In Your Face® Podcast

Dr. Amanda Wilson is an orthodontist, dental consultant, and dental advisor by profession. After 10 years in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, she created StraightSmile Solutions® as an orthodontic consulting company that directly services dentists, dental specialists, and dental labs and their unique needs. Not only that, but they specialize in airway-focused orthodontics and early treatment.

Dr. Wilson is also an Executive Team Clinical Advisor for Straight Teeth Solutions and a member of the Dental Experts Network. She lives in Honolulu, spending her time with her husband and kids and volunteering as a Junior Girl Scout Leader as well as a Stroke and Turn Judge for USA Swimming. 

In this episode…

Although a lot of people don’t know this, general dentists can be a great source of referrals for orthodontists. There are so many services that the dental community can provide, and working together for the common good of patients can go a long way. 

Dr. Amanda Wilson, orthodontist and Founder of StraightSmile Solutions®, knows this all too well. With her own practice and work with general dentists in helping them improve their practices, she encourages collaboration between orthodontists and dentists. Dr. Wilson believes that this could help improve the dental profession.

In this week's episode of In Your Face Podcast, host Blair Feldman interviews Dr. Amanda Wilson, Founder of StraightSmile Solutions®, about her work of providing support to dental practices. She shares her history as a practicing orthodontist, explains the white label aligner, and talks about the benefits of orthodontists and general dentists working together.

McKenzie Fagan is the Area Sales Manager for Henry Schein One, the world’s largest dental practice management software company. Henry Schein One combines leading practice management, marketing, and patient engagement solutions into one cohesive management system to help improve every aspect of your business. With Henry Schein One, McKenzie helps multi-sites and group practices strategize around the technology that will best facilitate their growth plans while creating an economy to scale throughout that expansion.

Before joining Henry Schein One, McKenzie was a Senior Sales Manager at Doctible. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in Bio-Psychology.

In this episode…

When it comes to finding the best practice management software, most group practices don’t know what to look out for or where to start.

Not only that, but the different teams in a dental practice—clinical, administrative, and financial to name a few—usually have different needs, desires, and wants. So, finding the best software becomes complicated fast. Technology is meant to make things easier and streamline your workflow, not make it harder! 

In this week's episode of In Your Face Podcast, Blair Feldman interviews McKenzie Fagan, Area Sales Manager for Henry Schein One, about her company's mission of providing practice management solutions to dental group practices. McKenzie differentiates between server-based and cloud-based technology solutions, explains what centralization, standardization, and machine learning mean, and shares how technology can help group practices in running their businesses.

Ken Kaufman is the CFO of Community Dental Partners, a dental support organization made up of both dental and business professionals to create solutions for today’s modern dentists. He is also the former President and CFO of Aribex, the manufacturer of the NOMAD line of handheld x-ray imaging products. 

Ken is a podcaster and sought after speaker for dental industry events with an aim to help as many budding dentist entrepreneurs as he can. He holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Finance and has been married for 22 years with eight kids.

In this episode…

Being in the service business industry, dentistry is all about capturing the hearts and minds of patients, staff, and clinicians. To be successful, dental practices need to be intentional with their culture and communication. This, according to Ken Kaufman, helps the staff and clinicians work in alignment, which allows the practice to attract the right patients to fit into that culture.

Ken Kaufman knows that both doctors and patients are critical elements in building a successful dental practice. His finance background gives him an added expertise when helping dentists and orthodontists better manage their dental practices.

In this week's episode of In Your Face Podcast, Craig Weiss talks to Ken Kaufman, the CFO of Community Dental Partners, about managing finances, DSOs, and making dental practices interesting and fun. They share how COVID-19 has impacted the dental industry, the importance of practices having a culture and investing in its people, and Ken's passion for personal finance.

John Button is the Co-Founder of CollectiveCare Dental (CCD), a dental services organization (DSO) formed in 2013. Focused on building a regional family of practices in Southeastern PA, Southern NJ, and Delaware, CCD is committed to achieving high patient satisfaction through excellent dental care in a relaxing and friendly environment. 

John has a broad background in the healthcare industry, having served as a senior executive for many years. He founded a consulting company that assisted across a broad spectrum of services to medical and dental practitioners and institutions in NJ, NY, and PA. He has lectured on a variety of healthcare, sales, marketing, and general management topics. John has also served on private and non-profit boards and is the former Mayor of Moorestown, NJ.

In this episode…

Having worked in a roll-up medical practice, John Button knew that some DSO models just don't work. This is why he decided to start one that was designed for success by modifying a key aspect: making the model patient-focused. He wanted to provide outstanding dental care that met the needs of each patient, and so CollectiveCare Dental was born. 

The company supports its dentists and their patients through personalized treatment options that offer a complete range of general and specialty dental services. They help dentists focus on providing quality treatment for their patients by offering a strong and reliable dental team to handle all other aspects of business operations. 

John Button, the Co-Founder of CollectiveCare Dental, joins Craig Weiss and Blair Feldman in this episode of In Your Face Podcast to talk about the benefits of dentists and orthodontists joining a DSO. John also talks about teledentistry and telemedicine, common misconceptions dentists have about DSOs, and his best communication tips.

Ophir Tanz is the Founder and CEO of Pearl, a software suite that uses artificial intelligence to grow and improve your practice. He is the former Founder and CEO of GumGum, a leading global computer vision company that grew to hundreds of millions in revenue. Before launching GumGum, he was the CEO of Mojungle.com and Co-Founder of Fluidesign, an interactive branding and marketing agency. 

Ophir is also a master woodworker with aspirations to make time for this passion in between co-founding innovative companies. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and a Master’s Degree in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.

In this episode…

Artificial intelligence and computer vision have many benefits in today's world, helping people, companies, and governments make better decisions. In the dentistry and orthodontic fields, they help practitioners provide better treatment to their patients. But, what are these technologies?

Computer vision is about teaching machines to see in much the same way that humans do. This often involves feeding large sets of highly curated training data to machine learning algorithms so that they can learn the patterns and recognize what's happening in any given form of imagery or video.

Craig Weiss and Blair Feldman, co-hosts of the In Your Face Podcast, are joined by Ophir Tanz, the Founder and CEO of Pearl, to talk about how artificial intelligence and computer vision can help dental and orthodontic practices. Ophir also explains what computer vision means, the application of artificial intelligence in dentistry and labs, and the practices that can adopt Pearl’s strategies.

Dr. Gary Brigham is an Elite Premier Invisalign provider and the Founder of Brigham Orthodontics, treating thousands of patients and over 1,000 preteens and teens. He has been lecturing internationally on Invisalign treatment since 2004 and Propel since 2014. 

In addition to his Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree and Orthodontic Specialty Certification, Dr. Brigham earned a Master of Science Degree in Immunology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. 

He is the former Assistant Professor of Pediatric Medicine at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago and currently teaches as an adjunct professor in the Orthodontics Program at A.T. Still University in Mesa, AZ, where he serves as the dedicated Invisalign and Propel instructor. 

Dr. Brigham serves on the Clinical Advisory Board for Propel Orthodontics and as a mentor for the consulting group, Your Ortho Coach. Along with Dr. Barry Glaser, he is the co-author of the newly launched webinar series, Insider's Guide to the Advanced Clear Aligner Practice.

In this episode…

Dr. Gary Brigham is a storied orthodontist and amateur comedian—that is, he likes to use humor in his lectures. Dr. Brigham knows just how to tickle a funny bone and likes to use humor as an educational tool in the classroom and when communicating with his patients. 

Humor is a great way to engage with people. It makes interactions and conversations lively while creating a fun and relaxed atmosphere. And according to Dr. Brigham, using humor helps people remember what you talked to them about.

In this episode of the In Your Face Podcast, hosts Craig Weiss and Blair Feldman are joined by Dr. Gary Brigham, Founder of Brigham Orthodontics, to talk about using humor as an educational tool. Dr. Brigham explains why he uses comedy in his lectures, how he keeps his orthodontic practice a fun place for his staff and patients, and the roles technology and innovation have played in the orthodontic industry.

Dr. Whitney Wright is an orthodontist turned mental health advocate. He is the Founding Orthodontist of Risas Dental and Braces, a DSO with 26 locations in four states across the Southwest. Risas currently has over 100 dentists, orthodontists, and oral surgeons who have given away more than $6 million worth of free dental care in the last eight and a half years. 

Dr. Wright is also the Creator and Host of The Wright Talk Podcast, which focuses on openly discussing mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. He graduated with honors from Brigham Young University and the University of Colorado Dental School.

In this episode…

There’s a stigma surrounding mental health-related issues, like depression, stress, anxiety, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among others. As a result, many people find it shameful to admit that they are struggling mentally, often feeling fear and shame around being labeled as weak.

Dr. Whitney Wright found himself faced with this challenge as a practicing orthodontist. As he continued growing and expanding his DSO, he became depressed due to the emotional toll it took on him. Once he started having panic attacks on the chair, he decided to do something about it. 

Dr. Whitney Wright, Founder of The Wright Talk Podcast, joins Craig Weiss and Blair Feldman in this week's episode of the In Your Face Podcast to talk about his work advocating for mental health in the dentistry and orthodontic professions. Dr. Wright shares his personal experience with his mental health and explains how social media contributes to issues surrounding mental health. Stay tuned.

Neal Golding is the Founder & President of JellyFish RAS and has over 25 years of leadership experience. After spending 20 years working in the family business of mobile auto glass replacement, Neal took a leap and started JellyFish RAS in 2011— a business intelligence resource designed exclusively for DSOs. His career has been spent at the frontline of senior management teams and he has published over 30 articles on a wide array of industry topics. In addition, Neal is highly active in performance interpretation, analysis, and strategy design. 

Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Neal now enjoys life in South Florida and has 2 grown children. In his free time, he is an avid squash player and recently won a Gold Medal at the 20th Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Michael Ross is a Partner and CIO at JellyFish RAS. His thirst for the “point of truth” drives him to be relentless in the delivery of just that. He studied Commerce at Carleton University School of Business in Ottawa, Canada and later established himself in IT with IBM Global Services, leading him to opportunities in the financial software realm. An avid sportsman, he enjoys playing squash, hockey, and camping with his son.

In this episode…

While running a DSO’s call center in Ohio, Neal Golding experienced first-hand the challenges DSOs face in getting performance reports for administrators. Because of this, he searched high and low for ways to gather the data he wanted from the practice management software the company used. 

When Neal realized that his solution could help other DSOs, he set out to market his solution to interested parties. He moved from Ohio to Florida to set up his business and now provides customized reports and data to his clients.

In this episode of In Your Face Podcast, Craig Weiss is joined by Neal Golding and Michael Ross from JellyFish RAS to talk about the customizable software solutions that JellyFish RAS provides to DSOs and dental practices. They talk about how being active in sports has helped in running their business, their future plans, and how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted their clients' dental practices.