Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 —…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with JoAnne Tanner, founder of Tanner Management, a dental practice consulting firm specializing in acquisitions, financial due diligence, and operational systems. With more than 20 years of experience, JoAnne has guided countless dentists through the process of buying a practice — helping them avoid costly mistakes and build strong business foundations from day one. She's also the author of The Smart Dentist's Guide to Buying a Dental Practice, and is known for a clear, no-nonsense approach that makes complex transactions understandable. The conversation focuses on what dentists need to know before signing on the dotted line. JoAnne breaks down the biggest mistakes buyers make and how to avoid them, why financials alone don't tell the full story of a practice, and the critical reports every buyer should review before closing. She and Howard dig into how to spot hidden risks in hygiene, scheduling, and accounts receivable, why treatment philosophy differences between…

In this two-guest episode, Howard Farran brings together two clinicians unafraid to challenge the status quo. Dr. Michael DeLuke is a board-certified orthodontist who graduated valedictorian from SUNY Stony Brook and served as Chief Resident at UConn before owning DeLuke Orthodontics for nearly two decades. He has since retired from private practice to teach and coach full-time, serving on faculty at Montefiore Einstein and a Florida pediatric dental residency, and founding DeLuke Orthodontic Coaching ("DOC") and The DOC Podcast. Dr. Mark Levi is a Sydney-based dentist who, after his own severe obstructive sleep apnea diagnosis in 1998, dedicated his career to airway-focused care — co-founding integrated medical/dental sleep clinics, publishing in the European Sleep Journal, and in 2021 transitioning to an exclusive pediatric airway, breathing, and sleep clinic treating children aged 3 to 12. The conversation dives into early, airway-focused orthodontic and orthopedic treatment — why both guests believe it…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Kevin Lassiter, an Arizona native and proud Army veteran who earned his bachelor's degree from Arizona State University and his Doctor of Dental Medicine from Midwestern University College of Dental Medicine. Dr. Lassiter spent 12 years serving as a dentist in the U.S. Army, completing his specialty training through the United States Army Prosthodontic Program, and today provides relationship-centered dentistry that blends science and artistry to create healthy, natural-looking, long-lasting smiles. The conversation traces Dr. Lassiter's path from a 19-year-old applying to dental school — admittedly naive in those early interviews — through his entry into the Army via officer basic training and an AEGD program, to years of service that included time living in Germany. He shares an honest look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of Army dentistry, what drew him to prosthodontics, and the experience of caring for veterans and soldiers during his residency. The…

In this two-guest episode, Howard Farran sits down with two financial leaders from PracticeCFO. Wes Read is a CPA, Certified Financial Planner™, and Registered Investment Advisor who began his career in Big 4 accounting at Ernst & Young before founding PracticeCFO in 2009 to give practice-owning doctors access to CFO-level financial leadership. He's also the founder of Practice Orbit and creator of Associates On Fire, a free financial education platform for dental associates. Joining him is Paul Lipcius, a CPA, Series 65-licensed Investment Adviser Representative, and CFO Advisor at the firm with nearly a decade of experience, who focuses on higher-net-worth clients, capital markets, and portfolio strategy, and serves on PracticeCFO's board and investment committee. The conversation centers on investing philosophy for busy dentists who aren't watching the markets every day. Wes and Paul unpack how they define and manage risk in a practical, long-term sense rather than just as volatility, and what a good…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Paul Homoly, one of the profession's foremost authorities on treatment acceptance and the new patient experience. After 20 years in clinical reconstructive dentistry, Paul devoted the following decades to building what many consider the most comprehensive body of work on guiding dentists and their teams toward successful complete-care practices. He's the author of several influential books — including Dentists: An Endangered Species, Isn't It Wonderful When Patients Say "YES!", and Just Because You're an Expert… Doesn't Make You Interesting — and the first dentist worldwide to earn the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, the highest earned distinction in professional speaking. The conversation explores Paul's central mission: making it easy for patients to say "yes" to complete care. He shares the communication and leadership principles behind his Treatment Acceptance Mastery curriculum — which now includes a first-of-its-kind AI Accelerator…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Chanelle Small, an endodontist who earned her Certificate of Endodontics from Tufts and both her DDS and undergraduate degree from Howard University, and who served as a Clinical Instructor at Columbia. Beyond founding Midtown Endodontics in New York City, Dr. Small works as a dental expert witness, retained by both plaintiff and defense attorneys across multiple states to determine whether the standard of care was met in malpractice cases. The conversation demystifies the legal side of dentistry that most clinicians never see until it's too late. Dr. Small breaks down the four elements of a malpractice claim — duty, breach, causation, and damages — through a real endodontic scenario, and explains how "standard of care" actually gets defined in the courtroom versus the textbook. She walks through the anatomy of a case from the initial complaint to resolution, when and how an expert witness enters the picture, and whether she's ever felt pressured by attorneys…

In this two-guest episode, Howard Farran brings together two very different but complementary paths in reconstructive surgery. Nancy Hairston is the founder and CEO of MedCAD, a Dallas-based medical technology company specializing in patient-matched cranial, facial, and mandibular implants. A sculptor by training — with a fine arts degree and an early career designing toys for Mattel and Disney and building 3D animation software that became Maya — Nancy channeled her mastery of digital sculpting into medicine, earning FDA clearance for her AccuShape cranial implant in 2011 and delivering custom, patient-specific solutions for more than 8,000 individuals since. Dr. Samir Singh is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, trained at VCU in complex implant surgery, bone grafting, orthognathic surgery, and maxillofacial trauma, who now practices in North Pittsburgh, teaches and mentors residents, and lectures nationally on full-arch implant reconstruction.…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Bob "Dee" Dokhanchi — a private practice dentist since 1993, entrepreneur, media publisher, and tireless advocate for the profession. A 1992 graduate of Loyola University Chicago College of Dental Surgery, Bob has earned a reputation as a forward-thinking leader with a deep interest in technology, software, and cloud systems, becoming widely known as the "cloud guy" for his practical advice on dental tech and digital strategy. He's also the founder of Dentistry in General, a large verified dentist-only community built to foster candid discussion, support, and connection, along with its media arm spanning the DIG Radio Network, Dentistry's Digest, and the DIG-A-PALOOZA live CE event. The conversation centers on organized dentistry and advocacy — the role of the ADA, the communication gap between organized dentistry and everyday dentists, and how the Dentistry in General Advocacy Coalition aims to improve transparency and engagement across the profession. Bob…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Joseph Hogan, President and CEO of Align Technology — the company behind Invisalign and the iTero scanner. Hogan brings an extraordinary executive background to the conversation, having led ABB, a $40 billion global automation company, and spent 25 years at General Electric, including eight years as CEO of GE Healthcare, where he more than doubled revenues from $7 billion to $16 billion. The discussion explores where Align is focusing its efforts to meet dentists where they are today, the recent innovations Hogan is most excited about, and what separates the most successful Invisalign-trained doctors from the rest. Howard and Hogan dig into Align's approach to AI across its product portfolio, how the company is leveraging additive manufacturing and 3D printing, and its plans for direct fabrication. They also examine trends among growing patients, how Invisalign fits into ortho-restorative workflows, and the biggest challenges Align is hearing from doctors around…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Karl Frye, Principal Broker and owner of Frye Practice Sales, a Scottsdale-based practice and commercial real estate brokerage, and current President of the National Association of Practice Brokers. Before founding his firm in 2015, Karl spent more than a decade in commercial banking serving the M&A needs of doctors — financing the startups, growth, sales, and refinances of dental practices nationwide. That credit background gives him a distinctive, outcome-focused perspective on what's actually realistic in today's healthcare acquisition market. The conversation tackles the questions on every practice owner's mind: whether the private-practice buyer is truly a thing of the past (Karl says not so fast), and whether dentists should simply say "no" to the DSO (his answer is more nuanced than you'd expect). Howard and Karl walk through how sellers should navigate a shifting market, what buyers should be doing right now, and a recap of where the lending market…

In this four-guest roundtable — part three of the show's airway and sleep series — Howard Farran brings together a genuinely multidisciplinary panel: Patrick McKeown, an internationally recognized breathing expert, author of eleven books, and creator of MyoTape and the modern Buteyko approach; Dr. Felix Liao, an engineer-turned-dentist who coined "Impaired Mouth Syndrome" and developed Airway Facial Epigenetics through his AMD Academy Global; Nerissa Boggan, a myofunctional therapist and sleep-and-breathing educator with 25+ years in dental hygiene and author of the children's book My Dog Myo and My Nose; and Dr. Anthony Bolamperti, a second-generation laser dentist running Omaha Laser Dentistry and its Airway Institute. Together they approach the same overlooked problem — the airway — through four lenses: epigenetics, Buteyko breathing, myofunctional therapy, and laser dentistry. The conversation explores how a mouth-breathing habit reshapes the face and drives malocclusion, why restoring the airway can…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Brian Hanks, MBA, CFP — a national dental transitions expert, author, accountant, and Certified Financial Planner who has been directly involved in hundreds of dental practice transitions across all fifty states. Through his firm, Dental Buyer Advocates, Brian works exclusively with buyers, guiding them through due diligence, negotiation, financing, and transition. He joins the show to explain what recent turbulence in private credit markets could mean for dental practice valuations. The conversation starts with the Blue Owl private credit situation and why a fund halting redemptions matters to everyday dentists. Brian explains how private equity and private credit have fueled the dental acquisition boom, and what happens when that fuel gets more expensive — specifically how EBITDA multiples compress as borrowing costs rise, and what that looks like in real dollar terms for a selling dentist. He also addresses why changes in credit markets typically take 12 to 24…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Eric J. Morin, MBA, Founder and President of Tower Leadership, a Forbes speaker and best-selling author who has spent more than two decades helping doctors build more profitable, scalable, and valuable businesses. The conversation focuses on the operational and financial disciplines that separate a practice that simply produces well from one that commands real enterprise value. Eric explains how dentists can grow EBITDA without just doing more dentistry — by finding the profit quietly lost to overhead, inefficiency, weak scheduling, and poor case acceptance — and walks through the key KPIs every owner should actually be tracking to make better decisions. He and Howard dig into the most common operational blind spots, including why what looks like a production problem is often really a leadership, accountability, or systems problem. The discussion also covers how to scale from a strong single location into a larger, sustainable business without sacrificing…

In this roundtable — part two of the show's airway and sleep series recorded around an ASBA gathering — Howard Farran sits down with three leaders working at the intersection of dentistry, sleep, and medicine: Dr. Luann Hall, a UCSF-trained "recovering pediatric dentist," minimally invasive advocate, and regent of the American College of Dentists; Dr. Manisha Witmans, a board-certified sleep physician, pediatrician, and pediatric pulmonologist who built the pediatric sleep program at Stollery Children's Hospital and recently learned she's been an OSA patient herself since childhood; and Dr. Janelle Crichton, an orthodontist and airway specialist whose practice ranks #1 in Canada for Invisalign volume and who is entering Stanford's Orthodontic Dental Sleep Medicine program as one of only six orthodontists in North America accepted. The conversation opens on a philosophy of preservation — the idea that a tooth can outlive us but rarely survives the drill — and Dr. Hall's case for minimally invasive care,…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Eric Recker — a dentist of 24 years, keynote speaker, author, pilot, mountain climber, and success coach based in Pella, Iowa — for a candid conversation about burnout and the path back from it. Eric opens up about how close he came to leaving dentistry entirely: he tried to sell his practice, and when the deal fell through, he was forced to confront the tension headaches, heart palpitations, and panic attacks he'd spent a decade dismissing as "just how it is" — including one attack that left him on his office server room floor on a Monday morning. The conversation traces how COVID became an unexpected turning point, giving Eric the space to step back and ask what was really unsustainable about the pace he was keeping. He shares the concept that changed everything — "boundarying" his day, a phrase from his outside-dentistry mentor — and makes the case for having two coaches: one inside dentistry and one for life beyond it. Eric and Howard dig into the "false…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Randolph Cross, a private practice endodontist in Watsonville, California, and the inventor of the EndoCator — a first-of-its-kind chairside ATP test that tells clinicians, in five seconds, whether a root canal is truly clean before they close it. Dr. Cross traces the idea back to a finals-week breakdown during his residency at USC, when he realized the profession had no reliable, real-time way to confirm disinfection. Drawing on his biochemistry background, he bought a cheap ATP tester off eBay, tried it on extracted teeth, and watched the readings drop from dirty to clean as he worked — the moment he knew he was onto something. Randy explains the science in plain terms: ATP is the energy molecule found in every living cell, and when it hits the enzyme luciferase, it emits light the device measures on a 1–100 scale. Because it detects ATP rather than culturing bacteria, it's more sensitive than traditional methods and picks up anaerobes and even fungi that…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Sompop Bencharit, a board-certified prosthodontist, innovation strategist, and Director of Innovation at the Austin Institute of Dental Medicine, who has led technology transformation at VCU, the Medical University of South Carolina, and High Point University. A Fellow of the American College of Prosthodontists with over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Bencharit also serves as president of HADEN — the Haptic and AI in Dental Education Network — connecting more than 70 educators worldwide. The conversation opens by demystifying "haptics" — the virtual-reality, flight-simulator-style training that lets students feel the difference between drilling enamel and dentin, turning passive learning into muscle memory before they ever touch a patient. Dr. Bencharit argues that the single biggest barrier keeping dental schools from modernizing isn't money or expertise, but fear. He shares how he digitized VCU's dental school — flipping a program that once took 79…

In this episode, Howard Farran welcomes back Dr. Densen Cao — physicist, prolific inventor, and founder and CEO of CAO Group and AMD Lasers — for his first return to the show in eight years. Mentored early in his career by Dr. Gordon and Dr. Rella Christensen, Dr. Cao has spent decades developing disruptive dental technologies at the intersection of physics, materials science, and clinical dentistry. The heart of the conversation is his newly released LEAP procedure (Laser Endodontic Ablation Procedure), unveiled at AAE 2026 after five years of FDA review and more than 100 U.S. cases. Dr. Cao explains why disinfection — not obturation — is the true key to root canal success, and how LEAP uses a low-energy diode laser to ablate residual tissue and bacteria, paired with a proprietary LEAP solution of chlorhexidine and ethanol to reach the fins and side canals. The result, he says, is a five-nines (99.999%) bacteria reduction achieved in live patients, with an independent clinical study by Dr. Rella Christensen…

In this episode, Howard Farran reconnects with longtime friend Dr. Ben Wachter, a Mesa, Arizona native and 2017 graduate of A.T. Still University whose career has been shaped by service, perseverance, and a passion for caring for the underserved. Ben opens up about the mentor who changed his life — the late Dr. Tim Lukowski — who inspired him to leave a path toward medical school, took him on his first mission trips to Mexico, and believed in him through three rounds of dental school applications. The conversation moves through Ben's remarkable commitment to charitable care, including 10 dental mission trips to Mexico, his work with Arizona Sunshine and the Arizona Mission of Mercy, and his role in helping create clinics that serve those who need it most. He also reflects on training under implant and sedation experts like Dr. Richard Feldhake and Tom Mattern, launching the first special care clinic with Pacific Dental Services in Scottsdale, and building his skills across oral conscious sedation, IV…

In this two-hour roundtable recorded at a global airway, breathing, and sleep conference, Howard Farran sits down with three of the field's most passionate voices: Dr. Toshi Hart, Diplomate and President-Elect of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy; Dr. Kimberly Ann Meyer, current President of the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain; and Dr. Mark Levi, a Sydney-based diplomate who turned his own severe sleep apnea diagnosis into a career treating children. The conversation centers on a provocative idea: that the malocclusion, crowded teeth, and breathing problems flooding modern dental practices stem from generations of underdeveloped jaws — driven by softer diets, less nursing, and mouth breathing. Dr. Hart shares how a single 45-minute lecture on craniofacial epigenetics redirected her career, leading to a study in which guided growth appliances produced a 76% reduction in decay. Dr. Levi makes the case for early intervention in children as young as three, explaining why the window to influence…

In this episode, Howard Farran is joined by Ellen Bösl, Vice President of Research and Development at Solventum, where she leads the strategy and execution of the Global Dental Solutions R&D organization. A chemical engineer by training with a 25-year career spanning Solventum and 3M — including R&D leadership across MedSurg, Transportation, and Electronics — Ellen brings a systems-level lens to one of the profession's most stubborn problems: oral health inequity. The conversation confronts why oral health remains one of the most unequal corners of healthcare despite unprecedented advances in technology, materials, and knowledge. Ellen and Howard dig into the root causes that rarely get discussed, whether inequity is best understood as a clinical, business, or policy challenge, and which innovations genuinely broaden access versus those that merely sound impressive. They also explore the gaps between urban, rural, private, public, and corporate dentistry, what frontline providers actually need, and what…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Tobias Richter, founder of TRI® Dental Implants and a dental entrepreneur with two decades of experience at the cutting edge of the implant industry. Tobias traces his journey from launching product innovations like SLActive at Straumann, to co-founding Implant Direct Europe and building the business across 25 markets before its sale to the Danaher Group, to eventually founding TRI® as an innovative digital implant company. Beyond TRI®, he is also a co-founder of the German dental clinic group DENTABENE, a partner in the e-learning platform Dental Campus, and a board member of the dental lab group DELABO.GROUP. The conversation explores the digital dentistry revolution and the trends shaping its future, why workflow thinking has become mandatory for everyone in the industry, and how no-abutment implant innovation aims to fundamentally improve the experience for both patients and clinicians by reducing pain, time, and cost. Check out their website: www.tri.swiss…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Jack Hahn, a pioneering figure in implant dentistry whose career spans more than 58 years — 54 of them dedicated to implants. Dr. Hahn takes listeners through a remarkable journey that began with placing bilateral blade implants in 1970, evolved through subperiosteal and early root form implants, and ultimately led him to design four distinct implant systems, including the Steri-Oss, the Replace Tapered Implant, and the Hahn Tapered Implant now manufactured by Glidewell. Along the way, he shares stories of treating patients and teaching dentists across the globe — from Russia to Saudi Arabia — the skepticism he faced early in his career, and the lessons he learned both in clinical innovation and in business. A recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award and past president of the American Board of Oral Implantology, Dr. Hahn offers a rare firsthand account of how implant dentistry grew from a fringe idea into a cornerstone of modern care — along with candid…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Jay Reznick, a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and one of North America's earliest adopters of fully-guided, prosthetically-based implant surgery. Trained at Tufts, USC, and L.A. County-USC Medical Center, Dr. Reznick holds both a DMD and an MD — and has spent the last two decades at the forefront of 3D digital technology in dentistry, becoming the first specialist in the U.S. to integrate CBCT and CAD/CAM into clinical practice. He is a co-founder of OnlineOralSurgery.com, a leading educational platform for practicing dentists seeking to expand their surgical skills, and a frequent lecturer and live-course instructor for dentists around the world. The conversation draws on his extensive clinical and teaching experience, exploring the evolution of implant surgery, the impact of digital workflows, and what it takes to bring advanced surgical techniques into everyday dental practice. Episode #1705 : Dentistry Uncensored with…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Drs. Jessica and Richard Marn — a wife-and-husband team whose combined expertise in pediatric dentistry and anesthesiology has led them to a mission-driven focus on sedation safety in dental and oral surgery practices. Jessica is a board-certified pediatric dentist and private practice owner with over two decades of experience in New York City, while Richard is dual board-certified in anesthesiology and pediatric anesthesiology, with over 18,000 anesthetics delivered and faculty experience training Harvard Hospital anesthesiologists in crisis resource management and performance under pressure. Together, they developed the Boring Sedation Method — a systems-based approach built on the belief that sedation is a practice capability, not just a provider technique. The conversation explores what most practices are missing even when they have the right permits, monitors, and emergency drugs in place, how stronger systems make routine sedation smoother and deviations…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Shreyas Parab, co-founder and CEO of DayDream, an AI-powered dental revenue cycle company serving hundreds of practices nationwide. Shreyas opens up about growing up in his mother's dental practice — and how watching real inefficiencies play out every day ultimately inspired him to build what she never had. The conversation is candid and wide-ranging, covering what Shreyas looks at first when assessing the true health of a practice, where dentists are overcomplicating things that have simple fixes, and where AI in dentistry is genuinely overhyped right now. He also shares what he would do differently if he could design a dental practice from scratch today — a question that draws on both his insider upbringing and his outsider perspective as a tech founder building solutions for the profession. Episode #1703 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Shreyas Parab — co-founder and CEO of DayDream — who grew up in his mother's dental practice,…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Bob Marcus, retired San Diego dentist, dental office coach, and co-founder of Kick Your Apps, Inc. — the company behind DDS GP, an award-winning iPad app that helps dentists explain conditions and treatment options through simple, patient-friendly visuals. Dr. Marcus brings a psychologist's eye to the treatment planning conversation, exploring why so many offices feel busy but fail to convert that activity into real production. The discussion covers what a great treatment plan presentation actually looks like, why case acceptance is about trust and clarity more than price, and how shoulder-to-shoulder communication transforms the patient experience. Dr. Marcus and Howard also dig into smarter ways to stay profitable within insurance networks and share the story behind DDS GP — now used by over 15,000 dental professionals across 65 countries. Episode #1702 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Bob Marcus — retired clinician,…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Sarah Beth Herman, CEO of Dentistry Support®, Dentistry Support Academy, and a nationally recognized leader in dental operations, staffing, and team development. Armed with an MBA earned Summa Cum Laude and over two decades of real-world experience, Sarah Beth brings sharp opinions and practical solutions to some of the most overlooked problems in dental practice management. The conversation covers why percentage-of-collections pricing models misalign incentives and penalize growing practices, why insurance verification should be treated as a standard of care rather than an add-on service, and how clean AR is achievable at any size with the right staffing and systems in place. Sarah Beth and Howard also dig into what makes a schedule truly profitable versus just full, and why SOPs — far from being a corporate bureaucracy — are the single greatest tool a dentist has for removing themselves as the bottleneck. Sarah Beth also shares the story behind Dentistry…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Kiera Dent, founder and CEO of The Dental A Team, whose nearly 2 million podcast downloads and hundreds of coached practices speak for themselves. Kiera cuts straight to the heart of why so many dental practices feel stuck — not because they lack patients or production, but because they lack systems. The conversation covers the hidden gaps that drain profitability even in high-producing practices, why dentists often become the ceiling of their own growth, and how to build a team that supports the doctor instead of depending on them. Kiera and Howard also dig into scheduling as a revenue lever, the real reasons patients say no to treatment, the KPIs that actually drive decisions, and the difference between a nice culture and an accountable one. Whether you're feeling chaotic, stalled, or simply ready to level up, this episode delivers both the clarity and the practical tools to move forward. Episode #1700 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down…

1699 The Irreplaceable Dental Team - Heather-Dawn Lawson-Meyers : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran In this special episode, the tables are turned — Howard Farran joins Dr. Heather-Dawn Lawson-Myers as a guest on The Irreplaceable Dental Team Podcast. Dr. Lawson-Myers, a transformational speaker, Maxwell Leadership Certified Trainer, and Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach with over 30 years in dentistry, brings a sharp set of questions that pull some of Howard's most direct insights to the surface. The conversation covers Howard's foundational framework of People, Time, and Money — and the order in which practices should prioritize them. Howard shares counter-intuitive business rules most dentists ignore, what it really means to empower a team member in a single day, and why collecting payment upfront doesn't just improve cash flow — it actually strengthens the patient relationship. The episode also tackles the metrics that matter most in a healthy practice, the systems that are overcomplicated and how…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Tesa Jolly, a rural practice owner based in Pulaski, Tennessee, whose career has been defined by service, resilience, and a willingness to think differently. From unexpectedly becoming a practice owner shortly after graduation, to founding one of Tennessee's longest-running Free Dental Day events, Dr. Jolly has built a practice and a life around long-term impact. Today, her focus is on how dentists can harness AI not as a productivity shortcut, but as a genuine thinking partner — one that turns scattered thoughts into structured decisions and invisible stress into visible, actionable systems. The conversation explores why dentists are uniquely wired for AI, how Dr. Jolly uses it daily to stress test decisions and build workflows, and where most dentists are getting it wrong by asking too little of the technology available to them. Episode #1698 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. Tesa Jolly — rural practice owner, national…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Nigel Kennedy, affectionately known as "No Pain Nigel," who retired in 2025 after a remarkable 46-year career dedicated to transforming the experience of anxious dental patients. Nigel shares how a simple A-frame board outside his practice became the unlikely spark that launched a movement, and how his partnership with Anthony Gedge helped turn a personal clinical philosophy into the Pain-Free Dentistry Institute. The conversation covers his 15-step pain-free protocol, why emotional safety and trust matter as much as technique, and how that work later inspired dentist Mark Skimming to build the Pain Free Dentistry Group, now spanning over 14 clinics across the UK. Nigel also reflects on receiving praise from Professor Stanley Malamed, his MBE nomination, and the motivation behind his book, Painless Dentistry? Yes Please, a patient education resource born from decades of listening to people who were simply too afraid to seek care. Episode #1697 : Dentistry…

1696 Practice Ownership : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. David Weber, a third-generation dentist practicing in Michigan City, Indiana, and co-founder of Restore Dental Lab, Restore Dental Education, and Clever Dental Co. Dr. Weber shares the lessons learned moving from associate to owner, and from solo practice to group model — including the unexpected challenges of each transition. The conversation digs into the rewards and pitfalls of hiring new graduates, what it takes to build a strong team culture, and why so many dentists are stepping back from ownership just as corporate consolidation accelerates. Dr. Weber makes a compelling case for dentist-owned regional groups as a meaningful alternative to private equity — and asks a harder question: why are dentists forfeiting control of their own industry? Episode #1696 : Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran, Howard sits down with Dr. David Weber — third-generation dentist, AGD Fellow, and co-founder…

In this episode, Howard Farran sits down with Dr. Sonia Szamocki, Oxford-trained physician and Founder and CEO of 32Co, a UK-based AI-powered health tech platform bringing specialist-level care to high street dental practices. Dr. Szamocki shares her journey from emergency medicine and ophthalmology to Boston Consulting Group and ultimately to founding 32Co — driven by a conviction that technology, not more specialists, is the key to solving access in healthcare. The conversation explores how 32Co is tackling two major areas — orthodontics and sleep medicine — by connecting general dentists with specialist oversight, AI-driven workflows, and full compliance infrastructure. With 90% of the UK population within 30 minutes of a 32Co dentist, the platform is also pioneering the bridge between dentistry and mainstream medicine through its patient-facing sleep brand, Aerox Health. Howard and Dr. Szamocki also compare the UK and US healthcare landscapes and what each can learn from the other. Episode #1695 :…