Shared Practices | Your Dental Roadmap through Practice Ownership

Recent Episodes

1. Are You Missing the Clarity of Vision Needed for Sustainable Dental Practice Growth?

   Aug 3, 2026

   Dr. Andrew Clingan delivers a solo episode addressing the critical importance of vision clarity for sustainable dental practice growth. Using a real-world example of a successful but directionless young practice owner, he explains how talent and willpower alone eventually lead to unfocused decision-making. Clingan emphasizes that dentists cannot simultaneously optimize for elite clinical mastery, aggressive scaling, and perfect work-life balance—choices must be made deliberately. He provides practical frameworks for finding focus, including ignoring social media extremes, auditing time allocation, and building optionality through conservative early-career financial practices.

2. Ask George: Is a Fee-for-service dental practice Right For You?

   Jul 27, 2026

   George, host of the Shared Practices podcast, discusses fee-for-service dental practices in depth, addressing whether dentists should buy or transition to this model. He presents his bias against fee-for-service practices while objectively exploring when they work best (rural/underserved areas, affluent markets, solo practitioners with strong patient relationships) and the challenges they present (patient acquisition, retention, insurance friction). The episode covers three pathways for pre-owners: acquiring existing fee-for-service practices, starting from scratch, or transitioning from insurance-based practices when patient demand exceeds capacity.

3. The Dental Menu Factor: Elevating Patient Retention and Practice Profitability

   Jul 20, 2026

   Paul Lowry, co-founder of Dental Menu, discusses membership plan strategy for dental practices as a patient retention and revenue tool. The conversation covers why membership plans outperform cash-pay models (64% vs 12% retention vs insurance), the importance of subscription-based design over discount bundles, compliance considerations by state, and Dental Menu's software solution that integrates with practice management systems and automates billing while maintaining accurate financial reporting.

4. Ask George: Maximizing Profitability Through Solo Dental Practice Management

   Jul 13, 2026

   In this solo episode of the Shared Practices podcast's 10th-anniversary season, the host addresses listener feedback requesting more content focused on solo dental practices rather than group practices. George outlines three solo practice avatars (Solo, Productive Solo, Smart Solo) based on owner income levels and revenue, then provides a detailed framework for maximizing profitability through four key growth levers: patient flow, case acceptance, consistency, and efficiency. The episode emphasizes moving from a single hygienist model to managing two hygienists, building strong case acceptance metrics, developing consistent diagnostic protocols, and optimizing the dentist's time as the practice's most valuable asset.

5. Sitting Down with an Office Manager - Uncovering Dental Practice Pearls

   Jul 6, 2026

   Max Dempsey, office manager of two dental practices under Dr. Jess Preet Parmar's ownership, discusses her 29-year career in dentistry and five-year journey transitioning from lead dental assistant to practice manager. The episode covers her experience navigating practice ownership transitions, building team culture through core values, managing fee-for-service operations, scaling to a second location, and the critical partnership between owner and manager in driving practice success.

6. Ask George: Unlocking Dental Growth Strategies with 4 Levers That Make a Difference

   Jun 29, 2026

   George from Shared Practices discusses the four key levers for driving same-store growth in dental practices: patient flow growth (via the Retain-Open-Fill system), case acceptance, consistency across team members, and operational efficiency. He contrasts a generalized approach to practice systematization with a surgical, data-driven approach that identifies each practice's unique constraints and weaknesses using analytics tools like Practice by Numbers.

7. Maximizing Efficiency: Implementing Virtual Dental Assistants for Success

   Jun 22, 2026

   Corey Pinniger, CEO of Reach, discusses how dental practices can implement virtual dental assistants to address staffing challenges and improve profitability. The episode covers specific implementation strategies, ROI measurement, training approaches, and how to integrate remote team members effectively into a practice. Corey and host Kayla explore the role of AI alongside human virtual assistants, emphasizing that successful implementation requires clear goal-setting, proper training, and treating remote staff as full team members.

8. Ask George: How to Transition from a Job to Dental Practice Ownership and Profitability

   Jun 15, 2026

   George, host of the Shared Practices podcast, delivers a comprehensive guide on transitioning dental practice ownership from a job-dependent model to a true business. The episode uses the framework of a spectrum between 'job' and 'business' to address solo practitioners, group practice owners, and mega-group operators. George demonstrates practical examples—missed call rates, overdue recare management, case acceptance, and hygiene reappointment—showing how to shift from owner-dependent performance to team-driven, KPI-managed systems that function independently of the owner's daily energy and presence.

9. Being Clinically Busy vs True Dental Practice Profitability and Sustainable Dental Practice Growth

   Jun 8, 2026

   Dr. Andrew Klingon and his coach Caitlin discuss the critical distinction between a busy dental schedule and a truly productive one. They explore block scheduling strategies, scheduling protocols, and operational systems that enable practices to maximize production without requiring dentists to be "super producers." The episode covers schedule killers, patient training, deposit requirements, assistant efficiency, and clinical back-office systems—illustrated with a case study of converting a single-tooth appointment into a $17,000 comprehensive treatment case.

10. Ask George: Why Hiring an Associate Can Hurt Dental Practice Profitability

    Jun 1, 2026

    George discusses the common pitfall of adding an associate dentist that results in reduced owner income rather than increased profitability. Using personal experience from his own practice, he explains why this occurs—primarily due to increased expenses combined with lower associate productivity per patient—and provides a comprehensive roadmap to avoid it. The episode covers critical strategies including proper patient flow (2:1 hygiene-to-doctor ratio), schedule expansion, co-diagnosis protocols, strategic case assignment, associate selection criteria, and clinical calibration frameworks.