How Dr. Avi Patel Turned Aligners Into a $9M Playbook

Jonathan Moffat sits down with Dr. Avi Patel to unpack his journey from burned-out associate to building Clear Aligner Advisor, the most-followed aligner education platform in dentistry.

They dive into how Avi reignited his career by starting 50+ cases in six months, why most dentists avoid aligners, and how he has now helped over 200 doctors generate more than $9M in aligner revenue. If you’re looking for a proven way to add growth and freedom to your practice, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

Find Jonathan at jonathanmoffat.com
Learn more about Aligned Advisors at alignedadvisors.com

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How Dr. Avi Patel Turned Aligners Into a $9M Playbook

Welcome to another episode of Dental Wealth Multiplier. I’m Jonathan Moffat. With me is a special guest, Dr. Avi Patel. Dr. Patel is the founder of Clear Aligner Advisor, the most followed clear aligner educator on social media. He was named 2024’s Biggest Dental Influencer. A general dentist turned entrepreneur and coach, Avi left traditional dentistry after burnout and found a new passion in Clear Aligners, starting 50-plus cases in just six months and transforming both his patient outcomes and practice growth. Through Clear Aligner Advisor, he’s helped over 210 dentists generate more than $9 million in aligner revenue by providing practical, real-world training. Pretty impressive there, Dr. Patel.

Thank you. Writing bios is always something that is weird, but if you don’t share it, no one is going to know about it. If it’s something that you’ve done, you should share it.

Dr. Patel’s Journey From Practice To Teaching

Tell us a little bit about your journey from being a practicing dentist to where you are now. Tell us a little bit about that.

Going back, I think a good place to start is, “Why?” Why did I want to be a dentist? Growing up, I was 5’10” in middle school, so I thought I was destined for the NBA. That was the dream. I’m a huge Kobe Bryant fan. I thought there was no way that I wasn’t going to make it to the NBA. I go into high school, and I go from being the tallest kid to one of the shortest. Everyone else progressively got better at basketball.

At that point, I was like, “I think I need to find something else.” My parents were very much following the mold as most Indian parents do, where they’re doctor, dentist, lawyer, or engineer. Those were the fields to choose from. I was like, “I always liked math and science.” I got down that logically, but my uncle was a dentist. Honestly, he was always such a good time to be around. I was like, “This guy is always in a good mood. Let me see what this dentist thing is about.” I shadowed him for a summer. From my perspective, he was living an incredible life.

He always had a nice car, was always in a good mood, traveled yearly with his family, and had a nice house. He was only working three or four days a week. When I would see what he would do with his patients, they would come in pain, and they would leave super transformed in that regard. I was like, “This seems pretty cool.” I wasn’t fully sold on it. While I was shadowing him, he had a dinner party.

At that dinner party, one of his buddies was a neurosurgeon. He was talking to me. He’s like, “What are you going to do? If you want to be a dentist, you have to go to dental school.” I was also weighing sports med. He’s like, “If you do that, you’ve got to go to med school.” I was like, “I don’t know.” I asked him, “Wait, everyone else is having a good time. Why are you hanging out with me, a sixteen-year-old?” It was a Friday night. He’s like, “It’s because I’m on call.” In my mind, I was like, “When I’m your age, there’s no way.”

Decision made.

Yes, at that point, I was sold. I went into dental school, went to NYU, and came out. I was expecting to live this dentist lifestyle. It was the exact opposite. I was not working three days a week. I was working six days a week. I was not making that much money, half a million dollars in student debt. No one shared that part of the story. That’s why I always like to share it because a lot of dentists feel that way. You come out, and like with anything in life, you have to work hard. You have to put in the hours, but I never heard that struggle piece of dentistry.

I thought everyone thinks you work hard to get into dental school. You work hard in dental school. You become a dentist. Life is going to be awesome. It’s not true. That being said, I was like, “I need to skill up. I need to do something.” I was always trying to learn. My first two years out of school, I had eight different associateships, a lot of different exposures to them. Some people view that as a negative. I’ve got an abundance mindset, big time optimist. I’m looking back. I got exposure, and I saw eight different ways to practice dentistry. The common thread was nobody knows what the hell they’re doing. Everybody is doing it their own way. Some offices had onboarding processes for the docs. In some offices, I would walk in, and they would be like, “Here’s the hand piece. That’s the stuff.”

Patient room two is ready for you.

Exactly. I’m like, “What is going on?” That was eye-opening. It wasn’t the greatest thing in the moment, but looking back, it’s part of my story. How that evolved was when 2020 hit. The pandemic was here. Everything was shut down. That’s when I realized I had burnt out on dental, or at least what I was doing. That’s when I decided that I needed to invest in myself. I needed to learn another procedure to grow. We moved from New York to Texas at that point, in Austin, and started working for a DSO. They offered mentorship.

They were offering all these different ways that I could grow clinically. They gave me access to Invisalign, which was doing a webinar, and Dr. Blacher was speaking. That’s when she was like, “If you need help with any cases, let me know.” I leaned on her. I went out to start 50 aligner cases in six months. I didn’t think that was a big deal. I was talking to my patients about it, but the reps started flooding into the office. They were like, “What are you doing?” I’m like, “What do you mean? I was doing the aligners. Isn’t this what everyone does?” They’re like, “No.”

That’s when I realized that I was doing something different, but I didn’t think it was anything special. The next webinar was with one of the other dentists in the group, who was older and more experienced. One day, he talked to me. He was like, “I don’t understand. I need you to help me make sense of something.” I was like, “Yes, what’s going on?” He’s like, “You’re having this $100,000 for months, and you are barely on the clinic floor. You’re just buying your computer.”

I’m like, “Yes, because I did 10 or 12 aligner cases. That’s $60,000 in production right there. To do $40,000 and restorative, it’s not that hard.” He’s like, “Can you teach me how to do that?” I’m like, “Yes, I can show you.” He was the first person that I was able to teach. That’s when the next level of my passion came, where I realized I like education. I like mentoring, teaching, and coaching. I was teaching him and starting to teach other doctors. I was like, “This would be a cool position if I could work within this DSO. Maybe less clinical days, more education.”

DSO at the time didn’t see the value in it. My wife is not a dentist, but she was like, “You should start your own consulting business.” I was like, “What’s consulting?” She’s like, “You get paid to help people solve a problem based on your experiences, more or less.” I’m like, “Yes, I can do that.” I started working locally in Austin. Doctors started getting results. They are new practice owners who have never done a case.

They go on to start 25 in two months. That’s when I realized that we have a curriculum. I started posting on social media to promote this, share tips as well, and give value. I read The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. My mom recommended it to me. He’s all about omnipresence and massive action. I dove into that and then created an online course to reach more doctors. I started learning more about marketing. I didn’t look at it as a business, but then that’s when I started clearing down clinical days. I realized, “There’s something here.”

I felt a lot of passion for this. I saw the gap. I looked around, and no one was spending a lot of time, from what I could see, trying to fill this gap with education. The specific gap I’m talking about is teaching general dentists how to get started with aligners, regardless of the brand, and doing it in a very simple, efficient, and profitable way. That is essentially what I leaned into. You fast-forward. We’ve helped over 200 docs. We also support DSOs. I created a two-day in-person course that we run.

We’re starting to work with aligner brands. As I said, we’re brand agnostic, but now that I’ve got reach, where over 48,000 people follow me on social media, primarily with the interest of aligners, most of them don’t know that 90% of these brands even exist. If you ask any dentist, “What clear aligner brands do you know of?” They can probably name two. Now, I’m trying to help both sides, and help brands get exposure to dentists, and then help dentists understand what their options are. It’s fun. It’s a grind. It’s not easy, but I wake up earlier now.

Are all things not easy? You said consulting is not easy.

It’s not even like I’m necessarily doing that much consulting anymore. It’s all these other things. I’m having fun. I feel like I’m making a difference. I love talking about it.

Just to put it in perspective, and I don’t even want to say average, but let’s say you’re the average dentist that says they provide clear aligners. How many cases are those doctors doing a month?

The majority that say they provide it are doing maybe one. You’ve got right around 200,000 dentists. Let’s say about 110,000 of them are certified to do Invisalign, one of the biggest brands out there. Of that pool, maybe 11,000 of them are doing 2 to 3 cases a month. Three thousand are doing eight or more. You’ve got 190,000 that are not even doing it. It’s massive. The gap is huge. The opportunity is all there.

Filling The Gap In Offering Aligners

Why is there a gap? What is it holding those doctors back from doing more cases?

It’s because they’re human beings who care about their patients. They don’t want to do something that they are not confident in. I know for myself, we have the liability. When we’re not taught how to do something, primarily in dental school, and dental school does not teach dentists how to do aligners, we are naturally going to avoid it. It’s funny because anybody that I talk to who’s not a dentist, I say, “Would you believe me that a dentist is more afraid of moving teeth with plastic than they are putting someone’s gum open, drilling into it, and dropping a titanium screw in someone’s jaw?”

That is most dentists. They will go and they will drop an implant in a patient’s mouth. They will do that, but you tell them to put plastic on the patient’s teeth and have it apply some force to move it, and they’ll be like, “Nope, not doing that.” It’s the education. It’s the way the system’s been built. It’s not something you were taught. There aren’t that many people who are actively trying to educate.

Let’s talk about how profitable it is. From a profitability standpoint, how profitable are clear aligners?

They have the ability to be very profitable. The difference, though, is that a lot of dentists have tried offering it. Like with anything, you can offer it, and then it depends on how you execute on it. I can do implants, and I can offer them profitably or not profitably. If it takes me four hours to do one implant, that’s not a profitable procedure. If I can do that implant in twenty minutes, ten minutes even, it becomes profitable. With aligners, what happens is like a domino effect. When a lot of dentists start out with it, they pick these hard cases because they don’t know. It’s like, “The teeth aren’t super straight. Let’s treat it.” They get into the case. It takes them 12 or 18 months to finish with all these appointments and visits. All of a sudden, it becomes unprofitable.

Almost half full, right? At that point, you’re like, “Why’d I even do this? This is a half.”

Yes, you start doubting everything. It’s like, “This patient is back. Here we go.” It’s crazy because there’s so much innovation now on the aligner side, where most brands, you can do remote monitoring. You can get the patient in the chair. They’re there in hygiene. You diagnose, treatment plan, and close the case on that visit. You don’t see them again until the trays are in and you need to put on their attachments. That’s one visit. You can make it maybe one appointment where you’re doing some of the IPR. In some cases, you do it up front. You don’t have to do it later.

They’re at home tracking their own case with remote monitoring. You don’t see them until they’re done. At that point, you’re either scanning to put them in retainers or you’re scanning them to maybe do a round of refinements. You can cut chair time big time. It is a very proper procedure when done correctly. The way to do it correctly starts at the top of selecting the right cases. I’m also a big fan of referring. I’m not saying every general dentist can do every case. There are certain cases that should be done, and there are a lot of cases that should be referred. Specialists can also win, and they should, because they are the ones who have that advanced training and different modalities to treat. Everybody can win in this era, where general dentists are starting to do more of those simple cases.

Learn All About Aligners In Dr. Patel’s Two-Day Training

I’m assuming that if you listen to doctors, they’re like, “How do I know what a simple case is?” or “How do I know what the right case is?” I’m assuming one answer is, “That’s why you go to your two-day training.” You probably should.

Yes, you can. I did a free training. I have a free training that docs can watch. I break down simple cases, how to assess them, and how to classify them. I try to help where I can. One of the visions is to make aligner education accessible to as many dentists as possible. That’s why I post on social media. That’s why I make the YouTube videos, because a doctor who wants some accessible education that’s free, it’s there. That didn’t exist before I started doing this, so I’m giving it there. If you’re a doctor who wants more structure, a little bit more accountability, some frameworks, and resources, that’s why we’ve got our online in-person courses. Whenever they’re ready to take that leap, we’re here for them.

What do you generally see, Dr. Patel, when someone comes to your course, follows your training, or you say the average or every doctor that can, go from one case a month to X cases a month?

That transition is usually a plus three from what they’re doing. That’s the average. I’ve had doctors who have done way more than that because they’ll go in and they’ll dive in all the way. They’ll also throw marketing into it, crank it up, and amplify it. We’ve had some that they’ll come, they’ll leave, and then they won’t do anything. They won’t do any more.

You don’t go to the gym and just sit on a bike.

Take a picture.

Watch a couple of episodes of their favorite TV show and go home, right?

Exactly. As much as I want to say this stuff is rock solid, it’s education with some accountability, but the doctors have to take action. The majority of doctors who are coming and want to do it will see a plus three. A lot of them have no experience, and then they’ll go back. They’ll start three cases in their first month. For in-person courses, doctors will come, and the next week, they will start a case. With online, the same thing, about 2 to 3 cases a month.

Utilizing 3D Printing In Dentistry

You’ve brought up a couple of things I want to hit here. You’ve brought up multiple brands. There are the big names out there, the Invisaligns and ClearCorrects. With technology, what about 3D printing trays and doing that in your office? I remember I was in Ohio right before COVID hit. February of 2020 is right before it all went down. I was out there speaking at an event.

In the second half of the day, we went and saw this doctor. We toured his facility. He was an orthodontist. He had turned one of his old offices into a printing facility. He probably had ten 3D printers. They were printing. They were all branded with his name. It was a cool operation. I know 3D printing is a thing. People 3D print surgical guides. I know you can 3D print these trays. Talk about that a little bit.

3D printing is valuable. I don’t think it’s for the majority of the industry or the aligner market, only because I don’t think enough dentists are doing that much volume. Orthodontists, a different story. They’re doing volume. If they have a setup like that where you need to have dedicated team members, you’re essentially creating your own lab. Not every dental office has a restorative lab, but some of them do. It’s good. Dentists are all interesting. We all have our different inner passions and stuff. Some of us are bigger nerds than others. Some of us are more into business. Some of us like hiking and taking care of people. I’m not calling dentists lab nerds.

There’s a nerd effect there. You have to be a little bit geeked out on investing in the software. There’s got to be a learning curve, too. I’m like, “I’m mad you don’t buy a 3D printer, click print, and start printing out the perfect trays.”

That’s the thing. If it brings you joy, that process of having the hands-on ability, control, and all that, go for it. Looking at it from an operational standpoint, cool. If you’re going to do that, you need to have another team member, probably 1 or 2 dedicated team members, to manage that, separate from any other role. Don’t try to have your lead assistant also double as the aligner fabricator. Again, if that lights him up, go for it. In today’s day and age, with a lot of the brands that are out there, they’ve got some pretty solid solutions. It takes it off your plate. I don’t personally teach in-house 3D printing.

I know there’s a bunch of resources out there that can help with that. People have asked me about it. I like to educate and share things that I’ve personally done or used, usually, or that I’ve seen a lot of success with. I know that if a dentist’s goal is to offer aligners profitably and increase their production by however much they want to do, whatever the number is, most of those dentists are not printing their own. They’re using an aligner company. They’re negotiating lower lab rates through volume. They’re letting essentially the experts handle it. That’s what I’ve seen.

That makes sense. I may do one case, and I want to get to five cases a month. The last thing you’re worried about is probably saving a little bit of money on having to go through the headache of learning how to print your own trays.

A lot of these brands have intro offers. I don’t think people know about them, which is part of what I am trying to help facilitate. A lot of these brands, if you start up with them, will get you in. They will give you a discount right on your first X number of cases. If you hit a threshold, then you’ll get that discount to roll over, and then they keep you in that. Some people don’t like that hamster wheel, but I look at it as an opportunity.

You’re out here complaining about a $2,000 lab bill, but if the company is willing to give you a discount on your first three cases, they’re also asking for your buy-in. That’s part of it. I’m also actively trying to help my colleagues get better rates and whatnot. At the end of the day, if you’re not in the sandbox play, you can’t complain about what people would think because you’re not in the game at that point.

How Dr. Patel Handled His Career Transition

One of the questions I had for you is about this transition from chairside doctor to doing what you’re doing now full-time. How was that transition for you? How did you get through that transition? Do you regret making the transition?

It goes in stages. Initially, when I made the decision, I felt as though it was the absolute right decision. There was no second-guessing. There were no doubts. It felt like I was being pulled in that direction. It felt like everything in my life was lining up for that to happen to the point where I was talking to mentors and people. They’re like, “Are you sure?” I was like, “If you told me that I was not going to be able to do this or couldn’t, I would be way more upset and have negative feelings around it than the alternative.” When I did it, it was crazy. I had done the business, at that point, for a year. We pivoted so much in the beginning with the educational program, trying to create a curriculum.

When I first did it, it was exciting. Pretty much like any startup, and whenever someone goes all in on something, it becomes a rollercoaster ride. Right after I went full-time for the next three months, it was like everything fell off a cliff somehow. I have no idea. Backs against the wall, you’ve got to figure it out. We did, and it’s been fun. For me, the biggest thing is that every day I get to wake up. I know what my ability to make an impact and mission is. That’s to help other dentists provide this procedure, which can not only help them have a better life where they’re making more money, but they can also help more patients. That’s where I was like, “This is my why. This is the direction I’m moving in.”

Also, I get more freedom in my day-to-day. I don’t go into an office. One of the things that I wanted to do when I started doing consulting was like, what is a way that when we have future kids, I can be there for them to drop them off and pick them up and not have to trade my time for money? If you’re full-time practicing as an associate dentist, if you’re not there, you are not making money. At that point, I wasn’t like, “Yes, I’m getting out of the chair,” but I was like, “I want us to work on something that can get me closer to that outcome.”

A year and a half later, that vision became a reality. My wife got pregnant during that time as well. It was wild. I’m able to work from home and have the freedom to also travel if we’re ever going to conferences and stuff like that. It’s different. On the financial side, it’s a trade-off. People underestimate. You’re practicing as a dentist. You can make a lot of really good money like that. Anytime you transition away from the chair, there’s always some type of dip. At that point, you have to be okay with the trade-off.

A lot of doctors, I don’t think, realize even bringing in an associate, which is what needs to be a part of it if you’re going to step away, if you own your practice. They don’t realize there is going to be a dip. When you’re not the one doing the dentistry, you are going to make less money. You’re paying someone else to do that work. Something we talk a lot about is what you should get in return for that, which is hopefully that you get more time. With that time, you leverage that to make up what you lost in terms of revenue.

The doctors can do well at that, whether that’s focusing on, “I’m going to go implement a clear aligner program because now I have more time to learn it and implement it. That’s going to more than make up for the production that was replaced by my associate or whatever that is.” What we talked a lot about is identifying those areas where you can grow things, your areas you’re passionate about. It is leveraging the time you have back to continue to catapult yourself even into a better position.

Have you read Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell?

Yes.

I’m a huge fan of that. I read that when I was building this. It’s an eye-opener because it’s all true. A lot of dentists are pretty much in every role in the beginning. Not only are we the clinician, you’re the owner/operator, all the above. Everything runs through you. We’ve become the bottleneck, but no one taught us how to alleviate that. It’s tough. We spend the first part of our career trying to get good at the clinical aspect. You started practicing. Now, you’re an entrepreneur. Granted, no entrepreneur has ever played. There’s no school. You don’t go get a degree in entrepreneurship. That’s the whole point. You go and do it.

Even if you did, it wouldn’t matter.

It wouldn’t matter because it wouldn’t apply. That’s what’s crazy. No one tells you when you get into dental school, “By the way, there’s a very high chance that you’re going to be an entrepreneur.” No one looks us in the face and lectures on that. We’re talking about cells of human tissue that I can’t even remember. I don’t know why we even learned that because it doesn’t make any sense. It’s so archaic.

Part of what I’m also trying to do is, whether or not a dentist wants to do aligners, it’s sharing the message with other dentists. It’s like, “This is a tough profession, but you can make anything you want out of it. The work doesn’t stop.” That’s something that I tried to share because a lot of dentists are struggling. A lot of dentists get burnt out. They get burnt out because there’s a misalignment between expectations and reality. The reality that they’re living doesn’t match what they had envisioned. They feel super stuck, and then they shell up. They don’t know what to do.

Getting Out Of The Chair And Making An Impact

It’s interesting. I don’t talk to a lot of dental students, but we talked to some. It’s fascinating that a lot of them in that conversation are fourth-year dental students, and all they want to talk about is how soon they’re going to be able to stop doing dentistry. You’re like, “Dude, you’re not even at dental school yet. You’ve got all this debt, and all you can talk about is how to get out of the chair.” Part of that is the entrepreneurial spirit of, “I know there’s more than just owning a practice.” I think DSOs, to some extent, have contributed to that, or even emerging groups where it’s like, “I don’t have to own just one practice.” Their eyes are open to maybe more. I hear it a lot. “I graduated in May. I wonder how soon I can get out of the chair?” What’s driving that?

I don’t think it’s a bad thing that dentists want to get out of the chair. My thing is that if you’re going to get out of the chair, my hope is that you’re going to do something that can help move the profession forward and fill the gap. There are a lot of dentists who all they want to do is clinical. That’s it. They would be the happiest human beings on earth. All they could do was clinical. For the dentists who go through being a dentist, are practicing, and then they have this, “I want to get out of the chair,” my challenge to them is to go create a practice in an environment where you can attract top-level clinicians. You create a space that is going to help drive them forward.

Make that the new standard of care. What’s happened with a lot of DSOs in groups is that they’re bundling them up. They’re taking a bunch of garbage packaging up and moving that onwards. It’s a shame because I’ve been in that. I felt it was a practice, being a dentist in transition. It’s weird because they tell you all the good things that are coming, and then the good things never come. You’re sitting there. You’re like, “The practice is still a mess. There’s zero culture in this place.” If the doctor is feeling it, you know the patients are feeling it.

It’s like, “What can be done?” I love it when dentists say they want to get out of the chair because it’s like, “What are you going to do? What do you want to do? What problem do you want to solve?” Non-dentists who have come into the industry have all tried to create solutions. There are a bunch of people who are trying to help because they know that the dental industry is hurting. Sometimes, what happens, though, is that dentists’ egos will get in their way. They’re not going to be as receptive to it. There are always some bad apples in the group. I’m sure there are consultants and people out there who have come in, and they’re not actually that good. However, some are good. In general, if you’ve got a dental degree and you can make a difference, go for it.

How To Retain The Best People In Your Team

I love that. What’s your contribution back? I love that. It’s so powerful. What a better industry we would have because of it if you’re able to take that freed-up time to be able to do that. Let’s pivot a little bit to maybe the broader industry, the DSOs. You’ve brought up DSOs. What’s your perspective on why so many doctors are leaving DSOs and feeling unfulfilled in their roles? Why do you think even group practices are struggling to keep doctors and dentists engaged?

It’s a multi-prong problem. I don’t think it’s one thing. One thing that I have shared is this framework of the different archetypes of associate doctors. The work on the DSO side, the Chief Dental Officer or the Chief Clinical Officer, is to determine which archetype each doctor is and classify them. You have some who are clinicians. You got some that are leaders. You have some who are entrepreneurs. You have some that I call 9:00 to 5:00ers. If you can identify which one of those your associates are, and then you can create pathways to facilitate their growth or just facilitate their needs, you’ll be able to retain them.

Don’t make the clinician the person who has to be a leader and rally everybody. Put the clinician in an environment where they have a strong office manager who is running the operation. Give them a clinical pathway to where they can do procedures and level up. That will make them super fulfilled. They’re not going to leave you because they don’t want to be a practice owner. That’s the clinician pathway, the entrepreneurial pathway.

Give them the ability to have some type of way that they can learn about the business side of dentistry and grow into maybe helping you start different practices or getting involved on the business side. When you’re doing the different M&As and all that, teach them that. You’ve got the leader, someone who actually does want to lead the office and be in those roles. Maybe they want to be a Chief Dental Officer. Have a pathway that you can develop a doctor to go and be like that mentor that can mentor doctors around them, and then go.

The 9:00 to 5:00er, meet them where they’re at. Know that you’re not going to get a lot out of them outside of what they’re doing when they show up, and be okay with it. Don’t dump resources on them, but make sure that the day-to-day is comfortable. They’re not going to leave. I say this from experience because at one point, I’ve been each of these. The Chief Dental Officer’s job is to figure out who is what archetype, checking in on them because people are going to change.

Maybe they want to be a clinician, and then all of a sudden, “I actually learned about the business side.” If you have a pathway for it, it’s a matter of switching them over. This is the work that needs to be done. Some groups are doing this. This is not some made-up thing. They’re doing a version of this, but that’s my answer to that. You do that, essentially meet your doctor where they’re at, and give them what they need. The chances of them leaving are very low. Pretty much the only reason why they would leave at that point is if they have a major life event or if you’re not paying them what you’re supposed to, which happens.

I love that, Avi. This question comes up where a question around associate retention is a hot topic right now. How do I keep and retain my associates, especially top performers? It’s so fascinating. One of the first things you do is you sit down and have a conversation about what their goals are. What do they enjoy? What don’t they enjoy? I do a fair amount of speaking. One of the questions I’ll ask is, I’ll be in a room with doctors and say, “How many of you feel burned out? Raise your hand.” Almost every hand goes up. “Let’s say you could design your day or your week, exactly the hours and days you want it to work. Only come into the office and do the things you love to do. How many of you would still feel burnout?” Hardly any hands go up. “How much longer could you practice?” “Forever. A lot longer.”

Part of that’s “Perfect day. Days change. Stuff happens. Life happens.” The idea is, and the thought is around, if you had that same conversation with your associates, junior partner doctors, or potential partner doctors, around understanding what truly motivates and drives them, and are intuitive to that. I’ll give you an example. We had a doctor. I had an eight-location group here in Southern California. I could go down the list of every one of our doctors and go, “This person does not want to be a leader. This person doesn’t want to do this.”

As long as we let them do what they want to do, they’re going to be happy. They’re not going to leave. What I’ve seen is if you try to force those people into a role that they don’t want to be in, to your point, that’s when they’re going to leave. Especially if you go through a transaction where the new owner group is like, “That’s not what we want. What we need them to be is this,” and you’re like, “That’s not who they are,” there’s always going to be a push. There’s going to be a conflict.

This is why some groups are going to win in the retention game. Some are not. I was talking to Dr. Jen Darcy about this. It’s not rocket science. It’s who is willing to dedicate the resources to it because there’s no shortage of resources. Everybody’s got resources. Where are you choosing to deploy it? What we said is that it’s very obvious what some groups’ intentions are. That’s okay, but then you have to live with the result.

How Dentists Can Avoid Burnout And Stress

What would be your advice, Avi, if a doctor were tuning in to this? They are feeling burned out, or they feel stuck. What would be your advice to help them take a couple of steps towards feeling unstuck?

Everyone’s situation is different. I was burnt out. The thing that I did that helped was, fortunately or unfortunately, it was COVID. Everything was shut down. I was removed from the practice. I wasn’t practicing. In the beginning, I had these first two weeks. I thought it was a vacation. It was awesome because I was like, “This is amazing. I don’t have to go in. This is great.” I essentially got to live this free life for two weeks.

Let me guess. Did you have any loans that you needed to make payments on?

Yes. That was it. At that point, I couldn’t do anything because we were shut down for so long. I started to journal, think about, and reflect. What do I enjoy? What do I not enjoy? I was getting down to that why. It sounds cliché from motivational speakers all the time, but it’s true. It’s the why. In that moment of time in my life, what I wanted to do was to do something that was going to make a difference. I felt like the type of dentistry I was doing was not making a difference.

You’re drilling, fill, head down, go in, go out. That’s when I was like, “I need to make a change.” That’s when I invested in the implant course, and then also aligners, because I thought I needed to skill up. I’m sharing this because the framework around this is that if you’re burnt out, I recommend maybe pausing. Push pause and step back. When you step back, the dust can settle, and then you can get clear on things.

The one thing you need to get clear on is, where are you at today? Where do you want to be? What is the one thing that you need to do to get one step closer to that? This is not going to be the last time that you do this exercise because all of our lives are changing. Everything is evolving. I had a version of that a couple of years later, when I leaned into growing the education platform. It’s a simple exercise. It’s tough. I’m not saying to take so long, but you’ll know. Some people will leave after two weeks, and they’ll be like, “I don’t want to go back. I’m not going back.”

It’s like, “Cool. What are you going to do now?” You can figure it out. Some people will be like, “I actually like going in, but I don’t like this team that I’m working with. I love dentistry. I love it, but I don’t like this team.” Cool. That sounds like a culture issue. If you’re not the owner and you’re burnt out, maybe talk to the owner. Talk to whoever is in charge. Maybe read up on leadership because clearly, you need to lead this team better. Work on dynamics. There are some toxic people who may either have to go, or you have to go. Sometimes, changing up your environment is a thing. I know that was jumbled up, but that’s the exercise that I would encourage a burnt-out doctor to take.

How To Boost Revenue And Profitability With Aligners

I love it. I couldn’t have said it better. It’s taking a purposeful pause. Take a break. Take a step back. Evaluate. If you want to add revenue to your practice, and I hate to use the word quickly, but I don’t know a better way to say it, would you say clear aligners are probably one of the best ways to do that? It would be like, “I want to give a boost to my revenue or profitability.”

Yes, I think so. It’s the fastest-growing procedure in dentistry. It’s got a 30% compound annual growth rate. Patients want it. Dentists aren’t talking about it. That’s why direct-to-consumer brands like SmileDirectClub had success in the sense of getting people on board because the general public wants to straighten their teeth. The dentist wasn’t talking about it. I don’t know of another procedure that you can go in tomorrow and diagnose. It sounds bad, but you can treatment-plan it.

You can learn how to do it before the trays even get delivered. I’ve never used that angle before, but it dawned on me. You can’t do that with something like implants. With aligners, you can do that. Shameless plug, take our course. We’ll help you select the case. Take the free training first. Get that down. Executing on it happens over 6 to 8 months. You’re moving your teeth quarter of a millimeter every week. That’s not a lot of movement. Doctors forget that ortho takes time.

If you have the guardrails up and you’re selecting the right cases, you can always move teeth back. In some cases, you can’t, but in most cases, if you moved the tooth too much, you can always move it back. Not to oversimplify it, but also to let doctors know it’s okay. It’s not as though you’re cutting into someone’s gums and dropping an implant in there. It’s not as invasive.

Episode Wrap-Up And Closing Words

Dr. Avi Patel, I appreciate you being on here. Any parting words or thoughts for our audience as we wrap up here, before I give your link, your Instagram, your YouTube channel, and anywhere else anyone can check you out, you want to share? Any parting thoughts for the audience?

I would say if you’re in a spot where you feel like you want to level up, you’re looking for a change, or you want to elevate your dental career or your group, looking at aligners and learning how to do it is a good tool to have. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. I’m happy to help you out, whether it’s free or through one of our courses or programs. At the end of the day, do what makes you happy. A little bit of discomfort in the beginning is going to be well worth it as long as you are aligned with everything that you’re trying to do.

For those of you who want to follow Dr. Patel on Instagram, you can do that @Doctor.Avi. Also, you can check out his YouTube channel, Clear Aligner Advisor. Did I get both those right?

Yes. On YouTube, they could search my name, @DoctorAvi. I’m on LinkedIn, too, for all the LinkedIn people.

That group is growing like crazy.

I had some strong feelings about LinkedIn before I got on there. I wanted nothing to do with it. I dove into it. It’s been fun. That’s how we connected.

Dr. Patel, thank you so much for coming on here. Everyone, please go check out and follow him on Instagram. Check out his YouTube channel. Lots of amazing content on there. Also, check out, if you think you’d get value from going to a two-day course, I strongly encourage you to do that. Dr. Patel, thanks so much for being here. I appreciate coming on and sharing your knowledge and wisdom with our audience.

Thanks for having me on. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks, everyone. We’ll talk to you next time. Bye.

Important Links

• Dr. Avi Patel on LinkedIn
• Clear Aligner Advisor
• Dr. Avi Patel on Instagram
• Dr. Avi Patel on YouTube
• The 10X Rule
• Buy Back Your Time
• Jonathan Moffat
• Aligned Advisors
• Jonathan Moffat on LinkedIn
• Dental Wealth Multiplier

About Dr. Avi Patel

Dr. Avi Patel is a general dentist turned educator and founder of Clear Aligner Advisor, the most followed clear aligner educator on social media. After burning out on traditional dentistry, he found a renewed passion through clear aligners — starting over 50 cases in six months and seeing the impact it made on his patients and practice. Realizing there were no practical resources to help general dentists get started, he began sharing what worked. That led to the creation of Clear Aligner Advisor, where he’s now helped over 210 dentists generate $9M+ in aligner revenue through his training programs.