Dr Jason Pang recounts his game-changing experience with dental lasers in this second instalment of our series featuring pioneering graduates of Laser and Health Academy (LA&HA) Masters in Laser Dentistry program. 

By Danny Chan

When Dr Jason Pang decided to change the name of his Neutral Bay practice by adding the word ‘laser’ – to become Cosmic Smile Laser Dental – he wasn’t simply trying to give it a tech spin. Rather, the new name reflected the profound impact that laser tech has had on his practice, following his introduction to the Fotona LightWalker in 2015.

The Sydney-based practitioner first heard about dental lasers in 2009 and was immediately drawn to their ability to treat multiple soft-tissue related problems, from healing inflamed gums and cold sores, lengthening teeth in gummy smiles to treating venous malformations.

For the self-confessed tech geek always on the lookout for new and better ways to do things, that initial brush with dental lasers represented a major discovery preceded by several others: Virtual Reality (VR) products, a CBVT x-ray machine, Minimal Intervention Dentistry, Lumineers and Snap-On Smile.

Dr Pang was one of six contributing authors of Game Changers: Entrepreneurs Leading Change, in which he chronicled his journey from an importer and distributor of VR wares to working as a dentist in his father’s surgery to founding his own booming practice. His suburban practice located on the Lower North Shore of Sydney has been featured on Seven Network’s Today Tonight and Channel Nine News for his anti-snoring work.

In the Amazon-retailing book, Dr Pang credits his introduction to dental lasers as the major turning point of an outstanding career. Another pivotal encounter, he notes, centred on a specific model:
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“I was introduced to Fotona in 2015 when I attended a laser training course run by my colleague Hisham Abdalla. When I heard that the Fotona LightWalker could be used to treat snoring, I knew that this was something that I had to investigate. I travelled to Melbourne to visit Innovative Medical Technologies to see if the laser could really do what they said it could.”
 
That fateful meeting at the Oakleigh office of the Fotona Australian distributor led to two personal milestones: He became the first dentist in NSW to own the Dual Erbium YAG + Neodymium YAG Fotona LightWalker AT-S and one of the first dentists in Australia to be formally trained by Fotona in this revolutionary dental laser technology.
 
Since then, the Fotona LightWalker has been nothing short of a breakthrough technology permeating every facet of his professional work, from expanding treatments both in scope and approach – more holistic, technological and aesthetic – to becoming more customer-focused.
 
Applications varied across the spectrum: Prepare cavities in teeth without anaesthetic; laser trough margins to improve impressions; remove gingiva for subgingival preparations; remove fibromas and haemangiomas; treat snoring and sleep apnoea; treat periodontitis and peri-implantitis; perform one-visit root canal treatments.
 
Besides enhancing clinical performance and broadening treatment range, the Fotona LightWalker also proved to be a smart business investment:
 
“It would be an unusual day for me not to use the laser. In just doing the laser treatments for snoring, I was able to recover the cost of the laser within 6 months. Scheduled laser treatments of 5 or more per day are quite normal so the contribution that it makes to the practice each day is huge.”
 
Of course, Dr Pang will have you know that investment in laser dentistry does not end at equipment purchase but encompasses the training component. After using the Fotona laser for about 9 months, he was invited to speak at the International Fotona Weekend in Slovenia, which coincided with the launch of the Laser and Health Academy (LA&HA) Masters in Laser Dentistry program. On invitation of Paul Baltas, the Founder and Sales Manager of Innovative Medical Technologies, Dr Pang enrolled in the course.
 
“Our Masters colleagues were oral surgeons, periodontists, endodontists and each brought knowledge of their disciplines into our education. Our mentors were the most experienced Fotona users in the world and they were researchers as well.”
 
“Being able to ask them questions and watch them perform procedures accelerated our learning dramatically,” Dr Pang enthuses.
 
In May 2017, Dr Pang and fellow Australian dentists, Dr Linhlan Nguyen and Dr Johnny Chan, joined 5 other international course attendees to become the first graduates of the Masters Program. For Dr Pang, the program was meaningful in professional and personal ways. Reminiscing their camaraderie during the course, he says the doctors still keep in touch, “leaning on each other for support”.
 
Individually, they also brought their knowledge back to share with other dental laser enthusiasts in their home country. For his part, Dr Pang designed a teaching program for newcomers to the fledging technology, built around the various disciplines including restorative, endodontics, periodontics and implantitis, snoring, surgery and hard/soft tissue.
 
As a laser educator, Dr Pang has come a long way since his maiden public demonstration at Aestheticon in 2015 where laser procedures were performed on live patients. Today, he runs courses throughout the year with Hisham Abdalla, training dentists around Australia. Apart from Australian gigs, international engagements speaking to diverse audiences in Slovenia, Manila, Singapore jostle for whatever leftover time he can squeeze out of a busy work schedule. He will soon be travelling to Orlando to lecture at the Academy of Laser Dentistry conference.
 
On hindsight, Dr Pang believes the value of attending the Masters Program extends beyond learning new techniques to include lifelong lessons in knowledge application and transfer: 
 
“As a practitioner, the Masters program taught me new procedures that I hadn’t done before like laser peels, skin rejuvenation and wrinkle removal. It gave me an understanding of best practices for periodontal and peri-implantitis treatments taught by laser periodontists and a deeper understanding of laser physics.”
 
“As an educator, I found that I was taught not only knowledge but how to deliver that to an audience in a way that allows them to absorb and process the information in a meaningful way.”
 
It’s amazing to see how laser dentistry has updated treatment concepts both as a practice-building feature and for the wellbeing of patients. For Dr Jason Pang, it has further reinvigorated his passion for dentistry. In Game Changers: Entrepreneurs Leading Change, Dr Pang called the Fotona LightWalker “the perfect complement to the dentistry that (he) was doing.”
 
He wrote: “The laser impacted almost every dental treatment that I did. I remember thinking to myself just the week before, “Why would you change the name of your business?” as a colleague recently did and yet as soon as I came to realise the impact the laser was going to have in my business it made perfect sense to change the practice name to Cosmic Smile Laser Dental. Mentally for me this was a huge turning point.”
 

Ekera Dental supports professional and personal aspirations of partnering dentists
 
By Danny Chan
 
Dr George Koudos graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2001, the same year he began a lasting and career defining relationship with Raglan Dental. Starting as a part time employee, then progressing onto full-time work, he finally assumed the mantle as a full practice owner in 2014.
 
Since its establishment in 1958, Raglan Dental had been a trusted family practice serving the patient community in Ballarat. Determined to carry on the legacy no matter who is in charge, Dr Koudos is proud to report that the clinic’s longstanding commitment remains firmly intact – a worthwhile assertion, considering Raglan Dental’s recent partnership with Ekera Dental, a company that specialises in practice acquisition.  
 
Reasons for the partnership, Dr Koudos reveals, boil down to management fatigue and lifestyle choices. What began as piecemeal work had over the years evolved into full on commitment for the dental entrepreneur. Between clinical and practice management duties, Dr Koudos at one point, found his time increasingly consumed by his dual roles as Practice Principal and Owner.
 
The challenging roles and responsibilities were also distracting from both his professional and personal commitments. Ideally, he wanted to devote more hours to the clinical aspects of his practice as well as continuing education. Away from the Ballarat clinic, Dr Koudos had around the same time, become more involved as a volunteer dentist with a Christian outreach organisation.  
 
The Practice Principal began to wonder whether partnering a corporate outfit would be a plausible next step for Raglan Dental. The brief contact he established with one about five years ago had seeded an idea, the prospects of which slowly unravelled around the middle of last year. After investigating various corporate models available in the marketplace, the prudent dentist narrowed the field down to Ekera Dental.
 
Ekera Dental Pty Ltd identifies existing high performing dental practices with growth capacity for the purposes of an acquisition. On and off discussions with the Ekera team spanned over approximately six months until Raglan Dental finally joined the corporate family in February.
 
“Compared to other corporates, I found that Ekera Dental offered several points of difference that made the company an excellent fit for Raglan Dental,” Dr Koudos reasons.
 
“First of all, and most important to me, the Ekera team has been very purposeful in the way they maintain the existing ethos, name and values of the practice. This stems from having a strong and highly consultative partnership model that involves the staff and myself in the ongoing decision making process.”
 
“Ekera also plays a much needed support role that allows me to focus on my clinical duties with minimal distractions.”
 
True to Ekera Dental’s stated credo of “allowing Practice Principals to reduce their administrative workload and focus on clinical activities”, Dr Koudos says one of the biggest rewards from the partnership is “reduced stress” from not having to deal with practice management issues.
 
Besides practice management, clinical and other operational support services – including financial management, human resource advisory and recruitment services, marketing and public awareness initiatives – the company also provides detailed orthodontic training and mentoring programmes to each Practice within the Group.
 
“With regards to professional development, I feel supported from both a professional and personal standpoint.”
 
Ekera Dental has also been supporting Dr Koudos’ personal aspirations – especially when it comes to his volunteering work, which has become synonymous with Raglan Dental.
 
Attached to the Australian Christian Dental Aid (ACDA) – a not-for-profit, non-government organisation that helps to deliver dental aid to underprivileged populations – Dr Koudos frequently brings his unstinting altruism to the Republic of Vanuatu, a Pacific island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean.
 
Raglan Dental sponsors flight and accommodation for the practice’s very own volunteer team, comprising Dr Koudos, fellow Raglan dentist, Dr Abanob Saeed, and two dental assistants. Over the last 18 months, Raglan Dental has funded seven such dental aid trips to Vanuatu.
 
“Outreach services are the main aspect of work provided thus far through ACDA. We have mainly provided oral surgery services in more remote villages where access is difficult,” Dr Koudos informs.
 
“Dental education and restorative services have also been provided but to a lesser degree. Volunteering provides massive value to people and villages that would otherwise never be serviced.”  


Clearly passionate about the cause, Dr Koudos tells me the current dental situation in Vanuatu is growing desperate, calling it “a modern day epidemic”:
 
“The situation is getting more appalling as a more processed, high sugar diet – common amongst the local populations – compounds the problem of limited education and services.”
 
He gives a few explicit examples: “Sixteen year-old girls are having all 24 of their adult teeth extracted while adult molars are pulled from the mouths of 6 year-old kids due to decay – even before their roots have fully formed! Five year-old children suffer multiple infections; some have multiple infections from a single tooth.”
 
Making a sincere plea for increased dental education and funding, Dr Koudos also appeals for volunteers:
 
“We encourage any dental volunteer to join the mission, to come out and see the beautiful people of Vanuatu for themselves. We feel that every dental volunteer has been blessed with invaluable skills that can literally change entire communities. Once you get a chance to see these communities, it is very hard to “unsee” them ever again.”
 
Grateful that Raglan Dental can continue to support the much-needed work in Vanuatu, Dr Koudos believes that Ekera Dental deserves some of the credit as well:
 
“Ekera has been 100% supportive of Raglan Dental in its continuing dental aid work for ACDA. Ekera has funded the flight and accommodation of 2 dental assistants in the latest Vanuatu dental aid trip in April. The next trip is planned for June.”
 
Most dentists cite “lifestyle changes” as benefits for partnering with a corporate outfit. To Dr Koudos, the intangible rewards also translate to having more time and opportunity to better the lives of others. The biggest beneficiaries though, he insists, are the volunteers themselves:
 
“Witnessing people living in difficult conditions makes you appreciative of what you already have, and it does affect the way you live.”  
 
“Interestingly, we often think about changing the lives of others in doing volunteer work, when in fact, we are the ones most positively impacted by the experience.”