Listen on iTunes
Watch Video here
|
VIDEO - DUwHF #768 - Kris Volcheck
|
Stream Audio here
|
AUDIO - DUwHF #768 - Kris Volcheck
|
In late 1999, Dr. Kris Volcheck, CEO of Brighter Way Institute, started preparations for the state's only dental clinic for the homeless. This was a solution to the problem he had found while working at the Central Arizona Shelter Services for the devastating effects homelessness can have on an individual's oral health.
Working in collaboration with the Arizona State Office of Oral Health and the Maricopa County Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic, the CASS Dental Clinic opened to its first patient on Jan 1, 2001. In the first year, 20 volunteer dentists, 15 hygienists, and 20 dental labs provided service in the two-chair dental trailer.
Four years later, Dr. Volcheck completed the design, secured funding, and oversaw relocation of the clinic to an eight-chair facility located on the Human Services Campus in downtown Phoenix. It is presently one of the largest volunteer-driven dental clinics in the nation, providing comprehensive dental care to homeless veterans, adults and children. There are many hundreds of volunteers and dental students now working at the clinic to serve the oral health needs of the homeless community.
On March 1, 2007 the CASS Dental Program for Homeless Children on the Human Services Campus was opening. The Children's program utilized the same successful model of dental volunteers and students providing treatment to the homeless children.
In June of 2010, with funding form the Bruce and Halle Foundation, the Murphy Kids Dental Clinic was launched. The clinic served 2,200 impoverished children in the Murphy elementary school district.
On July 1st, 2014, The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation funded the opening of the Parsons Center for Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics at the site of the Murphy Kids Dental Clinic. The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation has continued to support the efforts to treat these uninsured children. The Center provides comprehensive care to over 15,000 impoverished, mostly Hispanic children each year.
On March 4th, 2016, in collaboration with Canyon State Academy, the Canyon State Academy Dental Center for Foster Children was opened.
On July 1st, 2016, Brighter Way Institute was formed. This new non-profit, with Dr. Volcheck as CEO, took the 3 clinics that formerly belongs to CASS, and formed an organization that would continue to focus on treating the oral health needs of our underserved communities.
At this time, the Brighter Way Institute is comprised of the Brighter Way Dental Center for Veterans and the Homeless (formerly CASS Dental Clinic), the Parsons Center for Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, and the Canyon State Academy Dental Center for Foster Children.
www.brighterwaydental.org
Howard Farran: It is so darn fun and cool on a Sunday morning to have my idol, role model, mentor, Kris Volcheck come to over the house.
Kris Volcheck: Good to see you, Howard.
Howard Farran: These guys are my idol, role model. We always interview people who are endodontist, periodontist, pedodontist. The American Dental Association has nine specialties, and you're from the specialty of public health.
Kris Volcheck: I am.
Howard Farran: That's a rare bird. We both have our MBA from Arizona State University. The only difference is he got that magna cum laude, beta, kappa, gamma, sigma, all I got was a letter from the dean that says never come back. But Kris got a DDS from Emory in 1985 and when he graduated, they closed the damn school [crosstalk 00:00:48].
Kris Volcheck: It was in '89. I'm sure '89.
Howard Farran: No, it was you, It was you.
Kris Volcheck: No, no, no. It was '89.
Howard Farran: You planted the seeds for them closing that down. He got a BS in biology and I got BS in bullshit. Upon graduating from dental school in 1985, Dr. Volcheck opened a private dental practice in Globe, Arizona, which is about what? Two hours up the street?
Kris Volcheck: Two hours.
Howard Farran: His patients range from zero to 80 and he provided comprehensive dentistry to a small metropolitan community approximately 90 miles east of Phoenix. Once the practice was full operation, Dr. Volcheck began work on a Masters in Business Administration. While attending ASU he became acquainted with Mary Orton, the founder and then director of Central Arizona Shelter Services. Mrs. Orton persuaded Dr. Volcheck to volunteer at CASS single adult shelter. Following completion of his MBA, Dr. Volcheck transitioned from a volunteer to a part-time case manager. In '93, he closed his dental practice and became a full-time case manager.
Dr. Volcheck quickly immersed himself in the issues surrounding homelessness. During his seven years as a case manager, he witnessed firsthand the devastating effects homelessness can have on an individual's oral health. In '99, he began preparation for the state's only dental clinic for the homeless. Working in collaboration with the Arizona State Office of Oral Health and the Maricopa County Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic, the CASS Dental Clinic opened to its first patient on January 1, 2001. In the first year, 20 volunteer dentists, 15 hygienists, and 20 dental labs provided services in the two-chair dental trailer.
Four years later, Dr. Volcheck completed the design, secured funding, and oversaw relocation of the clinic to an eight-chair facility located on the Human Services Campus in downtown Phoenix. It is presently one of the largest volunteer-driven dental clinics in the nation, providing comprehensive dental care to homeless veterans, adults and children. There are many hundreds of volunteers and dental students now working at the clinic to serve the oral health needs of the homeless community.
In addition to serving as dental director, Dr. Volchek frequently provides technical assistance to agencies wishing to establish similar dental programs. He has also presented at the annual National Healthcare for the Homeless conference. In March 2007, Dr. Volcheck opened the CASS Dental Program for the homeless children on the Human Services Campus. The children's program utilized the same successful model of dental volunteers and students providing treatment to the homeless children.
In June 2010, with funding from the Bruce and Diane Halle Foundation ... Is that the founders-
Kris Volcheck: Bruce and Diane Halle Foundation of Discount Tire.
Howard Farran: Halle of Discount Tire.
Kris Volcheck: Discount Tire.
Howard Farran: DR. Volcheck launched the Murphy's Kids Dental Clinic. The clinic served 2,200 impoverished children in this elementary school district. On July 1st, 2014, The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation ... Now that's GoDaddy?
Kris Volcheck: That's GoDaddy.
Howard Farran: That's GoDaddy. Funded the opening of the Parsons Center for Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics at the site of Murphy's Kids Dental Clinic. The Bob and Renee Parsons has continued to support the efforts to treat these uninsured children. The center provides comprehensive care to over 15,000 impoverished, mostly Hispanic children each year.
I mean they say in dentistry, I grew up in Catholic School, that the patron saint of dentistry was St. Apollonia. Are you familiar with St. Apollonia?
Kris Volcheck: No. Wasn't that a singer in the 1980s? Apollonia with Prince?
Howard Farran: The Romans told her to denounce Jesus and so she said no, so they pulled a tooth. So they said, "Now, denounce her." And then when she wouldn't do it. They pulled another tooth. Long story short, they pulled every one of her teeth, and so she was the martyr of dentistry. She lost all of her teeth because she refused to denounce.
Kris Volcheck: How can I not know that?
Howard Farran: I think you are the St. Apollonia of dentistry. You really are. I'm not kidding, man. I mean I've been to your center and you ... I mean That is patron saint stuff that you've been doing your whole career. How long have you been in public health?
Kris Volcheck: Since '91. 26 years.
Howard Farran: 26 years. Seriously, man.
Kris Volcheck: That's [inaudible 00:04:48]
Howard Farran: Also, a lot of right wing commentary, they see some homeless guy and they're thinking, "Get a job." You have been working with these people for so long and you are telling me 85% of these people probably have mental illness.
Kris Volcheck: Here's the thing.
Howard Farran: I mean are these people homeless because they just couldn't get a job?
Kris Volcheck: Okay. The thing is ... what's happening here is it's almost comical for someone to say, "Get a job." Most people whether at any echelon including the homeless are doing their best they can. 30 years back, there were some hoboes. They call them hoboes and we have homeless, but most people that are homeless are moderately or severely mentally ill. No one is on the street because they want to be. There might be 5% of the wanderers or the hoboes who like that lifestyle, but 95% are people that don't want to be on the street.
Who wants to be on the street? Who wants to have no place to poop or pee? Who wants to be in one of the shelters with a thousand other bodies that aren't being well maintained? Nobody wants that. They're not down there because they don't have resolve to do better. They're not down there because they can't pull up their bootstraps. They're down there cause that's the only place they can be. So when people say "get a job" they would get a job if they could. But yes, that's bothersome to me because those people are doing the very best they can, and all that we can do it take care of them from a humanitarian basis. But yeah, get a job is always humorous to me because it's so off base. It's shows to me, just like anything else, people haven't been exposed to that population. We bring people down and they see what's happening down, and these people are good people but they cannot maintain a household. They just can't.
Howard Farran: I was born in Kansas, very Republican conservative Catholic. I had a 17-year younger gay brother, so when I hear all these people that they chose that lifestyle, they haven't been around. They didn't have a baby gay brother where you knew he was gay 10 years before he did, and people who have all these judgmental thoughts about homeless people, they never talk to homeless people. They see them standing on the corner but they never talk to them. Specifically, is it safe to say the majority of mental illness is schizophrenia, not ...?
Kris Volcheck: No.
Howard Farran: That's not right?
Kris Volcheck: It is not. No, it is not. I want to get back to one of your points. Exposure counts. Maybe we have a gay brother so we're sympathetic to gays or maybe we have a sister-in-law that your white and they're Hispanic or black. For everyone, it's no different. Once you have exposure and see that those people are no different than you, then that breaks down barriers. What I'm always hoping, Howard, is that me as a gay, I should understand as a minority, I've had things happen to me because of being gay. I've not gotten jobs before. I've had to leave situations because I didn't want to actually embarrass or put a practice.
If you were gay in the '80s and HIV was big, people just assumed if you're gay, you may have HIV so being a dentist wasn't that easy when I first started. In Globe, I will tell you this. The guy that I was partnered with had a longstanding practice in Globe, and we had a great relationship. If he would have found out that I was gay, I would have exited that practice for him. There were some people that came up from the valley that knew me, that knew I was gay. Had he found out, he probably would have been kind and gentle about it, but he would have asked me to leave and he should because his practice would have been ruined because of the assumption of being gay and HIV. So I didn't have to leave that practice, but I was ready.
Going back to may point, exposure counts. I get this all the time and I'll give this as an example. A lot of people have preconceived notions about gays. I think Harvey Milk said, "Come out. All of you responsible professionals come out." So when people know there is gays everywhere and they're doing work for the homeless, what are they going to say about me? Usually, what I get is, "Hey, you're a man of God."
Well, I don't think anyone needs to help people just because you're a man of God, but the preconceived notions changes when you're doing bid work for the community. It's my responsibility and gays in general if one can ... I'm not telling people to come out, but if one can, you should let others know that that is part of who you are so they change their notion about gays and they change their notion about other minorities. I think that's a big deal for all of us. Homeless, gays, blacks, what are you? Ethnic.
Howard Farran: I'm short, fat, bald Irish.
Kris Volcheck: Short, fat, bald Irish.
Howard Farran: 100% Irish.
Kris Volcheck: Irish used to ... Coming over, they were looked down upon. The immigration waves are no different. They're exposed to Irish even though you're a white. You still was stooped on.
Howard Farran: You know why the Irish were historically the most hated?
Kris Volcheck: What?
Howard Farran: A lot of people think they're most hated because everybody that fled Europe was protesting the Catholic Church. They were all religious. They're Quakers and Lutherans and Mennonites and Amish.
Kris Volcheck: Oh, yes.
Howard Farran: So everyone was a protester and then 40 years before the Statue of Liberty, the Irish have the famine so you had the great exodus. One million Irish washed up on the shore bringing their priests and bishops and cardinals, building these Catholic monstrosities, which was the reason all the Europeans had left. So they were pretty lowlife. My great-grandmother who lived to be like 96 said that she had a help wanted, need not apply of Irish, but they were all leaving Boston and New York because it was really bad. So they went into Iowa and then they went as far into Parsons, Kansas and they would all lie and tell everyone they were German.
Kris Volcheck: Right. My background is Eastern European. I come from a poor coal mining county, Fayette County in Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh. We were on the line of West Virginia; very impoverished and all about coal. When we came over, when my grandparents came over, Russian, Czech, Slovak, they were called hunkies as in Hungarians. Not honkies as generally derogatory for blacks, for whites but that we were called hunkies.
The worst term you could call each other or one could call is patch hunky. A patch hunky is if you lived in the coal mining housing and you couldn't afford anything else, that was a patch. So the lowest you could be was a patch hunky. Even though we might look similar in color, you still, every immigration wave, we're still against those immigration whether it's for Catholics or whether it's for some other ... whether it's for Muslims, it's all the same. We tend to look about that far backwards and forwards instead of seeing those immigration pieces are exactly the same every time.
Howard Farran: And we see a lot of racism today. What can I say [inaudible 00:12:10] spoke to you but I want to say something as Irish. When you see these bombings in the UK recently, it immediately goes to the person's religion, but being Irish, the Irish Republican Army was causing bombings and chaos my whole life and they would trace those back to Catholic priests and bishops and cardinals in Boston, and you didn't hear ... Whenever the Irish or the ... "Well, what's wrong? Why are you doing this?" They talk about the issue.
Kris Volcheck: Right.
Howard Farran: Now, it's not. Well, what is the issue? It's not the issue. You're a damn Muslin or you're brown or you're brown-eyed and [inaudible 00:12:49]
Kris Volcheck: Absolutely.
Howard Farran: Its like, how come the Irish did 10 times worse? Most of my life in the IRA and ... Do you see that difference?
Kris Volcheck: Or ...
Howard Farran: Did you see that difference?
Kris Volcheck: I certainly do. That is-
Howard Farran: I mean when a white Catholic Irish guy blows up shit in England, very, very different than when a brown-eyed Muslim does it.
Kris Volcheck: Absolutely. Any-
Howard Farran: Can we leave this on the tape or are have we gone completely into this stratosphere?
Kris Volcheck: I don't know. [crosstalk 00:13:20] edit this.
Howard Farran: [inaudible 00:13:21]
Kris Volcheck: Oh, okay. No, you can imagine because one of my driving forces is social injustice or anything to alienate any other group. There's fringe pieces of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus-
Howard Farran: My family.
Kris Volcheck: Any of us, there's fringe groups. But to then alienate other people because of those fringe groups, which is worse? The fringe groups causing destruction or then the minority of someone ... the majority in some cases, alienating a part of our country for whether they're Muslim or Catholic or anything. I find both reprehensible. The fringe groups, what they do is hurtful, but I almost focus more on what happens from the majority then alienating, again back to ... that just makes me sick. Muslims, or Mexicans, or as you said religion or skin color or gay, anything to alienate anyone else, that is my biggest bother I will tell. In general. And that all weaves into helping the homeless or helping the downtrodden or helping people or are alienated. But to alienate our brothers and sisters inside our country, or alienating our brothers and sisters, I just look globally, I don't want to alienate anybody. That's exceptionally disturbing to me.
Howard Farran: I am counting my favorite nun was Mother Theresa. I mean she spent her whole time in Calcutta, she was born in Romania, and spent her whole time with the poor. So many dentists, who became rich and famous, cosmetic whatever the heck, and you spent your entire career working with the homeless. I do, I think what you've done is amazing.
Kris Volcheck: I'll go back to that Howard. I don't know why other people do what they do, and I don't have any comment. But if you're not hurting anybody and you're generally helping or neutral, I'm good with you. I'm especially good with you if, for whatever reason you're down there helping the people who need help. But I can't even guess why I do the things that I do, let alone someone else half the time.
We have a certain genetic mix and environmental mix and it manifests in a certain way, but I will tell you if I have to guess, being gay has been one of the most helpful things in my life. I wouldn't have said that to you when I was 18 through 22, and I was really on a daily basis contemplating suicide because I didn't have a ... where's my model? What am I going to do here? My model for success, this is the path to success. Shit, I don't have a path to success. So, it was a tormented attribute from 18 to 22, but once I accepted and realized that because being gay ripped away all of my preconceived notions about societal constructions, that affected everything that I did. Okay, I'm not going to get married. I may have kids, I may not, but why do I have to follow money as a male? Why do I have to follow creating big things? Why do I have to follow that path, if I didn't follow this path? So, it helped me cause it removed those constructions and shit, I can go, "I don't have to do what I don't want to do. If I don't want to do dentistry, but I feel like helping the underserved, go do that."
My parents who were very loving and wonderful, they're still back a generation, "We support you but you're going to ruin your life." It was the best thing that happened to me, but part of it was because I was gay and I said, "Why do I have to live by these constructs?" So, if I look at my brothers and sisters, who are lovely, who are heterosexual, they took the more traveled path. And I didn't, so I would have to tell you that was a horrible burden at 18 to 22-
Howard Farran: Where were you? Were you born and raised in Globe?
Kris Volcheck: No, I was born and raised outside of Pittsburgh, in that small coal mine town.
Howard Farran: [crosstalk 00:17:35] So, 18 to 22 you were still in Pittsburgh?
Kris Volcheck: I was at Pitt. I was at Pitt. I grew up in a very small coal mining town. You can imagine that gay wasn't even a thing that was discussed. But I knew that I shouldn't be, so growing up and then starting dating, I tried. You know the rainbow flag with all those colors, I look at that and think I tried every color of woman that I could possibly try to be the norm. Through embarrassing moments after embarrassing moments. Then I went off to Pitts still trying. I knew I was gay, but I just didn't want to admit it.
Then I become a lifeguard down on the beach at Myrtle Beach. You know why you're there to be a lifeguard. You're there to be a lifeguard to have sun and women, and that's all you're there for. The women are there to have sun and guys. I would walk out onto my beach in the morning and there would be women all around my lifeguard stand just waiting for me to come out. I was like, "Oh my gosh, what am I gonna do?" At the beach they were formidable. They were rip your clothes off formidable cause that's why you're there. I tried. If anyone tells you that, "Hey, you just haven't found the right woman." I tried every ethnic, every color, every religion that I could possible do, and I finally gave up. But I will tell you, as I said, absolutely embarrassing moment after embarrassing moment. But I did try.
After I got into dental school, I finally in dental school, not until I was 25, did I meet a gentleman that I was interested in.
Howard Farran: At Emory?
Kris Volcheck: At Emory, yes.
Howard Farran: Did you ever get married?
Kris Volcheck: I'm not married. I've been with my partner for 20 years. Whether one is married or not, whether I was hetero or homo, that's not the point for me.
Howard Farran: [inaudible 00:19:43]
Kris Volcheck: The point is, I'm responsible, I hold this person dear. We've been together for 20 years. We are going to go ahead and get married, though I just want to make sure that everything financially is in place. But my love and my adoration of him, and my responsibility for him doesn't have anything to do with whether we're married or not. But we are going to do that, just to make sure everything's financially okay.
Howard Farran: I think most people who have ever heard me lecture, knows me or whatever, on the message boards Dentaltown, knows that my little brother's gay. I get an email about once a month, that will say something like, "I'm from a small town in Texas. I live in fear that this conservative ... they're all white, male, republican Texans, Georgians, whatever." They live in fear that someday, someone will find out and then they feel like they'll be cast out.
I also get the same sense from young women. I'll say, "So, do you like your study club?" And they'll go, "Well, you know, I don't think I fit in. When I go there, all the guys are at tables, and they're in cliques, and I just sit there by myself." If you're not like that inside, and you're at your study club, and you're sitting with your homies, I get that. You want to see your friends, but you see someone sitting alone, and they're a kid, and you're an old dog, tell them to come over to your table.
But what would you say to that gay man who is afraid that somebody might find out in Kansas?
Kris Volcheck: We've learned a lot along the way because there's been a lot of topics about this. One, Harvey Milk told all of us-
Howard Farran: Harvey? That's the second time you've said his name.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, Harvey Milk, told us all to come out. [crosstalk 00:21:27] That was the San Francisco mayor and he was killed, but he was in the '70s.
Howard Farran: How old are you?
Kris Volcheck: I'm 58.
Howard Farran: Okay, and his name was Harvey Milk?
Kris Volcheck: Harvey Milk.
Howard Farran: Like milk you drink?
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, M-I-L-K. A pioneer of gay rights.
Howard Farran: Oh, I remember this guy.
Kris Volcheck: Okay, he was killed.
Howard Farran: Why was he killed?
Kris Volcheck: Because he was gay, he had some power, and he was provocative.
Howard Farran: Who do you think killed him?
Kris Volcheck: They know, I can't remember.
Howard Farran: Okay, it's not like someone just [inaudible 00:22:00].
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, but my point with this is, Harvey Milk he said, "Come out." But people like me, or professionals who didn't have a lot to worry about should come out so people know that there's a lot of professionals doing good things that are gay. What has happened, some people were coming out in dangerous circumstances, and they were pushing themselves to come out as if it was a responsibility. You cannot make a blanket statement about coming out as we know.
I'll give you this for instance. Do you know what's happening because coming out is much more popular and a lot of people have accepted it, and the media has stories about people coming out and their family accepting them? The rate of gay kids that are homeless is skyrocketing. You'd think it would be the opposite, so what kids are seeing on Facebook and on media, is all of these good stories about people coming out. So, these kids in religious families at 15 and 16, are coming out. How is that different?
When I came out, I was economically independent. If your parents cast you aside, I wasn't going to be homeless. But what's happening now, is 15 and 16 year olds across Texas and the bible belt, and the variety of religious communities are coming out and they're being pushed out of their home. They have no economic basis in which to survive. So, our homelessness for gays has risen greatly.
When someone asks about that, about coming out, you really have to look at their circumstances. Coming out for just coming out, is not always the best thing for that person. That's exactly why we have such a large population of homeless kids now.
Howard Farran: That is so sad.
Kris Volcheck: Yep.
Howard Farran: So sad. I mean, it's your baby. If my boys did something wrong and end up in life in prison without the possibility of parole, I'd still be there whenever I could visit them. If they said you can only visit on Sundays from one to three, I don't care what my kid did-
Kris Volcheck: Absolutely, you'd be there.
Howard Farran: -I'd still be there.
Kris Volcheck: My partner's Mormon, and again we've been together for 20 years, and he has a lovely family. In the beginning, just like many families, in any fairly religious family, whether it's Mormon or any other religion, doesn't matter. It can happen in any religion, but he was really pushed aside, wasn't allowed to see the kids in the family and he is a kid magnet; was really harmful and hurtful to him. A lot of times if you can stay with that person, stay with that family, if one can. Again, this is just my experience.
We just continued to go over when we could. I built a rapport with the guys and his brothers and his sister-in-laws, and slowly but surely when you show them that you're just another person with a lot of love and we couldn't be closer now after 20 years. We're a very close family. The family, we became so close, asked me to actually help with the mother's care as she was dying. That just shows the level that one can come to.
A lot of times what happens, and I understand this, is gays leave. A lot of times we must. I just happened to be in a circumstance that I wasn't dependent on anybody and we were fine financially. I didn't depend on his family, we didn't depend on my family. We could stay with them and they finally turned around, and now we're just one big happy family. Back to the exposure, they think gays are cool. They're like everyone else, but it took 20 years.
Howard Farran: But they still probably think, you're cool, you're nice, [crosstalk 00:26:03] but you're still going hell when you die.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, so here's the thing. No, you're right. They think ...
Howard Farran: Thanks for being in my house, thanks for taking me to dinner, thanks [inaudible 00:26:14] you're still going to hell.
Kris Volcheck: They think that, but here's the thing. I had plenty of friends. Here's another thing people do. You're the exception. I have one of my stepmoms, I'll say stepmom, she's just a neighbor back in Pennsylvania, and my best friend is a black female, and my stepmom would say, "Oh, I love her. She's one of the good ones." People rationalize around it. They'll think they meet an exception whether it's a black, Hispanic, or gay. I think that's part of it also, but I give everybody the benefit of the doubt.
Howard Farran: It's funny because some of the people that are so against racism, their own communities are the most anti-gay. Like you'll be seeing someone on television, and they're in a third world, war torn country fighting over religion, and everybody feels sorry for her, but this girl you're feeling sorry for if she found out her little brother was gay, she'd stone him.
Kris Volcheck: I know.
Howard Farran: Okay, so you're always on TV talking about fighting racism, but you're the most anti-gay person. People are so complex.
Kris Volcheck: I understand that. In an ideal world, I would hope, but this doesn't transpose, that every oppressed group never oppressed another group, but that isn't the case.
Howard Farran: Right.
Kris Volcheck: If you're oppressed, think of what it means, so don't ever oppress another group that isn't like you, but that doesn't happen.
Howard Farran: Yeah, I see it all the time.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah.
Howard Farran: It's like pity, poor me I'm being oppressed while they turn around and oppress three other groups.
Kris Volcheck: I think [crosstalk 00:27:57] that's a lesson for all of us.
Howard Farran: [inaudible 00:27:58] this is an adult conversation. This is Dentistry Uncensored. I've always been that way in my life, so if you want to get up and walk out, I never cared. I always thought [inaudible 00:28:09] like, "God, we're both dentist, and I just said something and you just walked out." That is just ... people are crazy.
God, I don't want to call it the ninth. I didn't want to call it the ninth specialty. The ADA recognized ninth specialty, but I do think of it as the ninth specialty because it gets the least amount of attention.
Kris Volcheck: Of course it does because-
Howard Farran: Should we call it the ninth dental specialty or the overlooked?
Kris Volcheck: You can call it anything you want. [crosstalk 00:28:41] It'll probably catch on. I think you should start.
Howard Farran: What would mean the ninth? What would mean the one that gets overlooked? And what is a dental [inaudible 00:28:50] specialist? It'd be the Indian health service, it'd be ...
Kris Volcheck: Anything to do with an underserved population that the market will not take care of. These people can't pay, so for profit clinics or centers or dental offices, no one's going to take care of them because they can't support a business. What we take care of, are populations that there's no money attached or very little money attached. We do that because these people need care like everyone else.
Howard Farran: Now, I want to talk about [inaudible 00:29:24], but let's go back to the oppressed and all this stuff. What I've noticed 30 years in this town, I go, "Oh, my god, this is going to be so controversial", but it's so true, the Arizona State Dental Association, the Arizona State Board of Dental Examers, filled with all these men, usually white, that think they're a great guy and they're usually always holding a bible, and then the market there's no dental office in Guadalupe. But by god they find some Mexican dentist in some house, doing dentistry on people who have no dentist and have no money to get dentistry, they believe in ethics and religion, that nothing is better than something. I always thought to myself, "Why would you be arresting ..."
I mean if the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners want to say, "Okay, Howard is licensed, so if you're the consumer you want regulatory, Howard is a licensed dentist." But if you have nothing and you want to go to an unlicensed dentist in an apartment, really your best moral idea that you learned in the bible is to go arrest that guy.
So, I'm asking you this, is nothing better than something?
Kris Volcheck: That one's a tough one for me, Howard.
Howard Farran: He's not going to answer.
Kris Volcheck: No, no, oh, oh, I'm gonna answer, but I'm going to-
Howard Farran: That was a good question though, huh?
Kris Volcheck: I deal with this constantly, so this is a good question for me.
Howard Farran: Especially, we're on the border. [crosstalk 00:31:02] How far are we from Mexico? 100 miles?
Kris Volcheck: 200
Howard Farran: 200 miles and what percent of Guadalupe is illegal immigrants?
Kris Volcheck: Right. 50% of the children's clinic are undocumented. [crosstalk 00:31:19] Parsons Pediatric, 50% are undocumented. I'll get back to your question. 50% means that most of those families, half the brothers and sisters are American citizens, the other ones came earlier, so they're not. What I'm dealing with is a family that is undocumented and documented. Well, of course, they all should be cared for. What should one do?
Here's the thing, where's the line? I think nothing is better than negligence. In the example that you're giving, those doctors or someone that's coming over that's performing shoddy dentistry, absolutely I think nothing's better than negligence and shoddy dentistry. This goes more to the argument of what we've all been speaking about is, dental therapist or where you're going in that sense because no, I do agree that shoddy dentistry or negligent dentistry is worse than nothing. I do understand how people go for it because they can't afford what we're giving. Where's the solution, is actually the question. Where's the solution?
Howard Farran: I mean, when they're hidden in an all Hispanic neighborhood, that you and I couldn't find, they're not advertising, they don't have websites, they don't have anything, and usually when they ... Here's the police storming a place and it's a dental chair with some dentist from Mexico, who's been doing his trade for 20/30 years, pulling a tooth, doing whatever on undocumented workers who have abscesses and toothaches and can't mow lawns and hammer nails and put on roofing and all that stuff; it's like, "Is that the best use of your resources to go arrest an illegal, undocumented dentist in the poorest part of town? You don't have anything better to do than that?"
When that two year old girl has a toothache in the middle of the night, and she doesn't have money and she doesn't have insurance, it's not like you're taking away money from the dentists who are licensed. Medical, dental buildings have websites and business cards.
Kris Volcheck: That's never a concern of mine. Dentistry in America, I think, is doing very well. I want everyone to do well. My concern is always not dentist pay, I think again, we're all doing quite well. Access to care for anyone, access to care for the patients. My focus is always on the patient. I think we should be helping them, I don't think we should be ... There's separate issues for me. I don't believe in deporting or alienating anyone by the way unless they're criminals. I get that, but if what I've seen in my dentistry, especially at Parson's, is I've seen a lot of negligent dentistry from the Mexican docs from Mexico. I have seen, nothing against Mexican doctors at all, but I've seen a lot of negligent actually health hindering problems because of that dentistry. I don't know if that's a good example you're giving me, because-
Howard Farran: Well now I'm talking to you [inaudible 00:34:44][crosstalk 00:34:43].
Kris Volcheck: No, no.
Howard Farran: This is your role. [crosstalk 00:34:45]
Kris Volcheck: We're repairing those Mexican dentist's work all the time. I'm going to give you this as an example. Some of the Mexican dentists are doing braces here in garages, and we've had patients come in that have had their braces on for five years and they are developmentally a mess. They've ruined their mouths. It takes huge intervention to get them back, so I'm mostly seeing incompetent negligent work from these dentists, so I would say nothing is better than hurting them. I would have, yes.
Howard Farran: Glad you came on the show because that's just what I thought. That's not my world.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah. Yep.
Howard Farran: You're seeing that world.
Kris Volcheck: I do, and so I say-
Howard Farran: You're saying nothing is ... You're saying negligence.
Kris Volcheck: [crosstalk 00:35:30] I don't want nothing, I want us solving that problem with appropriate practitioners. I think that should be our emphasis, but I'm seeing people hurt because of this.
Howard Farran: And I'm not.
Kris Volcheck: Yes. I see it all the time.
Howard Farran: Because I'm in Phoenix.
Kris Volcheck: Yep. I see it all the time.
Howard Farran: Okay, that's good to know. You've changed a lot of my viewpoints over the last 30 years, and a lot of people I know. A lot of people I know, you're their public health role model. Jack Dylanburg. Me and Jack, could start a mutual Kris Volcheck admiration club. We could meet every Thursday, and it would have to be at a bar. I mean, that would only be appropriate.
Kris Volcheck: I know.
Howard Farran: For me and Jack anyway.
Kris Volcheck: I wondered if we were going to have alcohol today.
Howard Farran: Well, you know, it's Sunday.
Kris Volcheck: It's Sunday.
Howard Farran: We don't drink til noon on Sundays. All the other days, first thing.
Let me say this, is this a bias I have? Is this true? If you're going to dental school and you want a career in public health, does that mean you're never going to be the average dentist income? Does that mean you're going to be poor all your life? If I decide I'm not going to be a rich cosmetic dentist in Scottsdale, I'm not going to be the implant guy in Beverly Hills, I want to go treat the poor, does that mean I'm going to be poor my whole life?
Kris Volcheck: I think some people would think that. I'm going to give myself as an example. Kids are coming out with four to five hundred thousand dollars worth of debt. That's common, out of ASTU or Midwestern or the many schools. ASTU is a good example. A lot of those kids go to ASTU because they have a big public health heart, I'm in contact with a lot of them, and they would love to be doing or involved with us, but because of their high debt and if you have a family, you want to support them well enough; and there are certain expectations there. It is a problem. That's one of the reasons why you don't see a lot of non-profits coming up with someone who's spearheading that. I was fortunate in other ways, financially with some investments early on, and I'm a minimalist. I live in a 1400 square foot home, but I'm comfortable. My level of comfort would probably be considered by most of my dentists as absolutely inadequate. And you do, yes it's a problem.
Howard Farran: I want to tell you why you don't want a big home. I have a big home, and all four of my boys they all moved out, but I stayed in this big home by myself, so three out of four after college just said, "Well, dad lives in a hotel. I think I'll just move back in."
So, the next time my [inaudible 00:38:21] moves out, I'm going to get a fifth wheeler and pull behind a Volkswagen.
Kris Volcheck: You should join us downtown where stuff's happening. I'd love to have you join The Village downtown.
Howard Farran: One of the greatest gifts I ever got was, I had no idea when I started lecturing in 1990 that that would mean that 25 years later, I would have lectured a thousand times and six continents, and most of these cities I've been to, two or three or four times, and America has the worst downtowns because as silly as it is, it's the gas subsidies where the highway bill comes from the congress and builds all these freeways to get suburbs. Whereas every other society, the cost of the car is in the gasoline.
Kris Volcheck: Of course, it is.
Howard Farran: The roads, the bridges, the maintenance all that, they'll pay like eight dollars a liter for gas.
Kris Volcheck: Of course.
Howard Farran: So, they all live downtown. When you go downtown Denmark, Copenhagen, Sydney, any intelligent town, everybody lives down there and there's restaurants and bars and safety and fun and-
Kris Volcheck: Okay, exactly. I agree.
Howard Farran: Then Americans say, "Our gas only two dollars." Yeah, and your inner cities are boring and ran down.
Kris Volcheck: Okay. You know what the general trend is over the last couple of years, it's back to the city.
Howard Farran: But if you put the whole construction bill into the damn gallon of gas, then someone who's sitting there saying to their spouse, "You know we're each paying 10,000 dollars a year in gas, we can save 20,000 dollars if we moved downtown."
Kris Volcheck: Right.
Howard Farran: That's what economic incentives and America has the stupidest highway funding program on earth, and any cause, which say that you should tie your behavior ... Like why should you raise my taxes for you to hike the Grand Canyon? If you go to the Grand Canyon, you pay the damn Grand Canyon fee because you're the one doing it. I'm not doing it. If I was grandma and didn't have a car, or I rode my bike to work, why are my taxes paying for all the roads and bridges?
When all the roads and bridges is paid for by the gasoline, people make the decision to save money and move downtown. And every country, especially Europe, has the greatest, coolest, neatest downtowns in the world. And then you come to America.
Kris Volcheck: Well, we have a few.
Howard Farran: Yeah, Manhattan and San Fran.
Kris Volcheck: Boston
Howard Farran: Yeah, Boston. I'll give you that.
Kris Volcheck: D.C. some.
Howard Farran: But think of how much more robust every downtown would be, if they just changed the taxation.
Kris Volcheck: Right, I agree.
Howard Farran: Do you agree with that?
Kris Volcheck: Oh, absolutely. We haven't-
Howard Farran: We subsidize the subways.
Kris Volcheck: We subsidize.
Howard Farran: We subsidize the suburbs.
Kris Volcheck: [inaudible 00:41:11]
Howard Farran: [crosstalk 00:41:12] Quit subsidizing the suburbs. And then they go down there.
Kris Volcheck: Yes. No. Which is a funny thing that we're subsidizing the suburbs because in general we're not really a society that wants to subsidize artificially, or least that's a lot of what we hear from capitalism. No artificial subsidization to push the market to where it isn't, but we did. We've sub-
Howard Farran: And we're still doing it today.
Kris Volcheck: And we are.
Howard Farran: As dentists, we still subsidize corn farmers, which most of that corn ain't corn on the cob, it's high fructose corn syrup. Can you imagine, I mean is it insane, that here in Phoenix when you go into McDonald's that bottled water costs more than a Coke or a Pepsi? Because the farmers are being ... and if you said, we're going to stop subsidizing corn farmers. Now you're a communist, you're anti-American, you're flying some hammer and sickle flag. I can't believe it's 2017, the biggest [inaudible 00:42:10] diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome and those are just the three I have. Dental decay, and they're still subsidizing corn.
Kris Volcheck: Right. This is a little off, but I'm going to take you back to downtown. This is all relative to what you were just speaking about because I get it. I'll quote the New York Times about two months ago, New York Times never has anything good, even though that's my favorite paper, it has never anything good about Phoenix to say. Nothing.
Howard Farran: New York Times?
Kris Volcheck: New York Times, never. Never. We're one/one thousandths of New York City. I get it, but the New York Times about two months ago actually said, "We're going to say it. Phoenix has a tinge of hip going on downtown." You've seen all the condos and all the apartments ... Are you downtown much or no?
Howard Farran: Yeah. I do.
Kris Volcheck: The restaurants. I live right off of Central.
Howard Farran: Whenever I have to bail Ryan out of jail, I have to go [crosstalk 00:43:09] downtown. I take it over.
Kris Volcheck: Relative to where we were, there's big stuff happening in downtown Phoenix. I'm surprised. I live in the old historic district, so I can just walk down to Central and get on the light rail.
Howard Farran: Which almost killed me.
Kris Volcheck: Which what? The light rail?
Howard Farran: I'm not making this up. I was called down for jury duty. They called me for a three week trial, which I just said, "Be positive. Be positive." Really enlightening. It was a drug deal, and it was a world I wasn't aware of at all.
Kris Volcheck: Right.
Howard Farran: One day on the lunch break, I'm walking out of the courthouse [inaudible 00:43:48].
Kris Volcheck: Oh, I know.
Howard Farran: All of a sudden, some man grabbed me and yanked me back, and the train went whoosh. It scared ... I mean four hours later, my knees were vibrating and I felt like kissing the guy. I didn't know what to do, but I said to the guy, "You absolutely saved my life." He goes, "Damn right I just saved your life." Even the wind from that thing, it's silent.
Kris Volcheck: Oh, it is.
Howard Farran: You're like a tourist because [inaudible 00:44:16] downtown.
Kris Volcheck: No, of course, you are.
Howard Farran: So, I'm walking around like this. Like look at this neat place. Oh, my god. But anyway, downtown Phoenix's got a tinge of hip of going on.
Kris Volcheck: A tinge of hip. Those are big words from the New York Times.
Howard Farran: You know what I like also about it? Just little common things that they could learn from all the other great ... What I mean by a great city is, you don't really find a great city around the world unless it's at least 500 years old.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah. [crosstalk 00:44:45]
Howard Farran: There's no great cities that are 100 years old.
Kris Volcheck: The things is, I agree, but why compare? We're a brand new nation with brand new cities and it's not a fair comparison. I would love to have European-
Howard Farran: But the point is, parking garages. You just walk by all these parking garages. Now they're backing them up 20/30 feet and just putting little bitty bars and little deals, like that was easy.
Kris Volcheck: Right. We are doing better.
Howard Farran: The other thing that the other cities do, all the great old cities from Kathmandu to whatever, they take the busy streets down the middle and they block them off from cars and they brick them and put chairs. Like Mill Avenue, why in god's earth are cars honking and all that? There's not one European that ever walked to Mill Avenue and said, "Why are they driving through? They could go around?"
Kris Volcheck: Right.
Howard Farran: They could go anywhere. Yeah.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, I agree.
Howard Farran: You know what? We're going to have Venice, because with this global warming. The last couple of times I've lectured in Miami, you get up in the morning there's water on the streets.
Kris Volcheck: Really?
Howard Farran: I mean it's coming up. It's so funny because you can't fight Mother Nature. They're building walls and pumps, and all this, and I just want to stand there and say, "Dude, this has happened before. It's called Venice. You need to go to Venice because 150/100 years from now, there's no wall or pump system that's going to do this. You're just going to switch from a car to a canoe and you just need to embrace it because it's coming up."
I've lectured down there for 30 years and you go out-
Kris Volcheck: I haven't been to Miami for quite a while.
Howard Farran: -there in the early morning on some of those streets and there's two inches of water coming up. You talk to the local dentist, that's why I love my homies because no matter where I go, the guys picking you up, taking you to dinner, they got eight years of college, they read hundreds of non-fiction books, and they're like, "Oh yeah, it's coming up. This was not here when I was 10."
Kris Volcheck: Yeah.
Howard Farran: What would you say to someone listening who's a millennial? Most of the day that Ryan and I get all the emails are probably 20% dental students, everyone else under 30, they're probably listening to us because they can't believe we're still alive and we're not dead. What would you say to someone who says, "I would love a career in public health."?
Kris Volcheck: Okay.
Howard Farran: What would you say to them?
Kris Volcheck: It's doable. I should give some examples. A lot of times we don't talk about politics, religion, or money, but let's talk about money. About that. Generally, if you're a dentist in Brighter Way, we'll just give our ...
Howard Farran: That's where you're at?
Kris Volcheck: I'm Brighter Way Institute. That's our non-profit. It's Brighter Way Institute. That's comprised of the Brighter Way Dental Center downtown for homeless. That is the Parsons Center for Pediatric Dentistry-
Howard Farran: Can you [inaudible 00:47:32]?
Kris Volcheck: -for impoverished children. Then we have Canyon State Academy for foster children. Those are the three that we have right now.
Howard Farran: Those are pretty much all in the same area?
Kris Volcheck: No, no, no. Mm-mmm (negative)
Howard Farran: It seems like when we drive back-
Kris Volcheck: One's in Queen Creek, oh yeah those. One's in Queen Creek an hour away.
Howard Farran: Okay. I never found the creek.
Kris Volcheck: I know. Well, I never have either, but we tend to name a lot of bodies of water here with no bodies of water.
Howard Farran: Oh.
Kris Volcheck: One's right downtown, and then the other one's over on 31st Avenue and Buckeye. Not far away, correct.
Howard Farran: Yeah.
Kris Volcheck: They're completely different. One's at the homeless campus, and the other one's in a community center owned by the Murphy Elementary School District. Then Canyon State Academy is a campus for foster children. Those are the three clinics right now. If you come on with us, and I think we're generally market rate, your beginning salary is going to be like 160,000 dollars.
Howard Farran: 160?
Kris Volcheck: 160, not bad. Not bad.
Howard Farran: The average household combined average house, we had 320 million Americans living in 100 million homes and if everybody throws their money in a hat, it's not 50,000 dollars. It's about 48,500. So 160 means you're making the same money as everyone that lives in three homes. If you think that is living an improvised lifestyle ...
Kris Volcheck: I'm just saying that I don't. I think that's a fine living, but I'm saying that a lot of my dentists so many years in might not think so. We don't do, if you get this much production you get these bonuses. We don't incentivize for money. We incentivize for treating patients, in the sense of ... I don't want to incentivize production. That's not why we're here. The people I hire are absolutely very productive, but why are they productive? They're productive because they want to help as many people as possible. There's the mindset, purpose. The whole thing, our speak is why are we doing this? There's no mission without money, there's no mission without margin, and I have to be the one keeping that in line, but my focus isn't that. I only use money to help more people, it's not to reinvest.
Howard Farran: You should do a short commercial for your donors. Give a plug for GoDaddy.
Kris Volcheck: Oh, hell yes.
Howard Farran: GoDaddy.
Kris Volcheck: No, I'm going to give a plug for GoDaddy, but it isn't GoDaddy. As you know the Parsons, Bob Parsons, sold off most of his, and I don't know the details, GoDaddy, so it's the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation. Bob and Renee have supported us greatly for the last five years. They built the Parsons Center for Pediatric Dentistry.
Howard Farran: What was their connection? How did they get into dentistry?
Kris Volcheck: What happened was, when he started this foundation, it's only five years old, fortunately for us Laura Mitchell who's their executive director, she was asking around as who does innovative things in each area of medicine. Someone referred her over to me as an innovator for dentist.
Howard Farran: Nice.
Kris Volcheck: She showed up at my door and she said, "What are you doing?" I explained to her, and she said, "Put a proposal together for me."
Howard Farran: Was this for the vets or the Hispanic or the children?
Kris Volcheck: No, this is for the impoverished children at the Murphy Elementary School District Center. They built out that 1.5 million dollar specialty clinic in that center. It has 10 chairs, so I can't thank Bob and Renee enough and Laura Mitchell. The other people that I have to just equally, they've been with me a longer time is Bruce and Diane Halle who own Discount Tire.
Howard Farran: Is that a national chain?
Kris Volcheck: It's a national chain.
Howard Farran: It's headquartered out of here?
Kris Volcheck: It's headquartered here. Thank goodness.
Howard Farran: I did not know that Discount Tire ... That's the one where they throw the tire through the-
Kris Volcheck: Yes, that's the one. So, Bruce and Diane-
Howard Farran: Can I film the next commercial? I've always wanted to throw a tire.
Kris Volcheck: Okay. Anything you can to promote those two. Bruce and Diane Halle have been with me since 2010. They've supported the children's clinic and now they're our major supporter for veterans. As you know, the downtown clinic is now for veterans. It's a national trading center for implants and dentures. That's all focused on our homeless veterans, and they've been supportive of that.
Howard Farran: That's another thing. This is Dentistry Uncensored. I find it so bizarre that you go to a sporting event like a Super Bowl and the Air Force flies over, and everybody's patriotic and all that, and they shed a tear. Vietnam, when we were little, I mean everybody lost someone on their block from Vietnam 50,600 boys who died, but they went for 12 months and they came back. They just kept sending these guys back three or four times, and they come back and they don't have dental or mental health insurance. I mean that's almost evil to send someone to war, not once, twice, three, four times they come back and they don't have access to mental health or dental. How many of those boys lost those teeth in war?
Kris Volcheck: Let me give you this one.
Howard Farran: I mean is that like the most cynical crazy shit you've ever seen in America?
Kris Volcheck: Okay. This was probably nine months ago. I had this special ops guy come in. Really sweet, but just huge, huge guy. Very soft spoken. I went in to do his exam and I always get, I want to know what's happening, "What did you do?" He showed me his teeth, and they were just nubs; complete nubs. The first thing I said, "Were you on crystal meth? Did you wear them away? What happened? Did you use lemon?" They were worn off and again upper and lowers just nubs. He said, "No, I've never used drugs." He said, "I've been on three tours. I'm special ops. When I'm banging and knocking down doors, and people are shooting at me, I'm shearing my teeth ..." He said, "I sheared my teeth off. I could feel it crumbling as I was moving through doors or shooting people, or they were shooting at me." He ended up with these nubs of teeth. He said, "I'll never be the same, but I'm okay with that. I used to be a very hard charging, mentally aware guy, but I've been kind of destroyed. I know that and I'm accepting that. The only thing left that is bothering me the most are my teeth." He said, "I have nowhere to go because if you're not 100% disabled, you don't get dental care." 100% disabled from your service, so we get the majority at our clinic. We did a full mouth reconstruction on this guy.
Howard Farran: What does it say to the morality of the federal government? The ethics? I mean it almost makes them morally bankrupt that you would do that to somebody; send them to war and not take care of them when they come home. [crosstalk 00:55:18]
Kris Volcheck: I'll extend that.
Howard Farran: I mean I'm not talking about giving them the pension until they're 105. I'm talking about this guy came back destroyed, don't you have to at least return him back to society stabilized, teeth, mental healthcare. I mean it's really ...
Kris Volcheck: Oh, I agree. Where are we as a society that we're not pushing for that? I'm going to extend that one more. Absolutely, all of us have a big heart for veterans. I am so pleased that we got to a full mouth reconstruction, and we can do it with our volunteers and the implants and the dentures we can do whatever we want, and we should. We get to do what I think society should be doing. We should be providing that, but there's not a will to go ahead and take more money to give these people more care.
Howard Farran: How many homeless vets do you think you've seen in your lifetime? If you had to put a number on it because they might be thinking there's three guys down there. How many homeless vets have you seen just in Phoenix at the CASS? Is it the CASS?
Kris Volcheck: No, no, no. It's Brighter Way Dental Center. It has nothing to do with CASS. [crosstalk 00:56:27]
Howard Farran: Some of my homies are probably thinking, okay so there's three guys in a big town of Phoenix.
Kris Volcheck: Okay.
Howard Farran: How many guys do you think you've seen, homeless vets?
Kris Volcheck: We've probably seen 10,000 since I started, homeless vets.
Howard Farran: 10-
Kris Volcheck: 10,000.
Howard Farran: That's a brigade. I mean I don't know what a brigade is, but that's huge.
Kris Volcheck: It is.
Howard Farran: 10,000!
Kris Volcheck: Every two months, and there will never be an end of supply of veterans to work on, with what we do with implants for the year on vets, we do three million dollars of production on veterans every year now.
Howard Farran: What if one of the homies listening says, "You know, I want to do volunteer dentistry, but I don't really ..." A lot of women say, "I don't want to do missionary dentistry. I'm a girl, I don't feel safe in these other countries in Caribbean, Central America." What if someone listening says, "I want to come down and do charity dentistry on the vets or the poor children.", what would they do?
Kris Volcheck: Right. Go on BrighterWayDental.org.
Howard Farran: BrighterWayDental.org
Kris Volcheck: Go on BrighterWayDental.org.
Howard Farran: Okay.
Kris Volcheck: You can volunteer or you-
Howard Farran: Spell Brighter Way. It's Brighter B-R-I-G-H-T-E-R Way. Like Way. Dental-
Kris Volcheck: Dental.org. The name of the non-profit is Brighter Way Institute.
Howard Farran: Again, if my homies are listening and they say, "Dude, I want to come down and do some charity.", where is Brighter Way in Phoenix? What hotels, resorts would they stay at? Is there anything fun to stay at?
Kris Volcheck: Absolutely.
Howard Farran: You know, one of the most funs I had, sometimes you go on missions and you're in third world living conditions, last time me and Ryan and the boys went to one, we actually staying in a five star resort in Acapulco.
Kris Volcheck: That's right.
Howard Farran: Having the greatest food, but then in the morning you get up and just drive.
Kris Volcheck: It's kind of beautiful because you can go to the Palomar, which is a boutique hotel downtown or the Renaissance or any of those which are pretty nice. But a lot of people come in who are volunteering from across the nation to do training, training for implants, which they can go on and look at that or mostly training for implants-
Howard Farran: Is that on the Brighter Way website?
Kris Volcheck: Yes, it is. They can come in, they go to Scottsdale, hang out, have all the luxuries of the five star resorts and then they come downtown and get exposure to the homeless and they help our vets by placing and training with them for implants. There's plenty of reasons to come to Phoenix for that.
Howard Farran: Where's the implant thing on this?
Kris Volcheck: Here's the implant, right here. Wait, home. Oh, oh no you're on Brighter Way. It's BrighterWayDental.org, you're on the Brighter Way Dental Center. Go to BrighterWayDental.org.
Howard Farran: Okay.
Kris Volcheck: That's just the homeless [inaudible 00:59:30].
Howard Farran: I've been saying, so it's BrighterWayDental.
Kris Volcheck: There. If you go through this, it has all of overlooked and underserved. Most veterans lack [inaudible 00:59:40]. If you go to live implants and it's with the veterans connected to that, it will take you over to there. You can sign up to do implant training.
Howard Farran: With who?
Kris Volcheck: Dr. Joe Mehranfar.
Howard Farran: Okay.
Kris Volcheck: Okay, then go to visit website, then you'll pull up and it does all the training, learn more, contact, all the sponsors, what we're doing. This is going to turn into one of the largest implant centers in the nation.
Howard Farran: It's good, I imagine.
Kris Volcheck: It is.
Howard Farran: I can't see you being number two or number three or anything. Does-
Kris Volcheck: Justin. Affordable Dentures has an exclusive contract with us as a DSO. They're going to build out our new clinic down there. They're adding another eight to 10 chairs as a training center. I need to plug all.
Howard Farran: Explain to me what Affordable Dentures is, because I got to make a point about Affordable Dentures.
Kris Volcheck: Affordable Dentures is a DSO with 300 same day denture clinics across the nation.
Howard Farran: Who's the CEO of that?
Kris Volcheck: Doug Brown
Howard Farran: Can you tell him to come on the show and talk about this too? We can do him long distance over Skype.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, because it's big PR for him. Yeah.
Howard Farran: I just want to show you one thing about Affordable Dentures. It's actually the oldest DSO and there's a reason why they've been so successful, because dentists always think all the money's with the rich. They saw this massively overlooked deal and you know who's following in their footsteps? Of all the modern day nuance. It's actually Aspen.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah.
Howard Farran: I mean they have a standard billing, a standard look, but they're going to all the poor areas and they're making money in the poor. In California, it was Western Dental.
Kris Volcheck: Right.
Howard Farran: The dentists, they all want to go to Beverly Hills, Key Biscayne, and Scottsdale. So, Affordable Dentures, the oldest most successful DSO, you've got to go with the aim. If everybody wants to go to North Scottsdale, be a cosmetic dentist, probably not a money left for you.
Kris Volcheck: Look what they're doing for us. Not only are we going to have an exclusive with them, but they're going to build out their own training center there. Every month they're going to be bringing in their doctors from across the nation, placing 20 to 25 implants, and then they go back and then their return of investment because now they're placing implants. Joe has a separate piece and he's working with NOBO Bio-care and [Stramen 01:02:06] and he brings in dentists from across the nation to learn NOBO and Stramen.
My priority down there is Affordable Dentures, so they're building out a new clinic, a new training center so that every month we can do trainings from across the nation right there. There's two elements, Joe's implant training for dentists that want to come in separate from Affordable Dentures. Affordable Dentures only brings in their docs and is exclusive to them.
Howard Farran: All this information is on Brighter Way Live?
Kris Volcheck: Yes, it is.
Howard Farran: Brighter Way Live
Kris Volcheck: Yes, .org it's all there.
Howard Farran: Brighter Way Live. What was the other website you'd said.
Kris Volcheck: The universal website is BrighterWayDental.org. That takes you to Brighter Way Institute. Then it shows all of our clinics, and the implant courses coming up.
Howard Farran: Okay, so BrighterWayDental is the mothership.
Kris Volcheck: Brighter Way Institute is the mothership.
Howard Farran: [inaudible 01:02:59]
Kris Volcheck: We couldn't get this name here. BrighterWayDental.org is our url.
Howard Farran: Come on. You know the guy from GoDaddy.
Kris Volcheck: No, I couldn't get it.
Howard Farran: He's the one that owns all these domains.
Kris Volcheck: I know. I couldn't get it. Brighter Way Institute is the overall arching one. We have three clinics and now we have a national implant training center with Affordable Dentures and then the independent mentorships for implants that are coming down with Joe Mehranfar. People can come from across the nation-
Howard Farran: He also teaches at Midwestern, doesn't he?
Kris Volcheck: I don't know if he does that anymore.
Howard Farran: He used to?
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, he used to.
Howard Farran: Nice. I'll tell you what, seriously, you have been a mentor of mine forever. I remember when I met Jack Dylanburg florinating Phoenix in '89, you already had your brand.
Kris Volcheck: Did I?
Howard Farran: Oh, absolutely. I'd say you're one of the greatest. Dentistry, it has it's thousand points of light and you're one of them.
Kris Volcheck: No.
Howard Farran: You really are dentistry's one of thousand points of light. I think what you've done and the innovation and getting big companies like Affordable and also getting who's my buddy ...
Kris Volcheck: [crosstalk 01:04:21] Well, you know-
Ryan: [inaudible 01:04:21]
Howard Farran: Who's the other implant guy, bringing them down?
Kris Volcheck: Justin Moody. You know-
Howard Farran: Justin David Moody
Kris Volcheck: He hangs out with you all the time.
Howard Farran: Justin Moody, from Nebraska, he's got his podcast. What is it? Worms ..
Ryan: Dental Implants and Worms
Howard Farran: Dental Implants and Worms
Kris Volcheck: He has three courses at our place this year.
Howard Farran: Yeah.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah.
Howard Farran: He just bought a house down here.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, no. He's going to be coming heavily onboard with us.
Howard Farran: Yeah.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah. Joe's going to be doing his thing. Justin's going to be doing his thing.
Howard Farran: Who set him up with you?
Kris Volcheck: This all started when I figured out how to do volunteers from across the nation and just started piddling along. Then, one of my community liaisons, Capita Brown, said, "Joe Mehranfar." Joe came in and Jimmy [Smearos 01:05:06] ... Do you know Jimmy Smearos, he's with Affordable Dentures?
Howard Farran: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Kris Volcheck: Then it all started to gel. It started with Implant Direct. Jimmy Smearos moved over to Affordable Dentures, and then everything started to gel.
Howard Farran: Nice.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Tell them the Legal Us thing. You, because of your reputation, everybody goes to Mexico and Dominican Republic because you can't' take a license of dentist in Texas and practice in another state.
Kris Volcheck: No, you can. There's only three states that allow that. Arizona is one of them. If you come-
Howard Farran: Who's the other two?
Kris Volcheck: Colorado. In Arizona, you can come 14 days for the year to a charitable institution. You have to be a non-profit. You can cross state lines and do dentistry on the underserved.
Howard Farran: What if they're Canadian?
Kris Volcheck: No.
Howard Farran: Yeah, that's fair because Canadians come on. They're not even real dentists up there. They play hockey. They don't even promote oral health.
Kris Volcheck: They can come across state lines, sign up as a volunteer with Brighter Way Institute and as a volunteer they work on our veterans and our homeless, but they get training at the same time.
Howard Farran: We need to get it from Canada too because 10% of the homeless ... this is the number one winter vacation spot for Canadians.
Kris Volcheck: For Canadians. It would take a legislative act to get that.
Howard Farran: From Arizona or from the feds?
Kris Volcheck: From Arizona.
Howard Farran: Isn't that doable? You could talk to Kevin Earl at the Arizona State Board Association.
Kris Volcheck: It would be more the board with Elaine, I think, or beyond that. The board controls that licensing.
Howard Farran: Oh, okay.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Well, kudos to the board. Kudos to the board. [crosstalk 01:06:54] Go ahead.
Kris Volcheck: Okay, speaking of that. I've got to give big kudos to Elaine and the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners and Nancy Chambers.
Howard Farran: Agreed.
Kris Volcheck: They have helped us facilitate all these trainings because all the licensing have to go through them, and they've pushed all this through for me. It's what's the law, but they've taken this on to help our veterans. The board itself, Nancy and Elaine, have taken this on as their project, and they help facilitate all those licenses coming in.
Howard Farran: Yeah.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, I have to give-
Howard Farran: It's so typical of a government agency to say, "You know I just don't want to deal with it. I'm on eight to five, clock in, clock out."
Kris Volcheck: No, they didn't.
Howard Farran: To have a government agency go above and beyond-
Kris Volcheck: They have.
Howard Farran: -that's so cool.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, so I have to give them big kudos because that's an integral part of this happening. If they weren't a part of this, making this happen, this wouldn't be happening for our veterans.
Howard Farran: Just before you go, there's St Vincent de Paul.
Kris Volcheck: Yes.
Howard Farran: That's kind of near.
Kris Volcheck: Yes. St Vincent de Paul, well they're down on 3rd Avenue and Watkins. Dr. Ken Snyder. That's one of the oldest, longest standing dental clinics, non-profits, we have in the city. They have a fantastic program. Dr. Snyder really is a big hero. He's my hero. He just had his 70th birthday. We go out drinking a lot. He's the most demonstrative, secure, loving man that I know.
Howard Farran: Damn.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Look, send him down.
Kris Volcheck: Yeah, Ken Snyder is-
Howard Farran: We should do a public health week. We should kick it off with you, the CEO of Affordable Doug Brown, your mentor from St Vincent de Paul, and the implant guy.
Kris Volcheck: The implant guy.
Howard Farran: We need to get a name. I think it's the ninth. Should we call it the ninth specialty?
Kris Volcheck: Whatever, maybe you'll start something, Howard.
Howard Farran: It is the most overlooked. I mean everybody wants to talk about the sexy implants, bleaching, bonding, veneers. No one wants to talk about the homeless.
Kris Volcheck: The beauty here too, just what you said and it makes a difference, if you can have the missions such as helping the homeless, but bring all those sexy things because people want that. For us to be doing implants and all on fours with the homeless, there's where you get your biggest return, so people get sexy, but they get a mission.
Howard Farran: You shouldn't have to leave the country to do missionary, charity [crosstalk 01:09:32].
Kris Volcheck: No, you shouldn't have to leave the country.
Howard Farran: It's one thing for guys to go to other countries, but a lot of women donate.
Kris Volcheck: Women donate, yeah.
Howard Farran: It's very different going to a foreign country as a girl.
Kris Volcheck: So, the women can come hang out in Scottsdale, do their spa thing and still come down and help the homeless.
Howard Farran: Right.
Kris Volcheck: I love that for us to be able to do that.
Howard Farran: I feel bad because the last time I did a charity dentistry, the ethics and morality of it were so bad. I got asked to do a missionary charity dentistry thing in Africa, and I said, "I'm really too busy." I decided I couldn't do it, and Eric Harris called me and he said, "Dude, it's at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. We'll do the missionary dentistry, then we'll climb Mount Kili, and then we'll go the Serengeti."
Kris Volcheck: Oh, I love Eric Harris.
Howard Farran: And I'm like, "Yeah, let's do it." I'm on the way over here, saying, "I shouldn't really tell anybody I'm doing missionary dentistry [inaudible 01:10:29] I just turned it down." But when it comes with a tour of the Serengeti. So, they want to come to Scottsdale. They want to stay in a resort.
Kris Volcheck: Right.
Howard Farran: So, you kill two birds with one stone.
Kris Volcheck: What has happened as you're speaking about, let's say Mexico or any place that they've been going, these are good people wanting to do good things, but they want to get trained, so they've gone out of the country and what has happened a lot of times, and they don't feel good about that, is they're placing implants, well there's a whole hell of a lot of people running around Mexico not restored. They just place-
Howard Farran: Or complications.
Kris Volcheck: Or complications, there's no follow.
Howard Farran: Yeah.
Kris Volcheck: The beauty is these people are followed, the vet-
Howard Farran: I want to say one thing about missionary dentistry is there's some masters of it. I was turned onto this by Jerome Smith and now his nephew Danny-
Ryan: Dominguez
Howard Farran: -Danny Dominguez has taken his job, but the best one is you want to fly in like Star Wars and do a bunch of fancy treatment, then get up and leave like a UFO.
Kris Volcheck: No.
Howard Farran: You need sustainability. If you're going to go to a village, you should find the local dentist there and then when you're working with him, you should be training him. You should be connected, so if he calls you back three months later and say, "Man, it'd really be nice to have a box of Lidocaine or a box of this/that." It's sustainability. When you go there, find a local, get connected. He's got a Samsung, he's got a Smart Sung. All your suppliers, they'll give you all their expired stuff. How do you have expired Amalgam? Just make it more sustainable. What you have, if someone comes down here and places five implants and then it goes south or gets infected, whatever-
Kris Volcheck: Then we have the specialists to take care of it. They're our patients. This is just a piece, so we're working them up to do big stuff, they just follow into the implant track and then they continue on.
Howard Farran: We're way over time but I'll just end it here. You said, there's been 10,000-
Kris Volcheck: Since we started. Absolutely.
Howard Farran: -American veterans that served in war, homeless needing dental work.
Kris Volcheck: Right.
Howard Farran: Whenever I've gone down there, am I exaggerating, it's like the line is almost a football field.
Kris Volcheck: Which one are you speaking about?
Howard Farran: I mean when I go there-
Kris Volcheck: The mission of mercy thing-[crosstalk 01:12:51] the grass courtyard.
Howard Farran: Courtyard. I mean, that's the size of a football field.
Kris Volcheck: It is the size of a football field.
Howard Farran: How many people are standing out there?
Kris Volcheck: I don't know.
Howard Farran: A thousand?
Kris Volcheck: Thousands. I don't know. It's probably at least a thousand move onto our campus per day.
Howard Farran: You know what's so cool about you?
Kris Volcheck: That's my favorite spot ever.
Howard Farran: I remember the thing that almost made me cry when I saw you. One time I was down there and you saw this guy, and we were talking and everything. He was obviously very challenged and talking into space whatever. Evidently he had disappeared and shown back up. You started talking to him and whatever, and then you turned to us and said, "Yeah, sometimes these guys will disappear and they'll end up in L.A. and a year later they'll be back here." I could just tell you are such at home with homeless, schizophrenic, living on the street, I mean it seems like you'd rather talk to that guy than any king or queen.
Kris Volcheck: Absolutely. I mean I go out at lunch, that's my home. The other thing is, it's just much more interesting. The complexities of what's going on. The other thing is, that's just all of us. Again, I say it every time I meet a homeless person, if they're a little paranoid. Well, I have a little paranoia in my business. I might be addicted to coffee or beer, but it's just to the extent. I see them, everybody that walks up, they just have all the same [inaudible 01:14:35] it's just to degree. They can't manage their illnesses. We manage our crazy. I can manage my crazy. You manage your crazy. Everybody-
Howard Farran: I'm actually the only normal person on Earth. I have it certified by a doctor and signed.
Kris Volcheck: We just manage our crazy. That's it. They can't manage their crazy.
Howard Farran: I think it's funny how you'll see redneck idiots talking about drug dealers, like, "Dude, you can't even give up cheese. You can't give up cheese."
Kris Volcheck: Exactly.
Howard Farran: But this guys supposed to get off of drugs and he's mentally ill.
Kris Volcheck: No. If you just look at what any of us are addicted, we're all addicted, we're all mentally ill, we manage those. Just a piece. Here's the thing is, we manage them enough. What are we judged on? We manage things enough to make money in a capitalistic society. Other people can't and they're judged on whether they can have a job or not. Well, they can't because they can't manage the things that we can manage, but there's no difference. There's no difference.
Howard Farran: So, final question. Last question because we are [crosstalk 01:15:37] over time.
Kris Volcheck: I was going to say. You added all this [crosstalk 01:15:39]. I'm adding something too.
Ryan: [inaudible 01:15:42]
Howard Farran: My final question.
Kris Volcheck: Okay.
Howard Farran: Who's more batshit crazy? You or me?
Kris Volcheck: I'm hoping it's me. I'm hoping it's me.
Howard Farran: Oh, man. Thanks for coming by.
Kris Volcheck: Okay.
Howard Farran: Seriously, thank you so much.