Rick A. Mars, DDS, Dental Care Group President and Align (Invisalign) Global Faculty Member

Summary

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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Guest: Dr. Rick A. Mars, DDS, Dental Care Group President and Align Global Faculty Member
Host: Ariana Portolatten
Date: September 14, 2025
Episode Theme: Navigating Challenges and Innovations in Dentistry

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode of the Becker’s Dental and DSO Review podcast, host Ariana Portolatten interviews Dr. Rick Mars, a seasoned dentist with nearly four decades of experience, president of Florida’s Dental Care Group, and global faculty member for Align Technology. The conversation focuses on current challenges and trends in dentistry, from external pressures on the industry to emerging technologies, patient misconceptions, and principles for effective leadership in a rapidly evolving dental landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Dr. Rick Mars’ Background and the Dental Care Group (00:18–01:12)

• Professional Experience: Dr. Mars shares his academic journey (Emory University & Georgetown University School of Dentistry) and his career spanning 37 years.
• Practice Overview: Operates four offices in Florida with a combined staff of 80, including 14 dentists, covering both adult and pediatric care.
• Personal Note: “Been doing it a long time, doing the right thing and happily married for 35 years with three awesome sons and a beautiful wife.” (00:55)

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2. Biggest Issues Affecting Dentistry in 2025 (01:22–03:19)

• External Interference & Non-Expert Decision-Makers:

  • Cites the recent fluoride debate in Florida as an example—decisions affecting dental health increasingly made by those “who aren’t the experts, the non-scientific community.” (01:34)
  • Expresses concern about political involvement and policies not grounded in dental science.

• Economic Pressures:

  • Insurance reimbursements lag behind rising costs of equipment, supplies, labs, and especially employee salaries.
  • Notes competition for staff and higher payroll obligations.

• Quality Compromises & Inferior Products:

  • Alarms over trends like outsourcing lab work internationally that led to subpar or dangerous results, e.g., crowns containing lead.
  • Criticizes the use of inferior or cheap products, particularly in clear aligners:

    “If it's clear aligners, they'll go for the cheapest company, not the best company. And these are things that, you know, I'm always trying to preach to younger dentists: do the right thing and give your patients the best.” (02:34)

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3. Excitement and Concern for the Dental Industry (03:31–08:50)

• What’s Exciting:

  • Changing Lives: Dentistry’s power to unlock well-being and confidence through oral health.
  • Patient Awareness: Appreciation for patients recognizing the “mouth-body connection”:

    "You're my most important doctor...it all starts in the mouth." (03:56)

  • Advancing Practice: Pride in the results achieved by his team and commitment to staying current with technology and innovation.
  • AI and Innovation: Welcomes technological advancements, especially AI, while still grounding care in quality and principle.
  • Quote:

    “The most important thing that we’re doing right now is just giving our patients the best we can and staying current with everything that we do… It’s a great time to be practicing dentistry at the end of the day.” (04:53)

• What’s Concerning:

  • DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Dentistry: Popularity of at-home solutions, often spurred by influencer marketing or social media, can lead to poor results and even harm.
  • Patient Misconceptions: Warns of dangers when patients substitute online information or social trends for professional guidance:

    “When people make healthcare decisions based on money alone, they're generally making bad decisions.” (05:54) “She got sucked in on social media…people know the influencers are getting paid to do this, and they'll just get sucked in and they'll make bad healthcare decisions…” (06:30)

  • Misinformation Online: Rising tendency for patients to rely on “Dr. Google,” leading to unnecessary health anxieties or misguided self-diagnosis:

    “He went through all these symptoms and told me everything that he had. And WebMD said it could be related to periodontal disease. I agree with you 100%. Only one problem...you don't have periodontal disease, 2 plus 2 does not equal 7.” (07:10–07:30)

  • Fleeting Trends: From charcoal toothpaste to other “virtually every dumb trend,” stresses that dental science often disproves these but not before widespread adoption.

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4. Advice for Healthcare Leaders: Keys to Success (09:05–11:13)

• “Doing the right thing” as Core Principle:
  Repeatedly emphasizes integrity as the central tenet of personal and organizational success:

  “It always starts with doing the right thing. And when you do that, if you're not doing the right thing, you won't be successful, period.” (09:10)

  • Warns against sacrificing long-term trust for short-term gain.

• Prudent Adoption of Technology:

  • Encourages leaders to avoid knee-jerk reactions to every new tech development (like AI), suggesting a measured approach: “We generally wait and see when two or three products tend to come out there and we see who's the best one and why is it the best one.” (10:00)

• Navigating Practice Consolidation:

  • Highlights industry trend toward consolidation of dental practices and the critical need to ensure patient care remains central even during business expansion:

    “There’s a lot of good organizations out there…patients come first. And if you do the right thing by the patient, all the rest follows.” (10:30)

  • Urges assessment of business partners and continuity of care values.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Value of Dentistry:

  "We do an amazing thing for patients...We're making them happy, giving them beautiful smiles, taking patients out of pain, keeping their mouths healthy." (03:37)

• On Influencer-driven DIY Trends:

  “She got sucked in on social media...people know the influencers are getting paid…and they'll just get sucked in and...make bad healthcare decisions based on something they pick up online.” (06:26-06:40)

• On Leadership:

  “If you're not making good decisions doing the right thing, you're off to a bad start...do the right thing, stay involved with good technology, solid things…to make good decisions with good organizations that really do care about the patient.” (09:10, 10:52)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:18–01:12 Dr. Mars’ Background
• 01:22–03:19 Major Industry Issues—External Interference, Costs, Product Quality
• 03:31–05:27 What Excites Dr. Mars About Dentistry
• 05:40–08:50 Concerns: DIY Dentistry, Online Misinformation, Trends
• 09:05–11:13 Leadership & Success Factors for the Next 2–3 Years

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Conclusion

Dr. Rick Mars delivers a candid, insightful look at the current state and future direction of dentistry. He underscores the necessity of clinical integrity, cautious adoption of innovation, and sound leadership—both for individual practitioners and group practices—while warning of the pitfalls of misinformation and misguided trends. His advice is clear and consistent: Prioritize doing the right thing for patients, adapt thoughtfully to innovation, and keep patient care at the heart of every decision.

Transcript

[A]

Hello, this is Ariana Portolatten with the Becker's Dental and DSO Review podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined today by Dr. Rick Mars, the president of Dental Care Group in Florida and a global faculty member AT align technology. Dr. Mars, thank you so much for being here today. It's great to have you.

[B]

It is my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[A]

Yes, of course. To start us off, can you introduce yourself to our listeners and tell us a little bit about your background?

[B]

Okay. I am a proud graduate of both Emory University and Georgetown University School Dental School School of Dentistry. And I have been practicing dentistry for 37 years. I have four offices, two of them are right next to each other. An adult and a kids practice in Aventura, Florida. One in Pembroke Pines, Florida, one in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We have about 14 dentists working with us. Our entire team is about 80 people and love what we do. Been doing it a long time, doing the right thing and happily married for 35 years with three awesome sons and a beautiful wife.

[A]

Great. Very nice. Thank you so much for the introduction. First question here. What are some of the biggest issues that you're following in the dental industry this year?

[B]

You know, I think every practice owner watches a lot of the different things going on in the news. Primarily there are things that are happening and without getting political, you know, down in Florida here, we just had the whole fluoride issue happen where they have this involvement of people who aren't the experts, the non scientific community kind of making decisions for dentistry. That really concerns me. That's something I follow constantly. We're also looking at things like, you know, the cost of being a dentist today. Insurance reimbursements are not keeping pace with everything else in dentistry in terms of equipment, supplies and labs and things like that. And even employee salaries are. Everybody's making more money in terms of employees. And it's been very competitive in my market, for sure. But, you know, it's the challenges that we do so we can keep our practices running positively and doing the things that we need to do and we want to do it right. And the things I watch are a lot of people are doing the right things, becoming very innovative, doing different things in their practices. But unfortunately, you watch a lot of things in dentistry that are concerning to me, where you watch people using inferior products at what time? A few years back, people were, you know, sending their lab work out of the country. That was a big trend until people found out they were getting crowns back with lead in them and inferior stuff. And now, you know, you're watching things like Dennis are going and using things that they basically shouldn't be doing, like inferior products. You know, if it's clear aligners, they'll go for the cheapest company, not the best company. And these are things that, you know, I'm always trying to preach to younger dentists to do the right thing and give your patients the best. And that's the way I was trained. And when you see those things going on, that's kind of disturbing. And these are the things that we're following.

[A]

Some great insights and thoughts from you there. Thank you so much. Next question here. What are you most excited about when it comes to dentistry and what makes you nervous about the industry?

[B]

What makes me excited. Dentistry makes me excited. We do an amazing thing for patients. On a. On a daily basis, we're changing people's lives. We're making them happy, giving them beautiful smiles, taking patients out of pain, keeping their mouths healthy. Really, the get getting to see more people realizing about the mouth body connection and hearing patients come in and saying. And it's not just us preaching it to our patients. You know, I've had a number of patients over the years say, you're my most important doctor. And I kind of look at them and go, you have a cardiologist and you have all these other. Yeah, but it all starts in the mouth. And if I'm keeping my mouth happy, you know, that's really the most important thing to me. So when we have patients, you know, getting it, that gets me excited. When we're doing great things and, you know, we take a lot of pride in our practice. A lot of my doctors will come, show me, know, amazing cases they completed. And, you know, my paradise has an amazing picture book of, of the things that he's done. And he goes around the country and teaches also, like I do. And, you know, it's. It's an excitement about just dentistry, just doing it and doing it right. The innovations in dentistry are ever changing. You know, the big hot butt right now is AI. But it's the most important thing that we're doing right now is just giving our patients the best we can and staying current with everything that we do. So that's the name of the game for us, is doing it right, staying current, staying there with innovation. And that's really what has me most excited the most, is just it's a great time to be practicing dentistry at the end of the day.

[A]

Great. And I know you mentioned earlier, but things that are giving you some concern in the industry, but I wanted to see if you had anything else to add for anything that makes you nervous about dentistry right now.

[B]

You know, it slowed up a little bit, but there was this big trend with do it yourself dentistry. You know, there's so much wisdom that we impart on our patients, and when people hear logic into some of their decisions, they go, yeah, I know, you're right. And, yeah, I guess I shouldn't have done that. You know, when people make health care decisions based on money alone, they're generally making bad decisions. And that's why people do do it yourself dentistry. So I've been doing invisalign for over 20 years, and I've done over 4,000 cases. And I had a patient come in yesterday who told me that she tried using a do it yourself product by the name of. It's not important. You can fill in the blank because it doesn't matter. And she goes, it was really unsuccessful. I go, can I ask you a silly question? I said, does logic tell you that you have zero training and you can get the same results that I can when I'm using a better product? I've done 4,000 cases. I know exactly what I'm doing. And you're clueless. And she likes. She goes, I don't even know why I did it. You know, she got sucked in on social media. And, you know, there'll be an influencer that comes on and preaches something to the, you know, patients out there that they're using such and such a product, and people know the influencers are getting paid to do this, and they'll just get sucked in and they'll make bad healthcare decisions based on something they pick up online. Even yesterday, too, I had a patient calling me up, concerned that his periodontal condition was resulting in all these health problems because he read something on WebMD that it could be the situation. And he went through all these symptoms and told me everything that he had. And WebMD said it could be related to periodontal disease. I said, I agree with you 100%. I said, there's only one problem. He says, what's that? I go, you don't have periodontal disease, so 2 plus 2 does not equal 7. And patients, you know, knowledge is power, but unfortunately, people can't delineate what's good knowledge, what's good information. And this is a concern to me that, you know, it's great when patients can come in and say, hey, I heard about this. What do you think about it? You're the expert. But lots of times people depend on social media or something that they look up online on Google. They Google something and they think it's just the equivalent to, you know, my dental degrees because they googled it. And we all know logically that's not the truth. But while people are doing it, they get sucked into making bad decisions. So that's, that's really what makes me nervous, is people doing things that hurt themselves. There's a gazillion trends. I mean, charcoal, toothpaste and, and I mean, they're doing, thank God they're not telling people during bleach or anything like that today. But virtually every dumb trend that's gone out there gets refuted by modern dental science. And by the time the, the science catches up to what's online, it's already too late. There's been thousands and thousands of people that make bad decisions. So that's probably what concerns me most about things going on in the industry right now.

[A]

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for adding those thoughts there. Definitely some wise words from you as well. Last question here. What will the most effective healthcare leaders need to be successful in the next two to three years?

[B]

Okay, so every time I get a question anywhere related to this, as far as advice or what's, what's my key to my success? It always starts with doing the right thing. And when you do that, if you're not doing the right thing, you won't be successful, period. You might have some short term financial gain or whatever it is, but if you're not making good decisions doing the right thing, you're off to a bad start. So start with doing the right thing, number one. Number two, getting smart with technology, not getting too sucked in, into what's the latest trend. You know, the hot button in every industry right now is AI. What can we do with AI? What can we do with AI? You know, we get very smart when it comes to new technology. We generally, unless something is really, really, really just blowing us away in my practice, we don't get sucked into doing the first one that comes out there. We generally wait and see when two or three products tend to come out there and we see who's the best one and why is it the best one. So, you know, working with technology and innovation, I think we can't go through this podcast without mentioning the consolidation of dentistry. I think people have to make good decisions when they're doing that. Again, there's a lot of good organizations out there that are doing consolidation and there's a lot of organizations that are just really, they're business organizations is what they are, and they don't care about the patient. So I think the successful people in the future are going to still maintain, even if they're in consolidation. Patients come first. And if you do the right thing by the patient, all the rest follows. If you're not doing the right thing by the patient, even if you are doing the right thing by the patient, lots of times patients don't realize it or know because they don't want to hear bad news. But you just have good principles, do the right thing, stay involved with good technology, solid things. And when you're making those business decisions with consolidation or anything else, to make good decisions with good organizations that really do care about the patient. At the end of the day, there you have it.

[A]

Great. Thank you so much for sharing that. There. That's all I have for you today. Dr. Mars, thank you so much for joining us. Been a pleasure speaking with you on the podcast guys today and looking forward to connecting with you again in the future.

[B]

Absolutely. Have a great day.

[A]

You too. Bye. Bye.