Ep 70 - The Power of Pedo-Ortho Partnerships with Dr. Chris Teeters

Welcome to The Golden Age of Orthodontics, hosted by Dr. Leon Klempner and Amy Epstein. As GP referral models shift and corporate dental groups expand, more pediatric dentists and orthodontists are joining forces to stay competitive. But is this model right for everyone? Today, we’re joined by Dr. Chris Teeters, an orthodontist who collaborates with his wife, Dr. Morgan Teeters, a pediatric dentist. They’ll share the benefits and challenges of integrating their specialties while maintaining separate brands. We’ll also discuss marketing strategies, referral dynamics, and the balance of business and marriage. Plus, we’ll highlight the importance of in-person connections through events like the Mother of Pearl Conference. Register now for the early bird discount. Remember, there has never been a better time to be an orthodontist!

IN THIS EPISODE: 

• (04:52) Blending an orthodontic and a pediatric practice and working with your spouse

• (08:57) The advantages and disadvantages of two practices in the same building 

• (13:33) Discussion on referrals between their practices and marketing

• (17:39) Dr. Teeters shares advice on engaging in a combined orthodontic and pediatric practice concept

• (19:27) Discussion of the Mother of Pearl Conference and the Orthodontic Pearls podcast

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Dr. Chris Teeters and his wife, Dr. Morgan Teeters, have successfully integrated orthodontics and pediatric dentistry under one roof while maintaining separate brands. This model fosters referrals between the two specialties and ensures continuity of care for young patients transitioning from pediatric dentistry to orthodontics.

• Their desire to serve both children and adults drove them to keep their practices separate. The pediatric practice has a superhero-themed child-centered environment, while the orthodontic office has a spa-like aesthetic, making it more appealing to adult patients.

• While online podcasts like Orthodontic Pearls provide valuable clinical insights, live conferences—such as the Mother of Pearl Conference—offer a unique opportunity for orthodontists to network, learn from top speakers, earn CE credits, and build lasting relationships.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for watching the video.

Dr. Leon Klempner: (00:00:00) We notice that a growing trend is developing in our industry. More pedos and orthos are joining together as GP referral models shift and corporate dental groups expand. Private practices are using this model to stay competitive by enhancing convenience, reducing cost, improving patient care, but there are many options to this model.

Today we're going to speak with an orthodontist who works closely with his wife, a pediatric dentist, to explore the opportunities and challenges of the approach they chose. So, stay with me. Our Golden Age of Orthodontics podcast sponsors make it possible for us to bring you new episodes. Cale Owen is revolutionizing orthodontics by turning the chaos of conventional braces into custom control.

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Narrator: partners. The future of orthodontics is evolving and changing every day. But although the way to achieve practice growth has (00:02:00) changed, There's never been a better time to be an orthodontist.

Let's get into the minds of industry leaders, forward thinking orthodontists, and technology insiders to learn how they see the future of the orthodontic specialty. How will digital orthodontics, artificial intelligence, clear aligner therapy, remote monitoring, in house printing, and other innovations change the way you practice?

Join your hosts Dr. Leon Klempner and Amy Epstein each month. as they bring you insights, tips, and guest interviews focused on helping you capitalize on the opportunities for practice growth. And now, welcome to the golden age of orthodontics with the co founders of People and Practice, Dr. Leon Klempner and Amy Epstein.

Dr. Leon Klempner: Welcome to the golden age of orthodontics. I am Leon Klempner, retired board certified, proud board certified orthodontist. I'm the director of orthodontics at Mount Sinai Hospital here in New York, and I also serve as part time faculty in the (00:03:00) orthodontic department, uh, at Harvard, and, uh, I'm the CEO of People and Practice.

And today, I am joined by my daughter. And my partner, Amy Epstein. Amy, how you doing? 

Amy Epstein: I'm doing well. Thanks for the intro. I'm Amy Epstein, and I'm the co founder of People in Practice. We're a marketing consultancy for orthodontists, and we're always interested in exploring, um, talking to leaders in the orthodontic industry who, um, are exploring new ways of doing What everyone does so well, the care for patients through orthodontics, and you know, while our guest today does a lot of things really well And I'll introduce who he is.

Specifically, we're going to talk a little bit about this pedo ortho combo model. Today we are thrilled to have Dr. Chris Teeters on the show. Many of you know, Dr. Teeters. He is also a board certified orthodontist. He's a practice owner and he's a (00:04:00) recognized leader in the ortho community. He's the owner of Teeters Orthodontics in Peoria, Arizona, and co owner of Kids Are Cool Pediatric Dentistry, aside his wife, Dr.

Morgan Teeters, who is a pediatric dentist. Together, they provide comprehensive care, and that's exactly why we wanted to talk to him today. Beyond his clinical experience, he is a key opinion leader for Angel Aligner, he's an international speaker, he's also the co founder of Orthodontic Pearls, which is actually the world's largest orthodontic study group, has almost 10, 000 members, if I'm right, and he founded the Mother of Pearls conference and the Orthodontic Pearls podcast.

Um, and He also plays guitar in relapse, which we've all seen, uh, do their thing at many orthodontic conferences. Chris, thank you so much for being here today. 

Dr. Chris Teeters: Thank you, Amy. I appreciate that wonderful intro. Very, very nice of you. I'm thrilled to be here. I've heard so much and I know so much about Dr.

Leon in many facets of the industry. (00:05:00) So it's, I'm excited to share basically what we do as an orthopedic couple in hopes orthodontists who are looking to do the same thing, or at least. Think about working with pedo and why we believe it's so important and you don't need to marry one to do this. Um, I know that's a big part we hear and it certainly helps.

So if you have the option, go for it. But otherwise there's plenty of win win strategies that we can talk about that not just help the orthodontist would help the pediatric dentist. Cause that's the big question. Well, what's in it for me, right? Because it seems like a, One way street. Certainly the value of an orthodontic referral is tremendous.

Whereas the value to a pediatric referral may not be, but if that can branch into ways that you can help each other, uh, we'll talk about that, but, um, yep. So I own my own practice, Tito's orthodontics. Uh, my wife and I bought, uh, kids are cool. Pediatric dentistry five years ago today, actually, um, it was the biggest Peter practice in the area.

Uh, thank you. And, uh, you know, it was big, big nut to crack right when COVID hit a week later, but, uh, we, we got through, we got through that and it's, it's just been growing every year. So. So Chris, let me 

Dr. Leon Klempner: just jump in for a second because you mentioned working with your wife. So I want to, I do want to ask you (00:06:00) about that, but before I do, I just got recently got an email.

I'm particularly happy today because I ordered a Strandberg guitar. And I don't know if you're familiar with that. It's like, it looks like half a guitar, but it's not half the price. But I've been, it's been backordered. And so when I was 15, I was in a band and then I, you know, I was never really that great at the guitar, but I was, I could get by, but I put it down, gave it a rest and I picked it up 60 years later and started again.

I love it. So, and I love the blues. And so I've got one song down, Stormy Monday. Right. So I am going to. Try out for Relapse, and if you ever play Stormy, Stormy Monday, I am, I am there. 

Amy Epstein: You're going to raise the average age of the band members there significantly. You know, it 

Dr. Chris Teeters: might bring in a whole new crowd too, which is great, because we were playing everything from the 60s to yesterday, so it's inevitable.

Yeah, I know. 

Dr. Leon Klempner: Popular. Very popular. Kudos to you. And (00:07:00) anyway, I want to ask you about you, uh, working with your wife. When I started my practice at the beginning, you know, I started from scratch. And so, my wife was my receptionist, she was my lab technician, she was my orthodontic assistant. She was my financial person.

She was like everything. And, uh, you know, we would work together all day. Then we would come home and, you know, I would say, you know, those models that you trimmed, you know, if you get a little fewer bubbles in those and, you know, if you can keep the occlusal plane a little bit more, you know, and then she would, you know, rip my head off, of course.

So, you know. How is it working with your wife? She's, I know that you're in separate practices, but you, you, you work closely together. Tell me a little bit about the working relationship with the spouse. 

Dr. Chris Teeters: I'd say you probably had a little harder than me, Leon. If she worked in your lab and you got to talk about trimming the models.

Fortunately, we don't overlap too much. And so she pretty much sticks to pedo. I stick to ortho and we don't see each other that much during the day. I'll come over, give her a kiss and say hi. And (00:08:00) we'll talk about a patient, but we're not. Really in the same room a lot. We share a door that goes between the two offices.

So we actually find it to be really nice. Uh, we sometimes have lunch together, which is nice too. Um, but we, we don't ever fight about work. It's, uh, never really come up, which is, which is great. Um, so for, you know, for two people that, that get along really well, I feel it's a good balance. 

Amy Epstein: There's, you mentioned there's a door and I know, uh, you know, that you're, you're co located essentially in the same building, um, and your, and your offices are, are next to one another.

And there's a lot of different ways you can bring a pedo ortho partnership to patients in a community. So, can you tell us a little bit about your, Decision you're in your wife's decision. Megan, right? Um, you're Morgan. I'm sorry. Morgan and your decision to, um, keep the branding separate to one another, but still sort of provide a shared pedo ortho experience to your patients.

Dr. Chris Teeters: I think we have to ask ourselves as orthodontists if we want to treat (00:09:00) adults or not, because if the answer is no, then you're better off co branding under the same umbrella, because you can be very kid centric. Uh, I love treating adults, I love complex cases, I wanted to not eliminate that in my practice, and so we felt by branding her office very kid centric, it's superhero themed with, You know, all these superheroes flying off and things like that didn't really fit for the classy look of the ortho, so ours looks more like a spa.

So when you walk from the kid's room, you're suddenly transported into a very elegant orthodontic practice. And when you go back, you're a kid again, and you're in the superhero land. And so that kind of fit. Our vision, and that's what I would say is that if you want to treat adults, I would, I would keep it separate.

And if you want to work with other professionals, um, cause if, if you're under the same umbrella, there, you won't get a lot of outside referrals because they're afraid you'll get absorbed into the practice. So we found that, uh, other dentists are willing to refer to me and still do because I make sure that they go back to their dentist and not absorbed into my wife's practice.

Right. 

Amy Epstein: That makes total sense. You know, 

Dr. Chris Teeters: that, 

Dr. Leon Klempner: that, that's a really good point because, (00:10:00) you know, In my practice, we treated a lot of adults, and we treated a lot, and I did a lot of early treatment, so I saw a lot of kids early, and it was a challenge for me setting up the office. I had to, you know, set up a separate kind of adult suite, you know, like in the corner somewhere, because adults don't like to be sitting in a bay with a bunch of kids and Um, Yeah, it's just not ideal for them.

So, I mean, I can see how having, you know, those, uh, separate brands kind of, uh, and, and, and, uh, target audiences, uh, play well, but I'm, I'm just curious though, are there any efficiencies that you gain, uh, because you, you, you serve a lot of the same patients, I'm assuming, between the offices. Do you share any, any staff or, or is there any, any economies Of the way that you have it 

Dr. Chris Teeters: separately set up, I'd say with a separate setup, that's one area where you might take a hit a little bit is because you are paying for two websites.

You're paying for two internet (00:11:00) connections. You're paying for two everything. We do share some staff that are dual trained. So when they're short on the pedo side, and we're fine on the ortho side, and we we. Can shift a few staff members. There's definitely efficiencies there. But I think the one thing that you do miss out on is the co branding saving that way.

But I think that that's a pretty small percentage compared to what you can gain from outside referrals and from treating the parents of the patients. 

Amy Epstein: Mm hmm. Yep. So there you talked about staff overlap. How do you do your handoffs? How do you do your your collaborative treatment under two different brands and two different offices?

How can you take us a little bit through the workflow? 

Dr. Chris Teeters: So we have a PETA workflow where the orthodontic consultation is part of their pediatric dental care, and I think that's really important to distinguish that versus, Oh, you got to see the orthodontist. Oh, they want to put braces on me at seven. No, that's not the case.

Honestly, we are looking at your teeth and the health of your teeth as pediatric dentists. They are looking at how your teeth are coming in. They're looking at the growth of your (00:12:00) jaws and development. These are two separate things, but it's under the same umbrella. So the consultations are free. They're going to be free.

follow you that rarely do we start early. We don't do a lot of phase one, but we're seeing these kids every six months for three, four years, just monitoring their, their growth and development. And so I think a lot of people initially think, Oh, well, they're going to get braces on at seven. And we just, we make a really clear point of, you know, unless you have, you know, a cross by there's something that needs to be addressed early.

We personally, our philosophy is we typically wait. Um, but sometimes I need baby teeth out, you know, sometimes I need an expander. There's certain. Times where we, we need to intervene. And if you wait too late until all the teeth are in, that limits your options. We might be more needing to pull permanent teeth when we could have avoided it.

And, you know, things like that. So, so we try to stress the importance of it being, um, part of their pediatric dental care rather than referral to my husband. For more money, which people sometimes I am. Nobody's ever really brought that up. They're like, Oh, we just love that your husband's involved in this.

And so we really try to, you know, let them know that this is for your care. It doesn't do much for us to just follow them other (00:13:00) than just hopefully that we're the ones that they pick in the end, because we've developed a relationship over the last two years or so. So, so let's 

Dr. Leon Klempner: say, you know, uh, a, a eight year old is in the chair and your wife's chair, and they're doing an evaluation and they're, they're noticing some potential orthodontic issues and they talk to mom about it.

And so, and they recommend that, that they see you. Do they? Physically walk them across the hall. Do they just give him your card? Like what's the mechanism that, that transfer takes place? 

Dr. Chris Teeters: We have a few different ways. The walk over is always the best because we can do a same date consult if we have an opening.

So they have access to our schedule. They can look and they say, Oh, we have a consult open. We'll walk you over right now. Save you a trip. That's the key word. Save you a trip. People are busy. They do not want to come back. People just think it's, it's pushy. It's not. They want to save time, so try to get them over and we tell them that, um, there's some parents that, that are just in a rush, in which case they can write out a referral slip.

We also have iPads where they can (00:14:00) schedule on the ortho side, chair side, so you can do a concierge service. Uh, okay, let me get your child's information. I have it here. Uh, when's a good time for you? These are the available times. And then they can pick. And the last thing, I'm excited about this, but we have these little, um, cards that I made that are metal.

They're really nice and they have one of those. Scanners where you just tap it to the top of their phone and they can schedule on their phone. So if they have to leave, well, okay, mom, just unlock your phone. We'll tap this here. You can fill in this information and schedule your appointment on your phone at your convenience.

Um, I think that those ones don't have, have as high of a conversion because anytime that you're not physically walking them over, they have a chance to close that window when they leave, but it's kind of a latch last ditch effort. So we have four ways. You try to catch them four ways. Cause we don't want to miss that.

And, um, I'd say even though they, they talk and recommend they come over, you're not going to get everyone. Um, The nice thing is if they fill out that referral slip, we have a carbon copy of it, and then our TCs can at least follow up and call and say, Hey, your pediatric dentist needs you to be seen by the orthodontist.

Um, so either way, there's a little bit of tracking involved. So yeah, there's four different ways. I think walk over is number one. Number two would be the concierge (00:15:00) service of scheduling their appointment. Number three would be the, um, the referral pad. And then number four would be our little tap card if they need to, if they're in a rush and need to leave.

Amy Epstein: Mm hmm. 

Dr. Leon Klempner: So, um. Just to change subject a little bit because you know i'm a marketing guy and you know we we do a lot of. Pedo ortho combinations, some like yours, some like, you know, we, we just have a few startups right now, uh, where, you know, two residents are coming together and they're going to, they're going to just form a pedo ortho practice.

And from a marketing perspective, a lot of times we'll, you know, we'll feed the pedo, you know, and eventually that will feed the ortho in terms of. Marketing not to exclude parents, which are always a big opportunity as well in a pedo practice. But how do you guys do the marketing? Do you just you have your own separate marketing strategies your own separate campaigns?

Dr. Chris Teeters: Yeah, how do you work it? So our second TC, (00:16:00) when she's busy, she doesn't market. She's basically a second T slash marketing. And I think that's really efficient because if we're two full columns, we don't need to market where we're at capacity. Um, if not, then she has to take that time and market for both offices.

So we have one person. I think that that, that saves a lot of expense. Um, and she's responsible for showing me a marketing calendar every month. What schools are we going to? What social posts do we have scheduled? What events do we have going on to get the kids involved? A big thing we do too, is like a seven and up kids club on the ortho side to get them to come back every six months where they can get a little lanyard with a kids club card and they get a pin, you know, for accomplishing certain objectives that outside of the teeth.

One of them through hygiene, but the rest of them are all, you know, getting better at, you know, taking up a sport, playing a musical instrument, um, cooking for their parents, you know, things that get them excited to come in and earn pins. So we've been doing a lot of those type of marketing efforts. And we recently started doing Google ads.

We're going to see how that goes. Um, we get a fair number of Google for both offices. Uh, we're showing up as number one now with five stars, which is awesome. Um, but the, but the best, best (00:17:00) conversion, a hundred percent is going to be the patients and parents that are word of mouth recommended. Uh, those are always the best.

Amy Epstein: Always. But, you know, those, those people still look to see that you've got those five star reviews. Yes. And they're, they're doing that research. And so it's good that you have it there and, and you're showing up. So kudos there. Um, so, you know, my dad was mentioning we talked to a lot of, um, practices. Some are established, pedo ortho.

Some have a model similar to yours. And some are. Starting up just from the beginning, what kind of advice would you offer, um, you know, anyone going into a, um, a practice where you're going to be offering both orthodontic and pediatric dentistry, 

Dr. Chris Teeters: I'd say the more that you can support each other. The better it really is if you're a husband wife couple I'll say first of all embrace the fact that your husband and wife we weren't sure how we people would feel about it We have not heard one negative comment about it.

It's always oh, we love your wife. Oh, we love your husband It's great that you guys work together. You probably talk about our cases. So so definitely lean into that I would say the other advice I have (00:18:00) is have a three month Policy that you want when patients start ortho with you to see their pediatric dentist every three months instead of every six months They're a lot less likely to get white spots.

They're a lot less likely to get cavities That's huge and when whether the pediatric dentist is partnering with you Or it's one you're working with they want to see that you're looking out for the patient's oral hygiene And not just slapping braces on and they never see the pediatric dentist. So we actually log into the pedo software.

Uh, one of our, our, our marketing coordinator's job every month morning is to see the patients coming in. Anyone that's been more than three months, they're printing, already pre printing a letter, a referral letter, and it's left on the assistant's desk. So and it's put in their chart. So first thing it says been more than three months give referral letter So the pediatric dentist is seeing that you are looking out for the patient's best interest that they're seeing their dentist every three months That they're getting those cleanings more often and that helps everyone so we don't have white spots, right?

I mean that nothing breaks our heart more than a beautiful finish with with holes in the teeth or white spots that are tough to treat 

Dr. Leon Klempner: Definitely 

Dr. Chris Teeters: before we let 

Dr. Leon Klempner: you go. I I do want to (00:19:00) Talk just briefly about, uh, OrthoPearls, the Mother of Pearl Conference, the Orthodontic Pearls Podcast. I mean, you're all over the place.

You're everywhere. And, and I, I really enjoy the, the Facebook group. I think it's a great community. It's a great opportunity to share a lot of information. So just maybe tell the audience, you know, what's going on with all of those things, anything coming up that's, uh, 

Dr. Chris Teeters: significant. I appreciate that. Yeah.

So the orthodontic pearls forum's been around since, uh, gosh, since I graduated residency in 2013. And it was a small group. It was just going to be us. And then it, um, when, when another big group kind of imploded over some, you know, issues, um, everybody kind of flocked to ortho pearls and orthopreneurs and ortho pearls was very clinically focused and orthopreneurs very business focused.

There's a little bit of overlap, but we Primarily have like the clinical side of things really take off. And so, um, the one thing we're missing from having 9, 500 orthodontists in a group through text, and that's great, but that in person connection and we need that. (00:20:00) And so we're going on our 7th year of having an actual live conference and it will be at the Kennedy Space Center.

We've rented it out. And we've also rented out the Apollo 5 exhibit where we're partying under a rocket. The live band Relapse will be there. It's all orthodontists playing in this band. If you haven't heard us, it's, it's pretty, pretty awesome. We work all year on, on these shows. And it's the only show we're playing all year is going to be at, at MOPC.

So bring your teams. They have a blast. Everybody wants to come back. It's such a great, great time, but we'll have 20 speakers, 20 CE credits. food, drink, all that's included. You have a five day pass to the park, so you can bring your kids, like space camp, they're gonna love it. And you're only 30 minutes from Disney World, so you can go right into spring break and enjoy Disney World after that, but also get a ton of CE, um, and also have a chance to, to kind of party with Relapse and really bond with your colleagues, because that's one thing you can't do as well online, is that in person connection, um, so that's a big part of it.

And yeah, and the podcast is just, again, another outreach way that we can share pearls, just like you do Leon, that can help other orthodontists improve their practice, businesses, and lives. (00:21:00) Perfect. Um, last day I was going to say, if you, if you want to register for it, we're still on early bird pricing at orthodonticpearls.

org and that's. org not. com be happy to have you. 

Amy Epstein: Great. Well, thanks so much, Chris, for being here today. We really appreciate the time. Looking forward to seeing you at an upcoming conference and including Mother of Pearls. You have given us a lot of good information. If we have questions for you, can our listeners reach out in any way?

Email address? Does that work for you? 

Dr. Chris Teeters: Absolutely. Every way. So my email is christeaters at gmail. com. I'm also on Facebook all the time. So you can just look up my name, Chris Teeters. Um, you can give me a call at 415 608 6148. Especially if you're going through a hard time, we all struggle as orthodontists when we're, we're growing our practices.

I'm, I'm happy to talk with you and help you out any way I can. Cause I've certainly gone through those, those early stages that were, that were tough, especially in Arizona, where the most competitive market there is. And so, uh, survival is, is important. And then you can thrive once you get past those early years, but hang in there.

Be a practice owner as soon (00:22:00) as you can. That's my big advice for you. And then don't be afraid to reach out to your colleagues, me included. 

Amy Epstein: That's great, Chris. Thanks so much. Really appreciate that. That's a lovely sentiment. I'm glad to be ending today's episode with it. So I appreciate that. You can subscribe or download other episodes of the Golden Age of Orthodontics podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.

And if you enjoyed it, we'd appreciate you telling a colleague. For more information about people in practice, you can visit our website at pplpractice. com. 

Dr. Leon Klempner: Chris, thanks again. Uh, remember Stormy Monday, you know, put it on the playlist. I really appreciate you spending the time and, and, and talking with us about this topic.

Uh, anybody out there that wants to contact me with any questions, marketing questions, shoot me an email, leon at pplpractice. com. Uh, there are introductory deals from each of our sponsors, K. L. Owen and Grin. Thank you, K. L. Owen and Grin for sponsoring the podcast. And you can get that information at our website, www.

pplpractice. (00:23:00) com. Go to our partner page. And remember, very important, it's never been a better time to be an orthodontist. We are currently in the golden age. Don't forget that. Take advantage of it. Until next time, I'll see ya.

Narrator: Thank you for tuning in to the Golden Age of Orthodontics. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Or visit our website at thegoldenageoforthodontics. com for direct links to both the audio and video versions of this episode.