The Dental Grind podcast
One part of a dental practice, taken apart per episode.
Each episode takes one part of a dental practice apart and puts real numbers on it: where a crown fee goes, how an insurance claim gets paid, what a new patient is worth, how a practice gets valued. Under twenty minutes, one topic, nobody selling anything.
1 episode out now. Each episode arrives in that Monday’s newsletter.
Free, every Monday. You sign up on grind.dental, the newsletter’s own site. Unsubscribe in one click.
- Length
- Under 20 minutes
- Scope
- One part of the practice per episode
- Evidence
- Real numbers from practices I run
- Takeaway
- One thing to check in your own numbers this week
Listen
Latest episodes.
Trailer · Oct 19, 2026 · 1 min
Trailer: The Dental Grind
What The Dental Grind is, who it's for, and what's coming: real numbers from a dental practice owner, every Monday.
Show notes and transcript → (opens grind.dental)Episode 1 · Oct 19, 2026 · 6 min
The crown clock
The same $1,000 crown can leave you about $531 or about $6. Ryan Smith, DDS shows why chair time matters more than your crown fee, and how moving the seat to a second chair changes the math.
Show notes and transcript → (opens grind.dental)
Season 1
Where the money goes.
Season 1 follows a dollar through a dental practice, from the fee on the treatment plan to what the owner actually keeps. Each episode is the lead story in that Monday's newsletter, so one idea arrives both ways. Ten episodes in three parts.
Part 1
Where the money comes from
Fees, claims and the patients who pay them.
Episode 01Out now
The crown clock (opens grind.dental)
Why chair time matters more than your crown fee, and what moving the seat to a second chair does.
Read the newsletter piece → (opens grind.dental)Episode 02Coming
The life of an insurance claim
From the moment the patient sits down to the day the deposit clears, and every place a claim can stall.
Read the newsletter piece → (opens grind.dental)Episode 03Coming
The PPO math nobody shows you at signing
Write-offs, fee schedules that never move, and how to tell which plans are costing you.
Read the newsletter piece → (opens grind.dental)Episode 04Coming
What a new patient is worth
What one new patient produces over the years, and what you can afford to spend to get one.
Part 2
Where it goes
The schedule, the team and the overhead.
Episode 05Coming
Your schedule is your P&L
Why the appointment book, not the fee schedule, decides how much a practice makes.
Episode 06Coming
Hygiene: profit center or break-even?
How to tell whether your hygiene department makes money or just keeps the lights on.
Episode 07Coming
The overhead nobody questions
Rent, supplies, lab, software and payroll: the line items owners stop looking at.
Read the newsletter piece → (opens grind.dental)
Part 3
What it adds up to
Careers, valuations and who buys practices.
Episode 08Coming
Associate, buy or build
Three paths out of school and the numbers behind each one.
Read the newsletter piece → (opens grind.dental)Episode 09Coming
What a practice is really worth
Multiples, add-backs, and the questions to ask before you sign anything.
Episode 10Coming
How private equity buys a practice
Friendly PCs, management fees, EBITDA multiples and the second bite, in plain English.
Read the newsletter piece → (opens grind.dental)
Why a podcast.
The newsletter is for the five minutes before the first patient. The podcast is for the drive in. Same idea each week, so you can take it whichever way your Monday allows, and the numbers come from practices I run, with anything that identifies a patient, a team member or the office taken out.