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The Importance of Wisdom Over Knowledge in Dentistry

Summary:

Understanding the difference between wisdom and knowledge is crucial to excel in dentistry and life. Wisdom sees trends and prepares for the future; knowledge can hinder adaptation.

In this episode, Dr. Marc Cooper, a dental industry veteran with over 58 years of experience, emphasizes the importance of wisdom over knowledge in dentistry, highlighting the need for dentists to anticipate and adapt to industry trends. He discusses the rise of Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) and the necessity for dentists to embrace changes in the landscape of dental practice ownership. Marc also challenges traditional notions of ownership, urging dentists to consider collaborative models and embrace the inevitability of industry evolution. He addresses concerns about the lack of business education in dental schools and advocates for mentorship programs to prepare dental students for the realities of practice. Furthermore, Dr. Cooper shares insights on the shifting dynamics of the healthcare industry and the potential for dentists to play a more integrated role. Finally, he discusses his current work with the Contemporary Elder Institute, focusing on redefining aging and finding joy in life’s later stages.

Tune in and learn how to navigate the changing landscape of dentistry while embracing collaboration and wisdom for a successful and fulfilling career!

Secure Dental-Marc Cooper.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Secure Dental-Marc Cooper.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Noel Liu:
Welcome to the Secure Dental Podcast. Through conversations with the brightest minds in the dental and business communities, we'll share practical tips you can use to scale your practice and create financial freedom for yourself and your family. My name is Dr. Noel Liu, CEO and Dentist at Secure Dental, and also co-founder of DentVia. I'm your host for the Secure Dental Podcast and I'm so glad you're joining in.

Noel Liu:
Welcome back to another episode of our Secure Dental podcast, where we bring in many bright talents and individuals from both inside and outside our dental industry. Today we have a very, very special guest. But before we go on, I just wanted to bring in our sponsor. And our sponsor for this pod is DentVia. It's a dental virtual assistant administration company that assists in back-end office tasks for your front desk and managers. Visit them at www.DentVia.com. Again, it's www.DentVia.com. Now, without further ado, I'm going to be introducing Dr. Marc Cooper. This guy is a legend. Over 58 years of experience and relationships at every level of the dental industry, from working at the chair, to being chairman of a board. And also, I mean his traveling, over 1.2 million miles. This guy is a legend. He has been like a consultant for single practices to Fortune 500 companies in 17 countries, from single practice to running DSOs in both Europe and US. And his credentials outspeaks his personality. He's such a humble guy. And today I'm so honored to be joined by Dr. Marc Cooper. So, Dr. Cooper, without further ado, I'm going to pass the mic on to you.

Marc Cooper:
I don't know what to do with the mic, but thank you. All that may be true, but it doesn't matter. What matters is where you're sitting in your skin and your situation, and what is the future that you're moving into. And one of the things that I'm working on now is that we are a knowledge society, but we are not a wisdom society. And what comes with those 58 years of being in dentistry to some level, at some level, is wisdom. Wisdom is different than knowledge. It's rarely applied, and certainly not in dentistry. So that's why we make so many mistakes.

Noel Liu:
So when you say wisdom, what is your definition of wisdom, and where do you see it's lacking in this current environment of ours?

Marc Cooper:
Great question. Asked a lot and hard to answer. Knowledge is linear, and it comes in a package, and it looks a certain way. It's information and data and interpretation and assessment and judgment, and it's all wrapped into something, and you call that knowledge. But it's not always effective. In fact, sometimes it gets in the way, not out of the way. Wisdom can see when it's getting in the way and knows how to disassemble it. That's the difference. So wisdom is really powerful. It's not embraced in our culture. It wouldn't look the way it looks if wisdom were more pervasive in our culture. Knowledge is. You can, you know, I use ChatGPT every day. I think it's a wonderful tool, but it doesn't make life better. So that's the work there is for me to do now at my age. But let's talk about dentistry. What's the burning questions your audience has? What do they bother you about?

Noel Liu:
Wisdom and dentistry: these two items, right? Which is why I think you're the perfect fit to answer these questions in relation to dentistry, and how do we get wisdom in this field? Because the dental field is really rapidly changing. The landscape is just shifting.

Marc Cooper:
Yeah. You know, that's a great question.

Noel Liu:
And I wanted to see your insight.

Marc Cooper:
Yeah. Good for you. I do too if I suppose. I don't know if they're insights; this is just the way I see it, you know. And you could say I am inciting what I'm doing both, I'm causing it to look that way and I see it that way. It's interpretive. I've been around a long time. I was just thinking before I spoke with you that I used to do my recalls on five by seven cards. That was the age of dentistry at that moment in time. And then I've been engaged with it and watched its evolution. It has a long tail. So one of the things about wisdom I find really, I really appreciate, is you get to see further into the past and more forward into the future. You can see the trend. So wisdom sees the trend now. It sees the changes. That's one of the differences. And it's like, Oh, okay, of course it's going to go there. People ask me about how I generated my success, and that's because I just knew where it was going. I just got to the right station first. So it made it really easy. So I suppose wisdom is an age bound. It's a way of seeing the world. So I had some wisdom in that particular area, others didn't.

Noel Liu:
So anyone with this knowledge that you're talking about here, so with this wisdom, I mean, we can apply it any time in our lifetime, in our lifespan, right? I mean, it doesn't have to come with...

Marc Cooper:
Yeah, yeah, I know people are looking for it though. The problem is I don't know if people are looking for it. We're so knowledge-consumed. I watched your social media because I'm part of it. I am dentistry in certain ways, and it's wonderful. It gave me a huge world to live inside of; a great reality. Was it true or not? Doesn't matter. It was what I had, and it trained me, it developed me, it compensated me. It did a lot for me. And I tried to give it back. And what I brought to it was: take a look and see where the future is going and then get there. Because if you don't, you're going to be behind. So that's where I always work from. It's like, Okay, I remember I gave the first talk on computers in dentistry in 1987, and it was they looked at me like I was crazy, and then I knew what my job was: to make them crazy. So I did that. I did that for a long time. Same thing with DSOs, same thing with everything that they're doing now. The big boys have really figured it out well. And so you have to understand that's the way where it is.

Noel Liu:
Yeah. Let's dive into the DSO world since you mentioned.

Marc Cooper:
Yeah, I know, but you know, you think you don't have much to do with it. So if you take a look at the attitude you have, dentistry has towards the certainty that larger business is going to be the future. They're not generating the kind of relatedness or abilities needed to make that future happen. They're resisting it, or they're pushing against it, or they're gossiping about it, or they're assessing it. Rocks are hard, water is wet. And the title DSO is interesting because I don't think it'll be that in five years; it'll be something else. But that is the future. Okay, are we preparing ourselves for that future? And dentist says, I am, like every other dentist is, resistant to change. Like I don't want to change to do that. I don't want to become that. Well, okay. Well.

Noel Liu:
What do you think it is? Is it fear or is it ego?

Marc Cooper:
It's all. You have to not own or take or out of your vocabulary and see how big it gets, like, Oh, okay, it's ego, which is who you understand yourself to be. That is an ego: who you understand yourself to be. And then there's the, yeah, and just people have a hard time recognizing that aspect of themselves. They think it's real, but their ego determines your perception. And so your perception reinforces your ego. So the two are in cahoots to see the world they want to see. But if you look at the anatomy of an ego, it's pretty frail. It's not well-designed. And that's the advantage for a conscious person is to be able to, use a little judo here and the force of the opponent, sometimes the ego is a wonderful thing to use unless it's using you. And so there's a way to learn how to do that. Take some time.

Noel Liu:
And you're absolutely, right, because I've been seeing like these bigger, larger companies, they coming in, they are more efficient, they have more capital, they have more manpower and more resources. I mean, how is a single office or a single practitioner going to be competing against these guys?

Marc Cooper:
It doesn't really matter. I mean, I remember my cousin Harry and I have his operatory with his chain-driven, slow drill. I remember, and the spittoon. One of the things that's been very contributory to me is to be able to look from multiple directions. And so one of the bodies of work I'm working on now is I'm bringing numbers of religions together to see what's the commonality of what is the source for all of them. That's what I'm looking at. And what I'm seeing is there's an access to something that dentists can't go beyond. If they could, it's just a job to learn from. If they would add a Buddhist perspective of the job is the yoga. The job is what can I learn from it? The job is what can I see for? The job is where can I grow from it? Rather than there's some limiting factor if I don't have it my way. That makes no sense because it's going to go the way it goes. That's how life works, I'm afraid, you know? So hey, if it's going in this direction, either I make a choice to get out, which is fine, and do something else, or make a choice to really learn how to play this game because this is the game you've got. And I think it's a wonderful game. I think if dentists could really understand how to play, they could be contributory, participatory, intellectual, knowledgeable; they could have a world that's really pretty extraordinary because these guys, as you said, have the capital, have the means, have the knowledge base, they've got resources that would be, Wow, if I could get ahold of those, that would be great.

Noel Liu:
It's like if they can embrace it and just take. Kid and basically just work with it, like you said. Like making it like the.

Marc Cooper:
Well, that's what you got. Rocks are hard, water is wet. And here's the future. Okay, now choose. See, that's where you said, What are they afraid of, or what is the ego? Both. Change is really scary. It's like, Well, I designed myself to be this way in the future and that expectation will probably not get realized. And then if you look underneath that, expectations unfulfilled lead to upsets. So dentists get upset a lot. It's like they're just, they're not going to make a change that way.

Noel Liu:
Correct. And I've been seeing like data, I've been showing more and more of the dentist population that's coming out of dental schools. They are like less likely to own a practice. And I've been seeing this trend going on for the last five, six years. It's just on a decline. There are still those gung ho's that want, still want to own their practice, but I ...

Marc Cooper:
Yeah, but you know they're, but there's no reason to. It's like building your own dental school. It's like, is there a reason to do that? No. So you went to dental school because there was an existing structure that allowed you to forward a certain career objectives, and you followed it. And so then if you look at the, I just spent a lot of time at the Colorado Plateau and Zion National Park and you see the layers of rocks. And I'm that, in dentistry, I've seen the lower levels and where, you know, its accumulation to where it is right now. It's a lot of rock right now. And you guys, just haven't adapted yourselves well enough to the environment that you're in. It's just, Okay, here it is. I find dentists are really brilliant, really smart. I've worked with a lot of people. And, you know, I'm sitting in a boardroom in Nebraska, wall to wall, ..., you know, everybody with their hair parted the same way. And the red tie was just how perfect for Midwest. But this is a $11 billion company. And then I realized that, you know, they're all dentists. They all are dentists, they just don't really know who they are. So they don't grow into what they could be in the world. They'd rather see in this career path being attacked by an external force; the aliens, they're coming rather than. You know, it's the way it's going. Let me learn how to play in that water. Let me learn that game, because it's a brilliant game. It's been working for a very long time. When I began this whole conversation, DSOs were 3% of the market. I presented a future that no one really wanted to hear, and I'm still still doing that. That's, I guess that's my career path. It's like, Wow, okay, keep it up. Because, you know, you can't win at a game that isn't being played by you. It's just, you can't.

Noel Liu:
And what is it now?

Marc Cooper:
I think there's a truth about the industry. I think it's a corporate expression now. So when I began, just like you, I began with an individual expression. And then people came along and said, Well, you really need to take responsibility in a different way, which is ownership, leadership, and management. You've got to grow up. It's a business. It's not a hobby; you've got to run it. And then all the tools over time became available from the five by seven, keep your recalls on that list, to a computer system that actually can figure it out and send out reminders and do the scheduling and, you know, manage it so that you have an 82% return rate or whatever you've targeted out for. You know, all those tools are now in place. And then the bigger boys, well, you know, they have figured out how to expand that intelligence into a looking from a much different perspective because they have multiple ways to look at it. So it gives them a different view of what's available so they can see the flow and ebb much more clearly. Because you're on the ground, you're right in it. So you don't have that perspective. That perspective gives you power. So yeah, it has to go there. It's the only place it can go. And there's no, artificial intelligence is its major tool. Now once you have that in your hand, it's like, Whoa, this is a jet engine. I remember the first time I got in a really powerful car when I was a teenager, it was like, Whoa, my God, that's what's here. Now with these two practices a week or whatever they're doing, they're really figuring it out, and they're generating the revenue stream that is less expensive to produce. And that's important. So the investors see opportunity here. So now you have this dance going on in between the equity and the practices. Everybody wants to play in this arena. So it's got a lot of confusion, a lot of upset, a lot of, too many offers, there's not a lot of clarity, you have four major players that have sustained over years that have some stability. You know, it's all over the place. So it's an interesting time. It's also a great opportunity, from my viewpoint.

Noel Liu:
I'm seeing medicine going that direction, has gone the right direction. How do you think like dentistry is? How far do you think we are compared to medicine? Because I have not seen any MDs going to open up their own practices.

Marc Cooper:
Yeah, that's the exact question. You should take a look at the source of that. You speak as though you're not part of the health care system. Yeah, that's a dentist. They don't have an appreciation for the power of context with the part that they're actually playing. There's something that they don't understand about the environment, the ecosystem that they're part of. You're not taking advantage of what you really have, your first responders, and you're not using that particular position to negotiate yourself in the higher order of health care and setting it up that; that's the game you play. That would be a different intention, holding on to the past, that would be different.

Noel Liu:
Let's switch gears a little bit to dental students. Majority of the dentists out there, they are always complaining that when we were in dental school, we were not taught about finances. We were never taught.

Speaker3:
About nothing to do.

Marc Cooper:
With financing. It has nothing to everything can be outsourced. Eventually, if you understand how the game is played. There's a lot of things I am really bad at, but I've learned in my aging process to find people that are good at it and then collaborate with them to get the final product complete. I've worked with probably hundreds of thousands of dentists over my career, and you know what? They're really good people. They don't believe how smart they are. They underplay their value. They don't figure out that they can think in a new way that will allow them to see the future in a new way. And so they limit themselves to a particular view of life in themselves, which doesn't have to be that way. And that's the way I see it. Again, this is the way I see life in the way it works. Dentistry is going to have to go in this direction of larger enterprises, because the money's flowing there and the interests are flowing there. And the health care system of which you are a part is going there and wants to take dentistry with it. And we'll figure out a way to do that. There are larger interests involved.

Noel Liu:
So what are your thoughts on a lot of these dentists? They are like, is it a true assessment that dental school should be teaching a little bit more business on how to read a PNL, how to run or operate a business?

Speaker3:
What are your thoughts on that?

Marc Cooper:
Dentists are perfect for what they designed for, which is to take care of people's oral health. Let them do that, and then figure out a way to develop them in a particular way that gives them a certain level of happiness in life beyond just that, the dental chair. Give them something beyond that, which I think is very doable. Companies can afford to look more in areas of personal growth and development that would allow a dentist to live a life that's with less issues that come with a singular ownership. I think there's a viable offer out there. If the dentist could stand in a particular way when they negotiate their contracts, I'll just leave it at that.

Noel Liu:
And your thoughts on single practice?

Marc Cooper:
I think it's a great way to play. I think it's an end game. If you want to play that game, please make the choice. There's a benefit and a cost. Just know what you're buying. The benefit is your autonomy. I love that myself. I love to be autonomous. I love to be able to make my own decisions and all that, that it gives me. But then I have the cost side, and the cost sides are pretty heavy because I've worked in both arenas. The cost side is I'm responsible and I don't have a shared responsibility. I'm part of a singular game. I'm a singular cell. So, you know, if you look at the natural evolution of everything becomes multicellular. And that's just the way it was designed from the original start. So businesses have all gone that way, they have all gone that way. Can you name anyone in the Fortune 500 that is a single unit? Of course not. So there's, you know, when you take a look from a certain reality and the reality is rocks are hard, water is wet, and here we go. This is where it's going, and it can't be stopped.

Noel Liu:
No, you're 100% right. Even these big companies like Amazon's and Tesla's, these guys, the co-founders I mean they are like part owners. They're not even like, they don't own the 100%. They are like, you know, 10%-15% owners.

Marc Cooper:
Yeah. You know, I don't believe the media. You know, it's all that, I had the opportunity to work with people...

Noel Liu:
I think it's just comparing like the mindset that we dentists have, that we want to own 100% of everything, right? And it's like like you said.

Marc Cooper:
See, that's another fallacy and fantasy. You tell yourself, because you don't own anything. The bank owns it. The staff owns it. Patients own it. Your wife owns it. You know, everybody's got their fingers inside of you. It's a shared responsibility in a whole different way. There's something else that the dentists have been unable to do, which is to be able to form themselves in a way that has allowed them to sit at the table with the other players that are absolutely in the game in a way that represents themselves well and gets a better outcome than they're getting now. They don't know how to do that. All they knew was resist. That is not an appropriate strategy for this future.

Noel Liu:
What are some of the issues that you would see with this kind of attitude?

Marc Cooper:
Exactly what we're seeing now. If I took a larger view of the whole situation and look down upon it, what I would see is what's going on is aggregation. What's going on is, Oh, look at all these things that are going on, and I'm a part of all of this. There's a whole healthcare system that says we need certain things to allow us to operate better. I have the assets to be able to deliver to that, but I'm not forming my assets, so they're transferable. So you begin to see in a whole new light the industry as something more than individualistically that we do now. And people have an external viewpoint of seeing what I'm talking about in a way that they'll have the patience to bring it about. A lot of the DSO ownership is now not dentists, so that tells me something. It's like, Wow, they saw something that the dentists couldn't see, or they would have done it.

Noel Liu:
So lastly, for dental students.

Marc Cooper:
Dental students. You know, they're.

Noel Liu:
I mean, is that a career you would still say ...?

Marc Cooper:
The whole deal is set up so strangely that it's interesting. Ideally, which would never happen, but ideally, there would be a forced, not a forced, a contributory but a strongly recommended mentorship program set up post-graduation where people would get a direct experience of what it's like to be a dentist. But on the other side, would be the dentist being willing to say, I'm responsible for the future of dentistry rather than personally becoming successful. I'm responsible for its future, not just my future. That would be a significant change that would be to occur. But what they have now is go out and scramble and figure it out and take a ship for a couple of years, and if it doesn't fit, then get on another ship. And you know, their world is more mobile than I grew up in. And so that mobility will continue and the flexibility will continue. But what I see, though, is the entire opportunity for different expression coming out of the dental schools, which is more open to what is occurring, and learning to collaborate in a different setting than sitting at the lunch table with your colleagues, learning how to talk in a horizontal fashion rather than just a vertical fashion. Learning how to collaborate.

Noel Liu:
I love that collaboration is a key in these days. I've really evolved, like from a competition mindset to a more being collaborating with people, and that has helped me out tremendously. Just one thing: what are you doing now? What's your role like? I see that you're a founder of the Elderly Foundation. What's that?

Marc Cooper:
Best time in my life right now. So people have this whole conversation about aging and the issues that occur, which are all true. But there's another way of being about going through the aging process. And so I and a bunch of collaborative partners see that the trajectory of aging dictated by the culture is one that does not give you a level of satisfaction and happiness and joy. And so we've designed a different way to look at aging that has given us a different perspective of how to go through life, and a lot more joy and equanimity and peace and appreciation. So I'm having the best time I've ever had in life at this moment in time.

Noel Liu:
It seems like you're next level now.

Marc Cooper:
Yeah.

Noel Liu:
All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you so much for your time. I know your time is very, very precious, and I appreciate that.

Marc Cooper:
You're welcome.

Noel Liu:
Thanks for tuning in to the Secure Dental podcast. We hope you found today's podcast inspiring and useful to your practice and financial growth. For show notes, resources, and ways to stay engaged with us, visit us at NoelLiuDDS.com. That's N O E L L I U D D S.com.

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About Marc Cooper:

Dr. Marc B. Cooper is a seasoned professional dedicated to transforming older individuals into empowered elders. With over four decades of experience, Dr. Cooper founded The Contemporary Elder Institute to guide late-aged professionals through the transition from older to elder, fostering greater peace, joy, and empowerment. He specializes in leadership and executive coaching for healthcare providers and organizations, providing wisdom-based guidance for navigating crises and rough waters. Dr. Cooper is also an advocate for transformative aging and elderhood, working with leaders committed to impacting the healthcare system positively. Holding degrees in Dentistry, Philosophy, and Organizational Development, Dr. Cooper’s expertise encompasses coaching, consulting, and transformative education. He is passionate about helping individuals and organizations embrace elderhood, find purpose, and contribute wisdom to enrich their lives and communities.

Things You’ll Learn:

  • Wisdom sees trends and prepares for the future; knowledge can hinder adaptation.
  • Dentists must anticipate and adapt to the evolving landscape of dental practice ownership.
  • Resistance to change and fear of the unknown hinder dentists from embracing industry shifts.
  • Dental schools should incorporate more business education to prepare students for practice.
  • Aging can be approached with a perspective of joy and fulfillment, rather than fear.

Resources:

  • Connect with and follow Marc on LinkedIn.
  • Learn more about the Contemporary Elder Institute here.
Categories
Podcast

Expert Reveals Tips To Mastering Full-Arch Implants

Summary:

Managing complications is crucial to performing successful full-arch cases.

In this episode, Dr. Juan Gonzalez, an experienced oral maxillofacial surgeon, shares insights from his diverse career, spanning military service to private practice. Juan discusses the evolution of full-arch implant procedures and the challenges he faced transitioning from traditional methods to more efficient techniques. He is the co-creator of the PATZi protocol, a systematized algorithm for maxillary full-arch implant treatment planning. Emphasizing the value of experience over reliance on guides, Juan advocates for continuous learning and mentorship. He also delves into the ORCAA Global program, which provides comprehensive dental implant training, highlighting the importance of rigorous protocols and one-on-one mentorship. Dr. Gonzalez stresses the significance of managing complications and building trust within his surgical team. Finally, Juan concludes with a reminder of life’s unpredictability and the necessity of prioritizing patient care.

Tune in and learn from Dr. Gonzalez’s wealth of experience and insight into the world of oral surgery!

Secure Dental-Juan Gonzalez.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Secure Dental-Juan Gonzalez.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Welcome to the Secure Dental podcast. Through conversations with the brightest minds in the dental and business communities, we'll share practical tips you can use to scale your practice and create financial freedom for yourself and your family. My name is Dr. Noel Liu, CEO and Dentist at Secure Dental, and also co-founder of DentVia. I'm your host for the Secure Dental podcast and I'm so glad you're joining in.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Welcome back to another episode of our Secure Dental podcast, where we bring in many bright dental talents from all over, both inside and outside our dental profession. Today we have a very, very special guest. But before we go on, this pod is sponsored by DentVia, Dental Virtual Administration company, that focuses on back-end dental office tasks like calls, claims, AR, etc., to assist our front desk personnel and office managers with their daily tasks. Visit them at www.DentVia.com. That's www.DentVia.com. So now without further ado, let's dive right in. So today we have Dr. Juan Gonzalez. And this guy is like the master of full arches. So Doctor Gonzalez is an oral maxillofacial surgeon and he is board certified, specialized in both full-arch rehab. And he is a co-creator of Patsy protocol. And it's one of those world-renowned for treatment of severely atrophic full-arch cases. His service in the military has, as well as his love for teaching and mentorship, has resulted in over 15 years of advanced full-arch implant experience. So Doctor Gonzalez is such an honor to have you here. Let's dive right in.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Honor is mine, doctor Liu, thanks for inviting me.

Dr. Noel Liu:
No, it's great. So let's start with the first question. What's your background? Where did you get started?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
How far do you want to go?

Dr. Noel Liu:
Let's start with dental school.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Dental school? I went to dental school in Puerto Rico. I graduated from dental school, and then I did a one-year GPR. And then I signed up with the military, where I moved to Texas with the Army. And I did two years, two and a half years of general dentistry attached to a ground unit. It was called, Forward Support Unit, where I had a mobile truck that was a dental clinic. So we were behind wherever the people were fighting; we were miles behind providing medical and dental care. After that, I went to residency, and I did my residency at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Then after graduating from oral surgery, I went to Fort Hood, Texas, where I spent five years as the Chief of Oral Surgery at the hospital over there.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So you were at the frontlines in the military?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
I did not get deployed. We did a lot of training, but right before getting deployed to Iraq, I got selected for residency and I was ready to go. But my, the captain that was in charge of the unit told me, Hey, we have a new dentist coming in, you go do your residency. Until we, you know, to tell you the truth, I felt a little bit shattered because I had trained with that unit for two years. I was looking forward to deploy with them. And then, somebody else ended up going instead of me. And all in all, in over 20 years of military service, I came up for deployment three times. And always something happened. Not on me, I was ready and I wanted to be deployed. I was always a player, but something would happen and that, you know, things happen in life. You don't know the reason. And for some reason, I never ended up getting deployed.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So what was residency like when you were starting? Did you do any kind of like oral surgery while you were in service, or did you do everything like after residency?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Oh, everything in residency and long hours, long hours every day; 14, 16 hours. I remember one time when I was doing the general surgery rotation, I stayed up for 42 hours and I think I slept for like 12 straight hours after that. It's long hours, lots of work, lots of learning. It's very intense residency, but you learn so much. You make friendships for life too.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Now, is this because you had like very good work ethics, or was it like the military background had influenced the approach, how you did things at the residency?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
No, I think it's just in their residency training. I know that over the years now, things have gotten a little bit easier because they have clamped down on hours. They frankly, they were abusing residents back in the day. And they were, yeah, they were getting 180, 100 hours out of a resident. And then a lot of medical mistakes were being made. So they had to regulate things and put a limit on the hours that residents could work in a week.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So once you graduated residency, what was your first job or your first step in your career?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
As soon as I finished residency, I went to Fort Hood, Texas, and then being the most senior there, I ended up being the Chief of Oral Surgery at the Hospital Darnell Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas, and I was in charge of three other oral surgeons where we covered everything. We covered trauma, orthodontics, cosmetics, pathology, and we also trained GPR residents. That's probably my beginning on teaching, even though that any oral surgeon that graduates from residency is a good teacher because you're mentoring always your junior residents.

Dr. Noel Liu:
That's nice, that's nice. So you went back into the Army then, right?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Yes, yes because you owe them a commitment. When you sign up with the military. Basically, you sign up for a certain number of years. When you do training, if you train for four years, you owe them back four years. So you had to train with them for four years and to do work with them for four years.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Gotcha, gotcha. So what inspired you to go into, from oral surgery, and you went straight to, like, even though it's part of oral surgery, the full-arch treatment, rehab? Like what got you motivated?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Yeah, that's a long story on itself. And after, at Fort Hood, I didn't do any full-arch. In the military, back then, full-arch was not a thing. We did single implants and snap-ins and things like that. When I finished, after, well, actually, before I finished my military commitment, I started what we call moonlighting; when you're in the military and you start working part-time because, you know, military pay is not that great. So in a few days of work outside the military, in the civilian world, you can make more money than in the military in a whole month. So you basically use your days off to do some work. So at that time, I started working on a friend's office in Austin. Fort Hood is about 45 minutes, an hour away from Austin, North Austin. So I was doing some work at a really good ex-military friend of mine, ... Martin Tony, great oral surgeon. And there I was, I was doing the usual wisdom teeth, single implants, and whatnot. So fast forward a few years and I get out of the military, I open my own practice in San Antonio, the practice for several reasons. I had another part neurosurgeon, very nice guy, great surgeon. But the practice of being in a place that had a lot of competition and then we both had side jobs in corporate. So the practice never really took off and we were planning on closing it. Dental school was looking for oral surgeons to partner with and open an office in San Antonio. So through a mutual friend, we met and we got together and then we started working together. So dental practice was solely concentrated on full-arch, just basic full-arch, what everybody was doing about eight, ten years ago; you just put implants wherever you find the bone. So that combination of having a periodontist, you know, and summarizing, but that combination of having a periodontist and oral surgeon, we kind of complemented each other, and we took everything to the next level; the combining techniques and improving techniques.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Was that like a first goal towards like full-arch rehab?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
That was, I have had a little bit on corporate, the office I was working in, a little bit of full-arch experience where it was very minimal, and the first case I did was guided, and it didn't take me long to realize that you always have to, if you cannot freehand it, you probably shouldn't use a guide, because guides give you a false sense of security, and you have to always be able to be ready to take over if the guide doesn't work.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I want to reemphasize that again. You said, If you are not able to place freehand, don't even try a guide, right?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
You shouldn't. You shouldn't. Because the problem is it gives you a false sense of security and then nothing is better than experience. And that experience of drilling, of feeling the bone as you're drilling. And then as you drill, you can tell, Okay, this bone is soft. I'm going to under prep and then I'm going to place a bigger impact. So that type of thing you don't get with a guide. And then, if you follow everything in the guide, you might have the perfect position, but then you have no torque. What are you going to do after that?

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it. This is coming from somebody who's like experienced, right? So I mean, a lot of guys like nowadays they're all about guides and they're like, Oh, if there's no guide, I cannot do it. And I just love what you just said.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
I've done a few arches. I might have a little bit of fun in here.

Dr. Noel Liu:
No. That's great. So tell me, what are some of the challenges that you face when you're doing like a full-arch rehab where there is no ridge and when you first started? So challenges and all the mindset thing that you went through.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
So when we first started, we were doing the usual: the putting implants here and there. But then we started realizing, you know, there's so many trophic momzillas out there that don't really have bone. And traditionally the way these were done, it was: you remove the teeth, you bone grafting to the sinus, you wait months, then place the implants and wait longer. And it was a lot of time, very unpredictable, at least in my hands. I'm an oral surgeon, so, you know, I'm not a periodontic so. I always pick on periodontics. But they're good people. I got many good friends and so. But it's more predictable. And it, over a year until the patient ends up with teeth. And then if you have failures, then that sets you back. With remote Anchorage, it's all immediate. So when we realized that, I went and did a, just a one-day course on zygomatic implants, just to be familiar with the anatomy and the technique after seeing that. Because as oral surgeons, we know all the anatomy, we know the surgical techniques, I can pretty much look at, watch the surgery in YouTube or read about something, and pretty much we can do it. So I did a one-day course and I saw zygomatic implants. I went back to the clinic, started doing them, started modifying the techniques, improving it, changing it. Then at that time, Daniel was not doing zygotes. So he just watched me do a lot of zygotes. And then, that way he learned how to do zygotes. And then one day he shows up at the clinic and says, Hey, check this out. I can't remember. He's told me a million times and I can't remember where he got the pterygoid technique, which has been around for a long time, but he pretty much kind of like, was one of the ones that reintroduced it into the US and made it popular. So he showed me that. I was like, Oh, that's a cool technique. So after that, we started combining all the techniques, and after doing hundreds and hundreds of cases, I noticed a pattern that I was always following. And that's basically the birth of Patsy protocol, which Patsy protocol, you know, a little bit of inside story, but after I noticed that pattern, I told, Hey, Daniel, you know, he had already named the ..., the adding Pterygoids to a regular ... I was, Hey, we need to name this something. And he said, Well, should we call it like the Zippy technique or something like that? I'm like, I don't know about that name. So I was giving one of my first courses in Dallas, and the night before, I was like, you know what, posterior, anterior, tilted, zygote; that's the way I do everything. So patz. But that patz sounds weird. So I added the 'i'. So patzi: posterior anterior tilted zygomatic implants, which was a way, another way I do every single case. and I have never, ever had a single case, not one case very delivery without teeth the day of the surgery. Now, that doesn't count the deliveries the next day. I'm saying, what I mean is, I've not been able to load the case at 100% success rate on immediate loading cases. And the protocol, it's not, some people think it is like I'm renaming, like I'm making my own names for everything. No, it's not a classification system. I'm not reinventing the wheel. I'm using techniques that have been around for a long time, many techniques that have been developed by many people. The only thing is that I put it in an order that if you know all the techniques, of course, you have to know the techniques. You know, some people criticize, Oh, but if techniques work only in one person. Well, that's why there's neurosurgeons. You know, not everybody can do brain surgery, but you train to do brain surgery and you can do brain surgery. So the same thing with this. If you cannot do all the techniques, or know, then maybe you should be able to recognize cases that you shouldn't be doing. Either let somebody else do those cases or learn the techniques, which is what we're doing. So it's just a logical order where I always start in the back with pterygoids, then move on anterior and in anterior, there's a lot of different techniques to obtain Anchorage anterior, and then in the middle. I end up in the middle and always follow the same protocol. And if one technique doesn't work, you look to the other one.

Dr. Noel Liu:
No, that's such great insight. So did you ever have like a mentor that you went through or this is something where you just saw one day and you're like, Hey, I can do this?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Pretty much with the basic arch, I cannot like, Watch out, Dan. But for the remote Anchorage, I'm pretty much just combining techniques, figuring stuff by myself and talking to other people and watching techniques on YouTube. And like people, like many people that I've interacted with and we have a really good relationship, like ..., David Zelig, Alexander ...

Dr. Noel Liu:
You just formed a team, right?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Yeah. No, we have a big team. We have a big group. There's about 50 of us in a group that we are constantly sharing ideas and talking and helping each other. And I think by doing this, and we have really great camaraderie, we talk pretty much almost every day. And it's not just here in the US. We have also many people internationally that belong to this group and we all talk.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Oh, I love it. Look at this guy. I mean, one day of course, and he mastered it. I mean, this is something which is really, really amazing. Love it. So tell me something about your courses. I know you've been teaching for over 15 years, and what is one thing that you are so passionate about? And I know, like you love to mentor young guys, right, coming out. So what's your passion?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Yeah. So it all started, and I have to give credit where credit is due. So it all started, you're gonna laugh about this, but it was a wreck, the Austin Neerden wreck. Female Casey Ingraham, she'll come to the clinic, and we kind of didn't like each other, you know? We didn't, she thought I was not nice. So one day she said, Hey, you know, how come you're not on social media? And I said, Because I hate social media, I don't like social media. And she said, Well, you should because you do good work. And I was like, Well, are you gonna manage it because I don't know anything about technology? She said, No, you have to do it yourself. So I started taking pictures of cases, and it took a while until I developed my format that, well, I started documenting everything. So once I started doing my social media, then people started reaching out. I started with zero people. And to this day, I have never paid any money. I have paid zero to increase my social media because my social media is not for profit. My social media is not, I don't own an office, so I'm not promoting anything. All I'm doing is trying to do whatever knowledge people think I have, give it to the world for free and give it to people for free. So I had the first person that reached out to social media was a guy from Florida, really nice guy, and Kenan Osman. So he reached out and I just gave him my phone number. But he called me back and he talked and he said, Well, can I come to Austin and watch your work? I was like, Sure. And he's like, How much is that going to cost me? I said, Zero, just come here and hang out. That was the first person that came and he flew from Florida. And then I decided to look, yeah, I decided to look him up on Instagram. And I saw on his post this thing that looked like a mouth condom. I was like, What the hell is that? And I asked my restorative doctor, Doctor Sarah Emory. Hey, do you know what this mouth condom is? And she's like, Yeah, that's an ... And we have them in the clinic. I was like, Oh! So I used that day that ..., and I was in love with it. I'm like, This thing is awesome. I'm using this on every single occasion. I've used it ever since on every single case. And I've promoted heavily because it helps you ...; it's protecting the leap. So the point of the story is that this guy wanted to come learn from me. But he had really taught me something before he even came here. So that was the first of many. After that, for the next like about 2 or 3 years, I have dozens and dozens of people that would come from all over the place. You know, I've had people from Venezuela, Spain, and but mostly from the US that had come just to watch procedures, and they would come to the clinic, hang out, watch procedures. I've never charged anybody a single night. On the contrary, they all cost me money because after they would come watch, I would take them to my donor range and they would shoot machine guns, and, you know, machine guns shoot a lot of ammo real quick, real fast. And it gets really expensive quick. Yeah. But I created a lot of connections. Then after that, and I work with all implant companies, so I don't have a problem talking about them. So I created a relationship with Norris Medical, and they were really good to me. And I traveled all over the US and all over the world giving lectures on remote Anchorage with them, giving also cadaver courses. Then after that, now, I work with multiple companies like NeoDent, SIN, JD, ... So I tried to keep a relationship with all of them, and then that led to ORCAA, where I partnered with Simon Oh and Eldad Drori. And I think we have the best training in the world, period.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So what is ORCAA?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
ORCAA Global was founded by Simon and Eldad, and then I came in early, and it's a group that we bring some of the best surgeons in the world, and we have a partnership with the UFM University, Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. This university has probably some of the best facilities in the world way than 99% of the University of Dental schools in the United States. The personnel there, the staff, they're incredible. So we have people that train level two and level three; level two is regular arches, level three is our remote Anchorage. And we go there two weeks out of the year, and we have about 14 participants, six level three, eight level two, and a lot of observers, I can't remember the number of observers. And we have seven staff. And now usually we have two alternate staff just in case. So about nine staff. And in a period of five days, we do approaching about 30 patients and close to 60 arches. Then we also partner with restorative doctors like ... has been supporting us for the last few ORCAAs. And they do all the restorative work. So all every single patient that we do leaves with teeth the next day. It's a lot of hours, very intense work. And it doesn't end there because whenever we are done with all those patients, we usually stay behind. And we bring other specialties like ENT, microvascular oral surgeons like Doctor Stephen ... and Kathan Patel, Joe Cammarata, plastic surgeons. And we do pathology patients for free. We've already taken care of two patients with pathology, one myxoma, one ameloblastoma, one girl that gets shot into maxilla. Next month, I won't be able to go because I'm going to be in Australia with ... But we have a group of doctors that are going to be there and taking care of a nine-year-old with ... ameloblastoma. All these were free thanks to their contribution. And we're planning on expanding. So stay tuned because we might be doing these in other countries.

Dr. Noel Liu:
You know, this is crazy because I've heard where there's a lot of courses out there, they do all the surgeries done, but then there's no follow-ups for those guys. And what you're doing is amazing that they're getting teeth and the restorative that's being done. That's huge.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Not just that, but in ORCAA, we cannot guarantee you that this case, you know, if we tell you, you know, you'll probably do this many, but we cannot guarantee you that a case is going to be quad because we follow PATZi. And if it's a quad, it's a quad. If it's not a quad, before doing a quad, we're going to try everything else. Before even doing a zygo we're going to try. If we cannot do tilted, we'll go with ... palatal approach, whatever we need to do to avoid the quad. But if you do decide to go, what if you decide to go to zygo in the ... anterior, we can do a lateral approach, or if we can do transnasal, whatever approach. But the number of atrophic maxillas in Guatemala is so high that usually the participants exposure to all techniques is pretty much guaranteed.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So it's like, what you're saying is: if the patient does not need it, it's not going to happen. And if they need it, it's going to happen.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Period. But I'm not going to let anybody do a quad on somebody that does not need it. No, no.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it. So how do you screen these patients? Are you like down there? Do you have a team down there who's actually screening them for the participants?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
We have a team, Fernando and Ector Clay, Dr. Ector Clay, Doctor Fernando and I can't remember Fernando's last name right now. Doctor Rodrigo Cayarga. There is a really good team of doctors, all the residents there. So we have support of the dean there, dean Marta, with the university. They're constantly scanning for patients. They see patients and they think the patient can benefit. Then they put them on a list. And then as ORCAA approaches, which is the, every February in September. As it approaches a few months before they start getting a list of patients, and then they send us, after they have looked at all the CTs, they send Simon and I the CTs. And I personally went through 45 CTs to classify them on the ones that could be level two, level three, and so on. It's a lot of work. Let's put it this way. People have no idea of the amount of work that we go to be able to organize all of this.

Dr. Noel Liu:
And what's your standard of protocol for measuring success in these courses for the participants?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
So for level two, we vet them. We make sure they have to fill out an application. And we have to make sure that the candidate has enough experience that they're not going to waste their time or our time, because it's not a basic course, it's an advanced course. And for level three, it's ... And I sometimes have to interview them on the phone to make sure that they already have experience. Number one. Number two, they've done didactic cadaver and some of them have even done already several zygot courses in other countries before they come in, because if not, it's just a waste of time for everybody. We just don't have enough time in these five days to do any, yeah, to do much didactic work. So it's pretty much all hands-on.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So is it like taking your course first, like the didactic portion and that?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Yeah, there's many courses. I can't keep track of them, but I have courses. Many different companies have courses that they give. My recommendation would be to start with learning all the basics of implants. Once somebody sees them at placing hundreds of implants and they feel comfortable doing full-arch, then start moving to the basics of full-arch. And there's many courses for that. And then for remote access, there's also many, many courses, like one of the best courses is in Virginia Beach, the Atlantic Implant Institute with Adam Hogan. He has many different courses from basic full-arch to advanced full-arch, and also even business aspect of full-arch.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it. So basically, guys can just go and take any of the full-arch courses or any of the zygotes, and then they can qualify with you. Okay.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Yeah. It doesn't have to be just with me. There's many qualified people there that can do this, you know, to name a few. ..., David ..., Alexander Alam, Stephen Nelson, Alex Wayne, so many, many, many people that can do this course. Of course, I'm only biased. I give several of them. I'm going to be giving one soon in Mexico with Nestor Marquez, a really good guy, and have another one in Australia with Simon Oh. And I had another one with Clarke Damon and Rick Klein, which they give an excellent course in Dallas. So there's many courses. My Instagram is, I'm easy to reach on Instagram. I manage my own Instagram, my everything that you see there, I've posted myself, I answer phone calls, I answer messages. So it's doctor.g.dmd.omfs, and most people probably already have it. So if anybody has a question about courses, you know, I'm very opinionated, but I'm fair. If something is good and I don't like something, I say it, I don't like it. You know, I don't have a problem with that.

Dr. Noel Liu:
No, I'm really excited because I think I signed up for your August one, the Dallas one.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
On the last one, I don't know if you saw the post, but at one point I was like, you know, ... this one a little bit bored. So while people were having lunch, I went back and I was like, you know what? There's a lot of people that like to show off that they can place three. That's no big deal, you know? So I put four on the cadaver because I would never do that on a real person. I would, I don't even think there's a need to place three zygomatic implants in a person, so I would, you'll never see me do that in a person. But a cadaver, you know what? That's a different story. Just to show the capabilities, the things that we can do with today's system.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So as far as your courses are concerned, are you, like, still like the main person who's teaching it one-on-one with the students, or do you have like a faculty team member?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
When we do the cases in a cadaver courses? Yes. It's going to be one-on-one. I'm going to be there with whoever I'm working with, whether it's like part-time or recline. We're all there like one-on-one. But in Guatemala, it's just too many participants in Guatemala. So I had to step back on this one. This was the first one that I was not actively doing. So I had to step back and let others. But every single person that I bring to teach at ORCAA is qualified. Even the level two mentors, they're all qualified to work level three. So every single one of them, I didn't have to really do much. I ended up doing a few cases just because you give them a break to some other people. And we're continuously evolving in the training. So the other thing is that people that I work with or go to my courses or something like that, I'm always open if they have a difficult case, because not everybody that does a case feels comfortable going back to do. Some of them would like to have some more mentorship and have maybe that guardian angel over their shoulder when they're doing a case. So I'll do a lot of what I call one-on-one training. Yeah. So I do that. I do it just to help because a lot of these people, they're great doctors and great surgeons and I create relationships and they might just want to have extra insurance on those first cases. And I go, I've traveled all over the country helping them. And that, frankly, is not even worth the money. I'll just do it because of the camaraderie. These are people that I develop relationships, I end up going to visit, I stay at their houses, I get to meet their families, and they treat me like family. These are friendships for life.

Dr. Noel Liu:
One thing I really love about you, you have such humble personality and a humble beginnings, and you keep everything so down to earth. This is something which is so, so, so great about you.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Yeah. Well, life is short. I've already had a lot of friends, you know, that are no longer with us. It's like you can make all the money in the world, you can work five, six days a week and make a lot of money, but something is going to be affected. And then after having a stroke at a young age, and then my dad was an E.R. physician, so he didn't spend a lot of time at home with us at the beginning, but he tried to do as much as he could on weekends with us. So after that, I learned, you know what? I'm not going to be like that. So for the last, I would say, about five years, I've been working only about 2 to 3 days a week and spending more time with my family. Now my kids are a little bit older. They're still young, 12, 14, 17, but I still do things with them. I still like to do things. I still like to do lots of trips with my wife. I would say I'm the poorest oral surgeon because I own anything, but I'm reaching in experiences and friendships and family and all that stuff, and I try to enjoy life as much as I can because people always forget that, if this is not forever, it can be gone tomorrow, it can be gone tonight; you never know. So I try to enjoy constantly learning new things and having new experiences.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Yeah. Love your approach to life. So last question for you. Any takeaways for young people coming up, like want to be surgeons and they are aspiring to do full-arches? What kind of advice or direction would you like to give them?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Well, learn as much as you can do, as much as you can, as much experience, take as many courses and find a mentor. Find somebody that can mentor you and guide you. It's like, anybody can do these cases. It's, I can train pretty much anybody to do these cases, but it's managing the complications that makes a difference. If you cannot manage the complications, then probably you should be doing these cases. And, unfortunately, everybody wants to do these cases and everybody is doing them these days. And how we like to say winter is coming, meaning that, and I'm starting to see it already all the cases that have not been done properly, they're starting to come back. And I've been pitching a lot of cases. This number is only going to increase with time. So my advice is do as many courses as you can, get as much experience, get a mentor, and always try to do what's best for the patient. I mean, ... is about, three years ago, I did my own mother's surgery. And, yeah, it was a remote Anchorage. And then I wanted to show that I trusted my whole team, so I let them place the pterygoids on her. Then I placed the anterior implants, I place azygos. Then, I let my anesthesiologist put her to sleep. Not only that, but I also let my anesthesiologist, Brett Harris, who is an anesthesiologist that I worked with, he also is a dental specialist, so I let him take out her mandibular teeth. And then I did her mandible, and then I let my restorative doctor Emery do her restoration. That showed that I trusted my whole team. And if I didn't believe in this type of treatment, I wouldn't have done my own mother.

Dr. Noel Liu:
That speak volumes, by the way, if you do all this stuff with your mom and you really entrusted your team. So that's huge, really, really huge. So last thing is, how can, besides your Instagram, any other website or any place where audience or we can find you?

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Unfortunately, I need to figure out how to transfer all my Instagram to Facebook. So now, basically, Instagram is the easiest way, and from there, because I don't have a website and I don't have a Facebook or anything else, and I'm still in between clinics, I still have not decided where my next home is going to be. So I'm still doing a little bit of like on the road, you know, like going to multiple clinics. But as soon as I have a clinic which might be coming soon that I'm going to be mostly at, I'll post it. And I'll always continue to teach. I always have people come visit it because that's just part of what I do.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it. Love it. Well, I think we're going to land the plane, and that's pretty much it for now. So if you had any other last-minute advice, otherwise, you know, we are good.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Okay. Sounds good. No, that's about it. And, now, when people come visit me, can I take them, shoot machines like I did with a really nice guy from Australia, David Aria. But he was brave enough to also go fly with me at night.

Dr. Noel Liu:
You know what? You offer that to me. I think I'll take that upon that offer once when I'm down there with you someday.

Dr. Juan Gonzalez:
Yeah, yeah. Come visit me, anytime.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Thanks a lot, Doctor Gonzalez. Well, I think we're going to land the plane. Once again, I'm going to check out. This is your host, Doctor Noel Liu. Make sure to like and subscribe and follow us on our next episode.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Thanks for tuning in to the Secure Dental podcast. We hope you found today's podcast inspiring and useful to your practice and financial growth. For show notes, resources, and ways to stay engaged with us, visit us at NoelLiuDDS.com. That's N O E L L I U D D S.com.

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About Dr. Juan Gonzalez:

Dr. Gonzalez is an experienced surgeon certified in oral and maxillofacial surgery. He has been practicing various types of surgeries related to the mouth and face for the past twenty years, including complex dental surgeries, removing wisdom teeth, correcting jaw alignment, treating facial injuries, placing dental implants, performing cosmetic surgeries, and addressing jaw joint issues. Dr. Gonzalez is skilled in administering anesthesia and has performed over 14,000 sedations. In the last seven years, he has specialized in a procedure called “All on X” for full arch surgery, particularly for severe cases where patients have thin upper jaws, using special implants like zygomatic and pterygoid implants. He is recognized as one of the top specialists in these procedures globally. Additionally, Dr. Gonzalez travels internationally to teach advanced dental implant techniques and serves as an editorial member for a prestigious dental journal. Originally from Spain and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Gonzalez completed his dental education and underwent a hospital-based residency before joining the United States Army as a dental officer. During his military service, he completed a four-year training in oral and maxillofacial surgery and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After transitioning to the Air Force Reserves, he has held leadership roles, including supervising other physicians and educating surgery residents. Outside of work, Dr. Gonzalez enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, flying planes, hunting, wakeboarding, running half marathons without shoes, and socializing with friends over wine.

Things You’ll Learn:

  • Managing complications is crucial in performing successful full-arch cases.
  • Trust and expertise within the surgical team are vital for successful outcomes.
  • Continuous learning and mentorship are essential for young surgeons.
  • Focus on developing relationships with patients and their families.
  • Experience trumps reliance on guides in full-arch implant procedures.

Resources:

  • Connect with and follow Juan on LinkedIn and Instagram.
  • Learn more about the PATZi protocol here!
  • Browse the ORCAA courses here!