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Dental Leaders Podcast

Dental Leaders Podcast

Prav Solanki & Payman Langroudi 397 Episodes Jul 15, 2026

The Dental Leaders podcast takes you on a behind the scenes journey with emerging leaders in dentistry. Success leaves clues, and these conversations uncover the depth, detail, and backstory behind our guests. The show is hosted by dental entrepreneurs Payman Langroudi & Prav Solanki. Let the conversation flow.

Episodes

#351 The Legacy Builder — Neil Sikka
#351 The Legacy Builder — Neil Sikka Jul 15, 2026 01:32:34 Neil Sikka joins Payman to reflect on a career that has moved from single-surgery NHS dentistry in Bethnal Green to building a ten-practice London group, selling to Bupa, and now helping shape clinical strategy across one of the UK’s biggest dental organisations.He talks candidly about the Barbican Dental Care years, why he chose cultural fit over the highest offer when selling, and why he still p
#350 Dentistry 2040 — Andrew Bower
#350 Dentistry 2040 — Andrew Bower Jul 8, 2026 00:56:41 Recorded live at Bupa Dental Health Is Live, this Dental Leaders episode sees Payman joined by Andrew Bower from Philips Oral Healthcare for a sharp look at dentistry in 2040. The conversation moves from AI, robotics and connected toothbrushes to the bigger question of how oral health can become part of everyday whole-body care. Andrew explores Philips’ long-term view on prevention, consumer behav
#349 Doing the Right Thing — Ian Dunn
#349 Doing the Right Thing — Ian Dunn Jul 1, 2026 01:57:17 Ian Dunn didn't set out to become a periodontist. A chance encounter with a stranger in a hospital corridor, a course he took on a whim, and the absence of anyone else doing the job in Liverpool — that's how a specialism was born. In this episode, Payman sits down with Ian to trace a career shaped as much by happy accidents as by hard graft; from a comprehensive school kid who retook his A
#348 Agony Uncle — Sina Gilannejad
#348 Agony Uncle — Sina Gilannejad Jun 24, 2026 01:45:05 From pizza shop to Maxfax theatre — Sina Gilannejad's route into dentistry is anything but straightforward. Born in Northern Ireland to Iranian parents, Sina brings a rare blend of warmth, self-awareness, and hard-won clinical confidence to this conversation. He opens up about the anxiety that drove him towards DCT, the perfectionism that almost derailed him, and how a stint in maxillofacial s
#347 Bring the Energy — Meghan Chard
#347 Bring the Energy — Meghan Chard Jun 17, 2026 01:47:32 Meghan Chard is many things at once — principal dentist, practice owner, mum of three, and quietly passionate evangelist for childhood airway health. In this episode, she sits down with Payman for a wide-ranging conversation that takes in meeting her husband Simon at dental school, buying his family's Leicestershire practice a month before their first child arrived, and the very particular cha
#346 First Principles — Henry Totterdell
#346 First Principles — Henry Totterdell Jun 10, 2026 01:25:07 What happens when a mechanical engineer spends a decade fixing factories, then walks away from it all to start dental school at 34? Henry Totterdell joins Payman to tell that story. He talks about the years spent solving problems on aircraft carriers and chemotherapy production lines, the slow-burning itch to do something with his hands, and why he finally took the plunge. Along the way they get i
#345 Do the Thing — Ali Al-Hassan
#345 Do the Thing — Ali Al-Hassan Jun 3, 2026 02:02:55 Ali Al-Hassan is the walking embodiment of work hard, play hard — a young dentist who's gone from associate to super associate, practice co-owner and globe-trotter, all while building a following that brings patients straight to his chair. In this episode, he and Payman get into what really separates an ordinary associate from a "super" one: bringing in your own patients, owning your fees, and tre
#344 The Package Deal — Ashley King & Sophie Lovett
#344 The Package Deal — Ashley King & Sophie Lovett May 27, 2026 01:57:15 Ashley King and Sophie Lovett run the international side of Pearl, the AI company that reads dental radiographs — and they turn up as a self-confessed package deal. The chat starts with what the tech actually does (a second opinion for clinicians, and a way to help patients finally see what's going on in their own mouths), but it doesn't stay there for long. Payman, Ashley and Sophie get i
#343 Serendipity — Tara Renton
#343 Serendipity — Tara Renton May 20, 2026 02:10:21 Professor Tara Renton OBE brings four generations of dental history — and a career built on curiosity rather than ambition — to her conversation with Payman. From navigating undiagnosed dyslexia and a father who begged her not to follow him into dentistry, to becoming the first female chair of oral surgery at King's College London, her story is one of serendipity, resilience, and an almost obs
#342 Looking for the Edge — Mike Gray
#342 Looking for the Edge — Mike Gray May 13, 2026 01:53:37 Mike Gray's path to dentistry was anything but straightforward — and that's precisely what makes this conversation so compelling. A former semi-professional mountain biker who raced the World Series across three disciplines, a musician who once had the head of Universal Publishing sitting in his living room in rural Wales, and a dentist who spent years doing everything he could to avoid de
#341 Underestimated — Rawa Jawad Quinn
#341 Underestimated — Rawa Jawad Quinn May 6, 2026 01:54:52 Rawa Jawad Quinn is a dentist-turned-tech founder whose restless energy and refusal to be underestimated have shaped every chapter of her career. In this episode, she tells Payman about growing up in Chelsea after her Iraqi family fled Kuwait with nothing, studying in Liverpool, and working across 16 dental practices before channelling her frustrations into Medicube — a consent and patient communi
#340 Exit at the Peak — Andy Acton
#340 Exit at the Peak — Andy Acton Apr 29, 2026 01:36:19 Andy Acton returns to the Dental Leaders hot seat for a proper deep-cut conversation about the business of owning a dental practice — from first purchase right through to the exit. Payman and Andy cover the current market (spoiler: banks still love dentists, and buyers far outnumber sellers), before getting into the real meat of the episode: owner fatigue. Andy breaks down the five categories of b

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