Meghan Chard is many things at once — principal dentist, practice owner, mum of three, and quietly passionate evangelist for childhood airway health. In this episode, she sits down with Payman for a wide-ranging conversation that takes in meeting her husband Simon at dental school, buying his family's Leicestershire practice a month before their first child arrived, and the very particular chaos of juggling clinical work, business ownership, and family life. Then there's the airway thread — and once Meghan gets going, you can see why she's hooked. Sleep disordered breathing in children is, she argues, a dramatically underscreened problem, and dentists are uniquely placed to spot it. In This Episode 00:00:55 — Introductions and Rothley Lodge 00:02:30 — Meeting Simon at King's 00:05:10 — Life as associates, then buying the practice 00:06:05 — Running the practice: ops vs. direction 00:08:25 — The dental family advantage 00:12:45 — Learning the numbers — and how Pärla helped 00:13:00 — Staff management and the art of delegation 00:15:30 — Superpowers and self-awareness 00:17:35 — The juggle: three kids, two clinical days, one nanny 00:20:00 — Something has to give 00:26:10 — Mary McAleese, Belfast, and family roots 00:30:05 — Childhood airway obstruction: signs, symptoms and the dentist's role 00:40:05 — Treatment: referral, palatal expansion and the habit-corrector appliance 00:54:10 — Case studies and outcomes 00:58:35 — Pärla: the emotional roller coaster of consumer business 01:05:35 — Covid and the darkest days of practice ownership 01:08:20 — Dental school, inferiority, and graduating second in the year 01:16:30 — Blackbox thinking 01:26:25 — Faith, spirituality, and community 01:30:50 — Succession planning 01:35:10 — How Meghan ended up in dentistry 01:39:15 — Best lecture: Malcolm Levinkind on teeth, posture and the body 01:41:50 — Favourite resources: Breath, Breathe Sleep Thrive, Saved by the Mouth 01:42:45 — Sauna obsession and longevity habits 01:43:55 — Fantasy dinner party 01:45:40 — What she'd do differently About Meghan Chard Meghan Chard is a principal dentist and co-owner of Rothley Lodge Dental Practice in Leicestershire, which she and her husband Simon Chard took over from his family in 2018. Alongside clinical practice and running the business, she has developed a keen interest in childhood sleep disordered breathing and consults for a paediatric airway appliance brand. She is also a niece-in-law of Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland.
