Brews and Tiny Teeth, The Unfiltered Pediatric Dentistry Podcast

Dr. Christopher Chance is a pediatric dentist and the owner of Oaks Point Pediatric Dentistry in Houston, Texas. He joins the podcast to tell us more about his start-up journey to create a boutique practice in an edgy, modern office in the growing Houston area.  We drink a few cold beers and talk about some of the following start-up topics:  - Using corporate associateships as a practice run for a start-up  - Challenges with securing lending for a large or expensive practice space - Using local resources and professionals in the community to create and design a modern practice space - Marketing using word-of-mouth and social media - Understanding how start-ups have a young patient base that matures over time, and how the demand for dental services evolve Happy Holidays to all listeners and hard working pediatric dentists out there. I hope you all take some much deserved time to relax with your families. Don't forget that any listener questions, concerns, or ideas for future topics can be sent to cgoetz@troypediatricdentist.com.

Are you a well-rounded pediatric dentist? You might not be as much as you think. If I've learned anything about dentists, it's that they are resistant to change and easily get stuck in doing things the way they've always done them. A good dentist recognizes his or her own shortcomings, and isn't afraid to try new procedures and materials, and step beyond the edge of the comfort zone.  Dr. Sean Whalen is a seasoned pediatric dentist and practice owner from Westminster, Colorado. We discuss different techniques, procedures, materials, and ideologies that a well-rounded pediatric dentist should be offering. Dr. Whalen is passionate about providing a full range of services to best serve our patients, including interceptive ortho, oral conscious sedation, oral surgery, posterior zirconia, advanced behavior management and many others. We discuss that if we do not distinguish ourselves with our skill sets as specialists, corporate dentistry may push us out of the marketplace. 

This is the this third and final segment of our giant student loan story-time. Dr. Jared Johnson is a pediatric dentist and the owner of Arctic Dental in Muscatine, Iowa. He started his practice from scratch along with buying the practice building, buying a home, and piling all of these things on top of his large student loan debt. Proudly wearing the badge of "reverse millionaire" we discuss how he has financially and philosophically dealt with digging out this debt hole to have a thriving and profitable career, all while being able to see a high proportion of kids with medicaid in his community.  Our final guest features a great power-couple. Dr. Stephanie Guinn is a pediatric dentist who started a scratch practice in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her husband, Tony, is an endodontist and a partner at his practice. They come on the show to talk about their combined 1,000,000 dollars in student loan debt, and how they have a plan to finish paying it off. Tony and I get deep into the financial weeds, but it's a great podcast for dual-specializing power-couples in the dental field. 

We are continuing with part 2 of our special on soul-crushing student loans and how to deal with them! Unlike our last episode, the two guests today are pediatric dentists who provide the sole source of income for their families. Dr. Scott Folkman is a pediatric dentist in Layton, Utah. He started his own practice from scratch right out of residency, and has paid off 450K of student loans in 7 years. Dr. Folkman has utilized multiple rounds of refinancing to drop his interest rates. He is a great example of a pediatric dentist who has been successful with his student loans as the sole income provider for his household, while his wife runs the house with his 5 children.  Dr. Kevin Brown is a pediatric dentist in Lehi, Utah. He paid off $285K over 4 years while simultaneously starting a scratch practice. He was able to aggressively pay down debt by associating one week per month at a profitable associateship out-of-state, all while taking advantage of the current federal student loan interest freeze to pay down $8000 per month towards principal. 

This week's episode is a special feature that should appeal to many of our dental listeners. We are talking about soul-crushing student loans and how to deal with them! Most of us leveraged some degree of student loans throughout our extensive education process, and these loans influence the financial decisions we make every day. This two-part episode series features multiple short interviews with pediatric dentists who have opened up about their career paths, and how they tackled large amounts of student loans. The three guests in this episode are: Dr. Megan Charowski is a pediatric dentist who works as an associate at Holly Tree Pediatric Dentistry in South Carolina. She used a simple strategy of keeping personal expenses low and living off spousal income to pay off 380K in student loans in 3.5 years.  Dr. Phil Chung is a pediatric dentist practicing out of New Jersey. He has paid off around 400K of his 550K total in student loans, while also simultaneously investing for retirement.  Dr. Beth Winans is a pediatric dentist in Reading, Pennsylvania. She started a practice from scratch 5 years ago, while her OMS husband bought into an existing practice. Together they have paid off 530K in student loans, paid off her husband's million dollar buy-in, paid off her 500K practice loan, and invested 270K in equity into a surgery center, all using a debt-snowball technique as they became successful practice owners. 

Steve Anderson is the owner and founder of Denco Dental Construction. He has helped design and build over 1000 dental offices throughout his 30 year career. He is also the author of the book DentalEase, The Essential Guide to Building the Stress Free and Profitable Dental Practice of Your Dreams.  Steve discusses his career in the dental construction industry, changes and trends he has seen in the marketplace, and common problems pediatric dentists make when building out their office. We talk about office size, controlling sound, having room for expansion to increase capacity, and designing your office to allow your staff to help operate the practice as efficiently as possible.  More information about Steve, his company, and his book can be found at https://dencodental.com/

Dr. Shane Harpham is a pediatric dentist and the owner of Sea Smiles Pediatric Dentistry in Bluffton, South Carolina. Dr. Shane and I open a couple craft beers and talk about how to do the perfect class II composite restoration on a primary tooth. Some of the topics we discuss are: - Creating a team and environment to set you up for success - Treatment planning and case selection (composites vs SSCs) - Isolation techniques - Prep design, bonds, and finishing - Glass ionomers and Equia Forte - Areas that Class II restorations frequently fail - The importance of learning from your failures and always trying to improve

It's been 12 full months since we opened the doors of my startup practice here in Missouri, and we had a fantastic (but challenging) first year. I wanted to take the opportunity to do a bonus podcast and review some of the things I've learned after one full year of starting and running a busy pediatric dental practice. Cuivre Creek Pediatric Dentistry opened last October during the COVID-19 era, and in that time our team has a built a practice that has rapidly expanded to averaging 160+ new patients per month. We've had a lot of growing pains with such a high demand for our services, and I'd like to share some of the mistakes and lessons learned that might be able to help out young practice owners. On this episode, I review 5 key lessons that I've learned as my first year as a private practice owner. These topics include: 1. Managing the work stressors that keep a dentist up at night 2. Pushing yourself to set goals and tracking your KPI's 3. Hiring and managing staff, treating them well while balancing a healthy overhead 4. Understanding your patient population 5. Why branding and social media is so important Lots of exciting things to come on future episodes of the Brews and Tiny Teeth Podcast. Feel free to reach me with any questions at cgoetz@troypediatricdentist.com, or hit me up on Facebook messenger at Casey Goetz.

Our final episode from Bourbon and Baby Teeth 2021! Our last guest from BABT 2021 is Scott Childress of Magnify Dental Marketing. Magnify is a full-service digital marketing agency for dentists. Their services include startup branding and logo design, website re-builds, SEO, social media content development, and reputation management. Scott and I discuss how young, tech-savvy pediatric dentists can harness the power of the digital age to increase brand awareness and new patient flow. We talk about targeting the correct demographics, the power and affordability of Facebook marketing, creating organic content, how Google reviews (and Google business account) influence SEO, and hacks that dentists can use to easily improve SEO and ranking without breaking the bank. Link to learn more about Magnify Digital Marketing: https://askmagnify.com/

Recorded live from Bourbon and Baby Teeth 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky! Diane Krueger is the founder and CEO of NuSmile. She founded the company in 1991 after noticing a demand from pediatric dentists for more esthetic options for restoring primary teeth. We discuss how the company has exploded since that time, expanding their product lines to include zirconia crowns, SSCs, and MTA-based products. Diane talks about how NuSmile has evolved as a company, different types of techniques involved in the fabrication of crowns, and how the industry has changed over time. We do a cost-analysis of how using a more affordable SSC can translate into substantial material savings over the course of a pediatric dentist's typical year. We also talk about how NeoPutty is changing the way MTA is used, and its clinical applications.  Diane was a great guest and I enjoyed learning more about what goes into creating their products. Check them out at https://www.nusmile.com/