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.

In this episode of Dental Tech Talks, Youssef Hanine sits down with Josh DeVries, CEO and co-founder of Intiveo, a patient-engagement platform trusted by more than 60,000 providers across North America. Josh shares how he went from modernizing academic dental software at Exan (Henry Schein One) to building Intiveo — a company that now automates over 90 million messages a year and supports 33 million patients. We explore how academic insights shaped Intiveo’s design, why communication is the backbone of patient trust, how DSOs use integration as a growth superpower, and what’s next as AI enters the world of patient experience.

In this episode of Dental Tech Talks, we sits down with Hemesh Surana, founder of PatientXpress and former Oracle executive turned dental tech entrepreneur. After helping billion-dollar corporations streamline operations, Himesh applied his expertise to his wife’s struggling dental office—building a prototype that would evolve into a full-scale, all-in-one platform now used across five continents. We discuss how Patient Express is helping practices go fully paperless, cut admin costs, and achieve up to 44 % net-income growth through features like AI-powered voice reception, smart caller ID, and automated workflows. Himesh also shares his take on data security, WhatsApp-based engagement trends, and his long-term mission to simplify the black box of dental insurance.

In this episode of Dental Tech Talks, host Youssef Hanine sits down with James DeLuca, founder of Precision Dental Analytics and author of The Dental Data Playbook. With experience scaling multimillion-dollar operations and building AI-powered tools like Orion, James reveals how data-driven insights are transforming practice performance. From uncovering $750K in hidden revenue to automating patient reactivation with conversational AI, he explains the mindset shifts that help independent practices compete with DSOs. Tune in to learn how data, delegation, and AI are reshaping the business side of dentistry.

In this episode of Dental Tech Talks, we sit down with Anirudh Perubotla, co-founder of Floe Health, to explore how predictive AI is transforming referral management and patient retention. A Forbes 30 Under 30 innovator and former product leader at Commure, Anirudh shares how Floe Health’s “quiet intelligence” model helps clinics reduce no-shows, improve continuity of care, and lift revenue without adding new systems to manage. We dive into empathy-driven design, the balance between automation and human judgment, and how predictive operations could become healthcare’s next big frontier.

In this episode of Dental Tech Talks, we sit down with Shiva Kumar, Co-Founder and CTO of Dentulu — the teledentistry platform now powering over 500,000 virtual consults and transforming oral health at scale. Shiva shares how an “accidental marriage” between tech and dentistry turned into an AI-first platform integrating everything from intraoral cameras and AI second opinions to salivary diagnostics and remote treatment planning. We discuss Dentulu’s partnerships with innovators like Pearl AI and Viome, their expanding presence across the U.S. and internationally, and why salivary testing, AI note-taking, and remote sleep apnea care are just the beginning. Whether you're a startup founder or a DSO operator, this one is a blueprint for building real healthcare impact.