Our guest today is Dr. Pam Maragliano, a board-certified prosthodontist, academic, consultant, and the Editor of Dental Economics. Dr. Pam joins us to share her unique journey from dental hygienist to specialist and discusses how saying “yes” to scary opportunities can redefine a career.
The conversation explores the importance of professional authenticity, the “goalie” mindset required for clinical perfection, and how to build a practice culture through clear mission and vision statements. Dr. Pam also offers candid advice for female practitioners on balancing a high-level career with personal life and the power of mentorship in the dental “sisterhood.”
Episode Navigation
01:57 – Why Dentistry? The “accidental” journey from dental hygiene to prosthodontics.
05:10 – The Goalie Mindset: How hockey shaped her drive for clinical perfection.
08:00 – Overcoming Fear: Why saying “yes” to lecturing and writing is vital for growth.
12:34 – The Balancing Act: Managing a practice, academics, and editorial roles.
24:42 – Clinical Documentation: Using photography to hone skills and provide legal protection.
30:38 – Vision and Mission: How to align your team and attract the right patients.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
✅ Why you should say “yes” to opportunities even when you are scared of them.
✅ How to transition from being a clinician to a content creator and lecturer.
✅ The critical role of flexibility in a modern dental business plan.
✅ Strategies for female dentists to pursue practice ownership and professional autonomy.
Key Takeaways
Education is Foundational: Dental school is only the starting point; true expertise requires pursuing continuing education through photography, documentation, and immersive learning.
Authenticity Over Status Quo: Don’t lose your personality trying to fill a predecessor’s shoes — being yourself attracts the right patients and team members.
Define Your “Why”: A mission statement tells the world what your practice is about, while a vision statement acts as an internal guide for your team.
The Power of Mentorship: Finding a mentor who has the life you want is the fastest way to navigate practice ownership and professional growth.
Featured Discussion Topics
Career Growth | Women in Dentistry | Practice Ownership | Clinical Photography
Meet Our Guest
Dr. Pam Maragliano is a prosthodontist in private practice and a prominent voice in dental media. Beyond her clinical work, she serves as the Editor of Dental Economics and lectures nationwide on preventive and restorative dentistry. She is a staunch advocate for professional growth and the empowerment of women within the dental industry.
Connect with Simplify Dentistry
Website: simplifydds.com
Podcast: Available on all major platforms
Topics: prosthodontics, dental hygiene, career growth, practice ownership, women in dentistry, clinical photography, dental economics
Transcript
00:00:01 – 00:00:13 · Speaker 1
Welcome to the Simplify Dentistry Podcast. Join us as we discuss clinical, operational and financial aspects of your practice. Help you enjoy life and dare to simplify dentistry.
00:00:15 – 00:00:43 · Sponsor
We’d like to thank our sponsor, Oral Arts Dental Laboratories. Oral Arts is a full service dental lab based in Huntsville, Alabama, serving dentists nationwide with high quality US-made prosthetics and orthodontic appliances. Oral Arts combines advanced technology with personalized service to deliver reliable, affordable solutions that support patient care. Oral Arts is one of the few labs that meets the standards to be part of my team. Take a look at Oral Arts Dental.
00:00:45 – 00:00:54 · Dr. Richard Offutt
Welcome to Simplify Dentistry. My name is Richard Offutt. Today we are celebrating women in dentistry and we’re celebrating with Doctor Pam Maragliano. Welcome.
00:00:54 – 00:00:57 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Hi. Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.
00:00:57 – 00:01:57 · Dr. Richard Offutt
Well, it’s such a pleasure to have you back on Simplify Podcast again. Our first podcast was so well received and you had so many great things to say. And you know, Pam, I’m just going to open this way — you have a practice limited to prosthodontics. You’re in academics. You’re in consulting. You’re the editor of Dental Economics, and you have a family life. Wow. What do you do with your extra time?
00:01:28 – 00:01:29 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
What extra time?
00:01:30 – 00:01:57 · Dr. Richard Offutt
Well, that’s my question. So I am doing this podcast today because I want us to think about what is possible and have our young doctors and those that aspire to be doctors think about what is possible. So it’s just going to be a freewheeling conversation — you go anywhere you want with it and I’ll be happy. So why dentistry?
00:01:57 – 00:04:09 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Oh my goodness. Well, it all started for me — it was a little bit of happenstance. I am not one of those people who was like Herbie the dentist, who couldn’t wait to be a dentist one day when they grew up. That was not me. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I wanted to play hockey.
So my dad decided that it was important to, as a female, to have a job that we would never have to depend on a man. He decided — don’t ask me why it’s so random — that my sister and I needed to become dental hygienists. He said, “Become a hygienist. Get this job that will, you know, nobody could take away from you. You’ll always have employment if you need it, and then do whatever you want with your life, but just get that certification.”
So my sister and I are both dental hygienists, and as I started practicing as a hygienist, I had no dental experience whatsoever. I was mesmerized during the periodic exam because I could barely find a problem. The dentist would come in and they were so clever — they could just come up with a solution so quickly. And I looked forward to that every appointment. It went from interest to, well, maybe this is what I want to do. And there’s just not a lot of hygienists turned prosthodontists out there.
00:04:09 – 00:05:10 · Dr. Richard Offutt
No, and that skill set is absolutely foundational to dentistry. You can’t do it without it. Your dad said, “Go learn a skill that no one can take away from you.” At some point you decided to explore personal growth and self-actualization and become the best you could become. Talk about that a minute.
00:05:10 – 00:06:52 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Well, I think it’s built into your personality a little bit. I mentioned playing hockey — I was the only female in my entire hockey league, and I was a goalie. I picked that position because playing with all boys, I felt like it was the only position they wouldn’t kill me if I got hit. But also it’s one of those positions where every mistake shows up on the board.
I feel like it’s one of those things where it’s in your personality to be as perfect as possible. There’s nothing that makes me happier than one patient all day long, and I can sit there and just hone in on my job for the day. And I think it’s a responsibility and such a privilege to lay your hands on another human. I feel like if I’m going to use my skills on another person, I’d better try to hone them as best I can — because people deserve that.
00:06:52 – 00:08:00 · Dr. Richard Offutt
It’s so interesting the way you tie athletics to your life and performance — especially being a goalie where it’s either a goal or a save. How do we encourage young women in dentistry to follow that journey of aspiring to do great things and pushing yourself?
00:08:00 – 00:10:10 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
I love dentistry. I always say dentistry is not only my job, it’s my hobby. Dentistry offers a woman — or any dentist — so many different opportunities that depending on what your passions are, you can tap into that. I personally was presented with opportunities after being awarded the Adult Preventive Care Practice of the Year from the American Dental Association.
I was offered lectures to discuss what we were doing in my practice to prevent tooth decay. And believe me, I did not want to do that. Getting in front of a roomful of people was not something I ever thought I would want to do. But I also felt that it would not serve me to say no just because I was scared of it. And so I forced myself to do that, and now I feel comfortable in front of an audience. For me, saying no just wasn’t an option.
00:10:10 – 00:12:34 · Dr. Richard Offutt
What you’ve told me is that you always said yes. Somebody gives you an opportunity and you always say yes. But there’s no free lunch — when you always say yes, you pay a price. Across all the different things you do — practice, academics, consulting, editing, family life — how do you reconcile that balance?
00:12:34 – 00:16:12 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Everybody has a different situation. I got married at 34 years old, and we chose not to have kids. When you say you pay a price, you do — and my price that I paid was time. But you also have to be really organized.
When I first started lecturing, I was practicing in two practices and teaching at a local university. Now I practice Monday through Thursday, and I devote Wednesday afternoons and Thursdays and Fridays to the magazine, which affords me more flexibility when I travel. I own my practice now. I have an associate who works at the end of the week for me.
I kept things siloed early on — I didn’t want my lecture life to interfere with my practice. But then I realized: one actually reinforces the other. Patients feel proud of their dentist if their dentist is the editor of a magazine. Nothing has to stay the same forever. We should be nimble with our career and allow it to evolve just like any other interest we have.
00:16:12 – 00:17:30 · Dr. Richard Offutt
What you said about building a team around you — people who believe in you and are willing to celebrate your successes — that to me is one of the salient features of your story. You had people who helped mentor and shape you along the way, correct?
00:17:30 – 00:20:20 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Absolutely. For the different aspects of my career, I have mentors that really pushed me to get my board certification in prosthodontics. There were times when I was just like, “I can’t do this.” And I had mentors that wouldn’t let me forget it. Sometimes you need those people to kick you and push you in a direction of success.
In the dental industry, I’ve had what I call “guardian angels” — people I can bounce opportunities off of, people I can trust. I also think I’m fortunate enough to have curated a really amazing team at my practice where it essentially runs itself. You are the melding of the five people you spend the most time with — you’ve got to pick those people wisely. In dentistry, there are lots of people that will lift you up. Finding them is worth the effort.
00:21:12 – 00:22:55 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
When a young doctor is asked to join an organization or write articles, I ask first: do you want to? And if it’s something you want to do, then do it. There’s never been any harm in submitting an article — it doesn’t always have to be accepted, but it teaches you to write and hone your thoughts. There’s always learning that can be gleaned from every opportunity.
Find your passion and run to it. The other piece of advice I’d have for a young dentist is to be unapologetic of who you are. Find ways to get comfortable with who you are — you’ll attract patients that like you and trust you. It makes practicing dentistry so much more fun and so much more rewarding.
00:24:58 – 00:26:23 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Education — learning is never going to hurt you. Dental school is not adequate to make you an expert in any subject matter. So get a camera and start photographing your work. Look at it and you’ll start being able to document your cases. It’s also helpful when communicating with labs or specialists, and it’s a form of legal protection. The more I photographed my work, the more I honed my skills. Start with all the education you can get your hands and brain on — and start with a camera.
00:26:45 – 00:28:14 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
I didn’t have all of these roles at the same time. When I first started lecturing, I was working in two practices part time and teaching at the university. You have to prioritize based on the opportunities and the time you have. I was probably out of balance initially just to get going in the industry, but now I’ve cut it back to really saying yes to opportunities that I want to say yes to. It takes some sweat to get there.
00:28:53 – 00:30:38 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Since Covid, flexibility has to be part of your business plan. I’ve found that I would have lost out on some really great team members who are moms that need different hours. I now take a lunch break because my dogs come to work with me every day and I need to walk them in the middle of the day — and that’s actually been a really nice quality of life shift. We can’t be rigid anymore. We have to work with the amazing people we can have in our practice.
00:30:44 – 00:32:36 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Start by looking inward. I went to an HR course and left realizing that some of the practice problems started with me — specifically with not communicating what I wanted. A mission statement tells your patients and the world what your practice is about. A vision is an internal document you share with your team to explain how you want them to conduct themselves, how decisions are made, and what you want your practice to become.
I started having prospective employees read them, and you can see it in their eyes — you can tell who is going to be aligned with your mission and vision. The sooner you can define that for yourself, the sooner it will come back to you. That’s a really great place to start.
00:33:14 – 00:35:18 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
Find a mentor. Find somebody who you perceive has the life that you want and get to know them. I love owning my practice — from the autonomy of how you want to practice, to the decor, to the culture you create, but also the financial and tax benefits. There’s a perception among young dentists that the only place to find a first job is as part of an organization, and that private practitioners aren’t going to want them. That’s really not the case.
I met one of my best friends because I was looking to buy a practice in her area. I cold called her and immediately we became really close friends. Dentistry is like that. There’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood as part of it — if you see somebody’s website and think, “That’s the kind of dentist I want to be,” call them. You might have your best friend waiting on the other side of that phone call.
00:35:36 – 00:36:49 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
If you can imagine it, you can absolutely do it. If you can’t imagine it and the opportunity presents itself, say yes to it — because you don’t know where your career is going to go. Don’t apologize for your vision, and get the right people around you to go full steam ahead. And if you’re somebody who’s just not sure but open — take those opportunities and run.
00:36:49 – 00:37:56 · Dr. Pam Maragliano
What’s new? I got the life kick in the pants last year. I lost my dad, and I lost my husband — he wasn’t the best husband, so out you go. It kind of forced me to reflect on my career and my life. Sometimes we should make space for a personal life and for things that make us happy. This year I’ve decided to take a little bit more time for me — girl trips, dating, trying to have that work-life balance and really prioritizing the life part, not just the work part.