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...
10 days 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...
17 days 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...
24 days 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...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
I have had this conversation more times than I can count. A doctor reaches out. They joined a DSO two years ago. They were told they would have clinical autonomy, a supportive team, and real income growth. They were told the organization cared about doctors. Then the first major business decision came down the line. And the doctor was not in the room. This is the most common friction point I hear. Not because DSOs are inherently bad. But because there is a gap between what gets promised...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
There is a moment that happens in almost every aligner case. The patient leaves your office motivated. They have their trays. They know the rules. Twenty-two hours a day. Remove to eat. Clean before reinserting. And then real life happens. They grab lunch at their desk. They do not have a toothbrush. So they rinse with water, put the tray back in, and keep going. Happens at dinner. Happens at happy hour. Happens every single day for the length of their treatment. You already know what that...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
When I was in dental school, success looked like one thing. Own a practice. Fill your schedule. Build a loyal patient base. Work hard for 30 years. Retire. That was the plan. That was what we were all quietly working toward. Nobody told me that owning a practice would feel like running a small business with no business training. Nobody told me that insurance reimbursements would keep shrinking while overhead kept climbing. Nobody told me I would be working harder than I ever imagined and...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
I took out $500,000 in loans to become a dentist. I want you to sit with that number for a second. Half a million dollars. Before I had seen a single patient. Before I had earned a single dollar. Before I even knew what kind of dentist I wanted to be. And nobody warned me about what that weight actually feels like. Nobody told me what it is like to show up every morning knowing that number is sitting there. Nobody talked about the days when you feel completely alone in your operatory,...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
I want to tell you about a pattern I have noticed. The dentists who grow the fastest are not always the most technically skilled. They are not always the ones with the best equipment or the biggest marketing budget. They are the ones who read. Not just dental journals. Not just CE materials. Books on sales. Books on psychology. Books on business and human behavior and communication. They are pulling ideas from completely different industries and bringing them into their practice. The dentist...
2 months ago • 4 min read
