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Dr. Justin Moody: Clinical Mistake
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Implants aren’t the future—they’re the NOW.
This week on DentalFuel, Dr. Justin Moody joins Tanya Sue Maestas to talk all things implant dentistry, education, and accessibility. From his small-town Nebraska roots to founding Implant Pathway, Dr. Moody has trained countless dentists to bring life-changing implant solutions to their patients.
Episode Summary:
In this insightful episode of Dental Fuel, host Tanya Sue Maestas welcomes Dr. Justin Moody, a dynamic figure in the field of implant dentistry. Justin shares his journey from his roots in rural Nebraska to becoming an implant dentistry expert with a significant impact on dental education and practice. He discusses his transition through various phases of his career, including his influential move to Arizona, where he has continued to expand his passion for teaching and serving communities through the Implant Pathway initiative.
Dr. Moody delves into the challenges and opportunities within implant dentistry, emphasizing the importance of education and community service. He reflects on his experiences and the evolution of his practice, offering valuable insights into patient financing and the necessity of customized treatments. The conversation underscores the disruptive potential of implant technology in modern dentistry and highlights the critical role of mentorship and ongoing education.
Key Takeaways:
- Journey and Passion: Justin Moody's trajectory from a ranching background to implant dentistry showcases the power of mentorship and passion-driven career shifts.
- Implant Pathway Initiative: Establishment of Implant Pathway in Arizona illustrates Justin's dedication to education and service, emphasizing real-world training and community care.
- Patient Financing and Accessibility: Financial barriers in implant dentistry can be mitigated through innovative models like nonprofit clinics, offering significant community impact.
- Challenges in Implant Dentistry: Complexity in treating different dental conditions, especially among younger patients, requires tailored approaches and long-term planning.
- Educational Impact: Training in implant dentistry is highlighted as pivotal, not only for practitioner growth but also for enhancing patient outcomes and accessibility worldwide.
Connect with Dr. Justin Moody: @drjustinmoody
Find out more about Implant Pathway: @implantpathway
Connect with Ignitedds and Dr. David Rice: @ignitedds Free Intro Call
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Learn more about Ignite Coaching : https://ignitedds.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Dental Fuel and sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Dental Fuel, the podcast that focuses on what no one else is talking about, mistakes. The dental world is full of before and afters, and no one is talking about the middle.
00:00:11
Speaker
Dental Fuel brings you the unspoken in between. Dental Fuel is brought to you by Ignite DDS Coaching, empowering dentists to build self-determined futures. Together, we're shaping the next generation of leaders in dentistry.
Final guest announcement: Justin Moody
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome back to Dental Fuel. Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come. This indeed will be our last guest.
00:00:31
Speaker
It has been so fun to bring you mistakes from industry leaders. I know I have learned a lot from them and I hope you have too. Our last guest is the Justin Moody. Justin Moody is a dentist specializing in implant dentistry in Arizona. You may know him from Implant Pathway. In this episode, we talk about a clinical mistake.
00:00:49
Speaker
Dr. Justin Moody, welcome to Dental Fuel. How are you doing today? I am great. Happy to be on. Super excited to have you here at Dental Fuel for our listeners to listen to your story and to learn more about you and all the cool things that you're doing in Arizona.
00:01:04
Speaker
Happy to be here. As we get into it, I'd love to know a little bit more about yourself and what exactly are you doing in Arizona?
Justin Moody's journey into implant dentistry
00:01:14
Speaker
ah Well, I am a i'm a fifth generation ranch kid from Nebraska, so I don't have a ah I don't have a ah dental history, you know, other than the the time that I've been, my dad and my brother still ah work and operate the same cattle and wheat ran wheat farm that has been in our family since 1883, you know, so I'm new to dentistry as far as generational, but um I've always enjoyed working dentistry.
00:01:51
Speaker
I mean, and i enjoy I enjoy helping people. like the you know I think the more people I can you know help, the better. um I have a real passion for teaching. My mom was a ah high school math teacher, and so I think I got a little bit of my love for teaching from her.
00:02:13
Speaker
and ah along the way, I had some great mentors that got me into implant dentistry. and the implant dentistry is my passion.
00:02:24
Speaker
yeah So I graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1997 as a dentist. I moved back home to my little tiny town in western Nebraska called Crawford, Nebraska, ah home to 1,100 people.
00:02:42
Speaker
um I was one of 16 people in my high school graduating class, so there's... You're talking to 1 16th of my graduating class.
00:02:53
Speaker
And I went to work, I bought my childhood dentist's practice and i you know I went to work in a very general dentistry setting.
00:03:05
Speaker
My mentor, guy named Roger Plooster out of Lincoln, Nebraska had ah I used to go down to the football games in the fall at the university and I'd stop into his office ah you know the day before and catch up and he was always doing implants and he's just like, as yeah how's it going back home? Because he was from my hometown as well and i was just like, man, there's a lot of removable.
00:03:26
Speaker
and I said, I think Doc do Jerry, you know my childhood dentist, I think he had dentulated county and you know a lot of dentures adjustments, partials and things. And he's like, man, he goes, if you don't get into implant dentistry, he says, like that that removable stuff is gonna, it's gonna beat you down.
00:03:48
Speaker
and you're not gonna enjoy your job nearly as much. And was just like, well, like I don't care them for those you know appointments, to be honest. And he said, well, he goes, it's not as much about you not caring for those appointments, but the patients don't understand why their dentures don't fit.
00:04:05
Speaker
And the only logical solution for them is you know it wasn't made right or the, the you know the the they don't fit you know and he said the reality is you know the patient doesn't understand that once we lose our teeth you know the uh the bone and the tissue and everything you know starts to melt away you know without stimulation he said so you know putting just as a few as a couple of dental implants and holding their lower denture in place like yes you'll literally change someone's life and uh so i
00:04:36
Speaker
At the time, the only place that you could learn implant dentistry was from Carl Misch himself, ah from the godfather of implant dentistry. So I took seven weekends of courses up in Detroit, Michigan to learn from him.
00:04:52
Speaker
And when I went home and I started like literally changing people's lives, um it's over the course of the years, like it's all I really wanted to do. And then I became like this,
00:05:05
Speaker
you know, like this rabid dog for ah implant continued education. Like I just took everything that I could possibly take. I took every every one of Carl's courses and, you know, Michael Pecos' down in Florida and and John Russo and the Carolinas. And like, I just went everywhere.
00:05:20
Speaker
And, you know, and it became something that I, you know, just, I
Opening an implant-only practice
00:05:27
Speaker
love to do. And it wasn't fillings and hygiene checks. ah So, and denture adjustments.
00:05:34
Speaker
And it kind of went that way until about 2010 when I wanted to make this switch and I was like, I really just want to do implants.
00:05:47
Speaker
And people was yeah, but like you got this general dentistry and i was like, well, like, you know, I think one of the problems we have in dentistry today is that, you know, you're probably familiar that they say ah upwards 85% of associateships
00:06:03
Speaker
Fail. And you know that sounds like, why would that be? you know Well, in implant dentistry and now having taught it, there are people that get excited about implant dentistry like myself, that that's really all they wanna do.
00:06:23
Speaker
And then they say, well, you know what? like I'm gonna bring in an associate and you know they can do everything else, not just do the implants. and if you really step back and think about that statement, like, you know, I don't wanna do any of that other stuff, so I wanna bring someone else in to do it.
00:06:39
Speaker
Well, they don't wanna do that either. You know, like, like like they don like they don't wanna do it all day long. You know, so um I decided that it's like, I'm gonna bring in an associate, but I'm gonna actually leave that practice, and I'm gonna move to Rapid City, South Dakota.
00:06:56
Speaker
So I went from a thousand people to 100,000 And I hung my shingle out as a you know as an implant only office ah and as a referral office.
Speaking opportunities and Implant Pathway creation
00:07:07
Speaker
Like I went out and I talked to every dentist, I did lunch and learns, like, send me your implants, I'll send them back, impression ready, like crown ready, whatever you know whatever it looks like. And you know over time, people discovered that I was restorative driven, like the implants were in nice positions, they were easy to restore.
00:07:26
Speaker
and i i started having a you know I had yeah I had great success and I had i built a nice practice and it was so much different you know without hygienists and restorative you know like I had one front desk and I had one surgical assistant than me and ah you know we had a very bare bones practice that was you know incredibly know profitable and along the way of Bio Horizons, the implant company ah said, they hey, like what a great success story, you know, like for implants, you know, like, so, ah you know, would you mind like, I remember the very first thing I ever did was they sent me to Albany, New York to do a a oral surgery group study club, talk to them about, you know, like like restoring implants. And I just, I remember like, I was so excited, you know, like, i like ah like
00:08:25
Speaker
I did it for the you know the the air flights and the hotels. you know like it was It had nothing to do about money. And I went up there and it was from Rapid City, South Dakota. like i i had to I had to leave on Thursday that was a five day a week dinner. So I had to leave on Thursday.
00:08:41
Speaker
i got there Friday, I hung out all day. i did the Friday night you know study club. And then I couldn't get home now until Saturday. So like three days for this like three hour event. And like it was...
00:08:52
Speaker
still like one of the greatest and i still i still am friends with some of the people that i met you know uh i think that was in 2013 or something like that and uh they just started using me more and more and as my friends you know would would talk to me and they're like hey listen like you're you're good at that and like yeah because you do it for a living and i was like yeah i guess so and uh So i I took this kind of like, i'm a ah some people call me a risk taker my dad calls me a serial entrepreneur, like you know whatever it is, but I was like, you know what, like I can do a lot of implants during the day, but how many implants could I help people get by teaching people to do this?
00:09:37
Speaker
So in 2015, I ah created Implant Pathway and started teaching across the country and wherever that i could. And then in 2017, I moved here to the Greater Phoenix area.
00:09:54
Speaker
And we found a nonprofit clinic that we could do live patient training on so that the doctors that learn could literally get some reps under direct mentor supervision to be able to go home and actually do them.
00:10:09
Speaker
um And I think I've been talking too much. So that's that. No, no, this is great. No, I'm learning a ton. Well, you just, for what what what I'm listening to is that you kept girl going to cities with growing populations.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yes. You know, like, ah you know, implied dentistry is, you know, a smaller niche and you know, in the modalities of dentistry, you know, and you know back in a town of a thousand people, like there's no shortage of there's no shortage of crowns and fillings and, you know, things like that that need to be done. But like, you there's, you know, not every human that walks in your door needs an implant, you know, but every human that walks in your door needs their teeth cleaned twice a year. ah So like to do more implants, like you do have to get to a bigger patient base, you know, to make that happen. So I have, i am quite a ways away from Profford, Nebraska.
00:11:06
Speaker
Absolutely.
Challenges in implant dentistry
00:11:08
Speaker
Justin, I'm curious, I'm sure that in your journey of implants, you have seen maybe some challenges and mistakes along the way, maybe from yourself or maybe from those that you have taught.
00:11:18
Speaker
I'm curious if you have one of those clinical mistakes in mind that you would like to share and how you managed it and how you encourage the students that you teach to manage it. You know, i think there's ah i mean I think there's a lot of challenging cases you know out there. And I mean, I got, you know, ah seems like a lifetime, you know, 27 years of ah you know cases that you could talk about. But I think the the biggest challenges that we we face today in dentistry is managing
00:11:55
Speaker
the the patient that needs to be identulated. And, you know, that we lose our teeth for, you know, a number of reasons, right? Like ah it could be trauma, but that's not that common, you know, ah accidents happen. um But we usually lose our teeth either due to periodontal disease or caries.
00:12:16
Speaker
And you could have a combination, but generally like speaking, like, you know, if you lost it from perio, like, they're because they're two different situations, right? Like you have a situation where you have a high bacterial load and you have radiographic bone loss. So you like you are already at a deficit for bone.
00:12:36
Speaker
And those are challenging cases because of the A, the bacterial load and B ah oftentimes, you know, inadequate bone for what we would like is, you know, ideal implants.
00:12:49
Speaker
And, and But I wanna talk, like maybe the most challenging case we have today, or cases is the the patients, the younger patients that are losing their teeth to caries.
00:13:01
Speaker
And you know when I was in dental school, I had a few of these patients and ah the patients, I'll tell you who they were, they were like,
00:13:12
Speaker
ah night watchman and you know night desk people at at buildings and they sat around all night long with a giant big gulp of Mountain Dew. you know Just like you know ah bathing you know their teeth and then so they would lose their teeth by caries.
00:13:29
Speaker
And the the issue with implants and full arch and people that lose their teeth by caries is that they have bone. oftentimes they ah you know they have too much of it for what most people think about in full arch dentistry is this big zirconia FP3 prosthesis.
00:13:50
Speaker
And the there's a lot of centers out there that treat try to treat everybody in the same, like was with the same cookie cutter and that is like, okay, we're gonna dentulate you, we're gonna do alveoloplasty flat, we're gonna put our implants in straight tilted, whatever you believe, and then we're gonna make them this big zirconia bridge.
00:14:09
Speaker
But you know in 27 years and you know most recently, probably full arch in the last 10, what the challenging cases are those that are are younger individuals that we lose this teeth and we do this.
00:14:24
Speaker
And this implant dentistry is not forever treatment. like i like I cannot, guarantee you nor do I expect to be able to indentulate someone and put them into a full arch prosthesis and have it be there for the the the the rest of their life. Like it's really, it's it's a disservice and it's not actually factual.
00:14:47
Speaker
And what people forget about is like, yeah, it's expensive and you're chasing the dollars and stuff, but what we forget about is that the patient lost their teeth for a reason.
00:15:00
Speaker
And like the reason is they didn't take care of them in some avenue. And so you take someone that is historically poor at taking care of their teeth.
00:15:12
Speaker
We indentulate them, we put them this prosthesis in there, and then we expect it to last forever when, You know, God gave us teeth that could, have la could for the most part, last us our lifetime if we take care of them.
00:15:28
Speaker
So in the younger person that loses their teeth to carries, the challenge I see today is like, teaching doctors how to do what we call an FP1 prosthesis, which is not removing the the bone, ah but like putting the implants in the correct positions for the prosthesis to be lower profile and being able to preserve that bone. Because if I do this on a 30 or a 40 year old like in 15 to 20 years, they're going to have it read they're goingnna have a revision.
00:16:03
Speaker
They're going to have it redone. And at 60, there's a chance that you may need to have it redone again if you live to 70, 80, 90 years old.
00:16:14
Speaker
And if I took away all the bone in your forty s I don't have any other options when you become 60 or 70 years old. So like the challenge I have today and then trying to, and I've got some great mentors here, Josh Nagel, Wade Pilling, like like that have stepped up to teach these FP1 courses that ah talk about bone preservation and having, you know, like like planning,
00:16:46
Speaker
for the next you know the next phase of their dental life. ah and i And I'm also really blessed to be able to have a faculty member named Dan Holtzclaw, who is periodontist out of Austin, Texas that ah specializes in remote anchorage, like zygomatic implants, pterogoid implants, transnasals.
00:17:08
Speaker
And his job is to take those that know you know have had failed prosthesis or didn't get to us implant-wise until they already lost all their bone.
00:17:22
Speaker
And the only option is for these remote anchorage things. So that's probably the most challenging thing I think we have in in implant dentistry today is dealing with ah early loss of teeth.
00:17:35
Speaker
I'd like to backtrack a little bit on the conversation that you were having on finances. And I know, you know, it can be very expensive for patients to get implants, but the investment in, you know learning to place implants as well too, and maybe not knowing where to go can be very high.
00:17:53
Speaker
And of course, you know, finance financial issues, whenever somebody's starting their own practice, that also comes to play. So I'm curious of, you know, your thoughts and your experience with any financial mistakes,
00:18:04
Speaker
But also on the flip, especially you who is is very cognizant in helping the general public and maybe those who are underserved, helping those who may not have the traditional means of financing implants, giving them the ability to get implants.
00:18:22
Speaker
You know, All of us as dentists, you know, like ah I would love nothing more than to be able to treat my patients that walk in the door with the treatment that I would want for myself if I was in that position.
00:18:37
Speaker
the The reality of life is like we all have to live within our own financial means and that stuff's expensive. You know, like like like like implant dentistry is ah is is is expensive. So how I see patient financing is like, and I think sometimes the younger dentist, you know has a ah a tougher time coming out of school. and I'd be interested to hear your opinion. I know
Nonprofit clinic model
00:19:07
Speaker
you're in community health. And so like, a lot of the things that that you do are very similar to what we do at our nonprofit here. It's like, we want like,
00:19:15
Speaker
we have the ability to to to help so many more people because the the live surgical training that we do with the doctors that come here when they come here on their arizona restricted license um you know allows us to ah take care of these patients at no at no cost.
00:19:38
Speaker
ah So like ah the the patient, you know, maybe they may be able to get their extractions, alveoloplasty, any grafting and implants at no cost.
00:19:51
Speaker
Because really what is happening is that like, A, we have donations from companies like BioRisens that give us the the implants and the bone and the the other things. and you know, other other corporate sponsors.
00:20:03
Speaker
um But really what we do is we use a good portion. You know, it's it's sometimes up it's so depending on the course, but sometimes it's over 50% of the tuition that the doctor is paying to come here actually goes directly to the clinic to pay the DAs, ah ah to help in the prosthesis,
00:20:29
Speaker
that the the patients you know may have. And our fees are ah much, much lower for the the prosthesis for this this clinic too, because even even if you got the surgeries for free, you ah you know a $10,000 restoration is like too much for you know most people, right? So we offer a I think we're $1,250 for ah implant overdenture on like like locators. and
00:21:00
Speaker
And, you know, that's what that I think most there's a lot more people that can get into that you know, and and ah then you could, you know, out in the private sector. And like, you know, it's interesting, it's like, we're we don't compete against the general dentists here in town. you Like, we're not taking their patients because these patients we see, like, they either went and couldn't afford it or they didn't go because they know they can't afford it.
00:21:27
Speaker
and we're And we're filling that void. And it's, there's not a there's not a lot of scenarios in life where there's no loser. Right? like Like we're a nation of watching sporting events.
00:21:40
Speaker
Well, every one of them ends with a winner or a loser, you know? But here, like, here we have the opportunity to provide care to patients that would never, ever be able to afford the the kind of appropriate and and and ideal treatment.
00:21:58
Speaker
We have the ability to take a dentist and provide them a skill set and real reps on a patient under direct mentor supervision so that when they go home, they have a much better understanding of and confidence in doing the the procedure.
00:22:21
Speaker
ah And third, the winners are, we employ 33 people over in the clinic, you know, like, like like and and, you know, we all get to, you know, i make my living on, you know, training and my private practice, but the clinic and the doctors that work over in the clinic, you know, like, they they get paid through the tuition dollars and through whatever the restorations are, you know, that the patients pay for. So like, there's, everybody everybody wins and ah it's,
00:22:56
Speaker
I, you know, I've migrated, you know, from Nebraska to South Dakota to down here, but like, I don't, I don't have anywhere else to migrate because I don't know, I don't know how I could serve people better than i'm already doing
Episode conclusion and call to action
00:23:11
Speaker
right here. Thank you for tuning into this first episode with Dr. Justin Moody.
00:23:14
Speaker
Join you next week when we talk about a financial mistake. Ready to take the next step in your journey? Book an intro call with Ignite DDS Coaching today and level up your future in dentistry.