Oral Surgeon EXPOSES Insurance Companies, $250K Dental School Debt, Dry Socket Facts | DOS DIENTES Episode 5

This is our DOS DIENTES project: capturing the moment of a hard-working day, while we're in it, after all the years of education and training, having found/created a really unique & exciting way of working in our profession. "If it doesn't exist, you have to build it" and I bet we all find ourselves stuck sometimes in a job we wish we could break out from... Alexia and I were terminated, on the same day, from our last job - and this project embodies our "break out."

We teamed up and became DOS DIENTES ("two teeth" in Spanish) and began our 1-day-per-week job doing Oral Surgery at our friend's dental practices 2-3 hours away in Westchester, NY. On our drive home, between 6-8pm on Thursdays, we sign onto TikTok LIVE and chat with whoever wants to join us on this journey, and give you a shoutout for it. Thanks for coming on last week, Episode 6 drops tomorrow, see you all on Thursday 8/6 :)

Top 5 Topics:

- Behind-the-Scenes: Life of an Oral Surgeon (Bellevue Trauma, Mentors, Missing Thumbs)

- Dry Socket Anxiety & Wisdom Teeth Recovery Timeline

- Insurance Companies Are Destroying Dentistry

- Is a New Dental School a "Money Grab"? (Yeshiva Controversy)

- Dental School vs. Trade-Off: Debt, Loans & the "Worth It" Question

Top 14 Viewers on DOS DIENTES Episode 5 Q&A:

1st - @fikethebike1231

2nd – Biniyam Mirkano, @biniyam_mirkano

3rd – Kaitlyn, @kaitlynmg013

4th – Anony, @anony9220

5th – Jes, @jesiboy0

6th – Sports Talk Tv, @official_sports_talk_tv

7th – , @user3127469730193

8th – Samantha Lyn Photography, @samanthalyn_

9th – @hilinaa16

10th - JuliaJayBird1023, @crazycatperson2021

11th - Karvakainalo30, @heli.tw

12th - bam02, @bambam_choo

13th - Ali, @ullahhhhh

14th - destiny, @destiny.cuellarr

Quotes & Wisdom:

[04:15] "It's surprising, but unfortunate, that some surgeons are not great leaders... You AND your team need to be excited and happy going in every day."

[06:30] "Learn the business of the practice, the finance of the practice, the marketing of the practice. Learn the marketing of yourself as a dentist."

[14:00] "Why did Yeshiva open? This is just a money grab. We don't need more dental students in New York — this movement of opening dental schools without the profession of dentistry expanding at the same rate; it’s oversaturating dentistry more than it already is. But the admins of dental schools don’t work in dentistry anymore - they make money off of the current business of it"

[21:15] "Why is my career judged by insurance companies when they don't even have a dentist looking at the X-rays? That reimburses less than what it was in the 1990s?? You can't run a practice that way."

[24:45] "I have a hunch you could make and save up for your retirement faster and better on this track than going back to school for two and a half years."

[31:49] "Bellevue Hospital is a level one trauma center — we did all the worst trauma in Manhattan."

Questions:

[00:35] "RDH and engineer taking the DAT in September — what is your best advice, Doc?"

[12:58] "Have you ever considered being the president of Russia?"

[13:45] "I'm 33 applying to dental schools — what are your thoughts on Yeshiva?"

[18:35] "If you could have dinner with any athlete, dead or alive, who'd it be?"

[19:45] "What made you choose dentistry and medicine?"

[30:30] "If you ever had to do another procedure in life ever again, what would you pick?"

[31:49] "Was Bellevue residency as bad as they say?"

DOS DIENTES Team:

- Dr. Brendan Gallagher (Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon)

- Dra. Alexia Gomez (Head Surgical Assistant; Dentist of Mexico)

Now available on:

- Dr. Gallagher’s Podcast & YouTube Channel

- @doctorgallagher_‘s TikTok LIVE Q&A 105

Watch in this episode = Tag Heuer Aquaracer Caliber 16 Chrono

- 7.2026

#podcast #dentalpodcast #doctor #dentist #dentistry #oralsurgery #dental #dentalschool #dentalstudent #oralsurgeon #doctorgallagher #doctorgallagherspodcast #DOSDIENTES