2024 Dental Success Summit

Aaron Nicholas DDS is a practicing dentist and international speaker with over 30 years of experience. He graduated from University of Maryland Dental School. He is the Founder and CEO of Monday Morning Dentistry, Smile Protection Dental Plan, The Dental Assistant School of Maryland and Nicholas Dental Care. He is a frequent guest on dental podcasts including The Dentalprenuer, The Relentless Dentist, Dentists, Implants and Worms , The Better Dentistry Podcast, Life and Dentistry Podcast, Craig Cody & Company and Dental Practice Heroes. He has authored numerous video courses including. The One Hour Molar Root Canal, Buildup and Crown; Ultimate Anesthesia; Profitable Hygiene Without Bloodshed; and Efficient Extractions for the General Practitioner. He is the Developer and Instructor for the One-Hour Molar Root Canal Build-up and Crown hands on course. He is a regular participant in the Dominican Republic Dental Mission Trip and has made the excursion 20 times to help provide dental services to the less fortunate in that country.

Addison Killeen, DDS, is a practicing dentist, author, speaker, and business coach. He has owned 8 practices and currently owns one startup in Lincoln, Nebraska that has grown to $2.8M in revenue in 24 months. Prior to the dental field, he was a ‘numbers guy’ for a large conglomerate, where he learned that you need to keep watching the numbers, no matter how big or small the company. He has traveled the world extensively to provide dental care to the poor and under-served. Each year he visits the Kobonal Mission in Hinche, Haiti, and he has also visited Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua to provide care. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife Rachel and their two boys. Outside of the dental office he enjoys endurance bike racing and all things outdoors.

Dr. Alex Jeffrey is from Northeast Arkansas, graduated from the University of Arkansas with an undergraduate degree in Biology, and earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Missouri in Kansas City. 

He and his beautiful wife, McKinzie, who is also a dentist and DSI black-belt coach, then moved to Florida, where they reside and own a 6-op general dentistry practice. They have specifically designed their work life around their family life with their two sons, Kale and Booker. 

Outside of dentistry, Alex enjoys playing golf, hunting, and fishing with his two sons. Dr. Alex Jeffrey enjoys coaching on clinical topics such as implants, high-end restorative cases, and cosmetic cases, as well as business topics such as dialing in a low overhead practice, maximizing efficiency in small spaces, and systemization and protocol Implementation.

Dr. Gotora completed his undergraduate degree in Biology/Chemistry from Carthage in Wisconsin. He went on to obtain his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Howard University. He has a passion for continuing education and has taken advanced courses in Pediatric Dentistry, Cosmetic Dentistry, Endodontics, Dental Implants, Orthodontics, Oral Surgery.

His favorite pastime – spending time with his family. He also enjoys the outdoors, playing golf and soccer.

Beau Sparkman, DDS, is a practicing dentist in rural Oklahoma and Arkansas. Dr. Sparkman loves the clinical side of dentistry but is an entrepreneur at heart. He has a passion for growing dental offices and investing in real estate. He has grown his startup flagship office to now three successful locations and continually looking for ways to grow. He is a DSI Black Belt Coach who specializes in culture, kpi analysis,  problem solving, ortho implementation, medical billing opportunities, and multiple practice ownership. He has been married to his lovely wife Paola for 16+ years and has 2 children Elizabeth (10) and Lucas (7). He enjoys spending time with family when he is not working on or in the business.

Ben Kacos, DMD is a practicing dentist and DSI Blackbelt Coach located in Shreveport, LA. He was accepted to the Medical College of Georgia in 2007 after interviewing with the dean from a ski lift in Jackson Hole. He is known in the industry as Dr. X as he has grown his 4 op practice from 500k to 2,000,000 on 4 days a week, in 6 years, and his overhead is consistently in the low 40s. He has successfully merged multiple practices into his current location and his first associate will be starting this summer. Dr. Kacos is currently building a 14 op practice to house 3 associates and his growing patient base. He believes in the super GP model and has invested heavily to have a very broad clinical suite. Dr. Kacos loves IV sedation and is a respected coach regarding mergers, acquisitions, leadership, culture, IV sedation, super GP along with the core curriculum of DSI. When he is not in his practice Dr. Kacos enjoys the outdoors and spending time with his wife and three children. Ben has two competition field trial retrievers named after his favorite bands the Grateful Dead and Widespread Panic. 

Dr. Christopher Green is a 3rd generation dentist and between his dad, grandpa, uncles, cousins the Green’s have a collective 175 years + of dental experience in the family. In 2018 Dr.Green opened a 6 op practice from scratch that has rapidly grown to 22 employees (including 3 dentists and 5 hygienists). He also enjoys working on The Practice Launchpad – a new practice owner side project with Mark, Taher, and Addison that is dedicated to saving fellow dentists time, money, and frustration on their journey towards dental practice ownership. In his free time he enjoys exploring the Colorado Rockies with his wife Jenna, Daughter Rowyn, and dog Murphy. Dr. Green has also spent several years as a guitarist in a ‘screamo/punk’ band by the name Missing Autumn that released several EPs and went on a self-promoted 12 city US tour.

Jake is the financial analyst with the Dental Success Institute and the founder of Custom Practice Analytics. He really loves connecting with his clients and providing the most value he can in utilizing insights from analytics he provides to Dentists and their teams. Jake loves riding Motocross, playing golf, playing/listening to music, learning about people and businesses, sports, and entertaining/cooking.

Jason Tanoory is a practicing dentist and owner of a small dental group in the Finger Lakes area of upstate NY. He practices 3 days a week clinically and spends the rest of his work week as clinical director and CEO of Finger Lakes Dental Care. Jason has 5 children ranging in ages from 10-19 and has been happily married for 22 years to his beautiful wife Kara. Jason loves to read books on leadership, mental toughness and business philosophy and enjoys helping and coaching dentists that are not as far along the path as he is. He is passionate about systemization, serving others and is driven by the ideology that a larger dental organization can still maintain a great culture and the highest level of clinical quality and customer service. When not working, Jason loves to spend time sitting at the lake with friends and family cooking up a feast, having a few libations and simply enjoying life.

Priding herself on her ability to be efficient during clinical hours, Dr Kelly has created an office that is only open from 7-2 four days a week producing over 1.4M in only 3 years – from scratch.  Her main office was built under $250,000 and she was out of the red within 3 months of her startup.  She cares deeply about her family and decided that she was going to both succeed at being a mom and being a dentist, hence her desire to work the “mom hours”.   She is the brains behind the metrics behind the success of the Dove’s offices.  Continually looking to decrease inefficiencies and executing on planned action for the office all the while being as sweet and kind as you can imagine. She has a true DSI Get Sh*t Done attitude.

Dr. McKinzie Jeffrey is Arkansas-raised, a University of Missouri Kansas City Dental School Grad, and set up shop in Florida! Raising two boys who love all things outdoors. Dr. Jeffrey works side by side with her fantastic husband and fellow Black Belt Coach, Dr. Alex Jeffrey. The power couple is living their best life thanks to the opportunities this incredible profession has provided them. Dr. McKinzie is excited at the possibility of helping others. She has mastered and enjoys coaching on the following topics: maximizing efficiency and profitability in a small space, profitability with PPOs, maintaining a work-life balance, Strategy execution, and systems implementation, reducing and managing overhead, improving team culture, and operations systematization.

An entrepreneur at heart, Dr Steve has an insatiable desire to learn and grow.  The visionary of both offices, Dr Steve puts his heart into the growth of his team and has found exponential growth in their businesses through the development of their practice culture.  A firm believer in taking ownership of the problems within the practice, Dr Steve handles hard conversations with team members with a desire to help them grow.  Careful with his words, Dr Steve has voraciously sought out how to interact with others via seminars and books; and, because of this, has slowly become a self-proclaimed word-smith with his ability to both connect with patients and with his increased loyalty and effectiveness of team members. Both offices have a vision statement that states simply “We Grow People and We Create Positive Moments”.  This is the very heart of their businesses, knowing the investment in the team members and creating positive moments for patients to talk about are two of the foundational reasons for their continued growth and success.  

If Dr. Steve is the visionary, Dr. Kelly is the executive, and this beautiful combination is the reason for their continued success.  

Dr. Summer Kassmel is the owner of two dental practices and a dental assisting school in the mountains of Colorado. She graduated in 2002 from University of Nebraska Medical Center and was an associate for 6 years before purchasing her first dental office. After 12 years of practicing solo, she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia that forced her to re-examine how to grow a dental practice without the use of her own hands. She met Dr. Costes through the formation of her DA School in 2015 and then joined DSI in 2016. With their help, she was able to grow her first practice considerably, merge another office into that location and create a multi-provider 12 op practice. She purchased her second location, located outside Beaver Creek Ski Resort, in 2018.

Summer has been able to create the lifestyle and business she loves by working 1.5 clinical days doing only clear aligner orthodontics. She is passionate about women’s leadership, team culture and development, reducing overhead, and creating systemization to reduce doctor’s time in the chair. Summer lives in Eagle, CO with 2 children and one-eyed Labradoodle.

Dr. Taher Dhoon was born in Utah, where he learned to love the outdoors. He later moved to California, receiving his BA in Physiology and Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego. He went on to earn his Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Dhoon has traveled all over the country to learn and perfect the most complex techniques available in modern day dentistry, where he found his passion in All On X. He has traveled to the Dominican Republic two separate times to perform implant surgeries and complex bone grafting procedures for the locals in those less fortunate communities. His relentless dedication to continuing education enables him to provide his patients with the finest treatments available. Dr. Dhoon married his dental school sweetheart and they have two energetic kids named Connor and Claire and they are expecting their third later this year. Dr. Dhoon and Bridget also have a golden retriever named West and a little rescue poodle-shih tzu named Jordy. You might say that Dr. Dhoon is excited about having a son and has big plans! Dr. Dhoon eventually plans to buy an old 60s-70s Chevy to rebuild with his son and then hand the keys over to him for his sixteenth birthday, as long as self-driving cars haven’t made this project obsolete.

Dr. Patel grew up in Canada and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Windsor in Ontario. He then went on to earn his dental degree from Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Patel is the founder of Palos Heights Family Dentistry and is an active DSI Balck Belt coach. Dr. Patel enjoys coaching on Practice mergers and acquisitions, team motivation, effective delegation, and maintaining a productive work-life balance. Outside of the office, Dr. Patel enjoys spending time with his wife, Susan and their two young children. He loves the Windy City and spending time outdoors, golfing, exercising, and chasing his children around.

Alastair J. Macdonald is an advisor, mentor and consultant to some of the countries most successful and high-performing entrepreneurs and investors. He is a writer, speaker and multi-practice and business owner. He has created, built and run four seven-figure businesses in four completely different industries, on two continents, through both the largest asset-deflation and the greatest hyperinflation in history. His market and economic analysis has predicted every major turn in global financial markets for the last 15 years, including the rise of China, the bottom in gold, the US housing bubble and bust, the global financial crisis, the current post-crisis boom, the exact day of the bottom in US interest rates on 8 July 2016, and the peak (and subsequent implosion) of Bitcoin in Dec 2017. He holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, is a TEDx speaker, is the Chairman of Chengeta Wildlife International (counter-wildlife trafficking non-profit in central, north and west Africa), has lead expeditions into the heart of Africa, completed two first descents of rivers and guided National Geographic on a source-to-sea exploration of the Zambezi river. Most of all, he is a believer in the power, impact and adventure of a well-run business.