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Dentists, Puns, and Money is a podcast focused on two things: The financial topics relevant to dentists leaving clinical practice and the stories and lessons of dentists who have already done so.
1. The stories of dentists who have transitioned from full-time clinical dentistry.
2. The financial topics that are relevant for dentists making that transition.
If you’re a dentist thinking about your exit from clinical, and you’d like to learn from the experiences of other dentists who have made that transition, be sure to subscribe to your favorite podcast app.
Host Shawn Terrell also dives deep into the many financial components of exiting dentistry, including tax reduction strategies and how to live off your assets.
And, we try to keep it light by mixing in a bad joke… or two.
Please note: Dentists, Puns, and Money was previously known as The Practice Growth Podcast until March 2022.
Dr. Sean Whalen
[00:00:00]
Welcome to dentists, puns and money. I'm your host, Sean Terrell and my guest on today's show is Dr. Sean Whalen. Dr. Sean is a pediatric dentist and owner at children's dentistry in Westminster, Colorado. Dr. Shawn. He's a busy guy. In addition to practice, he's helped develop and launch smile, which is a xylitol toothpaste for kids.
And Dr. Sean is also the dental director for tele dentistry.com, which provides virtual care for dental emergencies across the country. As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today's conversation by visiting our website. That's dentist, exit.com. And from there, click on the podcast tab. And if you are a dentist and you're interested in taking your first step to find.
The eventual exit from active practice and to financial independence. Whether your three months or 30 years away. Let's have a [00:01:00] conversation. You can schedule a discovery call with me by going to dentist exit.com. And clicking on the schedule meeting tab that is in the top right corner of the main home page.
And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Sean Whalen.
Shawn: All right, Dr. Sean Whalen, welcome to dentists, puns, and money. I'm excited to hear your story and thank you for joining us.
Dr. Whalen: Hey, thanks for having me, Sean. I appreciate it.
Shawn: So my favorite place to start is just with some background for the audience, some context on your journey. Could you share a little bit about how you reached this current point?
Dr. Whalen: Yeah, I can do that. So I'm a, I'm a private practicing pediatric dentist in Westminster, Colorado. I also am an adjunct faculty at the university of Iowa, and I'm a faculty at Denver health here in Denver, Colorado. I originally wanted to be a pediatrician, both my parents are physicians and, uh, I knew I was wanting to work with kids.
Uh, I [00:02:00] wouldn't shadow to our town pediatrician when I was 19. I was a freshman in college and really nice guy, great doctor. Um, but I knew really quick. I didn't want to be a pediatrician when I followed him for half a morning, cause he didn't really do any procedures. You know, I think when you're young, you think pediatricians are putting a lot of stitches in and setting broken bones and doing all kinds of little procedures.
But in reality, he did a lot of well checks, a lot of ear infections, a lot of things that I, you know, are strep throat things that I didn't, I wasn't that interested in. And, uh, I came home and I was a little dejected. I'm like, man, that is just not what I thought my dad was like, well, have you ever thought about being a pediatric dentist?
That's what my college roommate is. And his college roommate was a guy named Danny McTeague and Danny McTeague was the head of pediatric dentistry at the time. But Ohio state. Yeah. And, uh, I'm in college and w guy, when I'm like, dad, I don't want to be a pediatric dentist. And he's like, why don't you just go try it?
So our just go look at it. [00:03:00] So, uh, I drove out to Ohio state and I followed Denny around for a minute. I mean, for a morning, um, I ended up staying a couple of days, but, or two or three days, I don't remember, but I knew immediately. That's what I wanted to do. It was quick little short procedures working with kids and.
So anyway, I mean, long story short, that's why I went to dental school. Um, and I knew from the day I entered dental school, that that's what I wanted to do. And I got into the pediatric dental residency program at Iowa. Um, but it was in my junior and senior year and finished residency and the same guy did Amy T.
He knew I wanted to move to Colorado and his good friend, Betty Barr, who was a pediatric dentist to the practice side now. He's like, you got to talk to Betty. So I drove out here. I finished clinic one night. I drove out here through the night and I cold call much like any Iowa kid would do. I always assumed just walking in and my smile and my demeanor would give me the job.
[00:04:00] I cold called like 10 different pediatric dentists in the Denver Metro area. And most importantly, I cold called Betty and her sister Nell, who has still practiced with, and Denny was friends with them. And I had multiple interviews with them. They offered me the job at even ask how much they were going to pay me.
And six months later, you know, when I graduated, I took the job six months into that. I bought a third of the practice and now I own half of it. And that's, I mean, that's just what happened. It was, I've been really blessed with good mentors in high school, college, dental school, and just always had good people around me.
And it just kind of funneled me to this. This practice has place where I've been really fortunate. To grow. I feel like do good work, make lots of mistakes, but learn from them. And, uh, yeah, that's my story. I mean, I, I feel like I'm incredibly lucky. I got, I had a lot of good people around me kind of pushing me in the right direction.
So that's how I ended up where I'm at
Shawn: Two [00:05:00] follow-ups to that. So, Was it the hands-on aspect of, of the pediatric dentistry that, that sort of pulled you in more than being a pediatrician?
Dr. Whalen: 100% and there's nothing against pediatricians. It's just my personal. I've always been kind of a tinkerer, like woodworking, that kind of thing. So I'm always build and taking apart stuff. And I think pediatric dentistry is good for that. If you really like kids, you have probably have a little bit of ADHD.
You like to build things, work with things you'd like immediate results, um, where you can sit down number two, fix it. If it looks perfect, a brand new almost immediately, it's gratifying and it's a. I think for my personality, it just fits. It's nothing. Again, it's nothing against pediatricians. They're amazing.
And they have a really important job. Um, I just think that the pace of it and the moving around all the time and the fixing things and it, it does always fit my personality.
Shawn: It's interesting. You say that because I'm a parent of a young son. We got another one on the [00:06:00] way. And our pediatrician is married to our pediatric dentist. They're husband and wife, both Iowa people as well. But it's interesting talking about pediatrics is that, I learned just through taking my son and there was just answering our questions, just a lot of consultation for, you know, especially as someone who is a parent for the first time, just you have so many questions, so I could see how for someone that has.
Hands-on as you say that, that you are more drawn to that, how that dentistry would be a little bit better fit for you. And then my second follow up there was, I don't know if you mentioned it, but how long have you been in Colorado at your current practice? I know you said you pretty much went there out of dental school and you've evolved into ownership. How long has that journey been for you?
Dr. Whalen: 17 years. So I graduated on a Friday. I started working on a Monday. And I took the job March of 2004. So I had a year and three months to get ready.
So I was ready to go and, you know, again, typical Midwestern kid, like I just wanted to get to work.
And I, I had $300 in my [00:07:00] pocket and old Ford ranger, a mattress in a white. And Nell and Betty paid my for the two dentists. I was joining paid my first month's rent. And I don't know, I know I was never worried about it. It was just kind of what it was. And I had my student loan and I don't know, drove out and moved into our apartment with a bed and a bunch of suitcases and started working on.
Shawn: It sounds like Colorado has become home for you, even though the polo of Iowa is still strong in some ways.
Dr. Whalen: it is home. I will say, as I get older. I mean, I'm not, not that I second guess my decision, I love being here. I love the community I'm involved in. I love the patients. I certainly love the weather And the lights. But I, I do. I mean, I am definitely torn. Like I, there's a lot of things about the Midwest. I miss, uh, I miss the Hawkeyes so much.
I miss the university so much. I miss my family. I miss my cousins. I miss the slower pace of it. And not that it's slow, but it's [00:08:00] people are not as much of in a hurry as they are out here. Um, I'm really honored to be. Born and raised there. So I, I do miss it and there are definitely times where I'm like, well, maybe I will move back to Iowa city, you know?
But, uh, I don't know the reality of that. I think when you move out to Colorado or anywhere west, the weather gets a little better and it's hard to go backwards. Um, but I do miss it. I don't have anything negative to say about it. That's for sure.
Shawn: And you're an adjunct at the university of Iowa at the college of dentistry still. So that provides you a good excuse to get back, uh, at least on a, on a part-time basis, once in a while.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah. And not as much as I, like, I haven't been back since the, since coronavirus started and that's when I was kind of just ramping it up. But I hope to re-engage that and, and, and get back. I, I always say that I'd be nothing without the university. And I felt like I had a really good experience. I had some of the best, uh, mentors, uh, instructors and just my dental school and residency [00:09:00] experience was, was great.
And, um, I know it's stressful for some, and I just, I thought it was great. I have nothing bad to say about that either.
Shawn: So owning a pediatric dental practice and seeing kids that, that in itself would, would keep you pretty busy, I would think. But you're involved in a couple other ventures, uh, dental related outside of your practice. Uh, let's start with the company you founded a couple of years ago called smile, oral healthcare products.
Um, maybe just for background, what does smile and, and what's the mission or the vision behind the company?
Dr. Whalen: So smile,, which is it's spelled SMI, Y L. So S M I Y l.com. So there was a kid in my residency program, Todd gray. That was a year older than me, and we've stayed really close over the years and he's also a pediatric dentist and he came up with this idea to create a, a pediatric xylitol tooth, Joe.
Um, He kind of spinning his wheels with [00:10:00] it. And we went to a UFC fight in California together. Cause we had a friend that was the California boxing commissioner. So he got us really good Steed seats at the staples center to see the TJ Dillashaw Cody Garbrandt fight, which is like five years ago or something.
And we had some drinks afterwards and he was like, you know, I want to get, I want to move on this. And I'm like, I'm not great at a lot of things, but I'm good at getting things moving. So I'm like, well, let's, let's partner up and we'll figure it out. And he kind of had the formula for it. Um, I had all the branding done and the logo and the website and everything, and the whole idea behind it was, well, let's create a line of products that are created by a pediatric dentist.
Um, and so as of right now, we have bamboo toothbrushes floss and we have xylitol to gel. Uh, it's, it's fluoride free, but that's not the, that's not the mission of the company. We don't have a fluoride-free company. We don't support that, but initially it was kind of the easiest skew to start. [00:11:00] Um, and because we're both pediatric dentists, it was a good trading toothpaste to start.
Um, and we're gonna come out with a fluoride paste and, um, but the mission was, I hate saying like this, because it sounds so off the cuff, but it wasn't never to like, do anything specific other than create a good product.
Shawn: Uh,
Dr. Whalen: cute logo, cute branding. And then have it be backed by pediatric dentists and maybe take a piece of that market or just be more in control.
It kind of closes the loop, I guess. Um, but it was never done. I mean, we didn't do it to get rich or anything. It was just kind of on a whim.
Shawn: To provide a better product in the marketplace that it then existed, at least in your guys', uh, awareness of what was out there.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah, well and, and create something that was safe and, um, create something that better is tough. Cause there's a lot of products out there you go into the toothpaste aisle at target and you know, you're overwhelmed. So I would never say better, [00:12:00] but, um, an alternative to something made by a big company. How about that?
And we produce everything in the United States. Um, so yeah, the goal was to create an oral health care company of products. We came up with, we decided on the skews and we pushed the, you know, we were pushing our driving the market, I guess. Um, so right now I currently sell it in my office. We sell it on our website.
It's on Walmart's website and then it's on toothbrush, hub.com, which is, um, was started by two brothers here in Colorado. And they, uh, they've been great partners. So they have the toothbrush toothpaste subscription site. Um, And we've probably did a most of our sales through that venue and our website.
But if anybody out there.
who's listening wants samples of it for their office. They can always contact me. And my email's really easy. It's just my name, Sean Whalen, DDS at Gmail. But, um, I don't know. It's one of the things that's been fun, uh, learned a lot. It's more expensive to bring a [00:13:00] product to market than I would've thought.
Um, and there's lots of things you don't think about like insurance and distribution and fulfillment and. I don't know, there's lots of things that go into it, but it's been fun creating a product and we'll see where it goes. I had no idea. I mean, right now it sustains itself, which was, is important. Um, so we've had some success.
Our next step is just finishing our fluoride paste, um, which just takes time. And like you said, it's hard to run a practice and do all that at the same time.
Shawn: How difficult was it to bring it to market or maybe w how hard was it relative to how hard you thought it was going to be on the front end? I mean, I knew being a doctor, you know, that's not going to be easy because there's hoops to jump through with, you know, getting it cleared for consumer use, but,
Dr. Whalen: Yeah, well,
Shawn: a brief snapshot into what that process was like.
Dr. Whalen: no, first of all, I'm not a doctor. I'm only a dentist, so,
Shawn: Sorry, a doctor of dental surgery is what I meant
Dr. Whalen: yeah, yeah. I mean, and I'm still, [00:14:00] um, I'm, I'm stupid. Right? Most professionals think everything's gonna be. Um, so yeah, I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was, but then come to find out, you got to find a facility that has got all the approvals for things that are consumable and you've gotta have the right barcode and you've gotta have the right packaging.
You gotta have the right circumference on the lumen where you express it. Um, like there were so many things like the texture of the bottle. They printed 10,000 tubes wrong. Our first run of toothpaste, we spelled no, we spelled fluoride wrong on the front of the tube. Um, I mean, there's so many little things to catch, uh, distribution fulfillment, shipping costs, uh, platforms to get it on the there's so much that we screwed up and like we had to fly out to the facility we haven't made in the, um, right on the side of salt lake city and Jordan, Utah.
By a company called the Wasatch and a lot of medical liquids and gels are made in salt lake city surrounding area, [00:15:00] which is kind of interesting. But yeah, I mean, I, if I were to look back on it now and like learning how to design a website, um, the logo, the different kinds of files you need for the pictures.
Like it's much like you starting your podcast, you'd be like, I'm gonna start this podcast. And you're like, well, The audio.
Shawn: the details just eat you alive, right?
Dr. Whalen: Chelsea eat you alive. And then, you know, if you don't stay on it and then there's no traction being made and then you're not selling anything and you get this money out. So, um, yeah, I mean, I learned a lot it's its way and it was way more of a bigger deal than I thought.
I feel like we're in a good place now because everything's in place now. It's more like making higher level decisions as far as like, once you get all this stuff in place, it's pretty easy. Up into that point, it was a little more difficult and there was definitely some pushback from the dental community.
Um, they thought we were like all about no fluoride and I'm like, that's not the case. Like the truth of the matter matter is making a non fluoridated toothpaste with just dial it all in. It is pretty easy, but the minute you put fluoride in [00:16:00] something, you have to do like $60,000 worth of testing. So we were like, well, let's just start with this.
Um, You know, our mission is to have a whole slew of products, but it's just, you have to start with somewhere and Dennis can be really finicky and kind of mean like, you know, you'd think they'd be kind of your cheerleader. Like, oh, there there's someone making something that's not produced by Proctor and gamble or Colgate Palm, olive.
So good for you. But the truth is most dentists were like, you know, F you, what do you do? You know, they, they just want to, it's almost like they want to eat there, eat their young, I guess, or. So I, I, that was kind of eye-opening, but it enlarged people have been pretty supportive and, um, I don't know. It's been a lot of fun.
I certainly have got my butt kicked on a number of different things on it and things didn't move nearly as fast as I wanted them to. Um, but it's, it's been a good experience. I wouldn't change it.
Shawn: How difficult is it. And this is coming from someone that has a four year old, just the paw [00:17:00] patrol, marketing machine, and full force at our house every day. You know, I have pop patrol, toothbrushes and toothpaste, um, versus, you know, something that you're bringing to market, which is, you know, the ingredients are something that, you know, a little bit more about, but, there's no Rocky or chase on the cover.
How do you, how do you, what's that been like.
Dr. Whalen: Um, I dunno our marketing. So we did a bunch of focus groups with, uh, parents and kids and stuff. And did you see the, the tubes? Did you like.
Shawn: Yeah, I glanced at them. Yeah. I think it was there a Panda on there. I'm
Dr. Whalen: Yeah. So we, we had a frog, a Panda, so this is what it looks like, but we had a frog, a Panda, um, octopus. I can't remember what we did a bunch of them, and this was the one that tested the best.
So we're never going to beat up Paul patrol and Batman and Spider-Man and stuff like that. And we certainly don't have enough money to license those kinds of things. But, um, I think our marketing is, is good. I think the logo's really. think it sounds silly to say that, but the logo, [00:18:00] just the smile itself is really good.
Um, so th that has been a challenge, but kids do respond pretty well to it. So it hasn't been, hasn't been terrible.
Shawn: I like the logo is someone who has spent more time on logos and marketing than I ever intended spending on that type of stuff. I think it works really well. Shifting gears, you're involved with, uh, another dental related company, tele dentistry.com. Can you share a little bit more about that venture and kind of the, the mission or the purpose behind that?
Dr. Whalen: Yes, sir. So I'm the dental director for teledentistry.com and it was started by, uh, Dr. VLS Sastry, who was a dentist and, um, you know, that, uh, really good friends. So coincidentally really good friends with the same guy that I started smile with Todd gray and. Todd had become a part of the company and kind of been asking me if I wanted to be a part of it.
And I would say, no, man, I'm busy, I'm busy, I'm busy. And then [00:19:00] COVID happened. And once COVID happened, you know, like, especially in states like New York and wherever, um, that?
were highly populated. And there was a lot of virus, like people were having to fakes and they needed antibiotics and pain relief right away.
So it created this little window of explosion. There was a little bit more revenue in the company and they were able to kind of build out the platform and work out the bugs because tele-health the biggest issue with it is the platform and how responsive it is and how much of a service can you really deliver.
And that allowed the company to go through some growing pains of like, Okay. how do, how are we going to interface with the patient? How are we going to get providers to answer these calls. And so I started taking calls and during the time of COVID-19 is peaking. And I think I took over a thousand of them.
And, um, so I, I came on to the company. I became a dental director. I took calls. I helped to work out bugs in the system. Um, but as you know, [00:20:00] before we started recording, I kind of talked to you about how I, I think it's, I think telehealth is really a big part of the future of medicine. There's definitely some pushback from the dental side.
They're like, well, how can you do anything over the phone or over video chat for teeth. And as I was explaining, you know, the goal of it is to triage patients and get them directed to the right places and connect them with a provider if they don't have one and make that process more efficient. And especially if they're in pain, get them pain meds or antibiotics as quickly as possible.
And to clarify, we don't do any narcotics. We have everything has a non-narcotic. So we only. We only do things that are, you know, we, we're not handing out drugs or so there's no drug seekers or any of that kind of thing. Um, but we do with the service we do provide is that, and it's, the platform itself is free.
So if you a dental office and you were like, man, I, I don't want to take all the calls. I understand that I have to come in occasionally, but I don't want to take all the emergency calls over the weekend. [00:21:00] If you sign up for the service, we would have licensed dentists in the state that you weren't. You would divert the calls to them.
And it's kind of like Uber, like queue system. So it would be more than just one dentist and probably be, you know, let's say there'd be 10 in the state of Colorado. And when a call came in, they would get cued on their phone. And if they want to answer it, they can. And then it comes up on the platform and you're immediately, they sent, we sent our call center, sends them a link.
You hit it. And you're admitted immediately video chatting with the patient. You have access to the health history that they entered. Um, their chief complaint. You talk to them, decide whether or not they're a prescription as necessary. And we have a queue that you just hit, which prescription they need, and it immediately calls it into the pharmacy.
You don't have to call, hang up and call the pharmacy as a providing dentist. So it's really just trying to condense or make that whole process a lot faster, especially if they don't have a provider and they have a dental emergency. So it works really well. We've got a lot of the bugs figured out. And I think [00:22:00] it will be more utilized in the future.
And as of right now, um, contractually, I want to say that we have over 50 million lives covered, but the utilization rate is still really low, but you know, I, I do think moving forward, it'll be a really good tool, uh, for offices and patients. Um, and I think as a profession, we're going to figure out how to utilize it better.
And as I was telling you before, there's lots of times when patients have an emergency. And if you, if someone calls me on a video chat and they have an asymmetric face and I can see it through a video chat, I mean, a, the person needs 10 about how to be there. Mainly my might need to go to the emergency room or they need to see somebody immediately.
There it's very useful and it, it helps cut the diagnosis time down to almost nothing. And the one thing dentistry has been really good at is we don't have five, six hour wait times. Like if you go to the emergency room for an abscess in your leg, you might sit in the emergency room for five hours.
Traditionally dentists don't do that. We're very good about, Hey, just come in. I'll I'll [00:23:00] see you we'll get it figured out this shortens the time even more. Cause it kind of gets to the root of the problem and gets them appointed, especially if they don't have a provider. So. Th the closed loop system long-term would be, if someone calls in with a dental emergency, they don't have a provider.
We get them triaged immediately with meds, if necessary. And then we can have a pointed to a provider that's already agreed to take any leads that we give them and see them immediately.
Shawn: Okay. So just maybe to follow up with a couple of practical examples, just to maybe drill down a little bit more on how it works. So for patients who have a dentist, their dentists can be part of this net. For any off hour calls that pop up, whether that's on a, a week, night or early in the morning or over the weekend and they're at the lake.
And so the, the dentist, the general dentist, as an example, can decide when the call comes in. If they want to talk to the patient or if they want to, uh, push it, kick it, punt it to another dentist on call. [00:24:00] Let's standing by to triage immediately.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah. So it could even be during the day. So say that I have a packed schedule. I do not have time to talk to anything since the rest of the day. It's useful for that as well. So people offices use it for during the day as well. Um, that way, if a patient calls in and it's not like, Hey, Dr. Sean's gonna call you back in two hours.
When he did that. And seeing patients, you can talk to somebody right now to answer your questions, or at least help answer your questions.
Shawn: And then sort of my followup to that is, so let's say the patient does talk to their, their regular, their normal dentist. It's on a Saturday afternoon. They're not at the lake, whatever example you want to use and they want. And able to see the patient and the patient needs to be seen right then.
So they can set that up through teledentistry too. Or they have, the dentist has the option if they're not around or not able to treat it right then to send it to an emergency dentist that can
Dr. Whalen: Yeah. I mean, that, that part of it, we don't have completely worked out yet. And as we, our network of providers grows, that is the ultimate goal to [00:25:00] be able to push leads to people that will see them immediately. I mean, the nightmare situation is so your son falls and breaks his tooth and half as a nerve is exposed and you call teledentistry.com cause you don't have a provider.
And you're like, Hey, I want to talk to a dentist. You talk you're on the phone to the dentist within five days. You've put your son in front of the camera and you, I can say on the desk and answering it. I can see that the tooth broken in half and I'm like, yeah, you need to see somebody from the moment. I say he needs to see somebody right away.
The biggest challenge we're going to have is marrying that to a provider that will see them immediately. So we have to have an enforceable location that they can see immediately. We've done. We haven't perfected yet, but we're as a tech, as the idea of tele-health and dentistry progresses, we will get to that point.
We just need more offices to adopt it. And that's why we give the platform away for free, because you [00:26:00] know, like, like a per cap plan, our cap plan insurance, we don't have. Charge you for the service. We only want, the only thing that ever gets charged is if the patient utilizes the service, then it builds their insurance or they pay a $50 copay for utilizing the service.
And that's it.
Shawn: And so you said it, I think, but I'll reiterate it. The service is free to dentists that want to sign up for it. What is the cost or what is, uh, what are the hoops that the patient has to jump through to use teledentistry.com?
Dr. Whalen: It's whether they go on our website or they go on their dentist's website, they click on the teledentistry button, fill out their information, like name, date of birth allergies, that kind of thing, chief complaint. And then it immediately pops to the call center. The call center sends them a text, send it or finds a dentist just like you would for Uber or whatever.
A dentist says, yes, I'll take a call. Then they both get meeting with links, kind of like you sent me today. They click on it and then they're, they're talking [00:27:00] right away. The platform.
Shawn: Okay. Interesting. What are, so you said nor narcotics, but they can do antibiotics and other medications through that process.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah. So you can do, like, you can do a high dose ibuprofen, ibuprofen, or, you know, dual, dual action Advil. You can do tore it all. Um, any antibiotic, um, chlorhexidine, what are, I mean, there's a million different things. Prescribed, but we don't do any narcotics.
Shawn: And that alleviates the old school way of doing it, which was a patient calls in gets a voicemail and a number to call depending on how well the dentist has set themselves up to take calls off hours. Best case scenario is the dentist calls him back. He can't see them. And then what happened in that scenario in the past, the dentist is calling a buddies in the area that may or may not be around to treat a patient.
Dr. Whalen: The biggest gap that it fills is if you take someone who [00:28:00] say has Delta dental. So like in the state of Colorado, for example,
There are dental plans, let's say a Delta or a Cigna or whatever, let's say, well, let's just go to, let's go to Iowa to be easier. Like John Deere, let's say that John Deere gives their employees Delta dental, but their utilization rate of their benefit is only 60%. So you have 40% of people who have Delta dental, but they don't have a dentist.
this is where the service really works because. it Addresses their emergent issue And it finds them a provider that will take them or see them. So it's not, it's not so much for the person who already has a dentist, although if their dentists needs to utilize it to make sure someone's always covering call.
It works great for that. Um, but for someone who does not have a dentist, cause in the past, if you would call someone's after hour service, if you weren't a patient of record, a lot of times they'd tell you to go jump. you know what I mean? They're not going to take call So. this Provides an avenue where someone regardless of means [00:29:00] can call and talk to a dentist and get at least pharmacological help immediately, and hopefully get hooked up with a provider in their area that they can start to establish a relationship with or have a dental home.
Shawn: And you mentioned offline. I think too. I don't know. we're recording, but this is not just for emergencies. It's also for situations where a patient has some questions that go a little bit deeper than what a, what a dentist is normally going to have time to cover during a normal hygiene check.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah. Well, and the dentist, you know, depending on the dentist, they might have time. Or if it's just something like they're in between hygiene checks or regular checkups. And they're like, I have a question about orthodontics. I was looking at time magazine and I saw that Tom cruise had braces and he was 45 and I'm 45 and I've never liked my teeth.
Is it worth me to get embraces? How much is it gonna cost? What's the average time do I need to get my wisdom teeth out? It also allows you direct access to a licensed dentist to get direct advice from someone who actually [00:30:00] practices dentistry and extremely low cost?
Shawn: This is all very interesting stuff. Anything that we haven't hit on in the conversation today that you'd like to mention, or that you'd like to follow up on something we didn't dive deep enough on previously.
Dr. Whalen: Um, no, I mean, I'd just like to say thanks for having me on. I don't. I always joke around and say that nobody likes being a pediatric dentist more than me and to all the dental students listening to it. I think it's one of the best jobs in the world. And you just get a, a crazy amount of opportunities. I've been a lobbyist I've testified in malpractice cases.
I've I have the toothpaste company, the teledentistry thing I get to teach. I own a private practice. You just get to meet and Do a lot of cool things. It's a, it's a cool profession. Um, and it just opens up a lot of doors for you. So I, I think it's much like anything else you work hard at? It creates a lot of opportunities.
So I, I, I don't know. I love being a dentist. That's great.[00:31:00]
Shawn: Do you love good dental jokes or bad dental jokes? However you want to phrase it. This show is a dentist puns and money after.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah, no, you, you mentioned that I might, I probably have more of an anecdote or just a story more than anything, but, um, you know, as, as parents, how old are your kids?
Shawn: So I've got a four year old and one on the way we record this in the spring of 2022, I've got another boy on the way for July this summer.
Dr. Whalen: Okay, so you're, you're, you're an older dad by definition, right? So.
Shawn: Thank you.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah, no, no, no big deal. Um, I always joke with the younger dental students and I'm like, you know, if you see on your new patient intake form that you got a two year old coming in, the parents are over the age of 40 run or refer them out because they've read and know everything on the internet.
And when your, your sweet spot is the 25 year old with two kids, who's hanging onto life by a thread [00:32:00] and they're so busy and, you know, they just trust you. There's no bigger pain in the ass and the 40 plus year old parent with a two or three-year-old. So no offense. It's just, just a, just an observation,
Shawn: My dentist friends that are listening can maybe relate to that. Maybe I asked too many questions. I try to trust experts though.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah, no.
Shawn: to provide expertise in my day job, which is not being a podcast or so, uh, I like working with people that, you know, are curious, but at the end of the day are going to trust you to do your job.
So
Dr. Whalen: Yeah. I mean, cause you do finance, correct.
Shawn: correct.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah. So it's kind of like someone like, well my friend bought, you know, Chevron at blah, blah, blah. And you're like Jesus Christ. Um, it's the same thing with dentistry. You're just like, they'll, they'll say something and you're like, well, let me think about that.
Like, so I've been in dentistry since 1999. Um, no, I think that's a terrible idea. So it's just, it's a difficult
Shawn: stay in your lane.
Dr. Whalen: Yeah, all their parents are really tough. I [00:33:00] always tell them, let me be the dentist, GB, the parent. Um, but it is, it is a great, uh, job and, uh, I certainly love doing it and I appreciate the, the chance to be on.
Shawn: For people that are interested in getting in touch with you, or that would like to ask you a couple of questions offline. What's the best way to, to get in touch.
Dr. Whalen: So anybody can email me anytime. My, uh, email is my name, Sean Whalen, S E a N w H a L E N D D s@gmail.com or you can call me my phone number is seven two zero. 2 2 6, 6 0 6 1 and then can reach out to me on social media as well. And my Instagram is at children's dentistry, Colorado at children's dentistry, Colorado.
Shawn: That is Dr. Sean Whalen owner and pediatric dentist at children's dentistry and Westminster, Colorado. Dr. Sean, thank you for sharing your expertise and for being a guest on dentist, puns and money.
Dr. Whalen: Thanks a lot, Sean. I appreciate it.
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