academy of Physiologic Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Lauren is a featured faculty member at the Pankey Institute's Dental Sleep Medicine program and a frequent speaker for the American Dental Association on the topic of interceptive arch development and growth guidance in the pediatric dental population.Here is a sneak peek of this episode... 3:48 Infant Dental Health10:14 4 Oral Health Points to Address from Birth!14:35 Oral Health to Prevent Bed Wetting & More20:14 Creating Oral Health Habits with Your Kids26:57 How to Know if Your Child has Excellent Oral Health29:05 Starting Your Child Out Right!33:46 Moms Know Best!To learn more about holistic dentistry and find a biologic dentist located near you, check out Dr. Carver's patient education page:http://carverfamilydentistry.com/patient-education-library/To contact Dr. Lauren, email her office at admin@NurtureGrowDentist.com or call (413) 329-3292. To contact Dr. Carver directly, email her at drcarver@carverfamilydentistry.com. Want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office? Call her practice: 413-663-7372Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

Founder of the nation's largest student and new dentist community, igniteDDS, Dr. David Rice travels the world speaking, writing, and connecting today's top young dentists with tomorrow's most successful dental practices. In addition to ignite DDS, Dr. Rice maintains a team-centered, restorative implant practice in East Amherst, NY. With 25 years of practice in the books, he has completed curriculums at the Spear Center, The Pankey Institute, The Dawson Center, and most prolifically, the school of hard knocks…   Listen to this episode with the following key topics:   ✅ David's unique story and how he pivoted from a dental path to a dental community. ✅ Why IgniteDDS helps young dentists build the practice of their dreams/ ✅ What are some of the ways that a person can get involve on social media. ✅ Understand the next level of learning? ✅ Why dental school doesn't teach clinical like it used to. ✅ Take stock of the people that you spend time with, listen to and know the right ones will lift you up. .   Connect with David: Email: david.rice@ignitedds.com Website: https://ignitedds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ignitedds/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IgniteDDSMain LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-r-rice-dds-17050334/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/igniteDDS   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Recovering PerfectionistEpisode #538 with Dr. Kelley BrummettDentists strive to be perfect. This eventually leads to stress, anxiety, and burnout. If you're feeling stuck in the cycle of chasing perfection, don't miss this episode! To help you unlearn the perfectionist mindset and transition to a growth mindset, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Kelley Brummett from The Pankey Institute. She shares her struggle as a healing perfectionist and insight for focusing on progress and excellence. Overcome the pressure to be perfect! To learn how, listen to Episode 538 of The Best Practices Show!Episode Resources:Dr. Brummett's website: https://conservationdentistry.com/dr-kelley-brummettDr. Brummett's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelley.brummett.5Dr. Brummett's social media: @kelleybrummettSubscribe to the Best Practices Show PodcastJoin ACT's To The Top Study ClubJoin ACT's Master ClassSee our Live Events Schedule hereGet the Best Practices Magazine for free!Write a Review on iTunesLinks Mentioned in This Episode:The Pankey Institute: https://www.pankey.orgA Philosophy of the Practice of Dentistry by Dr. L.D. Pankey and Dr. William J. Davis: https://pankey.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/pankey/product.jsp?product=86&catalogId=10&The Growth Mindset by Helen Glasgow and Joshua Moore: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-growth-mindset-a-guide-to-professional-and-personal-growth-joshua-moore/383704?ean=9781548164928Main Takeaways:Strive for excellence, not perfection.Be kind and nonjudgmental with yourself.Don't let the idea of perfection consume you.Focus on progress rather than on being perfect. Remember that your dentistry has an expiration date.Quotes:“That's what we tend to do to ourselves, [is] we say, ‘Oh, this dentistry is going to fail,' or, ‘This dentistry did fail,' or we criticize, or we judge, or whatever it is. And it's like, no, everything has an expiration date, and it's totally dependent on the variables that that patient hosts. And we get to play a part in our skills and understanding our patient from the health standpoint to even the temperament standpoint.” (6:37—7:09)“All of my dentistry, as Dr. Lee Brady taught me, will fail. I might get lucky. There might be a case or two. But that's not really the goal. The goal of dentistry, in my mind, is to make people feel better, to make people healthier, to make people function...

In today's episode, Brittny chats with her fellow colleagye, Dr. Ratti Handa, DMD. Ratti Handa, D.M.D. is an internationally renowned airway, TMJ, and cosmetic dentist. Dr. Handa is a dentist in Acton, MA who has worked with some of the most prestigious specialty practices in Massachusetts. Dr. Handa has been specially trained in the areas of Biorejuvenation Dentistry, Sleep and Airway Dentistry, and Myofunctional Therapy. She has been a continuous learner attending some of the most prestigious higher education dental programs including the Pankey Institute, The Spear Institute, The Stewart Center, Airway Health Solutions, Vivos Education, and The Breathe Institute.In today's episode, Brittny and Dr. Handa talk about the importance of properly prepping a patient for tethered oral tissue release and how Dr. Handa creates a safe and healing environment for her patients from the moment they step into the office. This even impacts the success of a procedure. Dr. Handa dives into fascia and compensations. Brittny and Dr. Handa end the episode discussing what they would tell their younger selves and the importance of creating boundaries and staying on task for a healthy YOU.This is an episode you do not want to miss!https://www.rattihanda.com/our-dentist-office/ratti-handa-dmd/

Dental Marketing with Legwork Podcast Website Follow @dental_digest_podcast Instagram Follow @dr.melissa_seibert on Instagram Connect with Melissa on Linkedin Dental Digest Podcast Facebook Youtube channel  Dr. DeWood is Executive Vice President of Spear Education. As one of the founding members of Spear, he directed Curriculum and Clinical Education for nearly a decade prior to joining in the launch of Spear Practice Solutions. Today, he splits time between teaching and consulting. Dr. DeWood serves as an instructor in multiple Spear Workshops, including Facially Generated Treatment Planning, Occlusion in Clinical Practice, Advanced Occlusion, Sleep Medicine in the Dental Practice and a special focus workshop on temporomandibular disorder. He also maintains a limited private practice on the Spear Campus in Scottsdale, Arizona, and lectures nationally and internationally on practice management, treatment planning, case management, case acceptance, TMD diagnosis, appliance therapy, occlusion, and esthetics. Prior to his contributions at Spear, Dr. DeWood maintained a private restorative general practice with his wife and fellow Spear Resident Faculty member, Dr. Cheryl DeWood, in Pemberville, Ohio, before dedicating most of his time to teaching full time. With 40 years in general dentistry, he provides a unique perspective to the application of the dental principles taught at Spear. He has spent years focused on diagnosing and treating functional occlusal problems and TMD, and as part of that focus completed the craniofacial pain mini-residency at the University of Florida College of Dentistry in the early 1990s. Dr. DeWood served as clinical director at The Pankey Institute from 2003 to 2008. He has held appointments as associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry and assistant professor at the University of Toledo College of Medicine. He earned his D.D.S. from Case Western Reserve University in 1980 and an M.S. degree in biomedical sciences from the University of Toledo College of Medicine in 2004.

  Dental Marketing with Legwork Podcast Website Follow @dental_digest_podcast Instagram Follow @dr.melissa_seibert on Instagram Connect with Melissa on Linkedin Dental Digest Podcast Facebook Youtube channel  Dr. DeWood is Executive Vice President of Spear Education. As one of the founding members of Spear, he directed Curriculum and Clinical Education for nearly a decade prior to joining in the launch of Spear Practice Solutions. Today, he splits time between teaching and consulting. Dr. DeWood serves as an instructor in multiple Spear Workshops, including Facially Generated Treatment Planning, Occlusion in Clinical Practice, Advanced Occlusion, Sleep Medicine in the Dental Practice and a special focus workshop on temporomandibular disorder. He also maintains a limited private practice on the Spear Campus in Scottsdale, Arizona, and lectures nationally and internationally on practice management, treatment planning, case management, case acceptance, TMD diagnosis, appliance therapy, occlusion, and esthetics. Prior to his contributions at Spear, Dr. DeWood maintained a private restorative general practice with his wife and fellow Spear Resident Faculty member, Dr. Cheryl DeWood, in Pemberville, Ohio, before dedicating most of his time to teaching full time. With 40 years in general dentistry, he provides a unique perspective to the application of the dental principles taught at Spear. He has spent years focused on diagnosing and treating functional occlusal problems and TMD, and as part of that focus completed the craniofacial pain mini-residency at the University of Florida College of Dentistry in the early 1990s. Dr. DeWood served as clinical director at The Pankey Institute from 2003 to 2008. He has held appointments as associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry and assistant professor at the University of Toledo College of Medicine. He earned his D.D.S. from Case Western Reserve University in 1980 and an M.S. degree in biomedical sciences from the University of Toledo College of Medicine in 2004.