Becker's Dental + DSO Review Podcast
Aug 7, 2026 · 18 min · 8 segments
In this episode, Joe Feldsien, Senior Vice President of Integrated Care at PDS Health, discusses the growing role of oral health in whole-person care, including advances in salivary diagnostics, CBCT…
Joe FeldsteinGuestCameron CordellanoHostAnd I mean, the growth over the last couple decades, I mean, six- 60 practices to, to over 1,000 is, is really incredible.
Uh, just to, to start us off here, what are some of the biggest issues that you're following in the dental industry this year? I know PDS Health, uh, we talk a lot about that, how you, how you, uh, mentioned in your, your intro about that, uh, mouth-body connection, just integrated care.
So just what are some of the biggest issues, trends that you're following in dentistry right now?
You know, biggest issues that I think we find in dentistry is, you know, there's, there's tremendous variability in how dentistry is practiced across this country.
Even if you were to narrow it down to the DSO space, there's just so much variability and, uh, you know, a lot of different perspectives on what is best for patients.
Um, you know, when I was growing up in the dental industry, uh, the whole idea was, you know, the hygienist was central to what was done because the hygienist was good at building relationships, the hygienist would clean teeth, and then ultimately, the hygienist would refer patients to the dentist, uh, for crowns.
It's kind of wait until it breaks, and then we'll fix it, you know? And then you've got the other end of the spectrum, where dentistry was seen as a, as a preventive aspect to overall health, not just oral health.
And so when you think about that, now you've got people that are using, um, salivary diagnostics.
They're talking to the patient about the mouth-body connection, that the bacteria of the mouth are, in fact, causing severe damage to the rest of the body and can have big, big implications.
And so I think the big thing that we suffer from in the dental space is there's so much variability from one end of that spectrum to the other.
You know, and then, uh, if we're, if we're transparent, if we're honest about it, uh, you've got, uh, different levels of, you know- Character, uh, you might say.
Some people may, uh, be doing things a- a certain way that isn't well-received, and that can, uh, cast a shadow on all of us.
And so s- one of the issues that we face in dentistry is some people question whether they can trust the dentist.
And I think you only have a f- you have to have a few bad actors in order for that to affect us all.
And so being very, very good at being able to describe what is truly going on with the patient is absolutely at the center, and then having them walk away with that understanding and completely bought in to the treatment plan going forward is, is really, really critical to the credibility of all oral health care providers.
I think that the, the patient-provider trust and that, that link there is, is really just the baseline for everything.
If the patient doesn't trust who's working on their teeth and their mouth, uh, you're not gonna get very far with, uh, treatment acceptance or getting the treatment or, or anything along those lines.
And I mean, the growth over the last couple decades, I mean, six- 60 practices to, to over 1,000 is, is really incredible.
Uh, just to, to start us off here, what are some of the biggest issues that you're following in the dental industry this year? I know PDS Health, uh, we talk a lot about that, how you, how you, uh, mentioned in your, your intro about that, uh, mouth-body connection, just integrated care.
So just what are some of the biggest issues, trends that you're following in dentistry right now?
You know, biggest issues that I think we find in dentistry is, you know, there's, there's tremendous variability in how dentistry is practiced across this country.
Even if you were to narrow it down to the DSO space, there's just so much variability and, uh, you know, a lot of different perspectives on what is best for patients.
Um, you know, when I was growing up in the dental industry, uh, the whole idea was, you know, the hygienist was central to what was done because the hygienist was good at building relationships, the hygienist would clean teeth, and then ultimately, the hygienist would refer patients to the dentist, uh, for crowns.
It's kind of wait until it breaks, and then we'll fix it, you know? And then you've got the other end of the spectrum, where dentistry was seen as a, as a preventive aspect to overall health, not just oral health.
And so when you think about that, now you've got people that are using, um, salivary diagnostics.
They're talking to the patient about the mouth-body connection, that the bacteria of the mouth are, in fact, causing severe damage to the rest of the body and can have big, big implications.
And so I think the big thing that we suffer from in the dental space is there's so much variability from one end of that spectrum to the other.
You know, and then, uh, if we're, if we're transparent, if we're honest about it, uh, you've got, uh, different levels of, you know- Character, uh, you might say.
Some people may, uh, be doing things a- a certain way that isn't well-received, and that can, uh, cast a shadow on all of us.
And so s- one of the issues that we face in dentistry is some people question whether they can trust the dentist.
And I think you only have a f- you have to have a few bad actors in order for that to affect us all.
And so being very, very good at being able to describe what is truly going on with the patient is absolutely at the center, and then having them walk away with that understanding and completely bought in to the treatment plan going forward is, is really, really critical to the credibility of all oral health care providers.
I think that the, the patient-provider trust and that, that link there is, is really just the baseline for everything.
If the patient doesn't trust who's working on their teeth and their mouth, uh, you're not gonna get very far with, uh, treatment acceptance or getting the treatment or, or anything along those lines.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
