Office Visit: Dr. Ryan McCall Dr. Kyle Patton, associate editor, Dentaltown magazine

As a dentist, you spend most of your waking hours at your practice, so it's understandable that you might not get many opportunities to see what it's like in another doctor's office. Dentaltown's Office Visit profile offers a chance for you to meet peers, see their practices and hear their stories.

This month features Dr. Ryan McCall of Indianapolis. McCall has been a Townie since 2003, and in that time, he's amassed more than 40,000 posts and 150 followers. It's time to meet the doc behind the legendary "2 Chairz" handle.

Let's hear your origin story.

I grew up in Effingham, Illinois, and went to Indiana University. I wanted to be an MD and took a job at a hospital; I shadowed with my childhood pediatrician and dentist. Suddenly the idea of dentistry became much more appealing. I enjoyed working on bicycles, so dentistry also appealed to my mechanical nature.

I also worked part time as a custodian at the community college in Effingham, where I would see equations on the wall, and just finish them. (No, wait—that's Good Will Hunting. But the rest is true.)

You have one of the more unique practices out there.

You only have two chairs! (Which explains your Townie name,"2 Chairz.") How is your practice laid out?

We have a couple of locations, and they all have two chairs! Literally. If I use a third chair, I feel guilty. Our layout is simple: desk in the front and patients in the back. Our operatories are large and have doors that close, which is important for the privacy of denture patients. Our main location is the largest and it contains our central lab, where we fabricate the dentures for all our offices.

You're sort of a denture demigod in dentistry. You have your own lab, lecture on the topic and, overall, gear your practice on providing great prosthodontics. Why?

Definitely not a demigod! Dentures happened to me largely by accident: My first job out of dental school was for a doctor in Durango, Colorado, who did same-day, inexpensive dentures. I really didn't enjoy working at that office—it was awful, but the money was wonderful. When I decided to buy, I looked for a bread-and-butter-style practice to purchase on the Front Range of Colorado; the area was supercompetitive and some offices weren't doing well because the market for that area is very saturated. So I found "the one": a 72-year-old doctor in Fort Collins who was doing only replacement dentures with an in-house lab. We added surgery and some restorative, and the practice thrived. I ended up selling that office to a wonderful prosthodontist.

About three years ago, a friend emailed me a link to a thread on Dentaltown started by a doctor who had a practice in Indiana that was only doing immediate dentures three days a week. He couldn't find anyone to sell his practice to—he'd listed it for three years. My wife was excited at the possibility of being closer to family, so we flew to Indy and bought the practice a few days later. It's been the best investment I've ever made. (Thank you, "drstogie"!)

What is your practice philosophy?

Our central focus is the patient. Denture patients are often an underserved and frustrated demographic. Many of them have been treated poorly not just by dentistry but by life. They can be hard to please. We approach them with compassion and understanding. We make the patients and their lives and needs the central focus of their treatment. They are not "production" or "dollar signs"—they are people. We do our best for them and give them and their smiles a new lease on life. One patient at a time.

From the practice management side of things, how do you keep your practice set apart from others in the area?

No one else does what we do. We offer a service that's outside the box of general family dentistry. My offices are small and have low overhead. We don't have any fancy or expensive equipment. We are growing because we are literally too small to fail.

What is your favorite marketing method?

Social media! Hands down, my best marketing is being done on Facebook. I photograph every case. People are very drawn to pictures. I have multiple Facebook pages, with more than 20,000 followers collectively. The photos draw people in and they ask questions, and we direct them to call the office. I also run ads to get people to the pages. Facebook ads have become much more competitive over the past 10 years, and we've started to shift over to Instagram. Which is blowing up. (@mccall_dentures)

What do you think is the biggest problem dentists face today?

Debt. Students are graduating with $500,000 of academic debt. In 10 years, they'll be graduating with close to $1 million in debt. Some of them won't make it and will default. Most will not be able to even look at the option of buying a solo practice or associating for a solo dentist. Their only option will be to work for large corporate offices that offer more money than a small practice could ever compete with. They will also offer better benefits and CE than their employee docs.

What is the greatest advancement of change you've seen during your tenure as a dentist?

First, 3-D technology and printing. Also, CAD/CAM milling and microscopes.

Looking ahead, what would you like to see dentistry do in terms of the way it operates as a profession in the next five to 10 years?

I would like to see a huge increase in both clinical and didactic experiences for students. I have seen local graduates who have never done a lower denture or crowned a canine. In fact, most have only done one molar root canal, if they're lucky. I think dentistry needs a strong refocus on education and to decrease its interest in large corporate profiteering.

If you could go back and give yourself advice while you were still in dental school, what would you say?

If I'd known that my main focus was going to be dentures, I would've skipped all the endodontics, pedodontics and restorative lectures. I'd have done more oral surgeries with the postgrad students and learned to suture well and do ridge augmentations. I would tell my former self not to go into pediatrics, because he'll have four kids of his own, and to buy stock in Apple and Amazon.

What can you not practice without?

Patients, Pelton & Crane chairs (two per office!), amazing staff and wonderful lab techs.

Describe the most successful or rewarding experience in your professional life.

I'm rewarded every day by this profession. When you take out 25 abscessed and broken-down teeth and give someone a beautiful new smile, you've changed their life forever. They're a new person, and this one change can make a real difference in their life. It is beyond rewarding. Most dentists hate dentures and I understand the pitfalls—but I love that feeling of really helping a person who's down.

What's life like for you outside of practice? What's important to you outside of dentistry?

My family, cycling and running, and all professional sports. (Go, Colts! Go, Pacers! Go, White Sox!)

You've been on Dentaltown since 2003 and posted more than 40,000 times. You've helped many docs over the years. How has Dentaltown, and its community, helped you?

I started reading Dentaltown magazine when I was a freshman in undergrad in 2001—I read everything back then, but Dentaltown was inspirational and kept me moving toward this career in dentistry. I wouldn't be where I'm at now without Dentaltown—it's how I found the first practice I bought in Indiana, and I have four kids so it is very hard for me to travel. I've taken most of the continuing education courses on Dentaltown's website and it's all very good. [Director of Clinical Education] Howard Goldstein does a great job and it has been very helpful in my practice.

I'm extremely grateful for Dentaltown. I've made some really wonderful friends along the way—Dawn Kulongowski, Alan Mead, Thom Caspers, Tammy Bailey and many others have been awesome mentors for my practice.