In this episode of Dental Tech Talks, Youssef sits down with Matthew Hernandez, Director of Operations at Mukilteo Dental Center and a third-generation dental leader with 25-plus years building DSOs, labs, and high-volume practices. We cover Matthew’s origin story, how he turned a 30,000 square foot space into a patient-centered, tech-enabled hub, and the operational changes that moved his team from chaos to repeatable performance. Expect practical playbooks on department design, KPI-driven decision making, same-day crown manufacturing, AI in scanning and lab workflows, and leadership lessons for scaling without losing culture. If you care about sustainable operations, faster clinical turnarounds, or building clinics that patients actually love, this one’s for you.

In this episode of Dental Tech Talks, Youssef sits down with Alex Cohen, CEO and co-founder of Hello Patient, an Austin-based healthcare technology company reshaping how clinics communicate with patients. Before launching Hello Patient, Alex helped Carbon Health scale to more than 130 locations and over 200 million dollars in annual revenue, giving him a deep understanding of operational chaos inside busy healthcare groups. We explore how Hello Patient uses enterprise-grade conversational AI to automate scheduling, reduce abandoned calls, improve patient access, and create a more efficient front-office experience. Alex breaks down real integration challenges, why generative AI still needs guardrails, and how practices can adopt automation responsibly without losing trust or empathy.

In this episode of Dental Tech Talks, Youssef sits down with Shahzeb “Shaz” Sheikh, a product leader who has built digital experiences across finance, e-commerce, and now dentistry. From leading U.S. Bank’s $8B merger integration to transforming David’s Cookies into a modern digital brand, Shaz has mastered the art of blending creativity with systems thinking. Now in stealth mode, he’s building AI-driven voice and automation tools designed to simplify dental operations and elevate patient experience. Tune in to hear how Shaz approaches innovation, data privacy, and the next wave of human-AI collaboration in dentistry.