Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #275: Dr. Milton Ruiz with Pines Dental Associates
Discover how to achieve a more relaxed and anxiety-free dental experience with insights from our special guest, Dr. Milton Ruiz of Pines Dental Associates. As a seasoned dentist with 25 years of dedicated service in Cooper City, Dr. Ruiz unveils the comprehensive range of dental procedures his clinic offers all under one roof. From routine fillings and root canals to advanced implants and orthodontics, learn the strategies Pines Dental employs to ensure patient comfort and safety, including the use of oral sedation. Hear a personal anecdote about a dramatic dental experience that underscores the importance of creating a calming environment for patients.
In our conversation, we also tackle widespread myths and misconceptions in the dental industry. Dr. Ruiz addresses the common belief that dentists upsell unnecessary procedures and clarifies misunderstandings surrounding insurance coverage. We explore the frustrations patients face with insurance claims and highlight the necessity of pre-authorization for major dental work to prevent surprise bills. Additionally, get to know Dr. Ruiz on a personal level as we share stories about family life, the joys and challenges of raising children, and favorite pastimes like golf, sports fandom, and cheering for the Florida Panthers as a loyal season ticket holder.
Call: (954) 432-6133
Visit: http://www.pinesdental.com/
Follow: https://www.instagram.com/pines_dental_associates/
Like: https://www.facebook.com/pinesdental/reviews?ref=page_internal
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am your host, jeremy Wolf, and today I'd like to welcome to the show. We're actually going to be talking teeth today. And today I'd like to welcome to the show. We're actually going to be talking teeth today. I'm here with Dr Milton Ruiz and Dr Ruiz joins us from Pines Dental Associates, so right down the road from us here in Cooper City, dr Ruiz thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 2:No, it's our pleasure, and thanks as always to our listeners for tuning in so everyone knows what a dentist is and what a dentist does. But why don't we start off by having you talk a little bit about your practice over at Pines Dental Associates, maybe a little bit about what you guys do specifically and what kind of differentiates you from the rest of the dentists that are out there?
Speaker 3:Okay, so we've been around in this location for about 25 years. Basically, one of the things that we do is we try to keep everything in house, meaning we try to do all the procedures that we can do from fillings, root canals, crowns, implants, sleep apnea Most of them we have either myself or somebody else that can take care of that, so we don't have to be referring patients out all the time and at the same time. You know, we try to be affordable. I don't mean cheap, but we try to be affordable so everybody can get their work done.
Speaker 2:So 25 years, just 25 years, that's it.
Speaker 3:Well, I've been practicing for 30 years, but in this location I've been here. I've been here for 25 years, yeah.
Speaker 2:Very cool. So you're taking care of, so you're doing everything pretty much soup to nuts. When it comes to dentistry, Like you mentioned, you can do oral surgery there with implants right.
Speaker 3:We can do implants, we can do extractions, we can do root canals, dentures, crowns.
Speaker 2:Are you doing orthodontics?
Speaker 3:there. Orthodontics, yeah, we do clear aligners, we do Invisalign, we can do everything. There's some cases that we still have to refer out, but I'll say 95% we can do here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know for me when it comes to, I think a lot of people tend to get triggered when talking about the dentist because they associate the process of going to the dentist with perhaps a painful experience. I know I've had my fair share of things. What do you typically do over at your practice to kind of ease the concerns of your patients? I've talked with a lot of that that try to create like a spa type atmosphere, Some that. What do you guys do there to make the experience as pleasant as possible for your patients?
Speaker 3:So you mean to tell me that you don't like the dentist? I won't get into the stories I've had at dentists.
Speaker 2:Not good stuff.
Speaker 3:I can hear a lot. I heard a lot of them myself. But you know we try to be friendly, talk to the patient, try to keep them at ease and, to be honest with you, most of the time we can treat the patients and they're okay. If they're really scared and apprehensive about treatment, we can do oral sedation, in which basically we sedate them with a little pill and we monitor them while they're here and even though they're awake they tend not to remember much the next day and they tend to be a little more relaxed. So we can do the work and they're okay.
Speaker 2:Interesting. I had not heard of that oral sedation. Normally you would think of you either get numbed up Novocaine-wise or I will share what happened to me because I think you've heard a lot of stories. This is an interesting one.
Speaker 2:So, going back to 2010, right before of all places, right before my honeymoon, I went into a dentist. I had a lot of work done. When I was young, I had a lot of silver fillings in my mouth, so I elected to actually get them replaced with the newer fillings and I didn't want to go because they were on all corners of the mouth. They couldn't do it while I was awake because they couldn't numb me up in the different places. So I elected to get general anesthesia and they brought an anesthesiologist into the dentist's office to do the procedure. Okay, okay, fine.
Speaker 2:Went in, went to sleep, woke up and there's several people standing over me. They said we had a problem. I said what do you mean? We had a problem. And they grant, they give me a little handheld mirror and I open up my mouth and I'm missing my bottom three teeth over here and one of my top teeth and I'm just like is this a dream? Is this real? Like no. They told me what happened. Apparently they must have. Maybe I wasn't sedated quite enough, but they must have hit a nerve and I had a reaction. I don't. I don't remember any of it, but I bit down so hard on the mouthpiece that they had that I shattered my teeth and almost took the dentist's finger off. Jesus.
Speaker 2:Is that what I never heard of. I figured you you wouldn't have heard of that. So, like I said, the sensitivity to visiting the dentist myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I mean you can do general anesthesia, in which you're completely put under and they have to, you know, wake you up and you're basically asleep. Or you can do sedation, which is still a way you can still talk to us and interact with the doctors. You use a lot more relax.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can tell you I'll never be going under completely with the dental procedure again at least not in the dentist in that setting I'll go to like a hospital setting or something, anyway, okay, so moving on from my my little story there, um how did you get into dental?
Speaker 3:You had your teeth back right, I got my teeth.
Speaker 2:Look, look at my smile, beautiful, all right, good, good. Ear to ear, baby Ear to ear. So, going back 25, 30 years, obviously this is something that you've pretty much been doing your entire professional career. Did you always have an affinity for dentists? Like when you were a kid did you go to the dentist? You're like, wow, actually this is a great experience, like I'd love to do this for a living.
Speaker 3:At what point did you decide that you wanted to pursue a career in dentistry? Well, I mean, obviously I did not like a dentist. You know, back back then in the old days when basically they didn't use any anesthesia and they just drill in your teeth and you held on and mom will say if you move you're punished. You know, but my dentist was a good guy. So I don't know, for some reason, when I went to undergrad I always wanted to go to dental school. So my plan was always to go to dental school and I followed my plan. I went to dental school.
Speaker 3:And here I am Okay, but I did not love going to a dentist.
Speaker 2:I must admit that. So, even though you didn't love it, though, you had a great dentist that left a lasting impression enough so that you wanted to pursue a career in that.
Speaker 2:So that's great man 30 years, that's an achievement right there. So one of the reasons we do this show, in addition to getting a look under the hood and learning a little bit about the owner behind the business and how they got founded, is also education, right. Um, you know the owner behind the business and how they got founded is also education, right. What are some common myths or misconceptions that you typically hear from patients in the industry that you could kind of shine some light on.
Speaker 3:Well, one of the biggest ones is basically that dentists are trying to sell them stuff and stuff that they don't need, and oversell them and do stuff that they don't really need. So they come, always come, for a second and third opinion because they think they're being scammed, which I mean unfortunately. I'm sure there is some truth in some cases, but most of the dentists are professionals and they're basically doing what they think is best for the patient. So that's one big thing that the patients complained. What else? Another thing that I noticed with the patients is that they always think that when the insurance doesn't approve something, it's somehow the dentist doesn't want to use his insurance. But in reality we have nothing to do with that. We just want the insurance to cover the procedures, but the insurance denies it. There's nothing we can do. So we always want the procedure to be covered by the insurance as much as possible and we want to make it as painless for the patient.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a whole nother topic for a whole nother day. Talking about insurance, I for one I think a lot of people can relate with this tend to pull my hair out of my head when dealing with health insurance Exactly, and health insurance related issues. There's so much red tape, so much confusion, and it's difficult sometimes because, yeah, a lot not all dentists are covered on these plans, probably less so than some of the major medical plans. So you have to be really, really careful with what policy you're getting, what plan you're getting, to make sure the doctor that you want to go to is covered. A lot of stuff to navigate there, for sure.
Speaker 3:And even if the patient is covered, does it mean that the insurance will pay for the procedure?
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, so that's another layer of confusion for the consumer, right? So the dentist is covered. But then you go get the procedure and then you find out. So it's important everyone out there before you get a procedure done to go through and kind of make sure everything's covered so you don't get hit with any surprise bills at the end of a visit.
Speaker 3:So usually what we do is we try to pre-authorize big procedures crowns, root canals, implants. We try to pre-authorize it with insurance, make sure they're going to pay for it.
Speaker 2:They say they will pay for it so that there's no surprises for the patient. Yeah, that's another thing about being diligent with your patients, doing that kind of added level of analysis before going in and giving them a breakdown of what's covered, and that could go back to the myth and misconception you were talking about with. I mean, not scamming is a tough word, but you know, if you don't do that ahead of time, the patient's going to end up with a potentially a large bill that they didn't plan for, so important to yeah, and they think they're being overcharged, but in reality is sometimes the insurance doesn't pay for it.
Speaker 2:Yep. All the more reason to have a dentist that you know like and trust, you have a relationship with, that you feel like doing a good job for you. So at the bedrock of of all of us is family. Right, we're all driven by our family. I myself, I have a beautiful 10 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. Interesting times in the Wolf household. Tell us a little bit about your family.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm originally from Puerto Rico. Okay, I live in Miami. I have two kids, a 19-year-old in college up in Boston and then I have a 16-year-old daughter. My wife is Colombian, so basically we're from all over the place. My kids were born in Miami, I was in Puerto Rico, my wife in Colombia. So, yeah, I've been married for over 20 years already. Nice, and it's great. Now one more. I mean almost an empty nest already.
Speaker 2:So what a very strange, by the way. What? What am I to expect? It's that sounds like I'm right behind you. You got 16, you got, you said 16 and 19. You got the older ones, a boy the older ones.
Speaker 3:a boy in college, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're. You're backwards from where I got the. I got the younger boy and the older daughter, but you're four years, so 10 and 12. Son is 10, daughter is 12. What am I in for?
Speaker 3:It's starting to become a wild ride already with my daughter in middle school at 12 years old. I'll tell you one thing I had my kid, my son. There was never any problems, anything. He was always play sports good in school and no drama with boys. There's a lot of drama with girls, as you probably know by now.
Speaker 2:Absolutely For sure. So, like, what do you guys like to do for fun when you're not working?
Speaker 3:I mean, I love to play golf.
Speaker 2:What's your?
Speaker 3:handicap. Yeah, I am a handicap, it's about 20. Okay, and I love sports. I mean, I'm a big Panthers fan, a big Dolphins fan, so I love to go to hockey. I'm a season ticket holder for the Panthers, so I go to a lot of hockey games, enjoy cooking, going out for dinner stuff like that, Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of the Panthers, that's a good season. We just had to be a season ticket holder for sure.
Speaker 3:Oh, it was a great season. After suffering for over 20 years, it was great.
Speaker 2:I know a friend of mine has season tickets but he has them to sell to make money, spare time. But he made out like a bandit this season for sure with the tickets he had.
Speaker 3:I'm sure he did, especially in the playoffs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good stuff, so looking back this season for sure with the tickets he had.
Speaker 2:I'm sure he did, especially in the playoffs. Yeah, good stuff. So, looking back through your journey, going back often, oftentimes we're more defined by our, our challenges and our struggles than we are by our triumphs, and there's usually, looking back, life, hardships or challenges that again act as defining moments. Is there something there, something that comes to mind it could be personal, professional somewhere along the way in your journey, that that at the time you were going through the experience, it seemed like the end of the world. It seemed like you, there was no coming out of it right, there was no hope. But ultimately now, looking back at that experience, you could say that you're stronger for having gone through that, or that it helped, shaped you to where you are today. Stronger for having gone through that or that it helped shape you to where you are today.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean now it's a funny story. Back then it wasn't that funny. But when I first purchased my first office not the one in Pembroke Pines I had another office in Miami. We purchased an office with patients and staff and everything and when we showed up on Monday for our first day of the new office no staff, no patients, the doctor who sold us the practice and the agent had taken all the patients and moved them to another practice without telling us, oh geez. So basically we showed up. There was no patients.
Speaker 3:We had to find we were basically answering the phones ourselves. Basically, we showed up. There was no patients we had to find we were basically answering the phones ourselves. And it got to the point that we were actually picking up the patients in our cars Because we needed patients. So we were doing anything to make it easy for the patients to come to our office. So we're picking up patients and going here and there and answering the phone and doing everything. So you know it was a hard first year but I think it helped us out to relate better with the patients, because you had to go to their houses, see their situation, talk to them in the car. So we got to relate. I mean, we got better at relating with the patients and understanding them.
Speaker 2:Well, that's an interesting story. How does that happen that you buy the practice Obviously there's a contract involved and then the previous practice just takes all the patients away? Did you have legal recourse there? What was the aftermath of that?
Speaker 3:You know what? There was a legal recourse and we talked to attorneys and basically they say it's going to cost you so much money to do this that it's better just and and just move on, try to move on from it. And that's what we did, because it was, you know, we couldn't sit there and have a legal bill also on top of the dental bill. We're basically starting our career, so me, so you know we did what we had to do certainly a humbling experience.
Speaker 2:But again, but something like that, again starting off like that, like you said, there's a lot of positives to draw on that and it really shapes you, and to get through that and then build a thriving practice, you know, 20, 30 years later, is a real accomplishment. So again, yeah, one of those things are at the moment you're like, oh my God, what have we gotten ourselves into? How'd we get into this situation? But with hindsight, from a bird's eye view, it really was ultimately a probably a benefit to where you are right now.
Speaker 3:I would say yeah, I mean I wish I had patience when I opened the practice, but I mean, at the end of the day, like I said, we had to spend so much time with the patients, talking to them and relating to them that it made us, I thought. I think it made us up. It was better bedside manner, like you would say talk, learn to talk to a patient and ask him all their life and, and you know, connect with them a little more.
Speaker 2:Always a silver lining, always a silver lining somewhere to be found. Good stuff, man. So what would be the one thing that you'd like to leave our listeners with before we wrap up here? One thing it could be. It could be something about the practice, about your, or even something about life in general.
Speaker 3:Just one thing that comes to mind that you'd like to share. Well, I mean, I would love to know, to know that anybody that wants to come to Pines Dental, I mean we try to be the best, do the best for the, for the patients, be affordable. Like I say, we offer everything on the one roof, so hope to see them here anytime soon.
Speaker 2:How can our listeners learn more? What's the best way to reach you guys?
Speaker 3:They can call us at 954-432-6133 or at our website of pines dentalcom.
Speaker 2:Perfect. We will, of course, drop a link down in the description below to all of your contact information so our listeners can access your information and learn more and reach out if they're looking for dental care. So, dr Reese, thanks for joining us today. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2:Of course, and thanks as always to our listeners for tuning in, and we'll catch everyone next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, take care, have a great day and stay blessed.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom, or call 954-231-3170.