Open Wide Podcast
Dr. Scott Drucker and Jinesh Patel explore the intersection of oral healthcare, technology, business, and startups. The duo discuss the hottest topics driving forward the fields of oral health and broader healthcare. They interview the most interesting entrepreneurs, thought leaders, researchers, operators, and practitioners contributing to the improvement of and access to healthcare.
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Episodes
Episodes
Wednesday Mar 26, 2025
Wednesday Mar 26, 2025
Scott and Jinesh chat in person with Trey Tepichin, founder of Cloud Dentistry. They discuss Trey's path to dentistry and powering through the early days of the company via 'manual automation'. Trey reflects on the ins and outs of his platform, his go to market strategy, and how marketplaces bring out the best (and worst!) of the population.
1:01 Introducing Trey Tepichin
6:46 Finding dentistry
9:28 Starting Cloud Dentistry
13:17 Go to market strategy
15:59 Impact of Covid on the business
19:19 Mechanics and use cases of the platform
28:37 Wild stories from marketplace interactions
30:50 Next steps for Cloud Dentistry
Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
Scott and Jinesh chat with Dr Khamir Patel and Dr Dmitry Burshteyn about SmartChair.AI, a company dedicated to measuring dental chair usage time. They discuss the origin and progress of the company, and reflect on chair usage time as possibly the most important driver of optimizing success of a dental practice.
1:46 Introducing Khamir and Dmitry
13:12 SmartChair.AI product overview
17:18 Progress to date
19:46 Product use cases
24:51 The co-founder relationship
29:07 Khamir's balancing act
31:54 Lessons learned
33:51 Go to market strategy
41:03 Surprising findings (the data doesn't lie)
49:33 Optimizing efficiency - seeing is believing
Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
Tuesday Mar 04, 2025
Scott and Jinesh chat with Dr. Marko Vujicic, Chief Economist at the American Dental Association. They discuss Marko's role within the ADA and the work of the Health Policy Institute. The trio dive into oral health and public policy, and the challenges (and potential solutions!) to meaningfully increasing access to care in the US.
0:56 Introducing Dr. Marko Vujicic
3:47 Marko's pre-dental journey
8:12 The ADA's Health Policy Institute
12:55 Putting oral health on the map
16:55 Oral health and the new administration
21:39 Public policy and access to care
29:49 The dental insurance paradigm
38:20 Medical-dental integration
50:23 Marko solves the access to care problem
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Scott and Jinesh chat with Ophir Tanz, founder of Pearl, about all things dental AI. They discuss Ophir's background, why the AI opportunity in dental specifically makes sense, and get in the weeds on Pearl's philosophy and approach to tackling the challenge. Ophir shares his perspective on partnerships, integrations, the regulatory environment, go-to-market, and the future of Pearl.
1:28 Introducing Ophir Tanz
8:35 Why AI in dental made sense
12:24 Training data
16:34 Types of AI and benefits of AI (in dental)
22:58 Integrations and partnerships
30:39 Regulatory approvals
35:15 Going global
46:40 Pearl's future
Tuesday Feb 18, 2025
Tuesday Feb 18, 2025
Scott and Jinesh chat with pediatric dentist Dr. Ashley Lerman about her journey founding and growing Firstgrin. Ashley shares insights on her go-to-market strategy and partnerships, as well as lots of advice for parents with young children. She breaks down the importance of early dental visits, and the cost of delaying a child's first trip to the dentist.
0:44 Introducing Ahsley Lerman
6:20 Launching Firstgrin
17:10 Go-to-market strategy
24:23 Growth and partnerships
28:54 Fluoride recommendations
33:16 Advice from a pediatric dentist
39:05 Cost of delaying a child's dental care
41:07 Dental referrals and founder support
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Scott and Jinesh discuss some of the highlights of the letter the ADA sent to President Donald Trump just before he took office for his second term.
3:50 Introducing ADA letter to Trump
6:57 Opioid monitoring, Fluoride, and Government Subsidized Dental Coverage
11:59 Medical-dental integration, practice technologies
16:17 Education and Defense
20:04 Environment Protection
22:37 Flex-spending
26:29 Rescinding expansion of nondiscrimination protections
Tuesday Feb 04, 2025
Tuesday Feb 04, 2025
Scott and Jinesh chat about the Yankee Dental Conference and recap the recent Dental Post survey. They also discuss the latest journal article assessing efficacy of various pain relievers, and wrap up with a discussion about the Dental Economics article about AI use in the dental world.
1:27 Jinesh preps for Yankee Dental Conference
5:24 Dental Post survey results
18:37 Pain relievers study
28:19 AI report in Dental Economics
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
Tuesday Jan 28, 2025
Scott and Jinesh chat with Eric Shirley, current President of Keystone Industries and former President of Patterson. Eric shares his personal experience running both manufacturers and distributors in the dental space, and the dynamics between those two parties. Eric also weighs in on the Patterson acquisition, and opines on the impact it may have on the dental industry as a whole.
2:44 Introducing Eric Shirley
6:16 How Eric ended up in dental
11:36 Buy/Get deals in dental
14:42 The dynamic between manufacturers and distributors
27:40 Eric's thoughts on the Patterson deal
39:49 Equipment manufacturing and service
50:34 Printing the future at Keystone Industries
59:40 Tariffs and Made in the USA