Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Residents of Northern Kentucky! Based in Union, KY....The Good Neighbor Podcast helps the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know local business owners as people. We allow the business owners and influencers in NKY to tell the stories of how they started their business and why. We hear about their families, their personal interests and why they love living in and serving resident of Northern Kentucky!
Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Crafting Brighter Smiles and Stronger Connections with Dr. Jason Ford
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Ever wondered how a local dentist can transform not only smiles but also a whole community? Meet Dr. Jason Ford of Toothologie Smile Studio on the latest Good Neighbor Podcast, where he reveals his remarkable journey from Bellarmine University to becoming a beacon of compassionate care in Union. With nearly a decade of marriage to his wife, Amanda, and their two young children, Dr. Ford embodies the essence of a family man who brings a personal touch to his practice. This episode is more than just an exploration of teeth; it's a tale of dedication and personal connections that bind a community together.
Dr. Ford walks us through the wonders of CAD/CAM technology, 3D printing, and the incredible hard tissue laser that's easing dental fears by minimizing the need for anesthesia. But at the heart of it all is the profound message that empathy is the true game-changer in patient care. Join us for a relaxed discussion that not only highlights the advancements in dentistry but also reinforces the power of understanding in overcoming patient apprehension and building a thriving practice rooted in trust.
Local Business Spotlight
Speaker 1This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, mike Murphy. Thank you, charlie, for that introduction. Yes, I am Mike Murphy, the host of the Good Neighbor Podcast. We bring local businesses to our neighbors to make sure that people know our local businesses, our service providers, the people that keep this community running, ticking, happy and, in this case, smiling. We, we let you know the people in this community, the business owners, as people and not just logos that you pass by on the highway and see them, their logo on the side of a building or a business card. Here in union, many of you have driven down 42 and you see the toothology logo. Some of you are very, very familiar with Dr Jason Ford at Toothology. Some of you have never met him, but we're going to take care of that today. So, without further ado, dr Jason Ford, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Speaker 2How are you? Appreciate you having me man? Appreciate you having me Murph man.
Speaker 1Tell me, for people who are not familiar with Toothology, what do you want to let them know about Toothology?
Speaker 2What do I want to let people know? I bought this business three years ago after jumping around in dentistry for 10, 11 years, and you know I lived in Union at the time 10, 11 years and you know I lived in Union at the time. You know Murph me and you go way back. You know about 10 years ish. So you know when I, when I moved back up here back in like 15, that's that's about when me and you met 2015. You know I was working in another office and I bounced around in another office. It was just time to do my own thing. It had been a long time coming. I'd thought about it for many, many, many years and me living in Union and with this opportunity to purchase the practice that was in Union, it was kind of one of those things. That was it for me. I wasn't going to let it go, and so three years ago is ago we made it happen.
Speaker 1It's worked out very well for you. Just, you know some somebody who's kind of watched from afar. You know, and I guess you know every six months watching it up close because you are my dentist.
Speaker 2You're always looking up, right, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, right, yeah, feeling very vulnerable, but thankfully you're a, you're a good friend and a great human being, so I trust you implicitly. So there's a lot of I know like in this area in particular, people want to know hey man, where'd you go to school? So tell us, where did, where did you do all your your training for dentistry?
Speaker 2So yeah, schooling. So I went to Bellarmine University Catholic School in Louisville. So I started there in 07, graduated in 11. No, no, so let me go back. That was my dental school years. I started there in 03 and graduated in 07 from Bellarmine. Right after that I went to dental school at the University of Kentucky. That was 2007. Graduated in 2011. School at the University of Kentucky.
Speaker 1That was 2007.
Speaker 2Graduated 2011. Right after that, actually, I did a year of extra training at the University of Kentucky Hospital. A lot of surgical training, a lot of root canals, a lot of medically compromised patients, a lot of sedation dentistry. So I did that for a year and that's not required in dentistry. You can get your license after your four years. All means you can get your license, but it's just something I chose to do and then, when I was doing that residency here.
Speaker 2Actually I was. I was working on the weekend. Sometimes if I had a weekend off in Florence at Urgent Dental and that's kind of how I learned Florence and Northern Kentucky I would come up here, I'd work a Saturday and, you know, make some money. And then I, you know, go back to life in Lexington that year and, uh, that's how I originally got introduced to the area. You know, I bounced around a little bit, uh, in central Kentucky before I officially moved back up here in uh, 2015. And it was at that time when I was moonlighting up here. That's when I met my future wife at that point, my girlfriend at the time, who I'm now married to, and she was also a big part of moving us back to Northern Kentucky after we got married.
Speaker 1Okay, well, speaking of family, you have a beautiful family. I've seen your wife, I've seen the kids, so do you want to shout them out by name, by chance?
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely my wife, amanda we're actually coming up on 10 years married here in May, here in less than two months. 10 years married, been together about 13 years or so. I've got two beautiful kids too. One Tyson. A lot of you have probably seen me rolling around with him. He's my budding basketball star, slash soccer star. He goes to school at man here in union. Everyone sees us he's. He's almost six years old, he's in kindergarten. He turns six here in a couple of weeks and then you know, I got the, I got my love, my, my daughter. Daughter who's two years old, fully wrapped around her fingers.
Speaker 2she's spoiled rotten, she gets whatever she wants, and yeah, those, that's, that's the people I work for, right there, man.
Speaker 1Those are the people I work for I've been there and you know when your kids become. You know full grown adults when they become as big as you or, in some cases, bigger than you and you have that relationship with them right.
Speaker 1Okay, it's just so cool to have that type of relationship with your kids. You know you're, you're at a very special point, uh, in time with your kids in terms of their development and whatnot. But you know, someday they're gonna, they're going to, they're going to be adults and I've found that that is one of the great rewards in life is having that relationship, that adult relationship with your kids.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, no, yeah, it's, it's. It's nice being involved in everything they're doing, you know, so you know. But if you did, told me I'd have been coaching basketball no, I don't, I'd have laughed at you or coaching flag football. Yeah yeah, there you go, but I'm out there and here and there you're like oh, that's what you look like, not wearing scrubs. Oh yeah, yeah, Sorry, Forget the backwards hat and the yelling and the competitive fire. But yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, people don't recognize you out of context.
Speaker 2Yeah, I know, yeah, a lot of times people only see me like this too, you know that's true.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah so yeah, well, you know, as a dentist, you would probably have to have a great smile, I would imagine, and thankfully you do, so yeah, you never want to cover that smile up if you can help it. So, aside from the sports and all that stuff, what do you as a family like to do for fun when you get to take your vacations? Where do you go? What do you do?
Speaker 2That's actually what we do a lot of man. We've been traveling a lot man, so we've stumbled upon the magic of the JW Marriott, kind of a family-friendly hotel, Always have kind of cool little water parks.
Speaker 2So, that's one thing we do, man. We just we like going to those. You know we've been to one in Vegas. You know we went to one in Florida. We're actually about to go to Destin for spring break here coming up. We like going down to the 30A area, that kind of panhandle area in Florida. We really like that area. So we're going to Destin here in a couple of weeks and then their summer trip we're actually going to take them to the Dominican Republic, to Punta Canta. So, yeah, we're doing that in June. So that's what we like doing. Yeah, yeah, it'll be awesome. So, yeah, family likes traveling. We like taking the kids with us. It's incredible.
Speaker 1Well, getting back to business, you're called you. You're you're called toothology a smile studio. So a smile studio, you're in the business of giving people smiles and not only making them smile but making them proud of their smiles. Do you have throughout all of your dental history thus far, do you have, one or two Hall of Fame smiles? You've created that. Come to mind Hall of Fame smiles. Yeah, we had a few.
Speaker 2I know there's one I can mention. Sometimes you're protected by law and some of these people I won't mention anyone by name, but I have a really close friend I know he doesn't mind man my friend Frosty Rucker, who's a retired NFL player. So you see him smiling around. Yeah, those are veneers that I put on, yeah.
Speaker 1All right. So if you guys see him around town, he's still yeah, he still lives here.
Speaker 2He's a good. He's a good guy. He was drafted here. We're about the same age he's a little bit older than me. He was drafted a year back in. You know what was it? Oh, for the Bengals. He bounced around the NFL a lot but he was here for about five or six years, ended up retiring a Raider. But he has a good buddy of mine, so see him smiling, see him around. Yeah, we'll call that one Hall of Fame smiling, because he should be an NFL Hall of Famer in my opinion.
Speaker 1That's nice to know. Well, you know Bengal fans obviously know his name and everything he's done for the community and everything here.
Speaker 2Man, yeah, yeah, good dude, great guy.
Speaker 1Okay, well, you know there's technology that comes into play in creating these smiles. You know some of that technology I've seen up close and personal. Is there anything cool on the horizon in?
Speaker 2terms of dental technology that you're excited about or anything you're applying right now a lot of stuff. So I, of course me, I'm kind of techie you already know that, mike so I love all the gadgets and stuff. So you know, one thing that's really changed dentistry, I will say, is, uh, something called cad cam technology really really changed the game. So you know, there's no more goopy impression material. So all this digital 3d scan. So that's a big part of my practice here. You know, I, I don't have to use impression material, I'm not going to use impression material. You know, with that you know what you can start doing is you start doing a lot of in-office production and make procedures faster, you know. So get the crown. You don't have to wait three weeks. You know, with a spare part in your mouth I can get the same day to you in about an hour and a half visit um. So with that comes other ways of manufacturing.
Speaker 2Kind of the big horizon in dentistry right now is 3d printing, and the 3d printer that I have is probably the only medical grade 3d printer that's out there and I had, I think, the ninth one in the United States. So a lot of our stuff, you know it used to be. You know you take impressions, you pour, cast and all this stuff. It makes everything so much cleaner, okay, you know so a lot of our turnover time for some of these stuff that we used to have a lab make for us, we can do it ourselves, I can have it to you the next day with 3D printing and it also takes that and all of my stuff kind of speaks the same language, kind of Apple. In a way it's all the same company, so they speak the same languages, so they all integrate together. So when it gets to doing like surgical stuff, like implants, everything is planned, start to finish. You know, with the final in mind, I already know what it's going to look like and everything is produced here. Final in mind, already know what it's going to look like and everything is produced here, and so it really makes everything really just smoothly.
Speaker 2Start to finish. You know that's that's probably one of my favorite things I do is mess with my technology. But a 3d printer that was my favorite toy and here about two weeks ago I actually just bought a laser. So I bought a heart tissue laser. So, uh, I'm still learning. Uh, I have to go to some training out in Denver here in a few weeks. But my goal with this is things like smaller fillings I'm going to use this laser for because you actually don't have to numb the teeth anymore for some small fillings which is always a big buzz word in dentistry you don't have to get a shot, you don't have to get an injection, you don't have to be numb. So if we can start avoiding that and using this piece of equipment that I just purchased, that's going to be my long-term goal. With that, I'm going to try to eliminate a lot of the anesthesia for some of the smaller procedures that we do. You know, that way you don't go back to work, you know.
Speaker 1Right, yeah, fortunately I haven't had to deal with that much. I mean, you've trained me to take pretty good care of my teeth.
Speaker 2Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1Yeah, so there are people out there who fear the dentist you know you mentioned. You know people are wondering do I have to get a shot? Or I'm sure you've worked on patients in the chair and you can just see their fingers clawing into their own.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, you just know. So there are people out there that won't go to the dentist because their fear has caused them to put it off far too long, but they're reaching the point where they realize they have no choice. What do you tell that portion of the audience right now?
Speaker 2if they just have a terrible fear.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's a couple of things that people do have phobias about. One that I've really found out is it's not necessarily fear of the dentist per se, it's fear of being judged. Say, you haven't been to the dentist in 10 years. It's fear of being judged. What are these people going to think about me? What? What am I going to think about them? And you can really just start seeing that almost immediately. It's not necessarily the procedures or what it's going to take, or you know the noises, this and that it's. You know, it's a new person. They've never met me and they're going to run home and start telling all these stories about me to other people. And that's not the case. Met me and they're gonna run home and start telling all these stories about me to other people. And that's not the case.
Speaker 2You know, one thing I I really tell people is this is a judgment-free zone, okay, and I always make this joke. I say I was born in kentucky. Okay, no matter how bad you think you are, I probably seem worse, okay. You know how do we know the toothbrush was made in kentucky because anywhere else would be called a teethbrush, okay. So once you realize that someone's not going to judge you, that alleviates 75% of it. So I'm not here to judge you. You know, let's figure out how we can get to a healthy place and then, once we get to a healthy place, if we want to start doing cosmetics and making things look better, then we can address that together. So after we get past that initial blockage, you know, now we can start communicating to each other. You know just as people and that solves. You know 75 of problems. You know after that, yes, there is phobia of the actual procedures, noises. You know buzzwords like shots and injections. Oh, are these, these? You're going to use a drill on my teeth, you know buzzwords, the noise of a drill.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, yeah and when you really think about the environment that I'm working in, I'm really really close to your ears. It sounds a lot louder than what it is, and the industry is personal. I'm all up in your business. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Yeah, so there is a phobia of the procedures and you know, like I said earlier, with my training I did I did sedation training, you know, right out of dental school and that's something that I've always kept current and you know it's something that I've been doing. You know, since then I've been doing sedation dentistry and that's been a big big thing for a lot of our phobic patients and you know, with our technology and same day crowns and stuff like that, people don't have to come back for a second unsedated visit a lot of times I can get you know, uh, five years of dentistry done and you know one four hour visit and you get to sleep through it, so that's been a really, really good draw for us and our phobic patients.
Speaker 2So when people start realizing there are avenues in which we can use, yeah, precisely.
Community Dentistry and Patient Advocacy
Speaker 1Okay, and part of that fear is, if they don't know you, if they just know they have to go to the quote, unquote, the dentist you know, then they're not seeing how human you are and how caring you are and nonjudgmental you are. So a conversation like this that they can maybe get to know you a little better and see the human side of yeah, absolutely, I know, and that helps.
Speaker 2yeah, I have to do a good job as well. You know, I I live in which the community I serve. I don't get to run away to hide park or something every day. So I'm gonna go see everyone that I work on, probably at like, some school function or a basketball game at ryle. Okay so, and I'm not one of these people'm not going to wear a hat down over my eyes and, you know, pull my hoodie up. No, no, no, come talk to me, come meet my wife, come meet my kids, absolutely so yeah, I'm not here to judge you and once people really realize that that I'm just a regular guy out here.
Speaker 1I call that the Kroger test. If you run into one of your patients, clients, customers et cetera at Kroger, do you or they want to go down the other aisle and hide from you, or do you have the type of relationship where you can walk up and do a handshake or a hug and have a conversation?
Speaker 2So yeah, yeah, well, it's there. We always walk up and talk. I recognize you're getting a hey, you know now you might, you know it might be sending me like sprint away. I'm not sprinting away from you, I'm sprinting because you know my daughter's probably crying and you know I was trying to steal a donut or something like that.
Speaker 1Yeah, so there you go. You're late for a game or something, yeah.
Speaker 2Exactly, there you are.
Speaker 1Okay. So if If people say you know this, jason Ford seems like a pretty good guy. I'd like him to be my dentist. How do they reach you? What do they do? What's next steps?
Speaker 2A couple of ways. Yeah, so you know. Website we can make appointments online if you want to. So it's 2thologysmilestudiocom. We have our phone number. Honestly, if you search Google, probably dentist near me and you're in union, I'm probably going to pop up on you. So, whatever you want to do, you can search us, but you can make appointments online. You can call us a lot of times.
Speaker 2Yes, you can make appointments online if you have your info, you know. But if you're looking for cost estimates on you know, exams and stuff like that with your insurance or you know what fees are, the best way to do is to call us because we can get your info and we can put into a database with your insurance and we can come up with. You know what your insurance fees are, you know before you can commit to something, and so calling us is number one. Online appointments you can email me on the website. There's a big thing that comes right to my email. There's a number on there that you can text and you know the app that I have. It just pops right up and not get right back to you if we need to. But any number of ways you know call, text, email. Calling is number one though.
Speaker 1All right, well, and if they call you, they're going to meet one of your beautiful staff members.
Speaker 2They're going to meet some people up there. Yeah, so you know, probably the number one person you're going to talk to is probably Stephanie. She's our treatment coordinator Wonderful, incredible, so knowledgeable. She's going to be running your insurance and telling you the fees, especially when it comes to some of the more extensive treatment plans that we put together. So she's going to be your best friend and your advocate. Okay then we have.
Speaker 2Debbie, she's the office manager. I call her the drill sergeant. She's actually who runs the ship here. Yeah, so I might be top dog, but right there, we'll still call her general. So she's my office manager.
Speaker 1She's incredible, she's been in the business for so long, she knows everything invaluable. Yeah, she's a friend too and I have a lot of respect for her. Invaluable piece.
Speaker 2She does you proud. Wonderful, yeah, wonderful. And then you know if you're going to get a cleaning. And we went to one of our hygienists. You're going to meet Ann, callie or Brooke all three wonderful, super nice, super skilled. We'll tell you the best way for preventative measures going to keep your teeth clean, what products to use, how to use them, how often you need to see them If you don't want to see the dentist, those are the people you really need to listen to. Is the hygienist, because that's who's going to keep you in a healthy state Okay, incredible.
Speaker 2And then, when it comes to doing treatment with me me or Dr Reynolds you're going to meet Rhonda. You're going to meet Sam, you're going to meet Amanda. Those are our dental assistants. They are really who steer the ship when it comes to your treatment. You know they're tailoring it to you, getting your products together, making sure everything we need for you is properly ordered and making sure that we're seeing you in a timely manner through your appointment. So that's who you're really going to develop a relationship with when you're getting your treatment.
Speaker 2Is our assistants. And again, all three of those you know. When it comes to front office, when it comes to hygiene. When it comes to our assistants all invaluable pieces, and they really really steer our ship properly. I couldn't be prouder of all of them. They're all wonderful. I'd be nowhere without any of them, so they're fantastic. And then last person you might see is Danielle. So she's who's making your insurance pay for you, because they really don't want to, so she's tracking them down, but she also helps out up front all the time, so you'll see Danielle. Danielle's actually Debbie's daughter.
Speaker 1Oh, okay, so she's that linebacker running interference and making sure that, yeah, she's tracking your insurance dollars you know when they say oh, you didn't dot an, I here.
Speaker 2So, she's doing that, so she's really being a patient advocate in that way.
Speaker 1Good yeah, Advocate's a good word. We all need an advocate. None of us know what the heck we're doing when it comes to the insurance part of it. We're just fearful that it's not going to be covered, and then, when we find out that it is, we breathe a big sigh of relief. So you had mentioned we're not going to go into this very much but Dr Reynolds. The reason we haven't talked much about him he's a new addition to the staff is we're going to do a separate podcast he and I, yeah To introduce him to the community. We're going to get to tell his story a little bit, and so I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1So our time together is up here. You know we we've spent our 20 some minutes and I appreciate you taking time out of your day. Probably didn't get the lunch today. Appreciate you taking time out of your day. Um, probably didn't get to eat lunch today, I don't know. But um, yeah, I eat on the run. It looked like I need to eat. Yeah, Don't don't we all? Yeah, Life's busy these days, so I really appreciate you taking time to just let the community know what it's all about.
Speaker 2And, uh, and I really appreciate you, man, everything you've done for me over the years. You know you know getting the word out, spreading it, you know always, always giving love out there in the community for us. So I really appreciate everything you do for me. I know everyone that you work with also appreciates you, so I want to give you a shout out, man. So thank you for everything that you do for everyone.
Speaker 1Thank you very much. And it's not over yet. You know. We don't know where this is taking us all, but you and I, we're going to be, hopefully, in this community, working side by side.
Speaker 2Yeah, no doubt man no doubt Long time.
Speaker 1Well, thanks for your time and I just want to let everybody who's listened to us today go and meet the staff at Toothology. They're on 42 and Union. If you need a new dentist, Dr Ford, Dr Reynolds, they're the people to go see and I want you to just know that they are a soft place to land. If you have dental anxiety and I've had nothing but great experience there, All right. Well, I'm just going to say to the community at large be good to your neighbor and until next time. See you soon. Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, Union To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show.
Speaker 2Go to GNPUnioncom. That's GNPUnioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.