The Dental Handoff

Hosted by Dr. Kelly Tanner

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217

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Let’s stop using the wrong end of the toothbrush! This show is about passing you the knowledge, the habits, the systems and the strategies to lead your teams, lean on your tech, and listen to your gut, while you take care of teeth, and let’s get honest, the overall health, of our communities. By identifying the gaps, recognizing the plaque and extracting the truth with other experts in the field we will share their stories, empower you to own yours, and elevate your passion in the process. Show topics to include: Education, Tech, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Connection and Confidence

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60 recent

August 18, 2026Episode 22031 min

Episode 217 | Add First, Subtract Second: The Composite Philosophy Behind Minimally Invasive Dentistry | Dr. Michael Morgan, DDS

It is much easier to destroy tooth structure than to conserve it. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Michael Morgan, DDS, shares the minimally invasive and direct composite philosophy that has shaped 25 years of his clinical work. Dr. Morgan explains his “add first, subtract second” approach, why preserving natural tooth structure can keep future treatment options open, and how he applies this philosophy to complex clinical cases. He takes us inside a hypocalcification case and a fractured central incisor case while discussing: Why preserving tooth structure takes more skill and patience • His “add first, subtract second” philosophy • Direct composite for younger patients • His three-part composite “secret sauce”: dentin, enamel, and white tint • Hypocalcification and peg lateral cases • Digital versus analog workflows • Clinical photography and self-evaluation • Building referral relationships with orthodontists and pedodontists • The ethics of treating the whole patient • The business reality of high-level composite dentistry Dr. Morgan’s philosophy ultimately comes down to one principle: Add first. Subtract second. Because once natural tooth structure is removed, you can’t simply give it back. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Dr. Michael Morgan, DDS Website: hinsdalefamilydentist.com Instagram: @dentistrybydesignhinsdale LinkedIn: Michael Morgan on LinkedIn Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

August 11, 2026Episode 21830 min

Episode 216 | The Avoidance Tax: Why Busy Dental Practices Stop Growing | Kelly Fox-Galvagni, RDA

What separates a thriving dental practice from one that's simply staying busy? According to Kelly Fox-Galvagni, CEO of Smile Potential, the answer often isn't clinical skill, it’s leadership, accountability, and the willingness to address difficult conversations before they become expensive problems. With more than 30 years in dentistry, Kelly has helped practice owners improve profitability, strengthen team performance, and create operational systems that support sustainable growth. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, she introduces the concept of the "Avoidance Tax", the hidden cost practices pay when they delay important decisions, tolerate inconsistency, or avoid conversations that directly impact patient care and business performance. Through practical examples, including a practice that uncovered more than 1,800 patients who hadn't been contacted since 2019, Kelly explains how overlooked systems can quietly reduce patient retention, team engagement, and long-term profitability. Whether you're a practice owner, office manager, dentist, or team leader, this conversation offers practical leadership insights you can implement immediately to build a stronger, healthier dental practice. In this episode, you'll learn: What the "Avoidance Tax" really means for dental practices Why busy practices often struggle to achieve sustainable growth How neglected patient recall systems affect profitability The leadership habits that create high-performing dental teams Practical strategies to improve accountability and operational consistency How small leadership decisions influence the patient experience Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Kelly Fox-Galvagni Website: www.smilepotential.com Instagram: @smile_potential Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

August 4, 2026Episode 21732 min

Episode 215 | AI, Biofilm, and the Business of Dental Hygiene | Dr. Joy Void-Holmes, DHSc, RDH

Dr. Joy Void-Holmes, DHSc, RDH, got her start in dentistry at 16, answering phones at her dentist's office through the Marion Barry DC summer youth employment program. She watched how the practice ran, learned the front desk, and eventually went to Howard University for dental hygiene after a conversation with a security guard and a dentist who told her to try hygiene first. She is now the creator of the P3 Hygiene Growth System, Protocols, Performance, and Profitability, a consulting and training platform she built after nearly walking away from the profession. P3 has trained more than 2,000 hygienists since 2022 and expanded into in-office consulting for large group practices and DSOs. The P3 Certified designation launches August 1, 2026. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with her longtime colleague and friend to talk about what hygienists are really asking for right now, why practice owners speak numbers and most hygienists do not, and how learning to speak the same language changes everything about how your career gets treated. This episode is for dental hygienists, practice owners, and dental educators who want to understand the business side of dental hygiene and why the hygienists who learn it are the ones who stop feeling invisible. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Dr. Joy Void-Holmes, DHSc, RDH: Website: drjoyrdh.com Email: info@DrJoyRDH.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dr-joy-void-holmes-5092222/ Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

July 28, 2026Episode 21637 min

Episode 214 | The 4-Product Restorative System Every Dentist Needs | Joshua Austin, DDS, MAGD

Joshua Austin, DDS, MAGD, is a national lecturer, Editorial Director at Dental Economics, and a full-time restorative dentist in San Antonio, Texas. He is also the son of a dentist who passed away in 1990 when Josh was 10, and who he thinks about every single day he walks into his operatory. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Josh to talk about how restorative dentistry has changed in the past 50 years, what his father's 35mm slide cases reveal about how far materials have come, and the practical four-product system he uses today to handle every restoration in his practice with one universal bonding agent, one cement, and two composites. They also cover the iTero simulation workflow that transformed his case acceptance, the Cindy story that shows what a long-term lab relationship actually produces, and a fluoride varnish incident that is the funniest thing to happen in a dental operatory in recent memory. This episode is for dentists, hygienists, and dental team members who want to simplify their restorative systems, understand which materials to use when, and be reminded of why they got into this profession in the first place. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Joshua Austin, DDS, MAGD: Email: jaustindds@me.com Instagram: instagram.com/JoshuaAustinDDS Practice: joshuaaustindds.com Seminars and Speaking: austindentalseminars.com | (210) 408-7999 Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

July 21, 2026Episode 21529 min

Episode 213 | AI, Speed to Lead, and the Dental Marketing Gap Most Practices Don't Know They Have | Dr. Syeda Andaleeb Zaidi

Dr. Syeda Andaleeb Zaidi is a prosthodontist who built a dental marketing agency from a single Facebook post in 2017 and then added an AI layer to it after getting an automated reminder call mid-procedure while her hand was in a patient's mouth. She is the founder of Techie Dentist, a dental marketing agency based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and HASI, an AI-powered patient engagement system that handles booking, recall, voice response, and lead follow-up across multiple channels. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Dr. Andaleeb Zaidi to cover speed to lead (the 32-second booking window most practices never hear about), why ChatGPT and Gemini are now reading your Google reviews before recommending you to patients, why LinkedIn is the most underutilized platform in dentistry, and why the email list is the only marketing asset a dental practice truly owns. This episode is for dentists, practice owners, dental hygienists, and dental educators who want to understand what dental marketing and AI actually look like in practice, not in theory. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Dr. Syeda Andaleeb Zaidi: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drandaleeb/ Techie Dentist: techiedentist.com Email:andaleeb.zaidi296@gmail.com Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

July 7, 2026Episode 21430 min

Episode 212 | Functional Medicine, Gut Health, and the Hygienist Who Treats the Root Cause | Tammy Reavis, RDH, MPH

Tammy Reavis, RDH, MPH, has spent her career stuck in what she calls a piston feeling. Chairside in periodontics, she can get gum disease under control, but she cannot touch the diabetes, the high blood pressure, or the chronic inflammation sitting underneath it. So, she went and built the second half of her career around fixing exactly that. Tammy completed a year-long program through the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy and a concurrent year with the Functional Nutrition Alliance, on top of an MPH from Liberty University. She now runs Grace & Grit Functional Health LLC, a fully telehealth coaching practice, alongside her continuing work chairside. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Tammy to talk through the personal crisis that pushed her into this work, including the two weeks she spent reversing her husband's liver damage with juicing and micronutrients, and what she has learned since about gut health, root cause thinking, and the questions every dental provider can start asking today. This episode is for dental hygienists, dentists, and practice owners who want to understand the gut and oral health connection and who are curious what it looks like to build a second career around root cause care. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Tammy Reavis, MPH, RDH, BCFWC: Website: www.graceandgritfunctionalhealth.com Email: hello@graceandgritfunctionalhealth.com Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

June 30, 2026Episode 21326 min

Episode 211 | From Clinical Burnout to Dental School Faculty: A Hygienist Career Transition Story | Tiffany Bairos, RDH, MPH

Most hygienist career transitions start with burnout and end with uncertainty. Tiffany Bairos, RDH, MPH, took a different path. After 18 years in clinical hygiene, a combination of physical wear, a research certificate, a temp job, a full-time leap, and a master's in public health brought her to a faculty role she had not planned and could not have mapped. She now teaches caries risk assessment to dental students at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston. She is the only person in her department without a doctorate. And she is building a course and coaching program for dental practice owners who want to stop losing the hygienists they spent time and energy hiring. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Tiffany to talk through every stage of that journey, from the front desk job at 18 that started it all to the telehealth caries education model her students now complete as a formal competency. This episode is for dental hygienists considering a move outside clinical practice, dental school educators, and practice owners who want to understand what their hygiene team actually needs to stay. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Tiffany Bairos, RDH, MPH: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-bairos/ Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

June 23, 2026Episode 21230 min

Episode 210 | Practicing Dental Hygiene in Germany for 38 Years in a Country That Never Recognized the Profession | Carmen Lanoway, RDH, BScDH

Global dental hygiene is a growing profession recognized in over 30 countries. Germany is not one of them. Anyone can use the title. Anyone can claim it. And a six-hour course can technically qualify an assistant to scale subgingivally. Carmen Lanoway, RDH, BScDH, has practiced inside that system for most of her 38-year career. She is currently Secretary of the International Federation of Dental Hygienists, IFDH, serving the 2024 to 2026 board. She works at the Huerzeler/Zuhr Clinic in Munich, one of Europe's most respected periodontal and implant centers. She has co-published in Quintessence International, lectured across Germany and the UK, and is the person that referring practices call when every other option has failed. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Carmen to talk about what 38 years of practicing in an unregulated system actually teaches you about clinical standards, professional advocacy, self-awareness, and the kind of earned respect that no credential can manufacture. This episode is for dental hygienists, dentists, and practice owners who want to understand what global dental hygiene actually looks like and what building a career on clinical excellence without a system to back you up requires as a human being. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Carmen Lanoway, RDH, BScDH: Instagram: @carmrdh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmen-lanoway-8721272b/ https://www.bulbapp.com/CarmenLanowayRDH/portfolio Clinic: Huerzeler/Zuhr Clinic, Munich, Germany Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

June 16, 2026Episode 21135 min

Episode 209 | Hormones, Women's Oral Health, and the Future of Dental Hygiene | Barbara Tritz

Barbara Tritz returns to The Dental Handoff to discuss the powerful connection between hormones and oral health. Women with excellent oral hygiene are developing sensitivity, dry mouth, bleeding gums, tooth decay, and bone loss. Barbara explains why the answer is often not brushing harder but understanding what is happening biologically inside the body. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcast and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Barbara Tritz: Website: https://queenofdentalhygiene.net LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-tritz-2021 Email: contact@queenofdentalhygiene.net / barbaratritz@gmail.com Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com

June 9, 2026Episode 21030 min

Episode 208 | Public Health, RDHAP, and a Career Built Beyond the Operatory | Jessica L. Woods, MPH, RDH

There is a version of dental hygiene most hygienists never encounter. No production targets. No same-day schedule pressure. Care measured by how many lives you reach, not how many patients fit in the hour. Jessica L. Woods, MPH, RDH has been living that version for over a decade. A clinician who spent years in public health and alternative practice settings, she was the first hygienist employed by a county health department in the state, and ran one of the largest zero-to-five oral health prevention programs in the country before moving into national speaking and consulting work. In this episode of The Dental Handoff, Dr. Kelly Tanner sits down with Jessica to talk about what the RDHAP path actually looks like, why salivary diagnostics are shifting the hygiene role toward a true medical model, and what the oral health connection to fertility means for patients and providers who have never heard it discussed. Jessica also opens up about losing her father to suicide and why mental wellness has become part of her speaking platform. This episode is for dental hygienists, dentists, public health professionals, and practice owners who want to understand the full range of what hygiene can be and do. Subscribe to The Dental Handoff on Apple Podcast and Spotify. New episodes every week. Connect with Jessica L. Woods, MPH, RDH: Website: executiverdh.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/executiverdh Where to Find Dr. Kelly: Let's Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you create high-performance teams, discuss educational programs, or how I can be of assistance. https://calendly.com/drkellytanner/30min Visit us at https://www.nextleveldentalhygiene.com