Hello and welcome to another episode of Beyond the Arches. I'm your host, Dr. Daniel Noorthoek. Today, we're going to be talking about my own personal journey into full arch. How did I get into full arch? And given that it's kind of an interesting topic and it's one that sort of feels a little bit awkward for me to just sit here and talk about my story and about myself so much. And so, what I did was ask Erica—we have Erica with us today. Hello. I asked Erica to come on and create some questions that would kind of bring out sort of the story of how I ended up in full arch. Sort of my personal journey to full arch. And so she came up with a list of questions. I don't know what they are. I have no idea where this conversation is going to head. And so I'm going to kick it over to her, but that will sort of be the focus of what we talk about today. It'll be very personal—the personal story, the personal journey of how I ended up on this track. Thank you! I'm excited. I have a few questions here to kind of see just your story, like you said, and kind of where you came from, what drew you into this. I'm nervous. My favorite color is blue. We'll see. I don't know if we'll get through all of them today, but we'll see where this conversation takes us. So let's start off basically at the beginning. What is your story? What did your training and early years kind of look like? So, I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I went to school there for several years. My father is a printer—the job foreman at a printing company. They print a lot of biblical devotions and Bibles and things like that. So when I first started school, I was taking classes and working there second shift; I’d go to school in the morning and work printing Bibles and chopping, bookmaking, etc. It was a big operation—we’d print millions of Bibles over the summer. It was mundane work, but fascinating. I then decided I wanted to move to Florida, partially for barefoot water skiing. At the time, I was really into barefoot water skiing and got a chance to do that at a school in Florida. My father and I road-tripped to visit schools—I realized Florida is where I wanted to go if I was going to do dentistry. I didn’t want to go to the University of Michigan—I wanted to live in Florida. Climate-wise, I was a Florida boy before I was a dentist. On our way back from touring schools, we visited the University of Florida. The dean of admissions gave us a long, incredible tour. I’d never seen a dental school before. After that, I applied and got in; did my bachelor’s, graduated. I was homeschooled until seventh grade; entered ninth grade after skipping eighth, graduated high school a little early, did undergrad in three years. I was 19, turning 20, when I graduated—very young, couldn’t drink yet. When I tried to get into dental school, admissions said I needed a year off to mature, so I worked in microbiology (quality control) for a year, testing products for Johnson & Johnson, L’Oreal, etc.—interesting but not my passion. The following year, I went to University of Florida dental school. About my third year, going into my fourth, I realized periodontics interested me—extractions and surgery. I selected periodontics, applied for residencies, started at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond—cool, fun, made friends, learned surgical fundamentals. After a year, I transferred to the University of Florida, where I finished. So all my degrees are Gator—Go Gators! Throughout school and all those places, did you have any specific mentors who guided you? Yes—lots. Especially in formative years. Dental school is very apprenticeship-based, learned on the job, artsy, scientific. Early mentors: Dr. Dennis, Dr. Baxter, Dr. Bate—solid people for ethics, patient care, problem-solving. Periodontics: Dr. Waldrop, Dr. Sabatini, Dr. Nava, Dr. Fetner (Jacksonville)—people popping in and out of my life. But the biggest influence: Dr. Waldrop, clinical director at UF, also Dr. Katus, now director at Nova Southeastern near us. Dr. Waldrop was intimidating, military, driven—always on time, committed to students, set a high bar. Example: he was a top 30 world triathlete for his age, collapsed lung in competition, still tried to finish until medical team physically pulled him off. He made me crave excellence, and that intensity shaped my career. In my first year at Richmond, the expectations were unbelievable. Pressure forms diamonds. But that intensity, learning fundamentals, made a big difference. I’ll always be indebted to Dr. Waldrop. I hope to carry that legacy even if he never knows. I think you really show that in our office—being a strong leader and always finishing what you say you’ll finish. During school, when did you fall in love with periodontics and specifically full arch? Good question! During school, when I first got out of the bookwork (didactic part), you start working on patients third year. Quick story: freshman year, socializing a lot, realized I was spending money at the bar. Decided to buy a ski boat instead—turned out to be the best social tool and cheaper than going out. Learned how to build relationships, and one close friend (Obie Sullivan, now an endodontist) gave me lots of his cases as he was graduating. As a result, I finished clinical requirements early and spent extra time in the student oral surgery clinic. That was my passion—fun, high-paced, learning new skills weekly. The first tooth I took out felt electric—like separating an Oreo, but on steroids. I started “chasing the high”—volunteered all the time and won the student oral surgery award. So I limited myself to periodontics versus oral surgery. Oral surgery was a longer, more medical path, general anesthesia didn’t appeal to me. My classmate encouraged me to check out periodontics; his father, Alan Fetner, was a respected periodontist. Did a road trip touring residencies up the East Coast; got exposed to different styles and attitudes—mostly positive. When I got back, spent time learning with the periodontic residents, met Matthew Wait, who explained the mechanics of implants (I didn’t even know what an implant was then!). That got me hooked—the engineering details, design, “how does it work?” I even wrote my master’s thesis on implant design, microscopic and macroscopic. I love woodworking, engineering, and combining that with dentistry was instantly appealing. What was the inflection point that changed your career? Two big ones. First, transferring back to Florida gave me the foundation and the freedom to do big cases and think creatively—mentored by Dr. Nava, who encouraged new techniques built on fundamentals. Second, one phone call after graduation: a job opening in Jacksonville. Luckiest, most opportunistic break—a quantum leap. That opened my eyes to marketing in dentistry, who I wanted to be, income goals, impact, legacy. It changed my life, my family’s life, and set me on this niche career path. Without that call, I would probably have been more “normal,” bought a practice, done standard periodontics. But that job changed everything. Final question—why do you still love doing it? At every phase, I’ve had new passions: helping people by extracting teeth, nailing fundamentals, learning from giants in the field. In practice: wanting to make a mark, change lives, and feel amazing doing it. At the start, it was full arch—the “dopamine hit” of big change, dramatic improvement, tears of joy, bringing all my skills together. That was the first 7–8 years. Now, things are routine, more mature—surgery is mundane but rewarding. What drives me? Showing up and seeing things go smoothly; employees thriving, buying homes, enjoying their lives. Building a team that pushes forward without me is satisfying. Passing the torch, growing the people in the system, not just the surgeon. That’s why I get up in the morning—seeing the group mature. That’s awesome. So yeah, that’s most of my story—how I ended up doing full arch. There’s more we could cover, but that’s how I got to where I am now. Thank you for listening