Let's Talk Teeth

Balancing the OR and Private Practice w/ Dr. Samir Singh

Saadman Alamgir

In this episode of Let's Talk, we are joined by Dr. Samir Singh, an accomplished oral and maxillofacial surgeon from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Singh shares his journey through dental school at the University of Pittsburgh, his residency at Virginia Commonwealth University, and his practice at North Pittsburgh Oral Surgery since 2016. He discusses his decision-making process between the MD track versus the traditional four-year path, insights into his broad scope of practice, and the impact of mentorship on his career choices. Dr. Singh also talks about the challenges and rewards of keeping an open mind throughout his training, his experience with digital workflows, and the essential role of technology in modern dental practices. Reflecting on his career goals, he emphasizes the importance of leaving a legacy, balancing his professional life with family, and contributing to the next generation through teaching and mentorship. Tune in for a deep dive into oral surgery, professional growth, and the future of dentistry. Stay connected with Dr. Singh via his Instagram @ssingh_dmd_facs and be sure to reach out with any questions you all may have! 

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:42 Dr. Singh's Background and Education

01:12 Choosing the OMS Path

02:23 Residency Experience and Mentorship

04:14 Transition to Private Practice

09:44 Daily Life in Private Practice

15:44 Future of OMS and Personal Goals

25:39 Advice for Dental Students

27:08 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

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Saad Alamgir:

Everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Let's Talk. we have Dr. Samir Singh. Dr. Singh, if you don't mind just kinda introducing yourself, telling us where you went to dental school, where you're practicing at now, and we can just go from there.

Samir Singh:

Sure. Wanna thank you guys? For giving me the opportunity to be on your podcast. You guys have a lot of really good content and I think in this era where you know, things like this are a great platform to build knowledge around our profession. Hats off to you guys for sort of taking that on yourselves with a busy dental school schedule. So I appreciate that.

Victor Razi:

Of course.

Samir Singh:

Yeah, absolutely. So, I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I went to dental school at the University of Pittsburgh. was fortunate enough to match at Virginia Commonwealth University, or formerly known as medical College of Virginia, where I did a four year residency. I declined the optional MD path. At the time and came back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I joined a Group P practice North Pittsburgh oral surgery. Been practicing as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon since 2016.

Victor Razi:

Nice. So kind of backtracking a little bit, what, um, what kind of guided your decision on like the, if I wanted to do the MD track versus just doing the four year was, what variables were at play there?

Samir Singh:

You know what's interesting is I practice a very full scope. You know, I do. reconstruction orthognathic surgery, pathology. I don't really shy away from anything that's within my scope. And so whenever I was applying for residencies, I primarily looked at what programs offer a different volume and variety.

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

Of procedures. Certainly you wanna be heavy on you know, your core principles of os such as dental velar surgery dental implant surgery and things like that. But you know, I was very fortunate to be a part of the heyday at the University of Pittsburgh with their oral maxillofacial surgery department. So I had a great, had a great example of what a great program and great training looks

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

It started there and then I was able to sort of go through and pick which program sort of met my needs. So truly I didn't really look at it as a you know, six versus four.

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

what I looked at was you know, scope of practice, volume, and variety.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah. Sweet. Piggybacking off that, going a little bit earlier in your journey, what kind of led you down that OMS track? I know you mentioned that you had really good training at Pittsburgh. Was it just your faculty that kind of just introduced you to it, or what was the thought process as you were getting ready to apply?

Samir Singh:

When I first got into dental school and I, you know, I'm fortunate enough to have a lot of students that'll come shadow and many of them have actually since gone to dental school and some of them have since. Matched into oral maxillofacial surgery, residency, and other residencies. So I've been able to see the regenerative aspect of it you know, from when I started to now the next generation. And so what I always tell people and what I always told myself at the time was to keep an open mind. It's very easy to close doors but if you keep as many doors open as possible, I think that's the best. Thing you can do. So even if I wanted to practice general dentistry, I still wanted to have all the options available to me from the standpoint of didactics and, you know, class rank and things like that. So I in with an open mind. And I do credit one of my mentors Mark Ox, for getting me hooked on oral surgery. I remember approaching him after one of his courses and introducing myself and asking if I would be able to spend some time doing an externship at the residency program. and I remember him looking me dead in the eyes and he said, be careful. And I said, why? And he said, I'm gonna get you hooked. So dead. Dead. Yeah. And sure enough, I spent two weeks at my home program and, saw a little bit of everything and I, I really didn't think I could be happy doing anything else.

Victor Razi:

Yeah, that's awesome. And it's awesome too that you can incorporate more of a broad scope on, on things as opposed to just honing in your skills on something. I think that's pretty unique too. As far as private practice goes, did you like have a set game plan during residency or prior to residency on like how you wanted to immerse yourself in private practice? Or did you kind of tackle one thing at a time?

Samir Singh:

You know, I give a lot of credit to my mentors at MCV because they really prepare you for whatever track you wanna take. We did well, a level one trauma center. We did a ton of trauma. We did a ton of orthognatic surgery. We did reconstructive cases. But we were really good at taking out teeth. By the time I was done you know, I was doing impactions on my own running my own anesthesia with, you know, attending supervision.

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

the supervision as you got more seasoned in residency, was just discussing cases in your anesthetic plan and they'd pop their head in and check just to make sure things were going well. Yeah. And I give George Deeb a lot of credit. He came from Oregon and really ramped up our implant program. So, I felt very comfortable stepping out into private practice. But same kind of mindset was there in residency to keep an open mind. I'll be honest, first year I didn't really know up from down. I didn't know what I wanted to do

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

very and very different. And so I was just trying to keep my head above water, so to speak. And then as I got further along, I started seeing things that I enjoyed doing. And I also had the benefit of having Dr. Joe ntu in town, also a former MCV graduate. He's one of the premier facial cosmetic surgeons. He's known worldwide, so we were able to spend a little bit of time in his office. And of course our program director had his cosmetics license as well.

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

We were really given a good introduction to Core and advanced oma. So, to answer your question really it came down to what did I like? And the minute I started interviewing for practices, I knew exactly what I was looking for.

Victor Razi:

Sure. That's awesome.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah. Sweet. I know it's, I know it's been a while since you've been in residency. I know you graduated back in 2016, but how was your residency at BCU? Like, was it, I mean, I know you just expounded on it. You did a lot of different things, but for someone who's. Interested in VC, what would the typical day to day look like year to year at VCU residency?

Samir Singh:

You know, I still maintain they're one of the strongest programs in the country and still to this day. One of the things I respected the most about that program is the consistency of the leadership. Starting with Omar Abukar, who's, just an amazing human being. He's the chairman. He's been the chairman still operating. Then the former program director, Rob Strauss who's a backseat wants to travel. He loves traveling and cooking and just a very eclectic guy. And then George Deeb has been there, a staple, Dean de Luke. And so, you know, when I went there that was the one thing that stood out to me. The other thing that stood out to me as I did an externship, there was it was very much so resident run. so the chief was doing half the case and either another chief or a third year was doing the other half, and there was an opportunity for interns and second years to get into the operating room as well. So their structure made a lot of sense. There was different teams there was a dental school team that handled, you know, the dental student emergency clinic, and a, you know, a first year resident. Dental Velar Clinic. The second year residents would float into that as well. The third years would do the attending schedule or their own private schedule on the resident side. There was a hospital clinic where we were actually doing intubated GA's. So we were able to practice our airway skills pretty regularly. We had anesthesia machines and doing impactions and anesthesia, and then there was a hospital team and that hospital team was in charge of the rounding, the case prep and things like that. So, it really depended on, you know, what rotation you were on at the time, being.

Victor Razi:

Sure. And, uh, has like, was academia like a part of your radar too, a little bit after school, or how did that kinda unfold or how has it been unfolding?

Samir Singh:

Yeah. You know what was interesting was I gained a big respect for academia and the things that those guys do on a day-to-day basis. It's, they take the hardest cases. They do it with grace, with class, with precision and skill. And I think that folks that are in academia mean they're bleeding hearts. You know, they're, they deserve all the honors and you know, all the recognition.

Victor Razi:

Chair.

Samir Singh:

And so when I got out of practice or out of residency and I started my first year in practice what that looked like within our group was, you know, a, a very busy clinic schedule, but, at the time, one of our partners was doing orthognathic surgery. But you could come on as a second surgeon and help out, which was good. But I still wanted more. So I approached again, you know, my mentor and friend Mark Ox, and asked if there was an opportunity to teach. bit at the University of Pittsburgh, and I credit him a lot for trusting me with that because I was part-time faculty at the University of Pittsburgh taking level one trauma call with the residents for about seven years.

Victor Razi:

Oh wow.

Samir Singh:

So in addition to working people would call me crazy, but in addition to working in private practice, I was still draining puss at two in the morning and doing dog bites and gunshots

Victor Razi:

Mad man.

Samir Singh:

still going into work and, you know, shucking teeth and placing implants.

Victor Razi:

Yeah,

Samir Singh:

So yeah, I always had an interest in that

Victor Razi:

sure.

Samir Singh:

I still have that interest and I still scratch that itch in different ways.

Victor Razi:

Right. That's awesome, man. Cool story. So what kind of fast forwarding and fast forwarding to now what so you're in private practice now. What's your, like, I guess your weekly schedule and your day to day and like, what's your I know you said you do broad skip stuff, but like what's your typical like day to day look like?

Samir Singh:

Sure. So a little bit about our practice. I'm in a group practice north Pittsburgh oral surgery. The nice thing, and the reason this practice made a lot of sense is they've been around since 1958. And so, we actually, one of our four offices, we've owned that space. Since the sixties, and one of our senior partners that retired in 20. 19 was one of the first surgeons in the community in our area to do orthognatic surgery at a hospital that we have a fruitful relationship with. So it's pretty, pretty cool. so my day-to-day looks like we have four locations. We have, six surgeons now and looking to add a fifth location. So I go to

Saad Alamgir:

Oh.

Samir Singh:

four locations at this time. And my schedule is packed with wisdom teeth extractions, implants. I have a focus on simple and complex bone grafting, all on X surgery and implementing a fully digital workflow. So, it's been great. Sorry if you hear my kids, In the background.

Victor Razi:

no worries at all.

Samir Singh:

But yeah, so I do that on Wednesdays and Fridays. We have half days.

Victor Razi:

sure.

Samir Singh:

Opportunity to go to operating room,

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

Do cases, you know, ortho trauma, things of that nature.

Victor Razi:

Right. That's pretty cool. I know one thing I'm always curious about is, you know, your training is like traditionally in surgery, but also kind of, jumping into like a new digital workflow era. It's kind of like, I guess where are you getting most of your like, knowledge on that? Because I feel like the pros kind. Understand that workflow a lot more and all, but it seems like, did you even have any foundation on that or everything's just new as it's coming?

Samir Singh:

The only digital stuff I had experience with is virtual surgical planning, right? I mean, I was still back in the heyday of orthognathic surgery, we were mounting models. You know, doing paper tracings. I mean, it's like crazy what we were doing, like spending all day doing. it's good to understand the foundation, but to answer your question I give a lot of credit to one of our junior partners, Alex Fagan. He trained at medical College of Georgia and Augusta. And one of his interests was 3D printing.

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

And so we went we, I started doing all on X stuff with the traditional, analog conversions in office. and then we sort of, got an intraoral scanner and started playing with that. And then when Alex joined us in 2022. Or partnered at 2022. He set us up with 3D printer. So now we're actually printing our own provisionals in-house.

Saad Alamgir:

That's awesome.

Samir Singh:

and then we bought a couple other toys, a micron mapper for photogrammetry

Saad Alamgir:

Mm-hmm.

Samir Singh:

of that nature. So we're printing our own implant guides and surgical guides

Victor Razi:

That's awesome.

Samir Singh:

nature. So, a lot of it's been through trial and error,

Victor Razi:

I can imagine.

Samir Singh:

diver plan or dive. But don't be surprised if.

Victor Razi:

Yeah,

Samir Singh:

you predict doesn't

Victor Razi:

sure.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

so we have some backup plans, uh, as any good surgeon should have.

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

It's been wonderful to see the evolution.

Victor Razi:

Yeah, that.

Saad Alamgir:

that's sweet. Dr. Singh, I'm pretty interested in, mentioned that you're from Pittsburgh and this practice is obviously like, to be pretty well established in Pittsburgh. I'm curious to see how the process of getting that job, and I know you'd mentioned that now you're a partner, was there an associateship involved with that and then. Able to buy in. How did that process of, you know, not the dentist, not the dentistry part, but the business part of.

Samir Singh:

Yeah, so one of the nice things about joining a well-oiled machine, so just going back a little bit to the history of the practice they expanded to a second location in the eighties. And then I give a lot of credit to one of our senior partners, Wayne raa, he joined on in 2008 and then almost turnkey opened up two. locations.

Saad Alamgir:

Wow.

Samir Singh:

and and then I joined on my partner, Sean Marsh, joined on and we manned those offices and built those up to be really busy. And so the nice part of it was our associateship was a year and a half. and during which time we had a base salary as well as a bonus threshold, which, you know, if you're busy and wanting to be busy like I was, that's very easy to hit. So I was able to do that associateship for a year and a half. And found that I was a good fit. They liked me, I liked them, and then it was very easy for me to partner in.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

And the nice thing about the way we do our partner buy-in is part of it is subsidized through the practice interest free over 10 years.

Saad Alamgir:

That's awesome.

Samir Singh:

other one is a buy-in through a bank loan. Now. you can imagine it's a big number, so it seems a little bit scary, but we actually co-signed that loan, so all of our collateral is also at stake If. Heaven forbid you were to default on

Saad Alamgir:

Mm-hmm.

Samir Singh:

So, so it is very friendly and we have a good relationship with the bankers in the area since we've been a good client of theirs for many

Victor Razi:

sure.

Samir Singh:

They've made it pretty seamless. And so, now we have two associates Steven Lick and Seth Lano who Steven trained at UIC, Seth trained at OSU. And those guys are also on track to becoming partners as well.

Victor Razi:

Yeah, that's awesome. Y'all. It seems like y'all got a good group of guys and if girls there put together to kind, I don't know, just have a good workflow and a good streamline process of getting things done.

Samir Singh:

It's nice because we all have our own interests and certainly you can be as busy as you want or just, you know, you can work at your own

Victor Razi:

Right.

Samir Singh:

You tend to be a little bit crazy, as you guys have probably surmised by now.

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

I tend to keep a pretty hectic schedule, but that keeps me happy. It keeps me, You know, where I need to.

Victor Razi:

yeah. That's awesome. Not to get too existential on you, but what what are your goals moving forward like in the future? Like, let's say like. Five or 10 years from now, like do you see yourself doing the same thing or just taking it year by year?

Samir Singh:

You know, my, and I'm glad you asked that question because I think that everything in our lives if you're on this track is very preordained. so. If you know you're gonna apply to dental school, you have to have the grades, you have to get the test scores, you have to do the interviews. Then when you're in dental school, if you wanna specialize or do whatever, you have to get the grades. You have to, you know, have the rank. So for me I was a little bit precocious in my career making aspirations. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I had worked really hard. I felt like I was submerged underwater for four years, and I came up for a breath of air and I didn't know what to do. So after, you know, some careful consideration and time you know, my goal is to just a legacy. That's it. Leave a good. I don't need to be the richest, I don't need to be the fastest, I don't need to be the smartest. I just, whenever I retire, whenever that day is, I just want people to say, you know what? I worked with Dr. Sang and he was a very good guy and you know, a good practitioner and he helped me out when I really needed it. and that's more so for my kids too. One of the most humbling things is becoming a parent. I dunno if you guys have kids or are

Victor Razi:

I don't.

Samir Singh:

It's like all this stuff that we're talking about is crazy, but like that is crazy.

Saad Alamgir:

I can imagine.

Samir Singh:

so I just wanna set a good example for my children, you know. Now as far as like the actual work you know, I'm privileged enough to do some speaking for a couple companies Zimmer Biomet or Zim vi dental Implant Company. I do some webinars and some teaching for them. I'm doing some teaching or working on doing some teaching for Bio Horizons. So I think I would do a, you know. Obviously keep a good clinical load, but

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

my experiences,

Victor Razi:

Right.

Samir Singh:

You guys asked how I got into the digital workflow, how did I build up a busy all on X practice. I mean, we're doing 30, 30 a year. I mean, it's not like a clear choice or anything like, I mean, I'm doing 30 a year

Victor Razi:

Yeah,

Samir Singh:

and that's not the other six guys in the practice. So I would love to have the opportunity to share my story

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

Guide other practitioners on the right way to do things.

Victor Razi:

I definitely unbiased opinion, think you have a very solid and moral approach to like how things are coming at you in life. Because I feel like when you're a dental student and even like you going through residency and first years out in practice, you know, nose is so much to the grindstone that it's hard to kind of see what you really are valuing. So

Samir Singh:

You don't know up from down some days, man. I know it. I remember the, I was thinking, you know, before jumping on this podcast, I was like, man, these guys are in the thick of it, you know? D three, just

Victor Razi:

yeah.

Samir Singh:

you know, like, this is the time you're looking to apply for residencies or, you know, looking at your next steps. I mean, that's a lot.

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

I remember those.

Victor Razi:

Yeah. So, uh, I guess staying more on the topic of, uh, OMS being that that's your background how do you see the future of that specialty changing and pros and cons? Like what do you, what do you think the field is gonna experience? The short term and long term future, just outta curiosity.

Samir Singh:

I was actually listening to a couple other podcasts that you guys had with a couple other OMSs and certainly, you know, this is a big time with DSOs or private equity backed companies. You know, where you could either be the wolf or the sheep, so to speak. And within our market I've seen some of our competitors actually sell out to private equity. So, one of the things that we decided pretty early on was we wanted to be on the other end of things. And so what I mean by that is we. Hired a CEO for our practice. And we're hoping to soon join a platform, or excuse me, become our own platform to offer dental services to other practices. So whether it be you know, on-call services, staffing services. Accounts receivable, revenue cycle management. We have the infrastructure to do that.

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

that's been our microcosm of our practice. That's very exciting for us. We're gonna be looking to launch this within the next year but globally with the specialty, I think you'll see. A lot of folks decide whether they want to go through with a private equity sale or maintain autonomy.

Saad Alamgir:

Mm-hmm.

Samir Singh:

as it relates to what we're doing right now in our day to day one of the cool things that our practice is doing is using ai. Actually Monday we're launching an AI system to help with fielding calls so we don't miss calls.

Saad Alamgir:

Oh, that.

Samir Singh:

We've field tested this and tried to stump it and Margot is her name. Margot is gonna do a great job taking calls from patients and getting'em to the right people so we don't miss any calls.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

I there's a place for it coming up very quickly including on-call services and things of that nature.

Victor Razi:

Yeah, that is.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah the type of innovation that people, especially like in dentistry, don't really think of. It's just the business things that are like get you going, but that helps you maintain patience and. You know, make sure that they're coming back. That being said, I did have a question about, talked about your weekly schedule and you know how you're doing everything. Are there certain days where you're doing specific procedures because, you know, going from like an impact of wisdom to, to like a bone graft, to like an all on X, like that seems pretty, gonna have to be jumping all over the place. How does your, like day to day schedule end up looking like.

Samir Singh:

It's whatever whatever's on my schedule, man. I mean, like it's, I gotta give a lot of credit to my staff. Because they know you know, they come ready. They have a good attitude. And they build me up, you know, when things are busy, hectic, stressful, maybe I'm feeling a little under the weather. They're always there to be my backstop. So, and certainly I have supportive partners within the practice. So, you know, a Friday for me might look like, you know, six IV sedations, a couple locals, then go to the hospital and do. A double jaw or a la forward osteotomy or something like that. So I might cut out a little bit early just to go do that for the afternoon. So ends up being like seven to five. And then in the summertime, we actually expand our hours to start at seven every day. and as you can imagine, that's a popular time to get everything done, including orthognatic surgery. So. I typically operate with a second surgeon on almost every case. So God bless my partners for joining

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

you know, seven, eight o'clock at night, some days doing cases, so starting at seven in the morning and getting home at seven, eight o'clock at night.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah,

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Saad Alamgir:

man, that, that's crazy. Having a,'cause, you know, seven to seven to five, that's just, you know, the day or the time that you're doing, you know, surgery, but you know, five to nine, five to 10, that's when you're doing all your case planning for the day after. So kudos to you, man. That's, you know, being almost 10 years outta practice now, still having the, you know, drive and. Want to do stuff like that and, you know, embracing those long days, that's, it's a testament to your character. So,

Victor Razi:

For sure.

Saad Alamgir:

man, I got all the respect in the.

Samir Singh:

I appreciate that. You know, and my thought behind that is, is quite simple. I just remember man, I was blessed to go to the residency program I was in and my two co-residents gray Wilson and Fahad Alad. So stinking smart, I mean such, you know, gray went to UNC, which is another one of those powerhouse. Dental schools and residency program. So he came in ready to roll and Fahad was a non-Cat at VCU for two years, and then he finally matched. So

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

we joked that they should have given him an honorary MD'cause he was six years at,

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Victor Razi:

Yeah,

Samir Singh:

these guys. Man, they were so smart. So I was never like the prize student or anything like that. I mean, I definitely had big shoes to

Victor Razi:

sure.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

I just remember. up super early before cases, pouring over details and trying my best to be like that and you know, Excel and really just be crisp. And I just know how hard it was for me and I never really wanted to give it up. I just thought it would be easy to narrow your focus because once you get in practice, it's super easy to do that.

Victor Razi:

Right. I can see that being the case as we're wrapping up here. Uh, Dr. Singh, uh, I know one of the things you mentioned is, you know, he should have got that honorary md uh, last year there was like, I don't know, I think like 20 something spots at MD programs that didn't get matched. Do you have any thoughts on that? Just outta curiosity, you know, how do you think that will play out too, moving forward?

Samir Singh:

You know, I was lucky enough to I mean, I can, I have a case coming up where I'm harvesting a hip graft. I'm doing an iliac crest bone graft to it's a double jaw surgery that was done by another surgeon outta state actually. And he is a non-union, so I need to go in and reconstruct that.

Victor Razi:

oh well.

Samir Singh:

so one of the things that I am lucky is privileges where I. Don't really need an MD to do those things. I have the training, I have the case volume. I'm sure you guys saw I got my FACS, which is a tremendous honor. So, you know, to get back to your question, I think that again, I think it goes back to volume and variety and I think it goes back to the individual. Certainly if a six year track gave me the opportunity to out and be a strong. Surgeon I would jump at the opportunity.

Victor Razi:

Sure,

Samir Singh:

You know, I know that there's different times now with debt and things of that

Victor Razi:

for sure.

Samir Singh:

cost of schooling. You know, and God bless those folks that accumulate all that

Victor Razi:

Right?

Samir Singh:

still come out at the other end of it. But I was just very singularly focused on that

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

And I think a lot of folks are, who are applying to this specialty probably have that same goal.

Victor Razi:

For sure. So as we're wrapping up here, doc, uh, do you have any final advice for dental students or, uh, people early in their dental career as they move forward? Uh, kind of some pearls of what you faced in your lifetime or any type of encounters you have that you would like to share with students that are going in this field or even just in the career dentistry in general.

Samir Singh:

Tons. Tons, man. I would say as I mentioned before, keep. Keep your doors open. It's very easy for those doors to close and sometimes they don't open back up. so as you're going through schooling make sure you do that. get a lot of experience in different departments, talk to residents, talk to faculty. They have the benefit of experience behind their name. Be kind to yourself, right? Like mental health take care of your mental health. Be kind to yourself. Not everybody can be perfect 24 7, 365. Do the best that you can. Take solace in the fact that you've done the best that you can and learn from it and grow. That's why it's school, right? That's why it's a practice. That's why it's a residency program. A

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Samir Singh:

right? Because you're there and, you know, even to this day I'm humbled. You know, on a day-to-day basis. And it's just keeping the eyes forward and learning from those experiences and making sure that you deliver the best patient outcome. So, there's a lot more man. But that,

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

those are the big ones that jump out to me and just be kind to yourself and don't give up.

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Victor Razi:

Well, uh, thank you, Dr. Singh for joining us today and, uh, truthfully, sod and I, and I'm sure our listeners really appreciate your honesty and how humble you are with, uh, the opportunities that you've gotten. So, uh, we really, uh, thank you for joining us and, you know, sharing your knowledge with us and dental students that are going in the field of dentistry.

Samir Singh:

Thank you guys and certainly the offer extends to you guys. If you want to keep in touch, you're more than welcome to you know. Text me, email me. Do you guys share contact information at all

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

Yeah, so if anybody wants to come up to, you know, our practice and spend some time with us in the office or in the operating room, you guys are always welcome. My operating room is always open. And you guys have my Instagram page and things like that, so if you guys wanna check out some stuff I've gotten a little lax with, you know, the kids at home. Certainly try to keep up with posting here and there. So,

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Samir Singh:

yeah, that offer extends to you and anybody who's tuning in.

Victor Razi:

Awesome. Thanks for joining us, man, and we'll keep in touch

Samir Singh:

My pleasure. Take care

Victor Razi:

You too.