The Wired Dentistry

Dr. Lorne Lavine & Naren Arulrajah

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Ransomware. PPO write-offs. A front desk that can't convert a phone call. The Wired Dentistry is where Dr Lorne Lavine, the Digital Dentist, and Naren Arulrajah of Ekwa Marketing work through what's quietly costing dental practices money — and what to do about it. Two decades each on the technology and marketing sides of dentistry, in conversations built for practice owners, not patients.

13h ago

Getting Your Whole Team on the Same Page with Lois Banta

Most dental teams come home from a meeting fired up, and a week later nothing has changed. Usually it's because only one or two people heard the message. Lois Banta has spent more than 45 years in dentistry as a consultant and speaker. She is CEO of Healthcare Enterprises and The Speaking Consulting Network, and a co-founder of COLLABricon, a total team synergy summit. In this episode, Dr. Lorne Lavine asks her why the whole team needs to learn together. What they cover:- Why ideas from meetings fall flat when the dentist, hygienists, assistants and front desk all hear different speakers- How COLLABricon puts every department in the same room, then follows up at 30 and 90 days- Using AI and technology to support the human side of dentistry, not replace it- Why overhead has risen about 8% a year since COVID while insurance reimbursements fell- The math on bringing the whole team: cutting one open appointment a day pays back three times the cost- What exceptional teams have in common, and where dentists get in the way- An appreciation exercise for team members who feel like a small piece- Plus Naren's marketing tip: how to tell whether your website is actually bringing you patients THE ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODEGood ideas are just good ideas until you implement them. After your next meeting or course, write an action plan with the whole team, and check it at 30 and 90 days. COLLABricon 2026, The Anatomy of a Winning Practice, is on 6 and 7 November in Nashville. Learn more at collabricon.com. WORK WITH USMarketing: book a strategy meeting with Naren's team at ekwa.com/wiredTechnology: schedule a call with Lorne at thedigitaldentist.com/call Subscribe at wireddentistry.com/subscribe for the episode, plus the one thing from it worth doing, written down.
Oct 13

Making Sleep Apnea Treatment Work with Dr. Erin Elliott

Most dentists who take a sleep apnea course never bring it into their practice. They come home excited, and six months later nothing has changed. Dr. Erin Elliott, a general dentist in Post Falls, Idaho, who lectures nationally on dental sleep medicine, made it work in a busy general practice. In this episode, Dr. Lorne Lavine asks her how. What they cover:- Why sleep apnea is "not an old fat man's disease," and how her own dad's snoring turned out to be moderate to severe sleep apnea, with a heart rate of 83 while he slept- Why dentists take the course and stall, and her fix: a dedicated sleep champion and a six-month runway- Getting the whole team talking about sleep by giving every team member a free sleep study- What an Apple Watch or Oura ring can and can't tell you about sleep- Her workflow: a yes in hygiene, a separate sleep consult, a home sleep test read by a sleep physician, then the results conversation- Why a $2,500 appliance feels harder to sell than $5,000 aligners, and why you shouldn't lead with medical insurance- "Do not cheap out on the appliance," and how to follow up to show the therapy is working- What's next: appliances with built-in sensors, myofunctional therapy and new nerve stimulators- Plus Naren's marketing tip: how to get ten or more Google reviews every month THE ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODEDon't make sleep rest on you. Pick one person on your team to be the sleep champion, treat it like a startup inside your practice, and give it six months before you judge it. Find Dr. Elliott at erinelliottdds.com. WORK WITH USMarketing: book a strategy meeting with Naren's team at ekwa.com/wiredTechnology: schedule a call with Lorne at thedigitaldentist.com/call Subscribe at wireddentistry.com/subscribe for the episode, plus the one thing from it worth doing, written down.
Oct 6

Replacing PPO Write-offs with Targeted Marketing.

Most dentists who want off PPO plans do it in the wrong order. They drop the plans, then go looking for marketing to replace the patients. Naren Arulrajah has watched practices do it both ways. In this episode, Dr. Lorne Lavine asks him how to get off PPO plans without emptying the schedule. What they cover:- Why costs are up 30 to 50% in a few years while PPO reimbursements haven't moved, and how that slowly squeezes take-home pay, staff and patients- A biological dentist who was 80% PPO: marketing first, then one plan at a time, from about $1.1 million to $1.8 million while cutting to three and a half days- A dentist who dropped his three worst plans at once, then moved the $1,000 he used to spend on ads into Friday cash bonuses for every five-star review that named his team- The keywords that reach the half of Americans with no PPO plan, and why keywords alone won't book anyone without real cases on the page- "Who do you want to be a hero to?" Picking services you're passionate about- Why the front desk has to learn to roll out the red carpet instead of asking "what insurance do you have?"- How Naren's own dentist went from one Google review a month to four a day by asking at a different moment in the appointment THE ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODEDon't drop every plan. Find the one PPO plan you're effectively working for free on, and make it the first to go once your marketing is bringing in new patients. The time you get back goes to the patients who choose you. WORK WITH USMarketing: book a strategy meeting with Naren's team at ekwa.com/wiredTechnology: schedule a call with Lorne at thedigitaldentist.com/call Subscribe at wireddentistry.com/subscribe for the episode, plus the one thing from it worth doing, written down.
Sep 29

The Tech Decisions That Are Quietly Costing You Patients.

A practice was spending around $10,000 a month on marketing. While Dr. Lorne Lavine was in the office, the phone rang five or six times. It got answered once. No call tracking. No answering service. No way to book after hours. The marketing was working. The practice just wasn't catching what it sent. In this episode, Naren Arulrajah sits down with Lorne, who has spent 25 years inside dental practices' networks and servers, to go through the technology decisions that quietly cost practices patients. What they cover: Why practices buy technology they can't support, and treat it as a purchase instead of a systemWhat Lorne checks first when he audits a practice (hint: it's not the server)Where the new-patient journey breaks: the first call, the unmonitored inbox, the first appointment three weeks out, the reminder going to an old numberThe most expensive mistakes, from the big dramatic ones to the small ones nobody notices for monthsWhat to cancel right now, including the software modules nobody usesHow to tell useful AI from hype, and the three questions plus one red flag to check before you sign with any tech vendorTHE ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODE Call your own practice. Pick a Tuesday at 12:30, ring the main number and see what happens. If you have to leave a message, time how long it takes to get a call back. Most practice owners have never done it, and most are surprised. WORK WITH US Technology: schedule a call with Lorne at thedigitaldentist.com/call Marketing: book a strategy meeting with Naren's team at ekwa.com/wired Subscribe at wireddentistry.com/subscribe for the episode, plus the one thing from it worth doing, written down.
Sep 22

The Patients Are There. Your Marketing Isn't Reaching Them.

Most practices don't start thinking about marketing until things get slow. By then the patients who were looking have already chosen someone else. Dr. Lorne Lavine interviews his co-host Naren Arulrajah on what separates the practices that dominate their market from the ones spending more every year and going backwards. The three numbers every practice owner should know, and 95% don't. Your phone conversion rate — the average practice books one in three new patient calls. Your cost per new patient call. And what each channel actually costs: around $60–70 a new patient through organic search, against roughly $650 through Google Ads. Why a PPO patient quietly costs $3,500 over five years — and why those same patients are the least likely to accept high-value treatment, because in their mind it isn't covered. The practice that went from $650,000 to $1.3 million while cutting a full day off the schedule. Plus: how patients actually search now that AI sits inside Google, why running ads can damage trust before the relationship starts, and why you only need to dominate your own neighbourhood rather than the whole market. THE ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODE Find out your phone conversion rate this week. The average dental practice books one in three new patient calls. The target is 70%. You cannot fix a number you have never measured, and this is the one that decides whether everything else you spend is worth spending. WORK WITH US Marketing — book a strategy meeting with Naren's team at ekwa.com/wired Technology — schedule a call with Lorne at thedigitaldentist.com/call Subscribe at wireddentistry.com/subscribe
Sep 22

Two Things Keep Dentists Up at Night.

Two things keep dentists up at night: am I getting new patients, and is my practice one click away from a technology disaster? Most shows pick one. This one doesn't. Dr. Lorne Lavine spent over ten years as a periodontist before founding The Digital Dentist 25 years ago — he's been inside dental practices' networks and servers ever since. Naren Arulrajah has spent 19 years marketing for dental practices, more than a thousand of them. In this first episode they explain why they stopped treating marketing and technology as separate problems. Lorne on the number one issue he sees: almost every practice has a backup. Very few have ever restored one. New HIPAA rules will require practices to document a 72-hour restore — he'd be unhappy if his clients' took longer than 72 minutes. Naren on the gap between marketing that works and a practice that can hold what the marketing sends it — and the four things the practices that are winning all have in common: organic search they don't have to pay for, a steady flow of five-star reviews, phones that actually convert, and landing pages that show the work. The average practice books one in three new patient calls. Plus: who this show is for, how guests get picked, and what's coming in November. THE ONE THING FROM THIS EPISODE Unplug your server and start the clock. Having a backup and being able to restore from one are completely different things. If getting back up is measured in hours or days, you have a problem you don't know about yet. Forward this to whoever manages your IT and ask them to schedule the test. WORK WITH US Marketing — book a strategy meeting with Naren's team at ekwa.com/wired Technology — schedule a call with Lorne at thedigitaldentist.com/call Subscribe at wireddentistry.com/subscribe

6 Episodes

Ransomware. PPO write-offs. A front desk that can't convert a phone call. The Wired Dentistry is where Dr Lorne Lavine, the Digital Dentist, and Naren Arulrajah of Ekwa Marketing work through what's quietly costing dental practices money — and what to do about it. Two decades each on the technology and marketing sides of dentistry, in conversations built for practice owners, not patients.

Creator

Dr. Lorne Lavine & Naren Arulrajah
Years Active

2026
Episodes

6
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 The Wired Dentistry