Ep. 61: Meet Dr. Copulos

Part 10:00

This is Beyond the Arches, where full-arch dentistry meets real talk. Let's get into it. Welcome to Beyond the Arches. I'm your host, Dr. Daniel Noorthoek, here with Erica. Hello, Erica. Hello. And with Dr. Copulos. Thank you. Welcome, welcome. Pleasure to be here. So, Dr. Copulos, you are our other doctor at Boca Perio. You share the office with Dr. Lindsay. ▶You have joined us about a year ago, almost, coming up on a year. It's a lot of a year, yeah.

Yep, and pretty cool, unique experience, just moving your traditional practice that you had for how many years? 30 years. 30-year practice, and essentially just moved your location in with ours to make things a little bit more robust and easier to treat patients and such, which worked out very convenient because you literally live across the street, right? That I do. Two-minute commute. Have you lived there also for 30 years? 30 years or longer? Since 1999. Okay. Wow. That's awesome.

Well, welcome to the podcast. And actually, Dr. Lindsay lived there when I moved in. Yeah, I know. He used to live there. He's on the other side of the neighborhood. He's one of the few that's ever, like, moved away from his office location. Right. So, welcome to the podcast. And what we're going to do today is just get to know you and talk a little bit more about your history and how you ended up in Boca. And things like that.

Why don't we start? We had tried to start this before, and my dog had an emergency, so we had to bail off of it. But that one was, we went immediately in your kids. Let's talk about your professional story, just where you went to school, where you grew up, and how you got to Boca. And then we'll move on to family and kids and such. Sure. Well, I'm a native Floridian, born and raised in Miami. And in eighth grade, I decided I wanted to be a dentist after I had some of my own personal problems.

So, I had some orthodontic treatment done. Any parents in dentistry? None. Okay. The closest relative we have that's in medicine is my great-great-grandfather, who was a physician in Greece and a pharmacist in Greece. Okay. But no one else in the family. Now, since we have a couple of veterinarians and some other people, but not that I had anything to do with it. So, I went to Emory University in Atlanta with the idea of becoming a dentist. Orthodontist was the main goal.

And then was accepted. I was accepted into Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio. So, I went up there for dental school.

[redacted]

So, I took about a year off and then started practicing dentistry for another year. And down in Miami, there's a Lindsay Hopkins program. And I got involved with the Perio program there. And funny, when I was applying, I did apply to ortho school. And one of the professors in Perio asked him for a letter of recommendation. He says, ortho, you're in Perio all the time. Why aren't you coming to Perio at Honest? I said, well, if I don't get in, I'll reconsider.

So, I did reconsider and went back to him. And he says, yeah, I'll write you a letter of recommendation. So, I was down here in Miami practicing dentistry. Got in the University of Florida. And then I did my training up there. So, now I'm a gator. And I have three gators at home now, too. So, the legacy. And one at Emory. So, the legacy is going. When you went into Perio, what was the... I know that you had wanted to do ortho and then switched over to Perio.

But what was the thing that kind of drew you in about periodontics? Two things. One, I did like doing surgery, even when I was in dental school. My first Perio surgery, I did pretty much on my own. The professor thought I'd done a couple of watching, observing. And then he's like, no, you're going to do this, this, and this. And then at the end of the procedure, and I was finished, and he did the suturing, I went to get all my check sheets off.

And he says, oh, that's a great job. So, thank you. It's my first one. Wait, first one? You're supposed to watch me do a couple before you do your first one. I thought you did a few already. I said, no, no, it's my first one. He says, well, you know, for your first one, you did pretty well. And at Lindsay Hopkins, there was a lot of local periodontists coming in and lecturing before we'd go and treat patients.

And it seemed like ortho had stagnated at the time. There wasn't Invisalign and all these new brackets that were doing most of the work for you. But Gore-Tex was coming in, ridge augmentation, implants were starting. So, it looked like Perio was more dynamic and vibrant, and there was more things that were... keeping it fresh. So, I was like, well, I like this because, you know, there's still things going on instead of just, you know, rotally doing the same thing over and over again.

So, and periodontics has still continued to progress, especially with implants and all the different things, we're doing sinus lifts and ridge augmentation and new materials. So, things have continued to stay dynamic with Perio, where the only thing that really changed with ortho was Invisalign, and that allows general dentists to do more than orthodontists now. When you were going into Perio, having had some life experience the year off, and then doing a little bit of general dentistry and such at that program, was it hard for you to get back into the mode of school, or, you know, what was that like?

My youngest daughter just started physical therapy school, and she took six months off. And I said, listen, after taking two years off of going to school, and you go in on Thursday for orientation, and Friday, they said, okay, here's 500 pages that you need to know by Monday, and spending a whole weekend. So, I was just sitting inside an apartment just trying to, you know, go through the 500 pages. And there was no, like, chat GBT to put in, like, summarize this really quickly for me.

I know what's going on. I mean, it was a grind. And to get back into that was tough. So, I warned her, listen, in the first couple weeks, it might take a while to get back into the schooling. But then once you get back into it, you know, you get your old habits back again and how to study and prepare, and then it gets a little easier. There's nothing like the experience for me. For me, what I've been exposed to, there's nothing like the experience of a residency.

It's, you think that you know school because you've been in, that's all you know is school. And like you're saying, you know, for you, it was the stack of papers. For us, it was a textbook. In the first week, it was read this entire textbook and be ready to discuss. And it was intense. It was, I've never read so much in my life. And then just because periodontics is very research oriented, and everything you would do, you have to back up with the research, classical research and new research that would justify what you're trying to do on a patient.

I'm actually getting ready to do a presentation for a church organization. And like in the first 10 slides, I have three based on research proving what I'm talking about is true. This goes back to my residency, so I have to do it. You get in the habit. That's right. So you ended up at Florida and then how did you end up back here and specifically at Boca? Cause we're close, but we're not right there in Miami. True.

Well, this goes my personal side of my life. I'm very active in my church and I called every priest from Melbourne down to Miami and talked to them about their parish. And I had a long discussion with a priest here in Boca Raton. And I went home and told my parents, you know, I think I like what they're doing up in Boca. And they're like, oh yeah, Boca is a very good area. The, if you want to go there, it'd be good to go.

So I ended up settling up here based on the church more than the area. And then just to found my niche, Dr. Lau, Sam Lau, from, uh, the residency, he hooked me up with another periodontist down here. And so I associated for a couple of years and eventually went out on my own. Now, when you joined perio residency, for those that don't know, periodontics is a specialty that mainly we deal with classically periodontitis treating, you know, bad and infected gums of sorts and bone loss and those things.

That's the traditional and very surgical based. And when you're in there, you end up taking out a lot of teeth. Because there's a lot of teeth that are bad with associated with periodontal disease. And then we kind of, as a specialty took on implants. And when we did that, um, that's when it kind of went from a two year residency to a three year residency converse to popular opinion. And what some Instagram dentists would like you to think there is no specialty for implantology.

Um, but we did as a specialty add one full year for training for implantology. Implants. So were you a part of that wave or did you have to learn your implants after that? uh, no, I was actually at the first perio implant meeting in DC as part of our residency. So yeah, we did, uh, implants during our residency. But was you, were you a part of the, when were you a two year residency or three at the time?

Two year resident. So we had to squeeze a lot more into two years. And, uh, we, there was a oral surgeon in, uh, West coast of Florida, Palm Harbor named Michael Picos. Yep. And he was doing his first also Greek. Yes. And I use that to my advantage. I'll tell you how, uh, he was doing his first big course of training other surgeons, how to place dental implants. And it's a three day course. He's doing, you know, it's traditional implants.

We do now the screw routine. He was using Calcitec back then. So there are push-ins and then he was showing how to do all different types of procedure with implants as a full three day course. And our instructor, our Sam Lau, our program director says, you guys got to get there and take that course. If you don't learn how to do implants. So the Calcitec rep came by and says, yeah, it's going to cost you like 5,000 a piece.

Well, you know, we're a residence, we're not making any money. And I said, tell him that one of the residents is Greek. And if they have any openings, we'll fill them to fill his class, but we're not paying 5,000 bucks a piece. So on Thursday, the course starting on Friday, the Calcitec rep calls and says, listen, Mike agrees. He wants his class filled. You two guys can go and being Greek, does help. So that's awesome. We, we found like a night's in me and the other resident, we, we rented a night's in for the weekend and we went to every everything we went to, we were participating actively observing everything.

So we got our training. And then, you know, of course we do some model work, you know, practicing on the models. And then of course, when we get to our residency, now we're trained. And then, you know, first few are instructors, you know, closely watching us, what to do and how to do everything. So you don't really get that when you're a weekend trained surgeon for sure. Implants. No one's really watching over you when you do your first case.

And you know, then we have some problems sometimes, and that's why they come back to the specialist. Did, um, as you have gone through this journey in the years since Mike has become a, a big Titan of the industry, uh, in terms of training, you know, on the weekends and courses and such, when Beth was a rep at Salvin, I was, she, I think she was there about 13 weekends a year. She was there as the rep support.

And I ended up hanging out probably most of those, I would say at least 10 per year. Take advantage. Yeah. There was a lot of, a lot of courses that he teaches. Have you, have you gone to him since? No, actually no, because usually it's a conflict that dates. He's having it in Orlando or in Palm Harbor with our family life. So sure. Absolutely. Um, tell us about, uh, then you ended up in Boca. How, what was it like for sort of starting your own?

Did you start your own practice? Did you, did you join with somebody? I joined with another period on us in town, uh, since retired from Boca and we worked together for about two years and it, you know, it's tough starting out, uh, especially when I have another guy and everyone's used to referring to that guy, but slowly built up a base and, um, but then things were, weren't going well between us. So I didn't have a, I didn't have a contract.

I didn't have a restricted covenant. So I'm like, all right, I'm going on my own. And I was able to, um, buy an office condo and build it out and then take what I had and just built it up from there. That's great. Um, that's, and you were there for 30 years, 30 years. Yeah, that's great. What, um, tell us, uh, about what building a practice was, uh, the difference between then and now, how have things changed?

Uh, well, that's a good question because today I was just talking with John that many, uh, dental offices bring in their own specialists. So they'll have these, uh, itinerant period on us traveling around the area. They'll be there in an office for one day or two days. A month. And then you'll have to be coming on that certain day. And if there is an emergency or an issue, then you got to wait till they're back in. Uh, that hadn't really started yet.

Uh, I was sort of like at the tail end of where guys are still opening up their own practice, put a shingle out, do good work. And then the patients would come in. Uh, and there was still a, you know, concentrated group of dentists that you could work with. And then in those 30 years, of course, the dentist groups has expanded. Uh, but corporate dentistry has taken over too. So, when I graduated dental school, about 20% of the dental offices were corporate owned.

And today about 80% of the offices are corporate owned. And when you go into a corporate office, then everybody is really not focused. I think on the patient, they're focused on production and trying to make their money that way. Uh, and they're only, and they may not be there for a long period of time. They might be there for a short period of time. ▶And then the new guy comes in when you're in a location for 30 years, people know they can trust you that you're doing what's best for them.

And not necessarily what's best for your pocket. So I think that's what's changed the most now that today it's 80% corporate owned of dental offices, only 20% fee for service or individuals. So I think that whole economy has changed and how patients are treated. And to parlay into that, uh, what I think is unique and cool about what we've done with your practice and with Dr. Lindsay's is we've tried to kind of play both sides of sorts, um, where it's still, we'll feel like your own office.

You don't have a, just a regional director that's on you for numbers, et cetera. Um, and you know, maybe we have a little bit more resources from a admin side that can kind of help with things, but still kind of feel like your own and you and John can work together in this sort of more free kind of traditional type practice. You're my boss. And this is the first time I've seen you since a month ago. That's a good thing.

Right. Holiday party. That was the last time before that. Well, he stopped by in between a couple of times, but it's not like you're not there. A guy double checking everything. I'm not a micromanager. No, we're, we're doing it the way we practice for 30, 40 years. You know, John's been doing it a lot longer, but yeah, we're doing, uh, the way we practiced all the ways, no, no change. Higher, slow and fire fast. You know, we, we take our time with our decisions.

And one thing that I think is really cool is Dr. Lindsay's practice was that there probably weren't very many periodonic offices in the world that I would, I would consider purchasing. Um, but Dr. Lindsay's to start with, because that, that floor, as you've gotten to know over the last year is very unique. It's very, um, absent of any corporate sort of culture. Um, it doesn't allow for the general dentist to bring other specialists into the offices. Um, but also to their credit, they could still, the general dentist on that floor, et cetera, could have, could be placing their own implants, et cetera.

Um, but they've been, they've all got a very traditional mindset and work in a very traditional way, which I'm sure that you've gotten to know them over the last year and have sort of been able to see that sort of same vision that there's a really cool community there that works in, um, absent of the way that the world is going as kind of created and kept its own little bubble, which I think is really cool. It's a great little environment.

It's too bad we don't have an orthodontist on, on the floor completely covered. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, John has done a great job building relationships with those doctors over the years. And, uh, it's great to be a part of it as well. Did, um, the offices that you have traditionally worked with, have you been able to maintain those relationships pretty well? Yeah. Yeah. We just, uh, we just basically took my practice and moved it from one location to another.

Uh, but even those offices are changing, you know, just everyone's getting older. One gentleman just retired. So there's a new person taking over. So, you know, I guess I'm getting to the age where, uh, my colleagues are thinking about the next phase of their life rather than, uh, still working in the chair. Yeah. Have we been able to get Dr. Lindsay to play nice with, uh, sharing patients with you yet? You can be honest. I'm not going to answer that question.

I don't think so. That's the hardest part about the whole thing is Dr. Lindsay cares so much about his patients that it's very hard to get him to share. He treats them like family and I try to do the same thing with mine, treat them like family, know them, uh, especially when we could see him on hygiene visits and the recall and, uh, just catch up with them and see where everybody's traveling this summer. You know, one lady's going to Genoa for a month and someone's going to Greece.

Uh, I'm going to Greece in August, but someone was going to Italy later on in September. So it's nice seeing what they're doing and that everybody's active and not just a home alone. What's your, um, favorite thing having moved into a new office? What's your favorite thing about the move that you made last year? And what's your least favorite thing? Well, having another periodontist there that we can share cases with and discuss cases has been great. And, you know, John's got tremendous, uh, history and success.

So I'm always in there, you know, in the very beginning I was looking over his shoulder, seeing how he did certain techniques that I don't do and, and learn them and apply them. So I think that's been great. And actually now he's taking some of my business stuff that we did in my office. So we're doing it now in this office. So it's going back and forth. Yeah. And, uh, the least favorite thing, uh, I don't know.

I, I, well, I do tell you that we don't take a lunch break and, you know, I used to either have a lunch, go, I could go home for lunch. I could really go home for lunch, but cause we work straight through. And then when John's there, you know, we like to talk. So, uh, we talk a lot. So there's not that little like break out of the office. I used to like to get, uh, but other than that, everything seems to, the other thing is when something's broken before I would say, okay, go get fixed with let's pay and get fixed.

So that's always now the, the little delay in things. There's yeah, there's a much bigger delay and it's not intentional. It just happens. It's just the way that the world works. Gotta go through the chains. Yeah. The, um, I totally understand with the, uh, the lunch thing, but I think you can blame me for that. Cause when I first started working with John, he took a lunch and it was supposedly for building relationships. But by the time you get out to lunch with said doctor and you come back, you, you get about five minutes with them.

And, uh, I had always come from going up to Jacksonville. You're on a tight timeline to get everything done for the office by the time that you're supposed to leave. And so we essentially just eliminated as we started to get busier, we essentially just eliminated, uh, uh, any kind of lunch. And so I got used to that. And when I came back in John being who he is was a little, you know, competitive. And I was like, you can take a lunch, no problem.

I won't be, I'll be right here. And I think he got a little slight in and then he got used to it. So you can blame me for that one. It's not mandated, but you can blame me for that one. The staff still takes a lunch. So I can't do anything between one and two. Anyways, the staff's online, he's still there working right now. Yeah. He goes through, he's cranking. Yeah. Do you have any questions for, um, doc here?

Um, I'm trying to think of some questions that I can ask you. Basically. I just, I always like to know like your favorite case you've ever worked on your worst case you've ever worked on any like memorable moments like that, where you're like, oh my goodness, I didn't know if I was going to pull through on that one. Uh, well, I mean, the favorite case is when we take someone who's, uh, the teeth are basically hopeless and we cannot, they cannot function with them and, uh, convert them either to implant supported bridge work and then they leave and then they can now function again.

They come back. They're so happy that they, they're working. I had a quality of life. Yeah. I had a mechanic, uh, who's Greek and, uh, we convinced him that he, uh, he had lost all of his teeth. He had to denture for years and, and he was very upset. He couldn't eat, couldn't function. Everything was painful. I said, let me just put four implants in there. We'll put a bridge in there. You'll be fine. And now every time I see him out, oh, thank God I got to do the other one.

I got to do the other one. So, you know, they're very happy. Yeah. Uh, and it took a while to get done between him and me and the general dentist, but they're very happy now. So, uh, that's when dentistry really pays off for both the doctor and the patient. Um, least favorite case. Anytime something doesn't work out exactly like a plan. I mean, dentists by nature, we are very critical of our own work and our patients do help us be critical of our own work because they can see everything the best at helping us do that.

I've been at a patient, uh, just yesterday. I did a nice connective tissue graft on her. She had three or four, four millimeters recession. And now it's just like, it's one millimeter. And she can see the metal of the crown showing on her first molar, which is way back here. She says, and now I can still feed a metal. I said, we started with four. You're down to one. This is a great, it's very difficult. The molar.

And we got three, three, almost impossible. Right. And I got three millimeters coverage. So it's just, oh, all right. Uh, well, I'm going to wait on the other one. I'm like, why we did a great job. This, yeah, I got to take a vacation right now. It's okay. Dentistry is, is a, is it's a brutal profession. Uh, you know, John was just asking me to tell you, why didn't any of your kids go into dentistry? And I said, well, I introduced him to the office.

Y'all came into some stuff in the office and some of them did observe, but they didn't have the passion for it. And you're right. Dentistry is brutal at all levels. And we are just as critical of our work as the patients is of what we do for them. And if you don't have a passion, you can't have thick skin and you can't take the successes and the failures, then you're not going to be successful or very happy in the profession you're in.

So, you know, it wasn't for them. It's okay. Fine. No problem. Go on and do what's good for you. But for me, like I said, since eighth grade, I was like, I'm, this is what I'm going to do. And you just get the mindset and you just go for it. And then if you're passionate about it, whether it's a good day or a bad day, you're coming back the next day. Yeah. You do have to have a thick skin and have to have an understanding that these patients generally speaking, when we're interacting with them are maybe say in pain to start because something has gone wrong.

That's why you're seeing, you're seeing them and then they're in pain. ▶Cause you put them in pain because you're doing something on them. And by the time they're not in any pain, you're kind of back out of their life for a little while. So it's very hard because you're trying to work with somebody that's got someone stepping on their toe the whole time you're talking to them. That's that's, it's very hard to keep that in mind, but you have to keep that in mind.

When I first started opening my practice, I brought an endodontist. So we shared space together and he was great. They'd come in there in pain. They'd leave without pain. They loved them. I'm like, well, Paris is the opposite. You leave pain. Yeah, it is very tough talk. Let's sneak over into a Greek Orthodox you and, and we'll keep it sort of professional. How is professional you and I'm more like the sort of like

Part 223:42

church side of you. Does that mix a whole lot? Does it does do the two worlds run together a lot, meaning. You know, do you see a lot of patients that are also people that you go to church with? Like, how does this world work? And when you say you're very involved, you know, give us some examples of how you're involved. Well, my wife is Greek too, and we have a little family story. It's a little funny one.

And this is, this is sort of how it goes. When I first came to Boca, I, there was a young adult league. I got involved in the, get involved in the church because now that you have to start finding patients. And even when I did my boards, I went to the Greek church up in, up in Gainesville and I found a board patient. Okay. So great. And I was involved with the church in Cleveland too. So I've been everywhere I've gone.

I've been involved with the church. So we did a Greek festival like in November and a couple of old ladies came up to me and they're like, Oh, you're a good Greek dancer. And I used to teach Greek dancing active at the church. So the following February one of the woman, her daughter was supposed to get married and she calls off the wedding like a week before, but my wife, Georgia, was going to be in the wedding.

▶So she came down from Toronto for the wedding and a week's vacation. So, and then we were at the Greek festival in Fort Lauderdale, St. Demetrius and Penny's like, Oh, this is my friend, Georgia from Canada. Hi, Georgia. Nice to meet you. Well, uh, a few days later, Georgia calls me back at the office says, Oh, my mom's having a toothache and she just had some dental work. And I know you're a dentist and it's, I don't know if this is your area of expertise, but can you help her?

And I said, uh, well, what's it? Well, she's on the couch going, Oh, my dude, my dude, my dude. And I said, well, maybe it sounds like she needs to see a general dentist because maybe it's a root canal, whatever. So here's a Greek guy and you know, he still speak Greek to her and everything. So, but let's get together. Well, come to find out, well, I'm second generation Greek and my Greek's not great. My wife was immigrated.

Her parents immigrated. So her first language is Greek. Uh, but I've tutored, I had dropped out of Greek school three times. I've been tutored. And in 97, when we went to Greece, my Greek was really good, but since I don't practice anymore, you know, it got worse every year. Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to. So, uh, come to find out, this is now, I think by the time we're engaged, uh, Penny goes, you know, your mother didn't have a toothache that Monday morning.

She had called, my mother had called her to find out what happened when Tom and Georgia met that Saturday night. And my wife was like, well, I don't know. There wasn't any sparks. And your son actually brought my daughter home. So I don't know what happened. She says, okay, this is what you do. Tomorrow morning. You wake up, you act like you have a toothache and you tell Georgia to call me and I'll tell her to call Tommy and then we'll figure it out one more chance.

So that's what happened. My, my, my, my wife called Tommy. He'll help you. And then that's how we got together. One more time. That's hysterical. Yeah. So dentistry bought us together, you know, my father-in-law hated dentists, but you know, it's that was their best version. I know how to get it together.

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Right. So, yeah. So the church has been very important in our lives. Uh, yes. In the beginning when I was developing a practice, a lot of my patients came from the church, uh, because they knew me, I knew them. They had a problem. They always go to see Tom because I was one of the few dentists at the church at the time. And now we actually have a few more and I've mentored, uh, I'm mentoring another one.

So I have like three students from the church. I've mentored to go into dental school. Uh, overall I've mentored, uh, 12 students altogether and nine have gotten to dental school. ▶One is still waiting to hear this year. If she doesn't get in this year, she'll get in next year. Uh, but yes, the church world and the life is, I've been, I was active at the church in the very beginning, get my name known. So I was active on the parish council.

I was acting president. I was vice president. I was treasurer. I've hosted conferences. I've raised money for the church. So my name is known at the church. If you ask for Dr. Tom, they'll know who I am. And now I teach Sunday school. I coach the volleyball team. Uh, I've gone to camp with the kids, so I'm more active with the youth now, but I like that because now I'm helping them, they'll mentor them with their education.

If they're interested in dentistry, I have them come in and shadow in the office and I'll mentor them to go into dental school. So even though my kids didn't, I'm mentoring others. Sure. That's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about your kids. You have some pretty impressive kids. Let's, um, let's go through them. Well, first I have to think of my wife, Georgia, who's, uh, you know, just doesn't have tooth problems. Uh, no, no, she doesn't. Uh, but yeah, she's been, uh, very fortunate.

She works, she's an audiologist, but she, uh, has got an MBA in her doctorate and she works at the corporate level for a hearing aid company and was in North Palm beach. So when the, we had one older daughter than twins and then a younger daughter, the twins are a boy girl. And so since the twins were born, she was able to start working remotely from home, which wasn't very popular back in 2002, like it is today, but that way she was always around the kids.

So no kid could like struggle from home and get in trouble. So she kept them on the straight and narrow. So my oldest one is, 27. Uh, she's, uh, working for an AI startup. Uh, my twin daughter, uh, is, uh, working for an event planning company in West Palm. My son's an aerospace engineer in Lockheed in Orlando. And then my youngest one's at Emory, uh, for, um, physical therapy. She, she was, uh, all the kids were in travel sports, but they all were at the church on Sunday.

So, I mean, we had, when they were in local travel sports, we told the coach, if they're practicing, if they're practicing or playing in Monday morning, on Sunday morning, before 12 o'clock, they're not going to make it. So try to schedule all the games after 12. So church was first in their life. And even now the kids still go to church, uh, even though some aren't living at home, they still go to church and their closest friends are from the church.

So that's awesome. Still very active in our life. Yes. Um, the, and they're, uh, the one for Lockheed, he lives in Orlando and the other ones, I'm sorry, I didn't catch where they, they, uh, two are still in Boca. Okay, great. They're back home, but, uh, hopefully, we'll see. Yeah. How long that lasts. You never know. And then the oldest one, the youngest one that's in Atlanta at Emory. Oh yeah. Emory. When you went to Emory, did, um,

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they still have the dental school there? They did. Uh, actually I was, uh, a volleyball ref as well as playing volleyball and other sports. And I would always see the dental students were playing bottles. Hey, what's going on at the dental school? Don't go, don't go. They're closing it. They're closing it. Just don't bother to go somewhere else. So I ended up going to case Western and actually, so when you went, you wanted to go and then kind of got dissuaded.

Dissuaded by the, I see. ▶So when I was at Emory, our second year in school, Emory closed. So by my junior year, students were coming in from Emory, uh, case Western, pick some kids up. I see. Once they heard, once kids started hearing it was closing, some transferred out and they transferred to another, another school that could take them. So case Western took like, I think two or three students. When did they finally close? Do you know when Emory finally closed their doors?

I think it was 85 or 86. Okay. When I was in dental school, you would occasionally have professors that would come or had been through Emory. That's that was like the, it, it kind of came with like an aura about being an Emory trained dentist. So it was actually really sad that they had to close the dental school because it literally came with an aura. Like this is, um, I can't think of his name right now. Um, but there were several that would come through and it was like, he was an Emory guy.

And you were like jealous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, it was like meeting a God of dentistry. Like he graduated from Emory in 56. Like that's a dude that knows this thing. Emory since Florida before, before 72 did not have a dental school. Emory had a relationship with the state of Florida, but they would take a certain number of Florida students to their universities. It's private. So they could do that. And then, so that was like, if you were trying to apply to dental school and you weren't, you, that was the only school you could go to.

And before that, the seventies and I think 72, they opened up the dental school. And then now, you know, Florida's actually got a better reputation than Emory has is, you know, top 10 dental school. Uh, but yeah, so the whole time Emory was going to close. And now my daughter was taken announced about the dental schools, the biology building, but we were just walking through as my daughter graduated, uh, in may. And there's still some plaques up there.

Oh, really? They've left up the, uh, there's some things in there still. So, uh, yeah, it is what it is. That's fantastic. Um, what about, uh, the family as it grows? Any grandchildren? You have one. No, no, um, my oldest is 27. My twins are 24 and the youngest is 22. So, uh, two are dating, but it's up to them. It's coming along. Yeah. Yeah. What about, um, food? You eat a lot of Greek food. Well, my mother-in-law was living.

Yes. Well, my wife cooks Greek, but just whatever she's cooking, she makes, you know, Greek, a Greek way. But, uh, it's not like we're having pastitsa every night or gyro every weekend. Yeah. Yeah. We still go out for dinner for that. What's your favorites and what's your favorite location? What's your favorite, like restaurant to go to? Uh, well, I think Taverna Kima, which is here, uh, in North Lauderdale. It's right by my house and it is awesome.

Yeah. And fast. You can go there and be done in 20 minutes. I love those kinds of dinners. And anytime we order something for the home, if we have to order somewhere for order from there, uh, there's, that's good to know. Yeah. Rafina over in the Wharf side is okay. Um, that's Greek owned. And then there's Chris's Taverna up in Lakeland. Lake Worth. Uh, it's always got to wait to get in there unless you go really early.

And then, then down in Broward, it's, um, the Greek aisles on, uh, a one, a in Oakland park Boulevard. That's where a lot of the Greeks from Broward go to. That's awesome. When you have a church gathering, I assume that there's a lot of Greek food. Yeah. Well, we had a Easter picnic at our house, so we cooked a whole lamb of 35 pound lamb. Oh, that's awesome. Wow. Nice. You did. I did. Wow. Cool. My father.

So, uh, my father-in-law, he, he would do it up in Rochester every year. And, uh, he would actually go to the farm and pick out the lamb and then fatten it up. And then he would butcher it. Cause you know, he grew up on a farm in Greece. And, uh, so I told him, I want you to teach me how to do that. So, uh, he came down when we finally moved here and he said, all right, this is how you do it.

And then he started teaching us and me and another friend of mine, he would teach us. And my wife says, well, you had to apprentice for 25 years before he let you start. But the year, the Easter before he dies. Okay. I think he knew he was passing away. His, his body was slowing down and he goes, yeah, you can do it on your own. I know you can do it. So just from now on, you do it by yourself.

That's awesome. And then that Christmas, he, uh, passed away. So my wife said, all right, well, you're already trained. He gave me the stamp of approval. Yeah. And start doing it. Get it done. This year we had 70 people at the house. Wow. Uh, and everybody brings stuff, but, uh, my wife cooks and I cook. And so like two or three days we're cooking ahead of time. That's awesome. Yeah. Good food. It is very good. Yes. I know Nick, um, you there.

Yeah. And then the Souvlaki booth, cooking the, uh, the flaming cheese. Uh-huh. Uh, in Greek,

Part 534:49

we have something called Kumbadi, Kumbadi, uh, where, um, if you've baptized someone, other, someone else's child, or you were their best man or, or maid of honor in a, in a wedding, you have this liturgical religious connection called Kumbadi. So my Kumbado, um, Sammy, uh, chairs the booth with his brother-in-law, Harry. And one year he had torn his Achilles tendon, and I hadn't worked in a long time because we were having four kids in five years. It was really tough to volunteer him.

I was like, no, you can go, but you got to watch the kids. You know, you can't be working anymore. So finally the kids were old enough that I said, listen, Sammy tore his Achilles tendon. He's going to need help. He says, okay, you can work now. So I called him up. So listen, I don't care. I'm working for you and I work hard. And so I think that's been like seven years now. I've been there. Cool.

I'm there cooking. Like he gets, he's, he's the star of the show. It's a show. I mean, he's got flame and cheese everywhere when he's tired. He gives the B team, you know, me and Mike, another guy, Mike, or we go and do the B team and do the flaming cheese, but it's not during peak hours. It's like a low hours. Now you mentioned that you've been to Greece before. Was it just the one time or. Uh, I think we're going this time.

August will be my 10th time. Wow. The first time I went was with a group that I'm involved with to a HEPA, which is, uh, American like educational progressive association. When I was 17 years old, 16 years old, uh, someone at our church was very active in HEPA and told my dad, listen, you want your kids go to Greece at 600 bucks, gotta get a passport. And we, a month in Greece. So it was the first time I ever went, but it was a last minute decision.

So, uh, the next year, my sister, one of my sisters went and the following year, my other sister went and my mom had time to get the addresses for all the. The relatives in Greece, write them letters, tell them they were coming. And so my sisters got to meet all the relatives. So I never got them. Meet them. And I was always bummed. I said, oh, we're going to meet them. So in 1990, after I'd worked in, before I started my residency, I backpacked through Europe for three weeks and spent a week in Greece and, uh, got to meet the relatives, uh, went down to my mother's father's, uh, birth home in Kremesti, Greece.

We found that one. Uh, and then eventually my wife and I went in 97, I went back in 92. I went to the Northern part of Greece, trying to find my dad's, uh, history. But some of his housing was torn down. And, uh, in Greece, your last name determines what area of the country you're from. So our Greek name is Gorgakopoulos, which is a Southern Greek name near Sparta. But my dad said, no, we came from Veria.

I said, no, dad, that's not right. We should be from Spartans. I don't know. They wouldn't talk about it. They left Greece. We're American now. They didn't, they didn't speak Greek. They spoke in English. You know, they came over in 1903, 1906 to work on the railroads and then they learned English. And then they became, you know, uh, immigrants to America, but they became American. I said, dad, we gotta find it. ▶So I spent the next 30 years, 25 years trying to find their home that they came, the village that they came from before.

So, um,

Part 637:51

my, uh, older brother had my great grandfather's diplomas and he had translated them from the original Turkish and Greek to English. And he had passed away and my niece had them. And I said, you know, you're in Austin. We're moving my daughter, my oldest daughter to Austin worked for, uh, Oracle at the time. Can you find those diplomas? I'd love to read them and see if it gives any indication of the university they went to. So I can contact the university.

Maybe we can do a search and find out where they came originally. So we went to breakfast with her. So I got a gift for you. And she gave me all the diplomas. So I'm flipping through the diplomas and one says Laconia, which is the county that Sparta is in. Okay. That's what we're supposed to be. And it gives the village Voutiani. And we happen to be going to, uh, uh, to Sparta, to Greece that year. And, uh, um, so I said, Georgia, we're going to be in Sparta.

We need to go by Voutiani. So we, we went to Voutiani and before we went, my wife went online and found, because someone else had done this before. She found the voting roll from 1897 and it listed all the residents of Voutiani in alphabetical order by first name. So she's like, listen, maybe you can find something. So I wasn't, you know, I was like two or 300 names. So I went through and I found De Mocini, Georgia Coppola, which was my great grandfather's name.

And it also said like, it listed his, uh, occupation and his father's name. So now his new, his father's name was George, George. So I found his listing. And then I went through and looked for all the other Georgia Coppola that George is a father. And I found the three other brothers. So good. We're set. We have names. We can go to the village and say, okay, this is our lineage. Can you help us? So we went to Voutiani, went to the church and, uh, so we met some guy in the street.

So I'll show you where the church is. He takes us to the church. And we, he said, I've already called the priest. He's on his way. So we explained to them that we're trying to find the family history. We have a couple of names. He goes, well, when do you think they were born? So this is 1890. I, I don't know, but maybe they died in like early 1900s, you know? So they go, all right, we got to find the books where they were list, who, when they died and when they were born and everything else.

So they call, the old priest, cause this guy had only been there like five years. Well, they're behind the candles. So they go in there and they're like blowing the dust off these books. They've been sitting there for so long. And he finds like the one guy finds, oh, here's 1900. So they started flipping through the book and they found the, the name of, uh, Panagioti, which is my great grandfather's older brother. He had died. And then they written down the date.

He had died the funeral day. So he goes, okay, now you need to call this guy, Yannis Zenatos. And he is a historian for the village and he's written everything down in a book. It's amazing. Maybe he can help you. So, uh, he gives us the number and he goes, listen, give me about 15 minutes. I have to run an errand and I'll meet you down. The church is on a big hill. He goes, I'll meet you down at the cafe at the bottom of the hill and we'll get together.

Okay, fine. So, two of my daughters would move me and my wife. So we get in the car, like we're calling them right now. So we call him up. He answers the phone. And my wife talks to him in Greek and says, you know, we're trying to find the family history for Demosthenes Yorgakopoulos. He goes, Demosthenes Yorgakopoulos, the physician, the pharmacist, and he lived in Veria. I go, yes, because I'll tell you a whole history. In 10 minutes, he traces from modern day back to 1790.

Wow. When a priest moved from Andrianitsa, which is on the west side of Tripoli, was assigned to Voutiani and the surrounding areas, ended up having three sons. And that was the beginning of the lineage to eventually, one of the sons was named George, and that started the Georgakopoulos name. ▶Because back in, before 1870, if you're living in a village, you never left. So you weren't Daniel Noorthoek. You were Daniel, son of John, whatever. Yeah. So they, oh, you're Dan, son of John.

But if, you know, if John, and then everybody would name one of their firstborn son after the father's father. But if you had like four sons, like in my mom's side of the family, there's four kids and they all named somebody Tom after their father. So you'd have to go, which Tom are you? So you're Tom, son of Bill. Tom, son of Peter. Tom, son of Stella. Tom, son of Helen. You know,

Part 742:06

so that way you know which Tom family you came from. Yeah. So, and he had listed every single name change through all the generations. Like Panayoti, my great grandfather's older brother had 10 children. Wow. But only one of them was a boy. And three of the girls and the boy died young. So they never had a family. So, but he had continued and knew which of the six daughters, who they married and what the new names were.

And then they, and then like in 1890, when they did the Boulder role, the prime minister of Greece said this, pick a name, last name. You don't change it anymore. We're stopping that. You just got to keep the same name. So there's three that started the limit lineages. One was Michelopoulos. One was Papadopoulos. One was Yorgokopoulos. Now their names don't change, but a few of them changed to Yorgokopoulos before they had to pick the name because my great, great, great, great grandfather was very successful.

So, but anyways, this year we're going back to Greece and, that's amazing family home because when we were there then we didn't know it was. And this was when, how long ago? Let's see. This was four years ago. We were there. Wow. ▶Last time we were in Greece was the year of the Olympics, 2026. This way, this year is 2024. Cause he went to Paris. So 2022. So it's been a few years since we were back. What a crazy story.

That is amazing. And then we get down to the bottom of the hill and the priest is there and he's got, yeah, his book and he's like, yeah, your, your family, someone from your family doing the land for the church and they built the first church. And then these two people were in independence for Greece and this one saved the family member. That's why he got his land and his animals and that's how he started his farm.

So yeah, it was very exciting to hear that. And I translate all in English now and I made a Google doc and sent it out to all the family members. That's fantastic. Yeah. Like you said, keep, now we got to keep adding to it. We don't, we don't want to stop adding to it. So yeah, that was so that, that one bucket list, this thing that I wanted to find where my dad was from, we've accomplished that.

And there is the medicine that is in your lineage. Yes. Yeah. That's awesome. Very cool. That grandfather, the great grand, I never met him, but I met my grandfather, Milton. That was my dad's father. That's awesome. Well, we have definitely enjoyed having you here and getting to know you better. Is there anything as we kind of wrap things up, like, is there anything that we missed that we should should talk about or any sort of message you want to get out there about who you are and what you do?

Well, I think next time we'll talk more about perio and implants. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Part two. Sure. Uh, but you know, uh, listen, uh, you don't do something for 30 years and have a good reputation. You don't treat the patients. Right. Yeah. ▶And I'm always looking out for the patient's best distance first, try to preserve their teeth and their function as long as possible. And then keep doing that. Hopefully it'll be another 20 years or so.

Yeah. I think, I think that's probably the number one reason why we kind of, if you really dug into it, that's probably the reason why we don't do a lot of micromanaging is any micromanaging I do on you potentially has a harmful effect on how you're going to treat a patient. So w you know, fully agree with that. That's, you know, we want you to treat your patients, right. Because that reputation is what we've bought into. That's, you know, what we're a part of now.

And, you know, uh, you've been a great addition to the Dr. Lindsay, uh, name and, and hopefully we'll have you and, and him as, as long as possible. But, um, it'll be fun to see how we carry that on and forward from Dr. Lindsay, uh, as we go into the future. Absolutely. Um, it's been a fun, I don't want to go anywhere. I got such a short commute. Maybe you'll find someplace with a shorter commute. I don't think it's impossible.

I don't, I don't think it's possible. I was talking to a local dentist. He used to live nine tenths of a mile from his office. He goes, Tom, you have me beat. Yeah. Two tenths of a mile. Are you two tenths? That's funny. That is amazing. You can walk. You have no excuse. It's too hot and sweaty.

Part 846:11

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we appreciate you being here, doc. My pleasure. And, um, we look forward to the future. No doubt. Sounds great. Thank you very much. Thanks everybody.