#898: An Interview With the Bloody Tooth Guy

Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera sits down with certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Jason Auerbach, also known as @bloodytoothguy on social media. They discuss Dr. Auerbach’s love for and journey through his career, standout surgery moments, the pros and cons of building his DSO, marketing advice that will take you far, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.886)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera And today I am so excited. We have been Instagram fangirling over this man and he is finally on the podcast. We are super excited to have him on here. You guys might know him as the bloody tooth guy. You might have seen him. He's a really fun board certified oral and maxofacial surgeon. He has a ton of experience. I'm so excited to bring on Dr. Jason Auerbach. Welcome to the show. How are you?

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (00:25.733)

I'm doing great, Kiera. Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to it for sure.

Kiera Dent (00:29.29)

Of course. Well, we were chatting pre -show. I loved how you explained it's your back, my back, our back is your last name. So now everybody will get that right. But kind of tell us, give us a story of how you came from Dr. Jason to now Instagram's famous bloody tooth guy and doing all the things that you do. Kind of just walk us in on your journey of who you are, who is this man? And then I'm excited to dive into some fun things with you today.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (00:37.639)

There you go.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (00:44.315)

you

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (00:53.341)

Sure. So, I grew up in the Northeast. I grew up in New York and, went to school undergrad at Syracuse. And I met a very, very close friend of mine still to this day, whose father was an orthodontist. had very little understanding of what I really wanted to do when I entered college. and he introduced me to this concept of dentistry and dental school. So I ended up applying to NYU, getting into NYU and, and kind of finding my little niche there. I,

I happened to find my way down to the basement of the school, was where the undergraduate oral, or the dental oral surgery clinic was. And met a man named Clarence Kalman, who was an attending at the time and kind of mentored me in exudantia, which is all I knew from oral surgery at the time. Applied and found my way to Kings County Hospital, which is Downstate SUNY Downstate's oral surgery program in Brooklyn.

I four years there and ended up working for attendings of mine right out of residency in Manhattan. After a year or so, I ended up kind of leaving that practice. I was an associate there. They were great to me, but I ended up leaving that practice and finding what I perceived was a better opportunity in New Jersey, right over the bridge. And I was there for a couple of years and had, like many people have had,

some promises made that were not necessarily kept. And so found myself in 2007 in a position where I was moving out to New Jersey from New York City. I was having my second daughter, my wife was having my second daughter, and I was working in nine different offices kind of as an itinerary neurosurgeon.

started Riverside Oral Surgery in 2007 in a town called River Edge, New Jersey, which is maybe six miles from the George Washington Bridge, grew it over the course of about, let's call it 12 years or so, to 10 or 11 locations with a partner, Sung Cho, and we built a full scope oral maxillofacial surgery practice. While that was happening, life was happening as well. Social media was growing.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (03:08.879)

And I found that there was opportunity or I thought to myself, maybe there's opportunity on Instagram that people might be interested in bloody teeth. They were interested in people watching people pop pimples. Maybe they'd be interested in bloody teeth. so a bloody tooth guy was born initially anonymously, basically because I didn't understand the hip aspect of it. And also I didn't really understand how my competitors.

Kiera Dent (03:21.804)

Bye.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (03:36.797)

would potentially use it against me. I just really wasn't exactly sure what was going on or what was going to happen. So I was anonymous and then a few years later came out and the rest is history. We've been very, very fortunate to have built Riverside Oral Surgery, now MAX, which is a surgical specialty platform that supports 24 offices, 25 offices in four states, about to be five states.

build a pretty engaged, respectable following for Bloody Tooth Guy as well. So I've been very, very, very fortunate my whole life in many ways. And just being kind of recognized for it is a nice thing, for sure.

Kiera Dent (04:19.914)

Yeah, no, that's a super fun story. my, so I worked at Midwestern's Dental College. And so you are the student epitome of the one who's just like, yeah, I just woke up one day and decided to become a dentist. And I'm like, how do people get there? And now we have another story of said student. But one of the favorite students, he went through dental school and decided this isn't my thing. So actually went to do all face reconstruction. It was another like,

four years through med school and then four years and then two more years. And I call him up all the time and I'm like, okay, so if anything ever happens to me, if I ever get in a car accident, you've got to make me like at least look this good again. That's our plan. I'm like, I'll help you with anything dental. You just have to make sure. So I feel like it's always good to know like an oral maxofacial. So I'm dying to know so many random questions for you. Okay. How many teeth in your career do you think you've extracted? Like just like random.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (05:07.741)

it is. Go ahead, anything.

Kiera Dent (05:16.746)

I mean, we can throw out, it's gotta be like, I mean, do think you've crossed the million mark?

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (05:22.141)

maybe it's it's it like maybe. so I'm, I'm 50. I finished training in 2003. and so training at Kings County hospital in Brooklyn, was a full exedontia clinic. We used to see a hundred plus patients a day and many people needed many teeth extracted. and I think that's partly why, you know, people talk about 10 ,000 hours or whatever it is to become an expert at whatever it is that you do. mean, I had that probably, you know,

Kiera Dent (05:31.596)

Okay.

Kiera Dent (05:36.363)

Thank you.

Kiera Dent (05:46.571)

Yeah.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (05:51.037)

15, 20 years ago when I came out of residency, thought I had done so much. And again, 20 years later, it's like unbelievable. It's possible I've extracted a million teeth. I don't know. I wouldn't say, but it's, it's definitely a lot. mean, yeah, it could be a million, could be a million. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (05:56.289)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (06:09.984)

Right? I was like, I bet he's crossed the million mark. Like thinking of how many patients and all that. So, okay, that was like number one. Number two, I'm not even know like, what do you like, why, what do you love so much about oral? Because oral maxillofacial is so bloody. And funny story, as a dental assistant, I was doing my internship. I was there. The doctor was so nervous for my first extraction. I was watching it. He's like, Kiera, make sure you like sit over there. I don't want you passing out.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (06:27.623)

you

Kiera Dent (06:39.05)

washed the extraction, I was totally fine. That night I went home and I dreamed about it and I puked my guts out that night. So I didn't do it at the place and then it was fine. did like, I went and like learned about implants and I loved it. I do get a little weird about cadavers like that. I dry heat like left and right. I don't even know how you guys work on it. Like it just, but I need to know, like tell me like, what is it about oral maxofacial that you just love so much? What's the fulfilling piece to you? Like, what is it about that? It's so bloody. It's so much blood.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (06:56.656)

Right.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (07:07.037)

So actually the beauty of true oral maxillofacial surgery is in the efficiency of motion. I come at everything I do from a creative side. So the people come at it from an engineering perspective. I come at it from the creative side, from an artistic side. That's just how I see things. So part of what draws me to the surgery is the ability to see a problem, understand it, and fix it with my hands.

in an efficient, clean, not that bloody manner. Now, of course, these are human beings. They bleed, they're alive. It's kind of a positive thing. But the fact is, is that I really see surgery as such a beautiful artistic expression of how to solve problems. in truth, that's how I come at it from a technical artistic side. From a psychological...

Kiera Dent (07:39.916)

Yes.

Kiera Dent (07:45.139)

Yeah.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (08:05.467)

Like how I help people, you know, every single person who comes into my office every single day is anxious or in pain or scared or a combination thereof. and in a, in a really very, very quick way, we're able to, kind of convert them from being, from feeling that way to being appreciative, almost mind blown in terms of how easy and simplistic.

the solution to their problem is. And I think a lot of people don't really understand kind of the scope of oral maxillofacial surgery. And it's why I think even dentists, even people in the dental world don't truly understand the training that we have. And it's really kind of incumbent upon us to really kind of spread the word on that. And I think I do that to some degree with the dental alveolar stuff I do. But I do think that we have in our bag of tricks so much that we can work with.

that patients who come with seemingly complex problems from a dental perspective, from an oral perspective are, I don't want to say easily solved, but you know, fairly routinely solved. I personally treat a lot of oral surgery, right? I'm a full scope board certified oral maxillofacial surgeon. I've done everything from frontal sinus to the clavicles, you know, everything anterior. I've harvested ribs, I've harvested hips. I've done all kinds of stuff.

Kiera Dent (09:20.885)

you

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (09:33.499)

But the fact of the matter is that I do dental, alveolar surgery, I a lot of wisdom teeth, I do a lot of dental implants, advanced bone grafting. And I do that comfortably because I'm able to handle anything that comes my way because of how I was trained in such an extensive way. And so, you know, when you go to watch a procedure done by an oral maxillofacial surgeon is in his or her office, you're oftentimes, one would oftentimes be amazed by how

seemingly easy it is and they're encouraged to kind of try it and then they find that it's not necessarily as easy as it looks and that's because we've been trained to do it. We do minimally four years of training as you know after dental school that's after dental school up to six or more if you're fellowship trained and so we're able to you know we get the reps in early versus kind of an extension throughout your entire career done like X number of whatever.

sign -as -lifts because you've taken a course or something like that. Not to disparage, but it's a different thing.

Kiera Dent (10:34.081)

Mm

Kiera Dent (10:38.304)

Totally. No, and that's so interesting to me. We harvested one time right before Thanksgiving. I was working with a dentist and we decided we were going to try and harvest from the ramus. It did not go well. And I remember we got a lot of flak. Like you guys did this right before Thanksgiving, right before this patient was going to go on their like dream cruise of their life. Needless to say, was, I mean,

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (10:50.074)

Hmm

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (10:58.973)

to it.

Kiera Dent (11:01.394)

hats off. have so much respect for what you guys do, but I'm dying to know. My husband, worked, he's a clinical pharmacist and he did a lot of rotations in the ER. He thought about being an ER pharmacist and I'm such a gross human, but like it's just fascinating. Like that's what people are fascinated with you. They're fascinated with the pimple popper. So every day when he'd come home from work, I'm like, tell me what happened. Like did someone die? Like what was the crazy stuff? And he told me some wild things from that ER. So I'm dying to know in your career,

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (11:23.6)

you

Kiera Dent (11:28.47)

What are some of like the craziest things that you have gone through? Like for my husband, I think the one that I remember the most is when he said a woman's face went through the windshield and her whole face was de -gloved. That image has never left my mind. Cause I'm like, that is bananas. Like I wear my seatbelt crazy now because I don't want my face ever de -gloved. But I'm curious, like in your career, what are some of the craziest stories or things that you're just like, I remember this one time. That's just the kind of with you throughout your career.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (11:52.795)

Yeah. You know, so most of those stories for me occurred in residency because I, again, I training, I was training in, in the inner city, in the late nineties, early two thousands. And there was a lot of interpersonal violence, gunshot wounds and stab wounds and things like that. Not high, high speed, motor vehicle accidents or anything like that. Cause we weren't near a highway and we were in the city, but.

Kiera Dent (12:00.54)

sure.

Kiera Dent (12:12.619)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (12:20.012)

Sure, you're downtown.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (12:22.821)

You know, I had a gentleman who was caught mistreating a woman and a group of guys, I would say appropriately decided that he needed to be punished for his actions. And so he proceeded to receive pretty significant facial injuries with a bat and a shovel.

Kiera Dent (12:36.129)

Yeah.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (12:51.185)

And so we're talking about, so when you talk about degloving your face, traumatically, we do that with something called a bichoronal or coronal flap where we actually make an incision in the scalp and bring everything down so that you can access the frontal sinus and and OE area. and, and so that was a case that was, that was, something to remember just given the circumstances that he sustained the injury.

Kiera Dent (12:54.944)

Yes.

Kiera Dent (13:05.354)

Mm -hmm.

Kiera Dent (13:16.086)

I'm so sorry.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (13:16.893)

Another guy had a machete impaled and created what we would do surgically, a Lafort 1 osteotomy. Part of what we do as orthoporomaxillofacial surgeons is orthognathic surgery, basically jaw repositioning. And this guy had it done just in one fell swoop because he ran into a machete. And then the most, the case that meant the most to me, that probably attached me to patient care more than anything else was there was a young boy who had fractured his jaw.

Kiera Dent (13:38.9)

Mm -hmm.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (13:46.173)

When you fall on your chin, oftentimes you fracture the condyle, which is the part of the lower jaw that articulates with the skull in the TMJ. And he went back down to Jamaica. He was from Jamaica. He went back down to Jamaica and got lost to follow -up. And he developed something called TMJ ankylosis, meaning fusion of the bone. So he was unable to open his mouth. So by the time we saw him, he was, I don't know, 13, 14 years old, but he looked like a six, seven year old. He was completely malnourished and all that. So we ended up...

basically reconstructing his TMJ, harvesting a rib. And within the day he was functioning in a very, very different way. And actually for me, like I really like first, really first felt this attachment that I actually was able to give someone something of critical importance. And so he meant, he did so much for me by me helping him.

I ended up, he, you know, I gave him like, don't know at the time, I don't even know what the actual game was. It was like a game boy or whatever it was. I was, know, for me, I was fortunate enough. wasn't making a lot as a resident, but I felt like this kid, it was going to be nice. So I bought him like a game boy or whatever it was. But I mean, that kind of stuff that, that really kind of, I was like, yeah, I'm definitely I've I'm in the right, right place. So yeah.

Kiera Dent (15:02.164)

Yeah, that's incredible. And I think it's got to be so fulfilling, like you said at the beginning of the creativity of seeing someone who, mean, like my husband with that face de -gloved, they can't do anything, but you can bring that person's confidence back to them. You can give them life when they didn't think that there was. You can, I mean, our faces, I think our smile is something I love about dentistry, and yet you're able to bring so much more to the table. So I was just so curious. I'm like, I've got to ask because every

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (15:19.933)

you.

Cough

Kiera Dent (15:31.092)

Every surgeon, every person in medicine, they all have the stories. And so I'm like dying to know, but now I kind of want to talk about your guys's business and what made you guys want to go to a DSO. Like let's talk about DSOs because DSOs are hot. And like, do people go to DSOs? Do they build their own? Like what was kind of your guys's mission and vision of building out what you guys built? Was it just necessity? Was it passion? it like kind of walk me through pros and cons like of this DSO journey you guys have been on to get here.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (15:35.058)

Yeah.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (15:57.789)

Sure. So I've always been an entrepreneurial person. Kind of the patient experiences at the cornerstone of what we did with Riverside. We built a strong brand with Riverside that was known nationally well before we had any private equity or outside investment or anything like that. So when, when the kind of &A world was catching on that oral maxillofacial surgery was really a very, very special place to be, we explored the concept and

At the time, like I said, we had 10 or 11 offices. We were personally guaranteeing everything through a commercial lender, co -collateralizing all of it. Like we own some of the land, some of the properties, some of the condos, some of the buildings, totally separate. And then the individual LLCs that were the individual practices. And we owned at the time a private DSO. mean, you could call it whatever you want, basically an organization that managed all of the organizations, all of the

Kiera Dent (16:55.34)

Mm

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (16:56.485)

practice level practices. And so, you know, we spoke to some of we vowed we were never going to sell to a general dental DSO. I believe the oral maxillofacial surgery is unique and special and the best specialty in all of healthcare. So I believe and I hold it in really high esteem and I want to protect it. We've all seen what corporate

Kiera Dent (17:09.814)

green.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (17:21.403)

healthcare has done to healthcare across the board. And by and large, the outcomes are not great. But my belief is that scale and collaboration is actually what's going to yield better outcomes for patients, better level of care. I don't think it's the opposite, as long as it's done properly.

So I didn't want to sell to a general dental DSO. Again, I don't believe that they truly, truly understand the differences and I've owned general dental practices and they're very, very different businesses. And I thought about partnering with a couple of different national or pure play oral surgery groups. One of which I respect like unbelievably and many of which had strengths and weaknesses.

Kiera Dent (17:54.592)

Yes.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (18:13.319)

but none really fit the bill as far as what we were trying to achieve here in the Northeast. And then I also said, I didn't really want to sell, I didn't understand how, you know, oral surgeons would sell to a bunch of endodontists who were like calling themselves, it just didn't make sense. I love endodontists, I love endodontists, but, and in fact, I think their specialty is probably most easily correlated to oral maxillofacial surgery in terms of the business of it.

Kiera Dent (18:26.155)

Right.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (18:39.963)

But I just didn't, again, I think we have a unique specialty and we provide unique care with the hospital and board certification, anesthesia, full scope kind of stuff. So we went about finding direct investors who believed enough in the vision that they would write into the charter of the investment, into the charter of the organization, the existence of an autonomous, largely autonomous, primarily independent clinical advisory board.

Kiera Dent (18:45.441)

Sure.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (19:09.713)

that handled every single thing to do with delivery of care. And so the delivery of care is controlled and decided upon by this clinical advisory board, which is made up of members of all the practices that we support. And it's been really tremendous because we found when doing our due diligence on these private equity firms that

Kiera Dent (19:25.568)

Mm

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (19:38.613)

These specific, they happen to be guys and we use the term guys, but it doesn't matter what the gender is, but they happen to be like great guys, like just people that really stood by their word. a lot of times you go into these private equity deals I've learned and an offer is made on some sort of multiple of your EBITDA.

And then you go through something called the Q of E, which is basically audited financials on your quality of earnings on your financials. And then they come back and they say, well, you know what? We thought your EBITDA was this, but now your EBITDA is that. They retrade the deal, but you're so far along and you're so like, you're kind of limited because you don't have the deal experience.

And you end up putting yourself in a negative position. We have never retraded a deal. We have never gone back. Even if EBITDA was lower by a certain amount, we've never, ever, ever gone back and retraded a deal. And so we have really good guys who understand the importance to me, and also because they are who they are, that we are people of our word, that we are representing us and our specialty and our group of surgeons.

Kiera Dent (20:50.602)

Yeah.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (20:55.417)

as well as it can be done. I think we are differentiated in so many ways. know, any DSO or any group is just basically made up of a group of human beings. So if you're good human beings, you're gonna have a good group. If you're selfish human beings, it's a different kind of thing. So, yeah.

Kiera Dent (21:00.32)

Mm -hmm.

Kiera Dent (21:08.833)

Right.

Kiera Dent (21:16.652)

Sure. What's the forecast of where you guys want to take your DSO? Is it like you want to become one of the largest ones? What's your future vision of your DSO?

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (21:28.807)

So right now we're focused on the Northeast. We're focused on finding and partnering with really market leaders, people who embrace technology. We're not looking to just accumulate EBITDA for the purpose of recapping, which of course, there's a lot of nuance in terms of the speech. Of course, we want to be very, very successful. Of course, that is part of the whole plan.

Kiera Dent (21:47.571)

Yeah.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (21:55.773)

We're not doing it at the expense of quality of care. And frankly, we're looking at the businesses we partner with are businesses that are growing, that they're treating their patients right. They have very, very good brand equity in terms of a good reputation in terms of the patients that they're serving. And that's what we're looking for. We're not in the business of acquiring guys at the end of the career.

and paying them some sort of a high multiple so that we could have, you know, play the multiple game. It's just not what we're doing. So we've been very successful so far. We are, you know, we are ahead of the anticipated growth curve that we were modeled on. We have great same store, as you would call it, but we have same, you know, clinic level growth, which is tremendous.

Kiera Dent (22:29.58)

Sure.

Kiera Dent (22:43.201)

Mm

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (22:51.993)

We have an amazing group of people who support us in the management side of things, who I kind of put it to them with my co -CEO to come up with a mission statement specifically for the kind of the management people. And they came up with the concept that they want to passionately support and serve the surgeons and the partner practices so that we can provide the optimal patient experience each and every time, which is kind of like a little bit.

Kiera Dent (23:08.02)

Mm -hmm.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (23:21.553)

borrowed from Riverside Oral Surgery's optimal patient each and every time, but with this kind of like management support swing, which is to say that they support the surgeons so that the surgeons can continue to provide that type of care. And again, it's, you know, of course there's, you know, wordsmithing and all that, but the fact is, is it's, it's really in the DNA of all the people who are part of our organization to do that. And that's great so far.

Kiera Dent (23:46.954)

I love it. And something that I actually wasn't expecting to take from this podcast today is I love that you say that it's going to be a collaborative change because I think there's so much talk of DSOs actually destroying dentistry. And I love that you want to protect the surgeons and you want to protect your niche. And so instead of sitting back and just kind of almost like floating by with everybody else, you have that passion, you have that love, you're attracting more people like that.

to where you're making a bigger impact. You guys can go rally. You can go speak up. You've got more marketing. Like you are building a voice to make a difference within your space at a very high level, which I think is actually a really beautiful thing. What do you feel if someone was maybe listening to this podcast, they're a dentist who's very passionate like you are, are there any tips or tricks that you would say? I wouldn't say tricks. I think it's more tips to be successful of if they're wanting to build a DSO,

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (24:27.517)

Thank you.

Kiera Dent (24:42.432)

to be like you are? Because I think that that's the fear, right? We're either going to sell, we're retiring, we're going to go for these people that are going after multiples, or we're going to start to build DSOs because we're passionate, we want to protect our space and the industry that we're in and combine forces with other like -minded people. How do people go about that? Because I think so many are afraid of the legalities and like, how hard is it to build this? And what are maybe some of the tips you have for those DSO ideas if they want to start building it?

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (25:09.319)

Well, I think a lot of people try to, maybe with the best intentions, do things on their own. But there is so much information out there, people who have done it before, groups of people who do share ideas. And I think, even maybe it's been a fault of mine to try to kind of do it because I think I can do it without maybe necessarily in my early days.

even now to some degree, speaking to people who have done it before or who currently doing it. We see that in dentistry a lot where like there's a lot of like people want to hold on to their secrets and all that stuff and I find that all ships will rise with rising tide, right? So like everybody has something to offer. That's partly why we are as successful as we are. I speak about collaboration all the time.

I think you need good advisors. You really need a good attorney. My attorney has been exceptional. I'll plug her a little bit. Actually, her name is Casey Gocelle. She works for a firm called Mandelbaum Barrett. She heads up their dental &A space. She's literally written a book on dental &A. She's been with me since I started my first practice. So now she represents Max and has done a great job advising so many people.

Kiera Dent (26:29.846)

Mm -hmm.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (26:31.997)

And you need good financial advice. You need a good accountants and you really kind of need to just network and meet people and understand and speak to people about the pitfalls of what have happened. would say the majority, what has interested me or what has not surprised me because as I've, as I've matured in my career, I really like, I'm happy to share information. Like I have no time in the world, but like anytime anyone grabs me, like I've just like,

here, this is what I do, this is what it's all about, this is what matters. And most people who have achieved some level of success are looking to pass on knowledge and share that knowledge with others. It's actually kind of this mindset, right? As in New York, we talk about like certain other local teams being like haters, and they're haters, and they always have these like losing franchises in professional sports.

Kiera Dent (27:02.87)

Yes.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (27:31.133)

And they're like, they're like this perennially losing and that losing comes from this like hater mentality, I think. So I think like. For me, I want success for, for, for everybody. So like, you know, really like I have, have this big kickoff party at Amos every year. Amos, American association of oral, maxillofacial surgeons. We just had the meeting in Orlando. We had a party, 400 people. It was the Wednesday. was every year it's, it's the party and.

I was talking to a CEO of another like competing dent or oral surgery DSO. It's like, felt a little uncomfortable about, you know, whether I wanted to, or I was going to come or not. I was like, dude, you're, you're welcome here. Like welcome everybody. There are plenty of, there's, there's plenty of seats at the table. Just like when I started practicing and people talk about like, you're a competitor, you're a competitor. There's, are plenty of teeth in the world that needed to be extracted. Plenty of empty sites for implants. Like everyone can be successful. We are.

Kiera Dent (28:24.115)

Hey.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (28:28.925)

I'm so lucky to be oral maxillofacial surgeons in the dental profession. In any way, so long as you're real, you're authentic, you understand you're going to attract whatever audience is going to be drawn to who you are, and you're okay with not every single human being loving you, you're going to be okay.

Kiera Dent (28:50.11)

I love it. I think it's such a refreshing mindset because you do meet a lot of people and there are people that just want to hold on, but it's very interesting. I've been watching a lot of dentists who sell to TSOs or a lot of dentists. They want to give back. So many of them want to mentor. literally, mean, first time in my whole time owning a Dental A Team, people are reaching out to me, dentists, and they're like, Kiera, we want to coach. I'm like...

All right. And I hear it I think you're right that people genuinely like as core nature, our core nature is to love. Our core nature is to teach people how to fish, to help them get to the levels. And so I think it is about that network and dentistry is so special. It's such a special place and it can either be, like you said, a competitor or it's like we're all rising. There's so many teeth out there. It's ridiculous to think that and there's more being born every day. So it's like, they're just going to keep coming.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (29:38.043)

Yeah, thankfully.

Yep. Yep.

Kiera Dent (29:44.172)

But I really appreciate that perspective because it really does help us see that everybody can be successful. And I don't think it's just a positive mindset. It's proof and it's there. So I want to just quickly wrap. Of course, everybody I'm sure is dying to know a little bit about your marketing within being the bloody tooth guy. What are some tips you have if anybody wants to get into Instagram? know like it kind of feels like maybe the boom has passed and it

But I think anyone can come forward. It's pretty amazing. You don't have to be found in talent. You just have to be found with your people. So any tips you have on marketing or branding that you guys have found to be successful, especially coming from you.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (30:23.281)

Yeah, listen, I think you have to like anything kind of, you have to be able to identify what it is that makes you different. And you have to be true to that because ultimately, if you try to put forth some sort of image that is not really who you are, you might have some near term short term success with it, but none of that is sustainable in the longterm. You, know, we, have obstacles as surgeons in particular.

that what we do is a little gory. so because of the world we live in, a lot of the larger enterprises look to protect their users. So I don't really fault Instagram and TikTok for censoring some of what we do. I do think there would be a better way for them to kind of look at it, not just with AI. Some of the stuff I've put up there they've thought was like sexual content and

You know, certainly it can be looked at as violent or whatever. But the fact of the matter is, is that I do think there's a better way. And I'd love to have a conversation. Not that I'm in a position to have a conversation with the, you know, the powers that be it. One does not know, but you would think, you would think Zuckerberg's father, a dentist, he would have a little bit of love for us in any case. but I do think, I do think that, you have to be aware of.

Kiera Dent (31:25.036)

Sure.

Kiera Dent (31:34.144)

Hey, you never know. We never know. Maybe.

Kiera Dent (31:42.326)

I would say.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (31:51.613)

Like anything else, you have to be aware of like what audience you're trying to attract. You have to know what you can do well. You're never going to see me really dancing on TikTok or anything like that, unless like there's an influencer in my chair who's like making me dance on TikTok. but I will say that, you know, you just, you just have to find your voice, put it out there and the ones that are supposed to hear it will actually appreciate it. And it.

You'll grow. mean, you will grow for sure.

Kiera Dent (32:23.584)

I love that. Jason, this has been so, I think, moving and touching and just, I feel the love. I feel your compassion. I feel your collaboration. feel, and I think that that's what, when people really feel that, I don't feel you went on to social to become who you became. I think you went on to just educate and to share your passion and your love. And I think that was the true nature of what made you into who you are today. And I'm just grateful you, like you said, you're very busy. We've been waiting for this podcast for a while.

And I'm just grateful for it. So I just want to, I always like to leave it up to you. Is there anything else that you feel like the world of dental, of teams, of owners, anything that you feel like as we wrap up today that you'd like to share with our dental community today?

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (33:08.185)

I just think we're in an interesting period of time for our profession. A lot of, especially the younger dentists out there, are trying to create a persona because that's what social media is. But I would say if you focus on what's really important, which are the people that surround you, within the office professionally, your family, your friends, you yourself, and you focus on improving your craft and really kind of

putting all of yourself into what it is that you do day to day. And if you want to find harmony, you want to find balance and all that kind of stuff, that's cool. But like, you know, whatever you focus on just multiplies and ultimately will yield for you the greatest level of, I don't say success, because that's a word that people associate with financial success, but just fulfillment. And I think that ultimately as you get on,

Again, I'm 50, right? So I live in this way. I feel like I'm 20, but I'm 50. and, the fact is, is like, I feel younger other than my back a little bit. I feel younger than I ever have. I love what I do day to day. I love the life that I live and you know, time flies. You hear it when you're young and be like, yeah, that's an old dude talking time flies. So just every day do what you love. And if you don't love it, don't do it.

Kiera Dent (34:11.862)

Thank

Kiera Dent (34:37.696)

Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for your time. It was so fun to just hear your stories. I feel very excited. I love that there's people like yourself out there making a difference and definitely agree. You really, really, really love what you do and you can feel that passion. so thanks for being on the podcast today. It truly was such an honor.

Jason M Auerbach, DDS (34:56.189)

Appreciate you. Yeah, it's my honor. Thank you so much, Kiera I really appreciate it.

Kiera Dent (35:00.236)

course. And for all of you listening, I hope you really took this to heart. Reach out, follow him on social, get the passion, the inspiration. That's what we're here for. And as always, thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.