Early in my career a patient started crying in my chair. We sat down to do her first round of IPR. I could have sworn we talked about it before. She didn't remember any of it. So there she was. Scared. Crying. And there I was. Nervous as hell to do the IPR anyway. It was a traumatic appointment for everybody. I still think about it. Here's what I wish someone told me back then. You don't have to do everything in one visit. Attachments. IPR. Trays. All of it stacked on a nervous patient in one...
8 days ago • 3 min read
Last year my family moved from Texas to New York. I wasn't worried. I've moved my whole life. Florida to NYU. NYU to Connecticut. Connecticut to Texas. Moving is my thing. Plus my wife is a machine at planning. I figured we had this. Then reality showed up. The movers arrived at our new house. One problem. We hadn't closed on it yet. The timing we planned for fell apart. So our entire life went into my sister-in-law's garage. Then we hired a second set of movers to get it from her garage into...
15 days ago • 4 min read
I had a case that still bugs me when I look at the photos. We fixed the crowding. We got great intrusion on the lower front teeth. The before and after was a huge win. But one tooth was off. The lower central incisor. It bothered me. Three or four trays and it would be perfect. I could see it. I wanted it. So I brought it up with the patient. He looked at me and said "Doc, I really don't want to wear more trays. Are we good?" Here's where most of us mess up. We push. We say "trust me, it's...
22 days ago • 3 min read
A diagnosis changed everything—but it also opened the door to an entirely new career in dentistry. She Couldn’t Practice Dentistry Anymore. Here's What Happened Next. Most dentists enter the profession with a clear vision. Help patients. Build a successful practice. Create financial freedom. Enjoy the career they've worked so hard to achieve. But sometimes, life has other plans. After being diagnosed with arthritis, Dr. Mariz Tanious was forced to step away from clinical dentistry. What could...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
There is a conversation I keep having. It comes up in coaching calls. It comes up after Momentum Meetings. It comes up in the messages I get after a video goes up. It almost always sounds like this: "I know I should be doing more aligner cases. I just don't feel ready yet." I understand that feeling completely. Because every meaningful thing I have built in my career started with it. Practicing as a dentist. Starting clear aligners. Posting my first video online. Building a course. Teaching...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Most dentists think successful practice owners have a perfect plan. The reality? They usually don't. This week's guest, Dr. Hardik Chodavadia, co-founder of Enamel Dentistry, built a single startup practice into a 10+ location organization—and he's surprisingly candid about what actually got him there. Instead of pretending everything was carefully mapped out, Hardik shares the real story: Getting a bank to fund a startup with no business plan. Why being a "terrible employee" pushed him into...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
A few weeks ago, I sat in on a check-in call with one of the doctors inside our Clear Aligner Blueprint program. Before joining, every aligner consultation felt like a gamble. Not because he wasn't a good dentist. Because he wasn't always sure what would happen after the patient said yes. Would the case be more complex than it appeared? Could he confidently deliver the outcome he was promising? What if he got halfway through treatment and realized he was in over his head? That uncertainty...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
When Anna Singh graduated from dental school, she had no idea what came next.No mentor lined up. No plan for how to actually run a practice. Just a degree and a chair waiting for her at a Heartland practice. What changed everything was one comment from her dental assistant."If you can do the dentistry, I will sell the dentistry for you."That single line reframed how Anna thought about her job. She had assumed being a great clinician was enough. It wasn't. The assistant had something Anna...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Dave Gaspar didn't grow up wanting to run a DSO. He grew up in Arizona wanting to be a baseball broadcaster. Listened to Vin Scully every night. Got a communications degree. Worked in radio. Left when he realized small towns and small paychecks weren't the plan. He ended up in veterinary practice management. Then dentistry. And somewhere in between, a few doctors took him into the back of their practices and showed him what the job actually looked like from inside an operatory. That stuck. ow...
2 months ago • 4 min read
