Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran

In this episode, Howard Farran welcomes back Dr. Wardah Inam, MIT PhD and co-founder and CEO of Overjet, five years after her first appearance — joined partway through by Dr. Natalia Chalmers, DDS, PhD, MHSc, Overjet's Chief Dental Officer and former Chief Dental Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she was the only dentist among 6,000 employees. Dr. Inam traces what's changed since their last conversation, starting with Overjet becoming the first dental AI company to receive FDA clearance and expanding from clinical imaging into administrative workflows. She walks through the current product landscape: Vision AI for radiographic interpretation, Iris as a fully AI-native imaging software that improves image quality and capture feedback in real time, voice AI for ambient charting that eliminates manual note-taking, perio charting, and hard tissue charting, and an insurance verification product that goes beyond eligibility to calculate actual patient estimates from the fine print.

The conversation covers both the practical and the philosophical. Howard pushes back on the "over-diagnosis" criticism of imaging AI, pointing to dentists using Overjet alongside silver diamine fluoride who can now watch lesions remineralize over 6 to 18 months — and tracing SDF all the way back to G.V. Black's volume on pathology of the hard tissues. Dr. Inam explains why she'd recommend Open Dental to a new graduate (open, low-cost, connects to anything), and both guests make the case that AI's real power is helping patients see what the dentist sees, removing the perceived financial incentive from diagnosis and acting as a neutral second opinion that lifts case acceptance. Dr. Chalmers brings the access-to-care lens, arguing that thin-margin Medicaid practices benefit most from efficiency gains, and describes watching the documentary Invasive: Modern Dentistry Reimagined through four simultaneous perspectives — patient, pediatric dentist, general dentist, and policymaker. The episode closes on workforce and education: Overjet now partners with 25% of dental schools, new grads entering DSOs are already expected to be AI-fluent, and both guests argue the technology will democratize capabilities once exclusive to large groups down to the 80% of the market still practicing solo.

Check out Overjet: Overjet Platform | Book Your Demo

Episode #1748 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard welcomes back Dr. Wardah Inam — MIT PhD and CEO of Overjet — five years after her first appearance, joined by Dr. Natalia Chalmers, Overjet's Chief Dental Officer and former Chief Dental Officer at CMS.

From Vision AI reading radiographs to Iris imaging software, ambient voice charting that eliminates manual perio and hard tissue charting, and AI insurance verification that calculates patient estimates — they break down what AI actually does in a practice today.

Plus: why AI may democratize DSO-level capability down to the solo practitioner, and why new grads will be expected to be AI-fluent on day one.

🎧 Essential listening for any dentist trying to understand where dental AI really stands in 2026.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalAI #Overjet #ArtificialIntelligence #DentalTechnology #CaseAcceptance

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In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Courtney Wager, RDH, a registered dental hygienist with 20 years of clinical experience and the founder of Wager Practice Systems, a consulting company focused on improving the efficiency, productivity, and profitability of hygiene departments. For her entire career, Courtney has practiced in a two-column assisted hygiene model, consistently seeing 12 to 14 patients a day while maintaining a strong emphasis on comprehensive care and clinical outcomes. She has also lectured nationally and internationally on dental hygiene and myofunctional therapy, served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Orofacial Myology, and co-chaired the Southeastern Component of the Massachusetts Dental Hygienists' Association.

The conversation tackles assisted hygiene head-on — why the topic remains so controversial, what a genuinely successful model actually looks like in practice, and whether comprehensive care is realistically possible in a 30-minute appointment. Courtney and Howard dig into whether assisted hygiene can be both clinically excellent and financially successful, how a practice owner can tell if their office is even a good candidate for it, and what separates high-performing hygiene departments from merely average ones. They also address the pressures facing hygiene right now, including staffing shortages, burnout, and scheduling inefficiencies, along with the practical question of how hygienists and hygiene assistants should be compensated. The episode closes on a thoughtful note: the one thing Courtney wishes every dentist understood about hygienists, and the one thing she wishes every hygienist understood about practice ownership.

Episode #1747 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Courtney Wager, RDH — 20-year hygienist and founder of Wager Practice Systems — to tackle one of dentistry's most divisive topics: assisted hygiene.

She's practiced in a two-column assisted model her entire career, seeing 12–14 patients a day without sacrificing comprehensive care. So why does the topic still spark so much debate?

From whether you can truly deliver quality care in 30 minutes, to how hygienists and assistants should be compensated, to what separates high-performing hygiene departments from average ones — this is an honest look at the department that quietly makes or breaks a practice.

🎧 A must-listen for hygienists and practice owners alike.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalHygiene #AssistedHygiene #HygieneDepartment #PracticeManagement #RDH

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In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Deren Flesher, founder and CEO of AiroDental. Trained as a dentist, Deren spent enough time on the operations side of the business to conclude that a practice's success or failure has far less to do with what happens in the operatory than with what happens at the front desk, on the phone, and in how the office is run day to day. He built AiroDental to close that gap, bringing everyday practice workflows into one connected system — including Laine, an AI voice agent that answers and works patient calls, and Saige, an AI coach and training layer for front-desk teams — on the thesis that dentistry deserves software built for it from the inside rather than retrofitted from generic tools.

The conversation is refreshingly blunt about where practices go wrong. Deren and Howard dig into why so many coaching programs produce the same notebook of advice year after year with so little actual change, and what owners should really expect from a coach. He lays out the mismanagement patterns he keeps encountering across the country: the owner who has become the bottleneck, the office manager carrying the entire organization on her shoulders, a front desk nobody has trained in two years, and dashboards nobody reads. He also names what he calls the identity trap — "I am a clinician, not a CEO" — as one of the most expensive sentences in dentistry, and explains the myth of the great hire and why the next front-desk person rarely fixes anything on their own. The episode also covers the ADA HPI staffing numbers showing roughly 62% of practices in active shortage, what the owners who are still winning do differently, why most dental software decisions get made for the wrong reasons, and where AI genuinely fits inside a practice — and where it doesn't.

Episode #1746 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Deren Flesher — dentist turned founder and CEO of AiroDental, the AI platform built specifically for dental practices.

His core argument: most of dentistry's biggest problems aren't clinical at all. They're operational — the untrained front desk, the missed calls, the owner who's become the bottleneck, and the dashboards nobody reads.

Plus honest talk on why practice coaching so often fails, the myth of the great hire, and where AI genuinely belongs in a practice (and where it absolutely doesn't).

🎧 A direct, no-fluff conversation on operations, leadership, and running a practice like a business.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalAI #PracticeManagement #FrontDesk #AiroDental #DentalOperations

Links:

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In this two-guest episode, Howard Farran sits down with Drs. Stephanie Ganter and Robert "Bobby" McNeill — a periodontist and oral and maxillofacial surgeon couple who do almost everything together. Steph is a board-certified periodontist, a past ADA 10 Under 10 honoree and Incisal Edge 40 Under 40 recipient, and a graduate of Harvard's Surgical Leadership Program. Bobby is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon who has served with the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners since 2017 and holds an MBA in healthcare management. The two practice together just outside Dallas, are currently classmates in Northeastern University School of Law's part-time FlexJD program, and host the Between Two Teeth podcast.

The conversation starts with the obvious question: why would two established dental surgeons take on law school mid-career, and what is that experience teaching them about dentistry, regulation, risk, and professional independence? From there, Steph and Bobby explain how they built a genuinely collaborative surgical practice without silos or turf battles, and share a candid view on clinical independence in a changing profession — including DSOs, corporate ownership, and the growing tension between business priorities and clinical judgment. They also take aim at what dentistry gets wrong about success, burnout, and professional identity, making the case that an ambitious career should still leave room for relationships, health, and purpose. Along the way they talk motorcycles, hockey, and recent trips through the Himalayas and across Morocco — usually on two wheels and rarely by the easiest route — and why curiosity and a willingness to keep reinventing yourself may be the most essential skill for dentists over the next twenty years.

Between Two Teeth Podcast: Between Two Teeth - YouTube

Disclaimer: This interview does not constitute legal or tax advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. This interview is for educational purposes only.

Episode #1745 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Drs. Stephanie Ganter and Bobby McNeill — a board-certified periodontist and oral surgeon couple who practice together outside Dallas, attend law school together, and ride motorcycles through the Himalayas together.

Why would two established surgeons go back to law school mid-career? What does it teach you about regulation, risk, and clinical independence? And how do you build an ambitious career that still leaves room for an actual life?

🎧 A refreshing conversation about collaboration, curiosity, and reinventing yourself in dentistry.

#DentistryUncensored #Periodontics #OralSurgery #DentalLaw #ClinicalIndependence #WorkLifeBalance

Dr. Jack Hahn returns to Dentistry Uncensored for round two — a pioneer of modern implant dentistry with over 58 years in practice, 54 of them devoted entirely to implants, and the designer of four implant systems including the Steri-Oss, the Replace Tapered implant for Nobel Biocare, and the Hahn Tapered implant at Glidewell. This time he picks up the stories he didn't get to the first time. He walks through two of his lesser-known inventions — the JAH 2000 blade, with a curved neck designed to let you graft the day you place it, and the IPI provisional implant that predated minis — along with the industry realities that killed both. He recalls showing blade results at the 1986 Academy of Osseointegration meeting in Dallas, where oral surgeons quietly cleaned out the entire supply of brochures at the booth during the break, and makes the case that the true pioneers of implant dentistry were the clinicians doing subperiosteals, ramus frames, and blades in the '70s and '80s — with subperiosteals now coming back into vogue thanks to 3D printing.

The conversation turns to the business and regulation of implants. Jack shares the untold story of meeting Don Maloney at the Chicago Midwinter and advising him to build Clear Choice like McDonald's — same implant, same everything, at every center — only to have investors look at his contract and ask, "What do we need him for?" He and Howard dig into the Ohio State Dental Board's March 2026 move on specialty advertising rules, and whether implant dentistry should finally be recognized as a specialty. Jack's position is nuanced: he wants credentials to count without freezing out the "onesie-twosie" GPs, while Howard argues patients deserve one place that can take them from A to Z, since surgeons who place implants often can't restore them. Jack also offers a clinic's worth of hard-won guidance — his pilot's checklist for new patients, why patient musculature should influence implant count, never penny-pinching on the extra implant, treating soft tissue as a barometer, and his warning that an implant in a bad position always integrates. He closes with a caution about over-reliance on digital planning and AI ("put in 50 implants the conventional way first"), his advice to a senior in dental school to get hands-on before graduating, and why his criteria for any system comes down to three S's: simple, safe, and successful.

Episode #1744 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Dr. Jack Hahn is back for round two — 58 years in dentistry, 54 of them in implants, four implant systems designed, and over 5,000 Dentaltown threads mentioning his name.

This time he digs into the stories he didn't get to the first time: the blade implant oral surgeons secretly swiped brochures for, the Clear Choice deal he was cut out of, the HA coating study that got destroyed, and his blunt take on whether implant dentistry should finally be a recognized specialty.

🎧 Pure, unfiltered wisdom from the GOAT of implant dentistry.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalImplants #ImplantDentistry #DentalHistory #Dentaltown #JackHahn

In this two-guest episode, Howard Farran sits down with the leadership team behind DOCS Education. Dr. Michael D. Silverman, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, is a globally recognized lecturer, author, and patient advocacy leader with more than four decades of clinical experience as a general dentist. He co-founded the Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation in 1999 to give dentists the training and safety protocols needed to treat high-anxiety patients, and as President — and a Fellow of both the International College of Dentists and the American College of Dentistry — he has helped teach over 40,000 dental professionals how to safely implement sedation. Joining him is Dr. Anthony Feck, DOCS Education's Dean of Faculty and an engaging international lecturer across the United States, Canada, and Europe, whose teaching style blends humor with contagious passion and whose career spans sedation dentistry, dental technology, pharmacology, and practice building.

The conversation centers on sedation as a path to expanding access to care — reaching the enormous population of patients whose fear keeps them out of the dental chair entirely, and doing it with the protocols and training that keep it safe. Dr. Silverman draws on his experience appearing before numerous state dental boards to advocate for safe, reasonable regulation, while Dr. Feck brings the educator's perspective on what it actually takes to bring sedation into a practice successfully. Together with Howard, they explore the clinical, business, and regulatory sides of sedation dentistry, and how a practice that can confidently treat anxious patients opens a door that most of the profession leaves closed.

DOCS Education: DOCS Education (@docsdentaleducation) • Instagram photos and videos

Dentistry Uncensored by DOCS: Learn Sedation Dentistry | DOCS Education

Episode #1743 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with the leadership behind DOCS Education — Dr. Michael Silverman, co-founder and President, and Dr. Anthony Feck, Dean of Faculty.

Between them, they've taught over 40,000 dental professionals how to safely implement sedation and treat the high-anxiety patients most practices never reach. Add four decades of clinical experience, advocacy before state dental boards, and a passion for practice building — and this one covers a lot of ground.

🎧 A must-listen on sedation dentistry, patient safety, access to care, and reaching the patients who've been avoiding the chair for years.

#DentistryUncensored #SedationDentistry #DOCSEducation #DentalAnxiety #DentalCE #PatientSafety

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Tobi Bosede, a recognized leader in artificial intelligence and machine learning — named one of Samasource's "12 Women in Machine Learning to Watch" — who left a career building production AI systems for Fortune 500 companies to found DentalFynd, an AI-powered prepaid booking marketplace for fee-for-service dentistry. The conversation leans hard into the AI question dominating the dental community right now. Tobi draws a clear line between genuine application and buzzword, describing overkill AI as "trying to hit a fly with a hammer when you can just use a swat," and pointing to where it earns its keep: complex and tedious work, like the patented AI quality score she designed to give patients an objective measure of care quality rather than relying on subjective star ratings. She also walks Howard through GEO — generative engine optimization, the emerging successor to SEO — explaining that patients are now searching for dentists inside ChatGPT and Claude rather than Google, and that practices need to show up in those answers. The two also take on the existential debate head-on: Tobi argues that fears of AI revolting or making humans extinct are overblown, that AI only reasons from data humans have already fed it, and that it will most likely fade into the background like electricity or the internet.

The business half of the conversation centers on breaking free from insurance dependence. Tobi lays out the opportunity: roughly 70 million Americans — about 25% of the population — have no dental insurance, representing more than $50 billion in out-of-pocket spending. DentalFynd lets patients browse procedures, see transparent pricing, and prepay at 2 a.m. without playing phone tag, meaning dentists get paid in days rather than months and patients have skin in the game, which sharply reduces no-shows. She and Howard swap stories on the psychology of free versus paid — from FQHC no-show rates to London's congestion charge — and Howard delivers a characteristically blunt rant on why dentists will sign a 40%-off PPO contract without blinking but hesitate over a few hundred dollars in marketing. The episode closes on People of Color in Dental, the nonprofit Tobi founded to build trust, visibility, and connection for minority and newcomer dental professionals — and an on-air invitation for Howard to join the board.

Episode #1742 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Tobi Bosede — AI and machine learning leader, founder & CEO of DentalFynd, and founder of People of Color in Dental.

Before dentistry, she built production AI systems for Fortune 500 companies that generated billions in revenue and multiple patents. Now she's tackling the biggest AI question in dentistry right now: where does it actually create an advantage, and where is it just a label everyone's slapping on things?

From GEO (the new AI-driven SEO — patients searching for dentists in ChatGPT instead of Google), to patented AI quality scoring, to whether AI will ever outsmart the humans who built it — this one goes deep.

🎧 Essential listening for any dentist trying to separate real AI value from the hype.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalAI #ArtificialIntelligence #FeeForService #DentalMarketing #DentalFynd

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with brothers Jordon and Justin Comstock to dig into the economics of recurring revenue in dentistry. Jordon is the founder and CEO of BoomCloud, a dental membership-plan platform he bootstrapped into a multimillion-dollar SaaS company now serving hundreds of practices. He has spent years helping dentists create, automate, and scale in-house membership programs as an alternative to relying exclusively on traditional insurance and PPO reimbursement, with a focus on shifting practices from one-time transactional revenue toward systematic recurring income.

The conversation starts with a blunt observation: most dental practices begin every month at $0 in collections, and membership revenue fundamentally changes that position. Jordon and Justin walk through the "PPO tax" — how stagnant reimbursements, rising overhead, and write-offs quietly squeeze profitability — and how practices can reduce PPO dependence without recklessly dropping insurance overnight. They explain how membership plans convert uninsured and out-of-network patients into loyal recurring members who often behave differently than cash or PPO patients in terms of retention, treatment acceptance, and lifetime value. The discussion also covers what a high-performing membership-driven practice actually looks like by the numbers, the biggest mistakes practices make when launching a plan, how technology can automate billing and enrollment without burdening the front desk, and the bigger picture of where dental economics is headed as inflation, staffing costs, and insurance pressure continue to mount. Jordon also shares lessons from building BoomCloud as a bootstrapped vertical SaaS company focused tightly on a niche.

Episode #1741 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with brothers Jordon and Justin Comstock to talk about one of the biggest shifts happening in dental economics: recurring revenue.

Most practices start every single month at $0 in collections. Jordon, founder and CEO of BoomCloud, makes the case that in-house membership plans change that math entirely — reducing PPO dependence, boosting retention and case acceptance, and getting practices paid before the doors even open.

🎧 A smart conversation on the "PPO tax," membership plans, and building a more predictable practice.

#DentistryUncensored #BoomCloud #MembershipPlans #RecurringRevenue #DentalBusiness #PPO

In this episode, Howard Farran welcomes back Dr. Ann Marie Gorczyca for her sixth appearance on the show. An orthodontist with more than 36 years of experience, she is a graduate of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine with a Master's in Public Health from Harvard's Department of Health Management and Policy, completed her orthodontic residency at Northwestern, and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics and Past President of the Northern California Angle Society of Orthodontists. She taught practice management to orthodontic residents in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly a decade, leads her team at Gorczyca Orthodontics in Antioch, California, and is the author of five practice management books — with her sixth and final entry in the series, One Team, One Score, arriving in September 2026.

The conversation centers on leadership as the capstone of everything she's written. Dr. Gorczyca explains what "One Team, One Score" actually means, walks through the four forms of leadership — authoritative, bureaucratic, democratic, and laissez-faire — and how a dentist knows which to use and when. She shares what she learned studying leaders like Alan Mulally, Indra Nooyi, and Ursula Burns, why the single word "WE" changes the dynamic of an entire practice, and the "Achilles' heel" she sees in women leaders and how she coaches them through it. She and Howard also dig into the deceptively simple communication rules teams still get wrong, the warrior-versus-victim mindset in daily practice, where most dental teams get stuck in the forming-storming-norming-performing cycle, and the right way to address insubordination before it quietly poisons a team. The episode closes on a fitting note: quoting Michelangelo at 87 saying "I am still learning," Dr. Gorczyca reflects on what she's still figuring out after 36 years and six books.

Episode #1740 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard welcomes back Dr. Ann Marie Gorczyca — orthodontist, author, and practice management expert — for her sixth appearance on the show!

With 36+ years in orthodontics and a Harvard DMD and MPH behind her, Dr. Gorczyca joins to discuss her sixth and final book, One Team, One Score. From the four styles of leadership to the warrior-versus-victim mindset, she breaks down how great dental teams are actually built.

🎧 A must-listen for any dentist leading a team — and still learning how to lead it better.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalLeadership #PracticeManagement #TeamBuilding #Orthodontics #OneTeamOneScore

In this special episode, Howard Farran steps into the lecture hall rather than the studio, delivering a guest lecture to dental students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas at the invitation of Dr. Karen Kucharski, Assistant Professor in Residence in Clinical Sciences. The talk — titled The Business of Dentistry After Graduation: DSOs, Practice Ownership, Student Loans, and Career Strategy — was requested for a simple reason: students are increasingly convinced that practice ownership is a dream that has died, and they want an honest, balanced education on what actually awaits them after graduation.

Howard works through the questions students themselves submitted, covering the realities of production inside a DSO and how much control an associate truly has over it, what separates thriving associates from those who feel taken advantage of, and which clinical skills new grads most wish they'd developed more in school. He addresses the pressure to produce at or beyond one's level of clinical expertise, what a genuinely competitive associate contract looks like and which terms are actually negotiable, whether associates are converting their own cases or depending on a treatment coordinator, and how much the mentorship and CE promised by large groups really improves clinical competency. The lecture closes on the bigger career questions: appointment length and autonomy, what high-production associates actually take home, student loan strategy, and the honest case for and against lifelong associateship versus ownership — delivered with the goal of educating rather than selling students on either path.

Episode #1739 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard Farran takes the podium at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine, invited by Dr. Karen Kucharski to speak to her students on The Business of Dentistry After Graduation: DSOs, Practice Ownership, Student Loans, and Career Strategy.

Students today are being told the dream of ownership is dead. This lecture is a straight, no-spin education on the real trade-offs between DSO associateship and owning — production limits, contracts, mentorship, case conversion, and the numbers behind it all.

🎧 Required listening for dental students, residents, and any new grad weighing their first job offer.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalStudents #DentalEducation #PracticeOwnership #DSO #NewGrad #UNLV

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Jill A. Tanzi, current president of the Alliance of Independent Dentists and a partner in Shero Dental Advisors. A valedictorian from Oxford, Massachusetts, she earned her BA cum laude in Biology from the University of Rochester and her DDS with honors from the University of Maryland, and has owned and practiced in a successful group practice in Hopkinton, MA for the past 23 years. That combination of hands-on ownership and organized advocacy gives her a grounded perspective on the pressures facing independent practice today.

The conversation tackles the question at the heart of her work: who is actually representing independent dentists, and why multiple voices serve the profession better than a single unified one. Dr. Tanzi and Howard explore why independent dentists should care about advocacy at all, why a retiring dentist might be better off selling to another dentist than to a DSO, and what's really at stake as consolidation accelerates. They also dig into bigger policy questions — whether dental coverage should be folded into medical insurance, and what the "Break Up Big Medicine" movement is aiming to accomplish and why it matters to dentistry.

Episode #1738 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Jill Tanzi — president of the Alliance of Independent Dentists, partner in Shero Dental Advisors, and owner of a thriving group practice in Hopkinton, MA for over 23 years.

Who's actually representing independent dentists? Why are multiple voices better than "one voice"? And why should a retiring dentist sell to another dentist instead of a DSO? Dr. Tanzi doesn't hold back.

🎧 A passionate, pointed conversation on advocacy, independence, and the fight for the future of private practice.

#DentistryUncensored #IndependentDentists #PrivatePractice #DentalAdvocacy #DSO #DentalPolicy

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Lior Tamir, a practicing dentist and entrepreneur who spent more than a decade in marketing technology — building platforms that turned data into action for global consumer brands — before returning to dentistry and finding a fragmented, outdated ecosystem with almost no real-time clarity. He grew his de novo practice, Bloom Dental Group, to $5M in its first seven years and used it as the testing ground for The Dental App, a cloud-based platform combining practice management, patient relationships, and real-time analytics into a single AI-powered system.

The conversation centers on a provocative claim: the traditional practice management system is no longer enough. Built for an era when front desk teams manually handled everything, today's PMS simply stores data while practices juggle thousands of patients, hundreds of unscheduled treatment plans, and endless overdue recall — forcing dentists to bolt on third-party tools just to drive action. Lior argues that dentistry is only now entering the era that sales and marketing entered years ago with CRM and automation, and that data without action is worthless. His central point: most diagnosed dentistry never gets done, and while the profession obsesses over marketing, SEO, and Google reviews, millions of dollars in already-diagnosed treatment sits idle in the database.

From there, Lior and Howard explore AI agents as a genuine digital workforce — software that can identify patients with outstanding treatment, reach out automatically, answer questions, book appointments, fill schedule holes, reactivate overdue patients, and collect balances at a scale no human team could match. His view is that AI won't replace staff but create "super staff," turning a treatment coordinator managing 100 cases into one managing 1,000, while freeing teams to focus on relationship building, problem solving, and patient experience. The episode closes on the rise of the dentist CEO and where the profession heads over the next decade: collapsing software categories, real-time business intelligence as standard, and winners determined less by clinical technique than by an understanding of business, hospitality, and a willingness to adopt change.

Episode #1737 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Lior Tamir — practicing dentist, entrepreneur, and founder of The Dental App — who grew his de novo practice, Bloom Dental Group, to $5M in seven years and used it as the proving ground for a new kind of platform.

His argument: the PMS was built for an era that's gone. Meanwhile, millions of dollars in diagnosed treatment sit unscheduled in practice databases while everyone obsesses over new patients and Google reviews. The fortune is in the follow-up — and AI agents can finally do it at scale.

🎧 A sharp look at AI, systems, and the rise of the dentist CEO.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalAI #PracticeManagement #DentalTechnology #TheDentalApp #DentalBusiness

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Jim Glidewell — the man he calls his idol, mentor, and the GOAT of crown and bridge — for a conversation nearly 1,800 episodes in the making. Jim traces his improbable path from a one-room Kentucky schoolhouse with a coal stove and no electricity, to returning from Vietnam, selling insurance at 21, and stumbling into dental technology after visiting a friend at his lab bench. He explains the philosophy that shaped everything since: like Henry Ford, Sam Walton, and Southwest Airlines, the winner isn't whoever charges the most, it's whoever delivers the most value for the dollar — and why he's always built for the working man rather than the "Neiman Marcus of dentistry." From there the conversation covers an enormous amount of ground on technology and the trade, including AI trained on 45 million archived crown designs that can match a crown shape in 8 to 10 seconds, the "Lego partial" that prints frame, teeth, and tissue simultaneously for a four-hour turnaround, and the surprisingly brutal engineering behind diamond-coated burs for milling sintered zirconia. Jim predicts chairside-printed dentures within three to five years and the decline of metal partials, reflects on how introducing zirconia in 2007 ended the gold and PFM markets overnight, and notes an industry that has consolidated from 17,000 labs down to just over 4,000.

The back half turns candid and personal. Jim weighs in on open versus closed systems, why scanner prices are collapsing, and what actually keeps customers loyal — not the hardware, but someone picking up the phone on the first ring. He offers blunt advice to indebted young dentists about whether dentistry was ever the right fit, predicts DSO penetration could reach 70%, and shares his distaste for exit-strategy thinking and EBITDA-driven ownership, noting that most dentists he meets who sold to private equity wish they hadn't. He also talks about his management philosophy of staying out of employees' way, the AI avatars now handling customer calls, his son leaving college to learn in-house, and his near-death experience with COVID, when he was intubated at 32 pounds down with less than a 10% chance of survival. Asked why he's still first in the door at 81, his answer is simple: this isn't a business he's building to sell. His exit strategy is death.

For more information on Glidewell TV: https://glidewelldental.com/company/tv

Episode #1736 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with his longtime idol and mentor — Jim Glidewell, founder of Glidewell Dental and, in Howard's words, "the GOAT" of crown and bridge.

From a one-room Kentucky schoolhouse with no electricity, to the largest private employer in Orange County with a million square feet of space. From selling insurance at 21 to building an empire on a simple belief: the winner is whoever delivers the most value for the lowest price.

🎧 A candid, wide-ranging conversation on AI, dentures, DSOs, private equity, and why at 81 he still shows up at 7:15 every morning.

#DentistryUncensored #GlidewellDental #DentalLab #DigitalDentistry #DentalIndustry #Zirconia

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Arthur Volker, a graduate of the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery who went on to complete a Master's degree in Prosthodontics and New Technologies from the University of Siena. In addition to his private practice in Sunnyside, New York, Dr. Volker owns DigiDent Laboratory — giving him a valuable dual perspective from both the operatory and the lab bench. He has published multiple articles and textbook chapters and lectures nationally and internationally on cosmetic dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry, dental materials, and digital dentistry.

The conversation centers on one of the most underrated fundamentals in clinical dentistry: isolation. Dr. Volker walks through practical isolation tactics and the specific advantages of the Isolite system, explaining how proper isolation affects everything downstream — bonding, material performance, patient comfort, and long-term restorative success. From there, he and Howard range across restorative, esthetic, and digital topics, drawing on Dr. Volker's expertise in materials science and his hands-on experience running a digital dental laboratory.

Episode #1735 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Arthur Volker — Columbia-trained clinician, owner of DigiDent Laboratory, and an internationally recognized lecturer on cosmetic, minimally invasive, and digital dentistry.

From isolation tactics and the real advantages of Isolite, to dental materials and digital workflows, Dr. Volker brings a rare combination of clinical depth and lab-side perspective to the conversation.

🎧 A practical, technique-driven episode for any dentist who wants better isolation, better materials decisions, and better restorative outcomes.

#DentistryUncensored #DigitalDentistry #MinimallyInvasive #CosmeticDentistry #DentalMaterials #Isolation

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. George Hariri, entrepreneur, educator, and co-founder of Shared Practices — one of dentistry's leading coaching and consulting organizations. After acquiring and scaling his own practices, George built a reputation for a candid, systems-driven approach to ownership and a willingness to challenge the conventional wisdom that leaves too many dentists overworked and underpaid. The conversation arrives at a milestone moment: the Shared Practices Podcast turns ten this year, and George reflects on what has changed across a decade of coaching aspiring and current practice owners, the growth of the coaching program, and the release of his books Dental Moneyball and a new title aimed at pre-owners.

At the heart of the discussion is a claim George is happy to argue: the industry insists 10%+ same-store growth is impossible, and he believes that's simply wrong — pointing to clients posting 37 to 39% growth year after year. He walks through the four levers behind that performance — patient retention, case acceptance, consistency in the team, and efficiency — and how that framework came together. Along the way, George shares how Howard's own work in practice management shaped his thinking about growth, and makes the case for building a practice that's both genuinely profitable and sustainable, without sacrificing your life to get there.

Episode #1734 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. George Hariri — entrepreneur, educator, and co-founder of Shared Practices — as the Shared Practices Podcast celebrates 10 years.

The industry says 10%+ same-store growth is impossible. George flatly disagrees — and his clients are posting 37–39% growth year after year. He breaks down the four levers behind it: patient retention, case acceptance, team consistency, and efficiency.

🎧 A candid, systems-driven conversation on growth, burnout, and building a practice that doesn't cost you your life.

#DentistryUncensored #SharedPractices #PracticeGrowth #DentalBusiness #PracticeOwnership #DentalCoaching

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Anthony "Tony" Gedge, who has spent 24 years in dentistry focused on the one thing most systems overlook: trust. His route into the profession was anything but conventional — he moved from running nightclubs into dentistry, where he built a pain-free movement around anxious patients and the fear of the injection, founded the Pain-Free Dentistry Institute, and co-founded Dental Mavericks, a charity that has now helped more than 180,000 children. He also took John Lennon's tooth and Elvis Presley's crown on tour to raise mouth cancer awareness — a campaign with fresh urgency given that UK deaths have climbed from roughly seven a day when he started to closer to ten today, with cases up nearly 50% over the past decade.

The conversation then turns to Tony's current work with Dental Group Signal, an evidence-led benchmarking platform studying how dental groups actually show up to patients, clinicians, investors, and the wider market. He walks through the twelve public signals the platform measures — from leadership and recruitment to patient trust, telephone access, review response, pricing visibility, digital journey, brand coherence, governance, and seller and investor signals — and shares findings from the May 2026 US DSO CEO Visibility benchmark, where only one of twenty leaders scored as a meaningful visibility leader and fifteen were rated underdeveloped. Howard and Tony explore what the US DSO market can learn from public-evidence benchmarking, why CEO and recruitment visibility have become commercial signals rather than marketing activity, and the crucial difference between simply being a large dental group and being a trusted, visible, coherent one.

Episode #1733 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Anthony "Tony" Gedge — a genuine dental maverick whose path ran from nightclubs to needles to benchmarking the entire industry.

Over 24 years, Tony founded the Pain-Free Dentistry Institute, co-founded Dental Mavericks (which has helped 180,000+ children), toured John Lennon's tooth and Elvis Presley's crown to raise mouth cancer awareness, and now leads Dental Group Signal, measuring the public trust signals behind dental group growth.

🎧 A wild, thought-provoking conversation about fear, trust, and why dentistry should measure trust as seriously as it measures EBITDA.

#DentistryUncensored #PainFreeDentistry #DentalMavericks #DSO #MouthCancerAwareness #DentalLeadership

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Philippe Salah, a PhD-trained scientist with a lifelong passion for innovation in orthodontics. Philippe co-founded Harmony, a pioneering lingual orthodontics company, in 2007, before founding DentalMonitoring in 2013 — a company he still leads as CEO and which has become a driving force in AI-powered, remote patient care.

The conversation explores how DentalMonitoring supports the full patient journey, from initial observation through active treatment and all the way to retention, and what continuous remote monitoring changes about the way orthodontists practice. Philippe and Howard also dig into a question weighing on many clinicians today: how orthodontists should position themselves in an increasingly challenging and competitive market, and what role AI and remote care will play in defining who thrives.

Episode #1732 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Philippe Salah — PhD-trained scientist, co-founder of lingual orthodontics pioneer Harmony, and founder & CEO of DentalMonitoring.

From AI-powered remote monitoring to managing the patient journey end-to-end — from first observation all the way through retention — Philippe shares how technology is reshaping orthodontic care and what it means for practices competing in an increasingly crowded market.

🎧 A forward-looking conversation on AI, remote care, and the future of orthodontics.

#DentistryUncensored #DentalMonitoring #Orthodontics #DentalAI #RemoteMonitoring #DigitalDentistry

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Erin Sheffield, a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon who has built a career breaking barriers in one of medicine's most male-dominated specialties. Beyond the operating room, she is an international speaker, educator, content creator, and advocate — the founder of The Doctor Is ALL In, a retreat helping high-achieving women doctors reconnect with their purpose and reclaim their well-being, and the host of The Resting Stitch Face podcast, where she leads candid conversations about identity, leadership, and the cost of fitting in.

The conversation moves fluidly between the clinical and the personal. On the surgical side, Dr. Sheffield digs into difficult third molars and coronectomy, bone grafting, and antibiotic stewardship — practical topics every general dentist and surgeon wrestles with. On the human side, she speaks openly about navigating discrimination and harassment in her own career, and what resilience, integrity, and reclaiming your voice actually look like in practice. Howard and Dr. Sheffield also explore trauma-informed care for dentists, the role of social media in modern practice, and the intertwined challenges of imposter syndrome, authenticity, and burnout. Her central message cuts across specialties and generations: real success isn't about perfection or approval — it's about showing up fully as yourself and making room for others to do the same.

Check out Dr. Sheffield's website for more info: http://www.doctorisallin.com

Episode #1731 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Erin Sheffield — board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon, international speaker, educator, and founder of The Doctor Is ALL In, a retreat for women doctors.

From difficult third molars, coronectomy, and bone grafting to antibiotic stewardship, trauma-informed care, and the honest realities of burnout and imposter syndrome — Dr. Sheffield brings both surgical precision and rare human insight.

🎧 A candid conversation about clinical excellence, authenticity, and building space for others in rooms that weren't built for everyone.

#DentistryUncensored #OralSurgery #WomenInDentistry #WomenInSurgery #DentalBurnout #Authenticity @drerinsheffield @restingstitchfacepodcast @thedoctorisallin

In this episode, Howard Farran podcasts live from Guatemala with Dr. Tommy Murph — the Myrtle Beach–area general dentist and Dentaltown legend behind more than 50,000 posts and the longest-running threads in the community's history. Speaking from the clinic floor between patients, Tommy walks through the scale of the operation: 46 dentists from four countries, roughly 250–300 patients a day, twelve-hour days, and nearly 1,000 teeth extracted in a single day, with about 45% of them wisdom teeth. Four times a year, he and Dr. Fletcher run these trips as a hybrid of charity dentistry and hands-on continuing education, delivering 54 hours of participation credit through WeTeachExtractions.com — training dentists who graduated without ever performing an extraction to confidently handle full bony horizontal impactions.

The conversation ranges well beyond Guatemala. Tommy shares his philosophy that any general dentist should be able to remove a visible tooth in ten minutes or less, and that success comes from a few well-understood instruments and proper luxation technique rather than a drawer full of forceps. He makes a blunt case for same-day emergency treatment, explains the cash-pay, out-of-network model he's run since 1999, and argues that most dentists could thrive without insurance participation. He also talks about running a lean practice with a staff of two, keeping overhead under 25%, why new grads should work for someone else for a year or two before ownership, and why extraction skill should come before implant training. Throughout, Howard and Tommy return to what makes these trips meaningful — patients who arrive at 4 a.m. and hug you afterward, Tommy's 81-year-old mother handing out toothbrushes and toys, and the way stepping into someone else's world can reset a stressed-out dentist's perspective entirely.

Episode #1730 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard Farran catches up with Dentaltown legend Dr. Tommy Murph — 50,000+ posts and counting — literally on the clinic floor in Guatemala, mid-mission, with 300 patients waiting outside.

46 dentists from 4 countries. Nearly 1,000 teeth extracted in a single day. Hands-on CE where dentists who never touched an extraction in school leave doing full bony impactions.

🎧 Charity dentistry, low overhead, straight talk, and one of the most unfiltered voices in the profession.

#DentistryUncensored #CharitableDentistry #Extractions #DentalMissions #Guatemala #Dentaltown

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Peeyush Ranjan, a board-certified pediatric dentist in both the United States and Canada and the owner of Tooth Pals in Airdrie, Alberta. Dr. Ranjan began his career in general dentistry in 2009 before discovering his passion for treating children, which led him to complete his pediatric residency at Nova Southeastern University and Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, where he served as Chief Resident. His master's research explored using picture-guided techniques to improve oral hygiene in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder — work that continues to shape how he cares for kids today.

The conversation spans Dr. Ranjan's unique cross-border journey — training in the U.S., practicing in rural Washington, and building a practice in Canada — and what it taught him about the profession in both countries. He makes a compelling case that rural America is dramatically underserved and full of opportunity most young dentists overlook, and shares why he remains a strong believer in independent ownership even in an age of consolidation and DSOs. Howard and Dr. Ranjan also dig into the role of culture and team (he runs his practice alongside his wife and treats his staff like family), how technology like the Solea laser and dental-specific VR transforms a child's experience in the chair, and his collaborative approach to infant tongue-tie treatment. The episode closes on the community work at the heart of his practice — from the Switch Witch candy buyback to toy drives and free screening camps — and the most important lessons he'd pass on to any young dentist starting out today.

Episode #1729 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Peeyush Ranjan — board-certified pediatric dentist in both the U.S. and Canada, and owner of Tooth Pals in Airdrie, Alberta.

From training in the U.S. and practicing in rural Washington to owning a practice in Canada, Dr. Ranjan brings a rare cross-border perspective — plus a passion for technology, community giving, and making sure no child grows up fearing the dentist.

🎧 A heartfelt, insightful conversation on pediatric care, independent ownership, and the opportunity most young dentists overlook.

#DentistryUncensored #PediatricDentistry #IndependentPractice #RuralDentistry #KidsDentist #PracticeOwnership