Dentistry Uncensored With Howard Farran

Dr. Lynn Hurst was born in Corpus Christi, Texas (1957), the middle of 3 children, to Reverend Chester Clive Hurst, Jr. and Dorothy Mae Owens Hurst. Dr. Hurst graduated from A.C. Jones High School (Beeville, Texas), in 1975 and Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas), in 1979, with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) major degree in Biology and minor degree in Chemistry and was a research assistant for 1 year at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. In 1984, Dr. Hurst received his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) with Honors (Omicron Kappa Upsilon) from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Dental School. In 1986, Dr. Hurst simultaneously earned his Specialty Certificate in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, College of Dentistry and Master of Science (MS) degree in Orthodontics from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Graduate College. In 2017, Dr. Hurst co-founded Candid, as Chief Dental Office

Dr. Agatha Bis is a practicing dentist in Oakville, Ontario, Canada and the founder of UPB Dental Academy, which is an online learning platform for dentists looking to improve, grow, or change something about their practice. She has been in practice for 23 years, currently working 4 days a week, with no weekends or evenings. Her practice has 5 full-time hygienists, and completely fee for service. She created UPB Dental Academy to share with other dentists the systems that have been extremely successful for her in growing her business because she is passionate about elevating dentistry in the eyes of all the patients, creating successful happy dentists around the world, and helping others achieve their ultimate level of success doing what they dreamed of when they first got into dental school.

Lauren Kelly, Director of Strategic Markets, received her Bachelor of Arts in Marketing from the University of North Texas and has been in the dental plan industry for more than eight years. She began her career at Careington International Corporation in account management where she helped clients develop strategies to grow their business and served as their primary contact for their day-to-day needs. In 2015, Lauren transitioned into a sales and management role and currently oversees the Launch Loyalty sales and support teams. Lauren specializes in helping dental groups develop custom in-house discount plans for their offices. She has been integral in the development and strategy of the Launch Loyalty platform and has extensive experience in helping dental groups develop and refresh their in-house discount plans.

Dr. Christopher Cetta is a Board-Certified Orthodontist who practices with Blue Wave Orthodontics in Bradenton and Tampa, FL. Dr. Cetta grew up in New Jersey and is a third-generation doctor. He received his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University in North Carolina and graduated from Rutgers School of Dental Medicine in New Jersey. Dr. Cetta practiced general and cosmetic dentistry for several years prior to specializing in orthodontics at Jacksonville University in Florida. He is the co-inventor of Precision Aligner Buttons™ by DynaFlex and has had several articles featured in the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics. Dr. Cetta also plays bass for two rock bands, including the all-orthodontist group “Relapse.” Dr. Cetta currently lives in St. Petersburg, FL with his beautiful wife Nicole and puppy Jagger.

For more than 20 years, William “Bill” Hiltz has been helping dentists settle their most pressing and complex problems. Bill’s qualifications in engineering, biology, computer science, data analytics, education and business help him to provide thoughtful insight that is generally unavailable elsewhere. Since 2004, Bill has been primarily focused on matters involving fraud, embezzlement and litigation support for dentists and practice owners.

Dr. Mark Tholen is the former CEO of the nation’s premier dental office design firm, which created over 3,000 offices in virtually every State of the Union, Europe, and Australia. His career in dentistry spans over 30 years including clinical practice before obtaining his MBA from the University of Texas. He is the author of three dental textbooks published by Lea & Febiger, the most recent of which is a comprehensive book on all aspects of dental office design with over 7,500 copies sold. Dr. Tholen has lectured extensively in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Asia and is a former consulting editor to the parent corporation of Dental Economics. Currently, he is the principal instructor of the extremely popular dental office design seminar, "Inspiring Success", sponsored by A-dec of Newberg, Oregon.

In July of 2019, Christian Brutzer became president of Ivoclar Vivadent North America, taking over as long-time President Robert Ganley retired. Brutzer is also the global head for Ivoclar Vivadent Asia/Pacific region, and a member of Ivoclar Vivadent AG, Liechtenstein’s corporate management board. He will maintain in those positions. A lawyer by education, Brutzer, who was born in Germany, furthered his experience during a post-graduate program in Japan. He has been in the dental industry since 1989, serving in various executive management positions in Europe, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Australia and the USA. He speaks multiple languages, including German, English, and Japanese. Brutzer joined Ivoclar Vivadent AG in 2006 as director of sales Asia/Pacific. In July of 2011, he became a member of the organization's corporate management team. During his tenure leading the Asia/Pacific market for Ivoclar Viavdent, he oversaw the establishment of subsidiaries in Japan, China and India, and new representative of

Karen Daw is an award-winning national speaker, author of numerous articles and CE courses on safety in dentistry, and a consultant to practices across the country. She earned her BA from the Ohio State University and her MBA with concentrations in Healthcare Administration and Business Management. After graduation, Karen was recruited from the Emergency Department to her roles as Assistant Director of Sterilization Monitoring and Health and Safety Director for the OSU College of Dentistry. Karen draws on her rich background to educate audiences large and small on how NOT to do safety, and, best practices to avoid penalties, negative reviews and the 6 o’clock news!

Syed graduated with a Bachelors in Dental Surgery in India and decided to move to the United States for a better life. He and his gorgeous wife Ameena moved to Chicago and fell in love with it. After several struggles he got accepted into NYU Royal College of Surgeons' one year Oral Surgery certificate program for international Dentists. After completing that he joined University of Illinois at Chicago where he earned his DMD in the International Dentist Degree Program in 2015. After his graduation he associated for 4 different practices, figuring out different practice philosophies with his mentors and learning everything from building a practice to running a multi million dollar practice. He did his first practice in April 2016 in Chicago with 6 chairs and now is running 11 very successful practices hiring over 30 associates and 5 specialists. His goal is to make dentistry predictable, affordable, accessible and comfortable.

Matthew Cooke is the Vice President of Consulting Strategy at Call Box. For the past 10 years, Matt has worked with thousands of healthcare organizations to improve their strategic operations, optimize their caller experience, capitalize on marketing efforts, and streamline operational workflow. He's led numerous webinars and speaking engagements, specifically in the dental industry. Prior to his time at Call Box, Matt led project teams at Epic Systems, consulting with healthcare organizations of all sizes across the United States. Kimeran Johnson is the Director of Client Acquisition at Scheduling Institute. For the past 15 years, Kimeran has worked with dentists and their teams to streamline processes in the practice around new patient acquisition. She helps them leverage data and training to produce greater results in marketing and team performance. Kimeran has experience in training, management and marketing. A fun fact is Kimeran trained Howard Farran’s Today’s Dental team a decade ago on the 5-Star New

In his professional career Dr. Tahmasebi has done research and development work on laser whitening as the Medical Director of BriteSmile Company, introducing laser whitening globally. Subsequently, serving as C.E.O of Glamsmile in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, he then became the Vice President of Education as well as Research and Development at DenMat where he invented and brought many products to market including FirstFit Technologies. He continued the research and development of FirstFit at Viax Dental Technologies where he served as President and C.S.O. Today, Dr. Tahmasebi manages the FirstFit Technology for Global Distribution. In the course of his work at these companies he has introduced many products to dentistry, including a Diode laser, lesion detection light, the One Hour Veneer system, and most recently the invention of First Fit Minimally Invasive Technologies. He has appeared as a dental expert on CNN, CBS, ABC and other TV networks. He is recently featured on the cover of Inside Dentistry magazine

Kim Wright, DMD, MAGD is a 1989 graduate from Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon. She was born and raised in Alaska, At 21 she decided she better go to college, not sure what she wanted to do but knew what she did not want to do and she set off in a path that landed her in dentistry. She has been involved in organized dentistry her entire career and what she is most passionate about is education. Bringing great speakers, topics and innovation to Portland to share with her colleagues. The past 18 months she has been immersed in helping form the Oregon AGD Foundation which has built the Oregon AGD Foundation Center, “Where service meets education."

Carl Guthrie is with ETS Dental. He is the Regional Director of Recruiting covering the Southwestern U.S. including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Hawaii. ETS Dental was founded in 2001 by Mark Kennedy and is headquartered in Roanoke, VA. They specialize in locating and placing General Dentists and Dental Specialists with independent practices across the country. They have conducted searches in all 50 states for thousands of practices seeking Associates, Partners, and Buyers. ETS Dental’s recruiting team is made up of 6 general dentist recruiters and 2 dental specialist recruiters.

Kiltesh Patel is Founder and CEO at tab32, a cloud-based technology platform designed for better oral healthcare outcomes. The company provides the patient health record and practice management services for dental practices, and member outreach and education programs for population health. Prior to tab32, Kiltesh was the Director, Health Sciences at the University of California where he utilized data for medical informatics, genomics and translational science research activities. Earlier, he joined Mapquest.com/AOL as the Architect and was instrumental in developing migration strategies of legacy technologies and positioning products in highly competitive international markets.

Leo Pranitis has over 30 years of professional experience in various commercial roles, primarily within the dental industry. He has built and led sales, marketing and R&D teams that have produced award-winning, market-leading products, several of which continue to hold premier market share positions within the global dental market. In addition to his current role as General Manager for Prisyna Oral Healthcare, his previous roles include Vice President of Sales & Marketing, North America, for Southern Dental Industries (global dental manufacturer headquartered in Melbourne, Australia), Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Sonendo (early stage, venture-backed endodontic device, Laguna Niguel, California), and Vice President, Global Marketing and Innovation at Kavo Kerr (previously, Kerr Dental), a Danaher company. During his time at Kerr, Leo directed all new product development and commercialization of a global portfolio that generated over $300 million annually. Leo has been directly involved and

Dr. Paul Etchison is a practicing dentist in a south suburb of Chicago called New Lenox. He is the author of Dental Practice Hero: From Ordinary Practice to Extraordinary Experience. He is the host of the Dental Practice Heroes Podcast. Recently, along with Dr. Justin Bhullar, Dr. Etchison founded Dental Business Mentor, an online curriculum teaching all things dental business, as well as systems used in his practice. He currently practices only 6 days/month, and enjoys 12 weeks off per year. Dr. Etchison is married and has two daughters, Briella (8) and Alyssa (4).

Dr. David Guy, Hollie Bryant of Bryant Consultants, and Dr. Kevin Martin talk about the shooting that happened in Dr. Guy's practice in February that killed his office manager, the journey of transition with his dental practice and where he is now. This is a story that will touch your heart with the success that has come from Dr. Guy surviving this horrific event and encourage you to get prepared for what life may throw your way.

Dr. Pullen graduated from USC dental school in 1999. He then completed a 1 year AEGD in the Army Dental Corps in 2000. Dr. Pullen served 3 years in Landstuhl, Germany in the U.S. Army and then practiced as a general dentist for two years in Yorba Linda, CA. Dr. Pullen attended the Long Beach VA endodontic program and graduated in 2006. He opened a private practice limited to Endodontics in Brea, CA in 2007 and became board certified in endodontics in 2013. Dr. Pullen lives in Yorba Linda with his wonderful wife of 23 years and has two teenage girls and a 20 year old boy. His hobbies include speaking, surfing, Brazilian JiuJitsu, reading, and golf.

Matt has a bachelor’s degree from BYU, a masters of business from ASU and is a certified business appraiser. He has been engaged as a consultant by Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health. Matt is one of 20 Certified Valuation Analysts (CVA) nationwide who specialize in dental practice valuations. In the past, he has been engaged by some of the largest national DSOs and some private dentist-groups looking to sell or join private equity groups. On the topic of practice valuations, Matt has been engaged by dentists to provide expert witness testimony at trial and retained as a consultant by some of Arizona’s top law firms. He has successfully transitioned over 150 general and specialty practices in Arizona, including some of the largest transactions in the last decade. Matt has been a guest on numerous podcasts, spoken at dozens of CE events, study clubs and symposiums and has authored multiple articles published in the Arizona ADA magazine.

Jason Patrick Wood is a partner in the Law Firm of Wood & Delgado, a law firm focused on business transactions for dentists and doctors: leases, purchase agreements, partnership agreements, shareholders agreements, corporations, associate agreements and other business-related legal needs.  He has authored many articles relative to the business side of dentistry which have appeared in every major dental publication. His CE podcasts pertaining to the business side of dentistry are some of the most viewed dental podcasts in the country. He is a moderator for Dentaltownon all forums related to the business side of dentistry and enjoys helping and educating doctors throughout the United States. Prior to joining Wood & Delgado, Mr. Wood worked in Washington, D.C. for the Speaker of the House in connection with Presidential and U.S. Congressional campaigns and thereafter he worked for the U.S. House of Representatives, drafting legislation for various House committees.