Episode #228: Dr. Sam Shamardi – Mentoring Dentists with Surgical Cases and Financial Knowledge

Dr. Eric Block: Welcome to the Stress-Free Dentist Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Eric Block. As always, I want to inspire, entertain, and educate you on the best tools and technologies out there. My goal is to help make your practice and career more profitable, efficient, and, most importantly, more enjoyable.

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Dr. Eric Block: Again, that’s www.ekwa.com/msmsfd. Alright, everyone, welcome back to another episode. And today we are joined by Dr. Sam Shamardi. Uh, he is a periodontist. Uh, he is an author, he is a faculty over at, at a little place called, uh, Harvard University Dental School. Um, he’s, um, very involved with a lot of things. He is an entrepreneur. Um, he’s the founder of an awesome, uh, implant, uh, and surgery program called Master Clinical Surgery. Um, and he’s got a lot to offer. So it’s gonna be a great episode. Uh, Dr. Sam Shamardi, thanks for joining us.

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Thank you. Happy to be here.

Dr. Eric Block: Yeah. Sam, let’s, let’s dive into how did you even decide to become a dentist and then ultimately a periodontist?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Sure. I mean, dental-wise, uh, not to sound cliché, but ultimately I think the interest was the ability to help people. I think the big thing was, for me, that caught me was the preventative side. Uh, I think the reality once we get into the field is we realize maybe it’s not as preventative as we think, but that was back in undergrad. What kind of was the appeal. And for me, you know, perio, uh, I need the variety. So if I wasn’t a general, general dentist doing at least different procedures all day, within the specialties there’s a good seven, eight different kind of surgical procedures within perio. So I felt like, you know, you get the variety, and ultimately that’s the specialty that has the biggest impact on the overall systemic link.

Uh, I think before it really wasn’t talked about much, and now people have realized, you know, how major it is and everything between Alzheimer’s and, you know, diabetes and cardiovascular. And we literally—excuse the pun—but have a lot of impact in our hands when it comes to that perio and systemic link. So those two things really, you know, drew me more to perio compared to any of the other specialties.

Dr. Eric Block: And where did you go to dental school and, uh, your perio program?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Yeah, so I did dental, uh, out here in, uh, in Boston at Tufts. Uh, not too far away from obviously where you are. And, uh, perio I did at UPenn in Philly. Okay.

Dr. Eric Block: And, uh, after UPenn, uh, for a periodontist—uh, I’m a general dentist, uh, but I love, you know, having a good variety of dentists on and different specialties—um, what did you do after your perio program? Did you go and associate, did you open up your own practice? Are you a traveling periodontist? What’s your, uh, story there?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Yeah, it’s a great question. And it’s, it’s something that, uh, always speaking with the residents and, and speaking about, ’cause as a specialist, especially perio, the field has changed quite a bit. I think, you know, generally speaking, obviously with all the DSOs and just kind of the multi-specialty, things have shifted a lot. I think the days of mom and pop, especially in cities—I wouldn’t say it’s not there anymore—but from a perio standpoint, um, it’s definitely not similar to what it was before. And of course, a lot of people are doing a lot more of their own surgery, which is part of the motivation for the course.

But, um, you know, I was always more of the traveler, being an independent contractor, uh, being interested in being involved in academia and being on the speaking circuit, and from the entrepreneur side, working on other products and bringing things to the industry—to have that kind of, you know, multi-interest type of background.

And then also trying to manage a practice, that being a specialty one, just didn’t seem like it’d be the most, you know, feasible from a practicality and work-life standpoint. So for me, it’s always been more from the independent contractor side. And, you know, like anything else, pro-con. I think it’s been great in terms of—I’ve worked East Coast and West, DSO, private practice, specialty-only, perio-pros, multidisciplinary. I’ve kind of had my foot in a lot of different practices over the years. So it’s given me quite a bit of exposure and insight. And, uh, that’s been another big kind of key, not only just from a practice standpoint, but, you know, from a speaking and teaching standpoint. I’m able to bring in experience from a lot of different areas and be able to speak to it directly, which really makes a big difference.

Dr. Eric Block: Are you, are you seeing more of a trend in periodontists when they get out, that they’re not just opening up their own shop? Like you mentioned, they’re doing more what you’re doing—they’re an independent contractor going to several different offices?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Yeah, I do think that’s a bigger trend, especially in cities. I think, you know, if you live in a more sparsely populated area, in a suburb or something like that, you most certainly can have your own practice and thrive and, you know, it’d be great. But I think if you are more in a city basis, it’s definitely become more of a challenge. And then again, I think you also have to look at your interests. Like I said, for mine, having some of those other interests—then trying to combine that with also doing the practice— isn’t as practical as if, you know, you’re head down, full speed, clinical side only.

Dr. Eric Block: And now, actually, when I—when I, I did an implant residency at BU, this is back in ’02 to ’04, and I was, I was a, you know, general dentist and working as a general dentist in, in, uh, two or three offices. But I was also this traveling implant dude. And I went around to different offices, and I was—I think I was actually at up to five at one point. And I would do the surgery, and if they wanted the prosthetics as well. A lot of pros and cons. Um, I felt more cons, um, because I just wasn’t in control, uh, with the inventory. The staff was often different. Um, supplies, um, the schedule. Um, so I imagine, is that one of the downsides of being an independent contractor?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Yeah, I think when you’re independent, especially nowadays in terms of more of the DSO—certainly in that type of environment—as far as autonomy goes, you have a lot less. Um, I do think, comparing being a specialist versus not, I do think as a specialist I have a lot more autonomy than if I wasn’t. So in terms of like—you mentioned—the supplies and, you know, some of the scheduling stuff, I think, you know, from that standpoint, I’m there to help guide: "Hey, how are we scheduling things and what’s our setup gonna be and what are the type of materials we want?" and whatnot.

You know, certainly for the specific implant brand, I mean, that’s something you would work with—what the practice uses or what the restorative doc is comfortable with. And from that standpoint, I think you have to be a little bit flexible. So it’s certainly not, uh, kind of a hundred percent in your hands for everything. But I do think, as a specialist, I think you do have a little bit more—or I should say probably more—autonomy than if you weren’t.

Dr. Eric Block: Yeah. Uh, I think at some point I just brought all my own stuff. I just like wheeled around a suitcase and, yeah, just showed up like I was going to the airport with a giant suitcase. That’s—

Dr. Sam Shamardi: That’s totally, totally what it is. Totally what it is. And, you know, again, that’s kind of the hassle and what you get tired of. But then other people look from the other side and say, well, you know, when it’s five o’clock and, you know, when you go home, you just pack your bag and go, and you’re not sitting around late nights to deal with paperwork and HR and, you know, management, all that type of stuff. So again, there’s—like anything else out there—there’s always a pro and a con.

Dr. Eric Block: All right. Let’s get into your, your, uh, program here. Your course. Um, is it called Master Clinical Surgery? Is that the name of the course?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Yeah, so, well, that’s the name of the website—basically mirrors the name of the course as well. Just the overall theme is mastering surgical cases with confidence. And, you know, really the big part around it is, being somebody that’s been speaking around the country now for over a decade and plus conferences, et cetera, we noticed a big change in terms of—you know, training courses are always very valuable.

But the reality is—and this is no different—if I go to a CE, I mean, there’s only so much you can retain. There’s only so many pearls you’re gonna take from it. And usually once you get back to work the next week, you’re trying to remember, "Hey, what was that technique?" or like, you know, "What was that instrument?" or "How’d they do it?"

And you just don’t have that reinforcement. You don’t have that community. You don’t have that ability to, you know, share questions and cases and be able to have that level of mentorship. And so that’s part of the big motivation. I think, ultimately, with the amount of surgery that general practitioners are doing now—considerably more, whether it’s implants or other types of perio procedures—I think, being somebody that’s been helping train and educate that bigger community, you see the importance of not just giving them the training.

But really, the missing piece is the mentorship—the coaching side. So what makes this program unique is, more than just sitting there and telling you, “Here’s something that you should do and how you should do it or why,” it’s really going into pitfalls.

"Hey, from my experience as a specialist doing this day in, day out for, you know, 15-plus years, here are the situations that are gonna come up, and here’s what you can expect to see. And here’s what you need to avoid. Here’s a pitfall. Here’s, you know, best practices. Here are instruments that are gonna make a huge difference."

And, you know, if you introduce an instrument that they haven’t heard of or seen, and suddenly you see a light bulb go off where it’s like, “Holy cow, that’s gonna help me do this procedure so much easier than I was before.”

And ultimately, again, it’s about bringing that type of approach—but doing it from a standpoint where, now what’s unique about our program, my program, is that you’re gonna have, you know, web-based lessons that not only you’re gonna be able to be educated on, but now with it being on a platform—rather than it being like a training course where, like I said, you go home and that’s the end of it.

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Now you have it at your, you know, palm of your hands—access to it any point you want. You know, before a case, if you’re trying to remember a certain thing, you could always go back and reference it. Uh, so you have this ability to have an ongoing kind of education. You can submit cases, and we do, you know, case review and reach out. So not only is there a constant kind of reinforcement of the education, but now you are in more of this mentorship group, and you’re among a small group of kind of like-minded colleagues. So everybody’s in the same boat.

And then that’s the other big thing—you know, at a course, people are uncomfortable to raise their hand. You know, I’ll ask people questions, and nobody wants to be the one to say it ’cause they feel self-conscious or, you know, what if they say something and they’re judged? But once they’re among a group of people that are similarly motivated and going after the same thing and asking the same and coming across these same situations, now you are able to be comfortable, open up, ask the type of questions, get the reinforcement you want. And again, I think that’s something that makes this really unique.

Dr. Eric Block: Yeah, it sounds like the opposite of a lot of, uh, courses I used to go to where these presenters would show this, like, amazing work and, you know, show this amazing stuff, and then I’d leave feeling worse and feeling like I’m doing unsatisfactory dentistry and feeling bad. Like, yeah. So this sounds like—um, I love the fact that there’s mentorship, there’s a community. Um, and you’re right, it’s, you know, when you’re learning implants or surgery, you’re working on a live human being there, and you need to get trained and educated and, you know, take things slow.

Um, are your students—are they GPs? Are they, mm-hmm, fresh outta school? Uh, what, what are you seeing there?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think ultimately, you know, the base for this is a clinician that has started or has been doing surgery and is really kind of looking to elevate to that next step. So I think a program for somebody that has never done an implant or a surgery and is just starting out—um, you know, doing that—is not what this program is. This is more, “Hey, you’ve gotten your feet wet, you know, you’re doing more involved cases, and you’re really kind of looking, again, to take that next step up.”

And again, I think you hit the nail where going and presenting some elaborate, really intense case—that’s not gonna necessarily be something that people are doing day to day. So they’re wanting to see the more practical clinical situations, the things that they’re gonna be coming across more often, and to have straightforward, predictable, and really structured methods to doing it.

So we have two different setups in place. One is a much more extensive six-month program where you name everything from diagnosis to all the different phases of surgery—resective, regenerative, implants—going over actual how to manage complications. That’s a huge thing that gets overlooked. What’s the point of learning how to place if you have no idea how to manage the complications, which you will guaranteed get, and the long-term maintenance. So it’s a very comprehensive A to Z type of program. And that’s the six-month.

But in addition to that, the separate program, which is a very specific, focused three-month accelerator, is specifically on the topic of atraumatic surgical extractions and ridge preservation. So this is really the bare fundamental in terms of the bread and butter of what you’re doing on a daily basis in terms of extracting teeth, trying to preserve and maintain as much of the socket as possible, and set yourself up for success for implants or pontics for bridges.

And again, these are the types of cases that—it’s not a question of not knowing how to extract the tooth. We’ve all done it. But ultimately, at the end of the day, everybody’s come across those cases and situations where they run into a situation—whether it’s a difficult patient or a sinus exposure or, you know, maybe a wall of bone missing—and they’re wondering, like, “Could I do this differently?” or “Is there another way?” or “Is there a technique that would’ve made me get a better result and do this better and differently?”

And again, these are the kind of questions that we all have, and we always are too uncomfortable and don’t have a place to get it answered. And you’re not gonna get that answered in a training course. You’re just gonna sit and listen to somebody show how they do stuff, but they’re not necessarily answering and targeting your needs. And that’s really what it comes down to, because each of us are gonna have different needs and situations and things that we’re looking for. And again, that’s what makes this different and really targets the individual clinician.

So, it’s great that we’ve got both of those—like a three-month accelerator on a very focused topic. And for those who are looking for kind of a broader, more overall thing, we have the six-month offering as well.

Dr. Eric Block: And do you—is there any, um, uh, like one-on-one, um, live surgery type of, uh, learning?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: So this one, because it’s web-based, mm-hmm, is more of, again, a coaching mentorship approach. So there’s definitely, you know, didactic stuff. There are lessons—I’ll be showing cases, literature, again all of the technique and whatnot. In addition to that, there is a case submission portal. So depending on what topic we’re covering, you’d be able to submit a case that you have, that you really want to get feedback on and get the approach in terms of, “Hey, how would I approach this?” and “What are some tips?” and whatnot. So you’re going to get that kind of individual feedback from that standpoint.

And then especially again with even the bigger six-month program, there is a live event that we’ll have, which will be an in-person weekend. And we’re breaking that up between a day of didactic—where we’re covering, again, surgery, but also some other really important, overlooked topics in terms of, you know, how we close cases and how we sell these cases to our patient.

And by “sell,” it’s really more—how are you explaining it for it to make sense to them, for them to then have confidence in what you’re going to do and want to move forward with it?

And then also a second day that’s more of a hands-on approach, where then again, we can sit there with, whether it’s pig jaw or typodont—whatever it is—on these different hands-on approaches, and really get our hands wet in terms of the materials and some of the techniques we reviewed. And that will be really significant because once you’ve gone through the program and you’ve been exposed and you’ve tried some of these things in practice, we could really kind of elevate that in person and get more of that, you know, one-on-one there.

And then from there, you’re really kind of popping things off and really off to the races from there.

Dr. Eric Block: And tell me about your book. What’s the name of your book?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Yeah, uh, the book is The Financial Survival Guide for Dentists. So that was kind of a passion project, actually during COVID. Uh, it’s something I wanted to publish for many years—just didn’t have the time with being full-time in clinic and the academic stuff. But once we had that slowdown in COVID, it was like, “Man, what am I gonna do?” And, you know, one day it was like, “Hey, this is the perfect time for me to try and do this if we’re sitting around anyways.”

So, you know, motivation behind that—and you can relate, I’m sure, like all of us—is, you know, we go to dental school, we learn dentistry to the extent we can, but we learn nothing about the actual finance stuff. We have no idea about our student loans. We have no clue about insurance, the differences between them.

What’s a corporation? What’s a write-off? What’s the interest rate? What kind of rider do I need in my disability in case I get hurt? And retirement—savings—what do we need to do? How do we prep ourselves for later in our career?

I mean, these things are actually, ironically, as you start practicing, our biggest challenge and are actually the most important level of success. The question’s always like, “Can we retire? When can we retire? What do we need to do to make sure we’re protected? And how can we be most efficient with our time and our money and how we do things?”

And again, these things are sadly just never addressed in dental school. So that’s what the basis of that book was—to kind of go through all those topics and more and really just provide, especially the new grad—although everybody benefits from it—but really give them a roadmap that they can look at. And again, just have a foundation. And that’s really what it’s about—have a foundation. And then, you know, gives you that kind of start that you need and that we simply just didn’t have.

Dr. Eric Block: That’s great, man. That was a very similar story to me—during COVID is when I started, you know, the Stress-Free Dentist brand and book and all that stuff, so, yep, yep. Very similar. I had the time and I knew I wanted to get some things done and, um, finally made it happen.

All right, Sam, let’s wrap up with two final questions.

One, how do we find out more about what you’re up to—regarding the course, the book, the program, all that stuff?

And then number two, what advice would you give to the young dentists out there?

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Cool. Well, as far as finding out more info, again, the website for the courses you can look up is www.masterclinicalsurgery.com. That would be the best place to look up information on that, and, you know, apply, get on that waitlist, and get in contact with me and get everything set up there.

Also, via social media would just be on Instagram at @drsamshamardi—pretty straightforward for that one. So those would be the best places to connect directly.

As far as advice for a young dentist, I think, honestly, motivation for this—I think number one is: find a mentor. And that could be a mentor for your clinical side, that could be a mentor for your financial. It could obviously be more than one.

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Uh, the more the better. I mean, ultimately you want to connect with people who are in a position that you foresee wanting to be yourself. And that, you know, varies person to person in terms of, you know, if you want to own a practice or be independent, and a certain lifestyle or a certain style of work or whatever it might be. But, you know, find an individual or two that, you know, kind of match that, and seek their advice. Ask how they did it and go after that. So that would be probably the biggest.

And then the second thing I would say—piggybacking off the finance side—is start as early as you can. Just saving. And, you know, I stress this to the residents. You know, we have a thought of, “God, I’ve got student loans and I’m renting an apartment, I’m doing all this stuff,” like off the bat. “I just don’t have the money to afford it.”

But they don’t realize that even a hundred dollars a month—even though it sounds like nothing—it creates healthy habits. It gets the process started. And again, that type of money you put away starts to compound and actually accumulate a lot more than you think. And the earlier you start—and there’s just tons of financial breakdowns of this—the earlier you start, the more you’re able to build at a quicker rate.

So, you know, waiting 10 years later because you feel like, “Okay, I’m in a better economic position,” the logic makes sense, but the math of how it works out actually doesn’t. So you’re better, even if it’s a tiny bit, starting off earlier but doing that, than waiting longer. So those would probably be the two biggest things I’d say.

Dr. Eric Block: Oh man. Great stuff. Dr. Sam Shamardi, thanks for joining us. Amazing episode.

Dr. Sam Shamardi: Thank you. Appreciate having me.

Dr. Eric Block: Thanks again for listening to the Stress-Free Dentist Podcast. And don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at info@thestressfreedentist.com. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe on your favorite platform and leave us a review.

Until the next episode, I’m Dr. Eric Block, the Stress-Free Dentist.