Voices in Health and Wellness

How Airway Health Can Transform Energy, Mood, And Long‑Term Brain Health with Dr Dar Radfar

• Dr Andrew Greenland • Season 1 • Episode 81

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A drowsy drive into a tree turned a seasoned dentist into an airway evangelist. Dr Dar Radfar joins us to reveal how the mouth maps to the airway, why snoring is a health signal not a punchline, and how simple, patient-friendly tools can restore real sleep and daytime energy. We unpack his path from CPAP intolerance to oral appliance therapy, the systems he teaches practices to adopt, and the social ripple effects of better sleep—from saved marriages to safer commutes.

We explore the dentist’s unique vantage point: worn incisors, scalloped tongues, high-arched palates, dry mouth, and retruded jaws often shout “airway problem.” For children, the stakes are even higher. Snoring, mouth breathing, bedwetting, and ADHD-like behaviour can improve when the airway is opened through early ENT assessment and orthodontic expansion. Dr Rad details when CPAP remains essential, how mandibular advancement devices help mild to moderate apnoea, and why severe cases may consider Inspire. He also shares how low-level laser therapy reduces TMJ pain by boosting cellular energy and how thoughtful supplementation can calm the mind without liver-taxing sedatives.

We connect sleep to long-term brain and heart health. Repeated oxygen drops disturb glymphatic clearance and strain the cardiovascular system, while gum disease bacteria add another pathway to cognitive and cardiac risk. The takeaway is a call to break silos: cardiology, oncology, ENT, primary care, and dentistry should all ask about sleep and make testing easy. Dr Rad argues for routine home sleep screening at 40, and previews an AI tool that triages risk via photos and a quick questionnaire, then routes users to home tests and telemedicine. Subscribe, share with someone who snores, and leave a review with your top sleep question—we’ll feature the best ones next time.

Guest Biography

Dr. Dar Radfar (Dr. Rad) is a California-based dentist, educator, and founder of RAD Health Inc. and RAD Seminar, where he coaches dentists globally on implementing sleep apnea treatment, oral appliances, and low-level laser therapy. After his own diagnosis with sleep apnea, Dr. Rad became a leading advocate for airway-centered dentistry and has helped over 4,000 patients while training countless practitioners.

He also develops functional health products such as Rad Zz (a natural sleep aid) and Rad Jaw (for TMJ relief), blending his clinical experience with product innovation and holistic care.

Contact Details and Social Media Handles

  • Website: https://www.drrad.net
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdarradfar/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.radhealth
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dar.radfar.2025/
  • RAD Seminar: https://www.radseminar.com
  • 805 Dentistry: https://www.805dentistry.com

About Dr Andrew Greenland

Dr Andrew Greenland is a UK-based medical doctor and founder of Greenland Medical, specialising in Integrative and Functional Medicine. With dual training in conventional and root-cause approaches, he helps individuals optimise health, performance, and longevity — with a focus on cognitive resilience and healthy ageing.

Voices in Health and Wellness features meaningful conversations at the intersection of medicine, lifestyle, and human potential — with clinicians, scientists, and thinkers shaping the future of care.

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Dr Andrew Greenland:

So welcome to Voices in Health and Wellness. This is the podcast where we go behind the scenes with the people redefining what care looks like. Founders, clinicians, and innovators who are pushing the edges of health one conversation at a time. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Greenland, and today we're exploring one of the most fascinating and fast-evolving intersections in healthcare: the connection between dentistry, air health, and sleep. Joining me is Dr. Dar Radfar, also known as Dr. Rad, a practicing dentist, speaker, and educator who's become a leading voice in air-centred dentistry and sleep apnea treatment. He's the founder of Rad Health Inc. and RAD Seminar, where he helps dental professionals implement sleep protocols, oral appliance therapy, and even low-level laser treatments for TMJ and chronic pain. He also leads patient care at 805 Dentistry in California. So with that, Da, welcome to the show and thank you so much for joining us.

Dr Dar Radfar:

Thanks, Dr. Greenland, for having me. I'm excited to uh have your listeners listen to how you can get the best sleep of your life. I mean, a third of our life is spent sleeping, right? And if we're sleeping well, how much energy would you have the following day? How uh how much better is it to sleep next to a bed partner that doesn't snore, right? Um, and and what are the risks and and prevalences of sleep and how can you self-assess yourself? So I'd love to dive in and uh and and jump into this world of sleep, and then we'll even discuss why a dentist such as myself is was is speaking about sleep today.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Brilliant. Well, we'll we'll cover all of that and get in delve into the weeds. But perhaps we could start with your journey and how did you transition from traditional dental work into sleep-focused and airway-centered care? Because I think that'll be interesting to hear.

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, I've been a dentist for almost 24 years now. In 2002, I became a dentist here in California in the United States. And uh in 2009, I was driving home one evening from dinner, and uh unfortunately I fell asleep at the wheel. I crashed my car into a tree, uh, not knowing I had a condition known as sleep apnea. I knew I was getting a little bit tired throughout the day. At the time, I was uh 32 years old. I wasn't overweight, so you you know it wasn't the classic large neck or fat around the neck area that would constrict the airway. So I knew I was getting a little more tired. I was starting to snore, especially if I had a couple drinks at night, and um but I never knew that I had sleep apnea. But after my accident, I realized that something's going on with my sleep that's making me tired throughout the day, which made me fall asleep with the wheel. And luckily, I crashed into a tree. Uh I obviously turned out to be okay. But I got a home sleep study soon after. Uh, who has time to go to a lab, right? Uh, and a home sleep study is a really nice, effective way that a physician or a dentist uh and dentist here in the United States can definitely refer for home sleep studies to be able to diagnose you and see uh if you have stoppages of breathing or shortness of breath that are enough to be recorded on the device that you sleep with, that indicate a possibility of sleep apnea, which means that you know your heart's racing to get oxygen to your brain, and you're doing this mini marathon back and forth, and you wake up and you're not really rested, you don't get deep sleep or REM sleep, which ultimately gives you that more energy when you wake up and more mental clarity. And so I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, uh, and they were giving they gave me that beautiful machine called the CPAP machine, continuous positive airway pressure. Uh, and unfortunately I couldn't tolerate it. It was uh I was claustrophobic with it. I I'm a stomach sleeper, so the cord would you know wrap around my head once and and the mask would come off and it would just be very uncomfortable. And I'm sure some of the listeners here who've ever had to wear the mask, uh, if you're not uh tolerating it, it's very challenging to continuously wear it and try to sleep through the night. Now, if you can tolerate the mask, you'd love it. Uh you sleep well, you wake up refreshed. Uh so what I couldn't tolerate, I gave it back. And a few months later in 2010, the American Medical Association approved an oral appliance for sleep apnea and snoring. And guess what? I was patient zero in my practice. Uh, we did an impression for my teeth, and I made the appliance and adjusted it, and boom, it changed my life forever. And since then, I've helped over 4,000 patients in my practices. And I've been blessed to teach dentists all across the world on how to do this so they can ultimately help their patients.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Amazing. I always find these personal health journeys very interesting and the way that they kind of mold what you end up doing for your career. So thank you for sharing that. Really interesting. And then what led you to launch Rad Health Inc. and then Rad Seminar to start coaching other dental professionals?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, Rad Health Inc. was uh products that I've created. My first product was a sleep product in 2021, end of 2020, uh patients were coming, I'm checking their appliances, their dental offices were opened during COVID, and my patients were like, Yeah, I sleep really poorly, doc. I don't think it's the mouthpiece because my wife tells me I don't snore, I you know, I it's not bothering me. The mouthpiece has been working great. I just can't shut off my mind. I'm like, okay, so what are you doing to help you sleep? Well, I've taken Tanol PM, I'm taking Xanax, I'm taking Advil PM, I'm taking Benadryl. So they're taking these drugs. Um, and and these drugs are obviously are not only uh liver toxic, but they could also be kidney toxic to numb the mind. Or they're drinking a half a bottle of wine, maybe a whole bottle of wine on Zoom before they go to bed during COVID, right? And we remember those days, and to to shut the mind off, uh taking these drugs and not just taking natural supplements is a problem. So I do I put my biochemistry degree hat back on and uh I looked up some ingredients that would help with anxiety and insomnia, and I discovered an ingredient called N-acetylcysteine or NAC NAC that was being used actually for treatment of COVID when you have COVID symptoms as an antioxidant for your lung. And then when you Google or search NAC and sleep apnea, you see that there are NIH.gov studies that show NAC helping reduce sleep apnea by about 30% with home sleep studies. So I incorporated NAC, I put some L-theanine, some magnesium glycinate, some um valerian root, which is an herb, and uh very trace amounts, two and a half milligrams of melatonin, uh, into my supplement. And I created my first sleep supplement called Rad Z Z, Rad Z under the Rad Health Inc. brand. Uh and you know, patients were clenching and grinding their teeth a lot, they're stressed more and ever before. You know, 20 years of practice, I've never seen so many people clench and grind their teeth because of the stress that they were going through from what was going on in the world. And so I created a TMJ supplement called Rad Jaw, uh, which also has seven all natural ingredients to help alleviate the tightness of the muscles of mastication and help uh rehabilitate the joints with that uh most people experience with popping and clicking and lock jaw through modalities of uh ingredients like chondroit and sulfate, glucosamine, uh, vitamin D3, calcium. Uh, and so that's how rad healthing started. It was a necessity from what I saw my patients suffering from with sleep and TMJ. So I ended up making some natural supplements because I was concerned about the liver and kidney toxicities that the prescription or over-the-counter medications were causing.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Got it. You also mentioned um on our call before that you'd also developed some low-level laser therapy products. And now I can see you've got these supplements. So can you kind of tell us a little bit more how all this fits together in a kind of a holistic approach to some of the conditions you're seeing?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, through RAD seminar, uh I did a lot of speaking engagements since 2014. I've been on stage at all of our different conferences and webinars teaching other dentists on how to do sleep and how to treat it, how to incorporate into their practice, what to look for in the in the dental uh area in the mouth, uh, and also in the medical history to have that conversation about hey, how well do you sleep at night, Andrew? Do you feel like you're tired throughout the day? Anyone tell you that you snore? And these kinds of conversations are important to have as a dentist because we do look in the mouth. And so we notice also airway restriction or not getting enough oxygen has a big connection to TMJ or temporal mandibular joint disorder or grinding of your teeth. So a lot of the dentists typically just make a night guard uh and and and call it a call that that's the kind of treatment that they call for. Um, but in a grinding patient could be a sleep patient, an airway patient. So we always ask about the airway, but sometimes, yes, we do have to treat the TMD. And the low-level laser therapy came into play a couple two and a half years ago as a treatment uh modality for the tightness of the muscle and pain that patients experience with skeletal muscle pain. When we clench and grind our teeth, our masteter and temporalysis get inflamed. We have neck and shoulder pain typically. A lot of times we can get ringing of the ear, we get migraines. So a low-level laser uh therapy device by erconia, erconia uh E-R-C-H-O-N-I-A is based out of uh the United States, but they also have European uh divisions as well, all over Europe. And uh they have have a handheld device that I help use on patients uh to be able to help with their TMJ and TMD uh symptoms to be able to reduce the pain, musculoskeletal pain. It basically stimulates the mitochondria, which is the engine, the powerhouse of the cells where the laser points. It's a cold laser, doesn't hurt. There's no numbing, no uh discomfort to do it, no uh contraindications. You could use it on a baby, you could use it on a horse, uh, and and the average person that we use it on uh has these kinds of pain uh alleviate after a couple sessions. Uh so it stimulates the mitochondria to produce more ATP, which is uh the energy cell of the house of the cell, and and when there's more energy to the cell, there's more uh reduction of inflammation, an opioid effect, so a pain-reducing effect, and it promotes healing. So uh we've even used the low level laser therapy. If Andrew, you're in my office and we pull the tooth, and you know, we're gonna put you on some gauze and send you home. We shoot the laser on that area where we pull the tooth. When the numbness wears off, you're gonna have a lot less pain, you're gonna have less inflammation. Great for wisdom teeth removal, so you don't get that chipmunk look when you get your teeth removed. Um, but in any sort of surgical uh type of treatments that are done in dentistry, it really helps lower the pain, lower the inflammation, the swelling, and promote healing.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Amazing. So you've got quite a portfolio of things that you're involved with. So, what does a typical day look like right now for you? And I guess there is no such thing as a typical day, but in terms of you know juggling clinical practice and education and product development, what's your kind of week?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, you know, uh, Doc, I tell you, the the people who are listening, what do we have on a typical day, right? We get up, we hopefully are thinking in gratitude. Uh, you know, there's a there's a mindset shift today that we're more conscious of our energies and and and hopefully we're not leading with a negative uh victim kind of attitude and mindset. So I I typically like to get up and and uh set my intentions for the day. I'll grab my journal and I'll write down five things that I'm grateful for and a couple things that I want to really uh get done today, such as doing a podcast with you, is excited for this today to be able to share some of the knowledge uh about sleep and and and uh and dentistry and also mindset. So once you get your mindset right, um I typically have a lot of Zoom calls with with dental uh dentists all across the world now that I teach on how to do sleep. I still see patients five days a month. I go into the practice uh and see patients from general dentistry to sleep to orthodontics and clear aligners and whatnot. So I do have a typical day with that. But you know, when I have on my when I'm on my Zoom calls, when I'm kind of uh discussing things that patients are experiencing with the doctors that I'm training through RAD seminar, things come up uh and innovations come up and ideas come up. And I think when your mind is more clear, when you're not dealing with the daily stress, you're able to think of ideas and and opportunities to be able to meet people, to go to different conferences and speak on stages and get on podcasts and panels and whatnot. And uh during my breaks, whether I'm walking for 30 minutes after a meal or I'm at the gym, I'm listening to podcasts like yours to get uh information and new ideas that can help me with uh build maybe creating another product so that hopefully we can uh help people lead healthier lives.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Well, fun-packed life, but also very well balanced. And I like your self-care stuff that you do. So clearly, there's um a growing awareness of the connection between sleep and airway health and cognitive decline. What trends are you seeing in terms of patient demand and also um clinician interest, perhaps the less um awakened clinicians?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, uh the biggest thing that we're seeing is is the bed partner, right? The the sleeping next to someone that snores. And my wife sent me today, doc, because I'm snoring and she kicked me out of the room, right? The classic sleep divorce story. And it's estimated that a third of people who sleep under the same household that snore, a third of them sleep in separate bedrooms. And if you would imagine, uh, that does affect intimacy ultimately. Some people like sleeping in separate bedrooms, they like their privacy. Um, but it all at the end of the day, it does affect intimacy in many different ways. And also it's for that person who is dating, right? They're on the dating scene, and and uh, you know, you you meet somebody and and you become intimate with that person, and and you may want to sleep over, or they sleep over and you know, you snore. Uh, that could heavily ruin the relationship. So we've got a lot of social implications of sleep that we're talking about. And of course, you know, the medical uh comorbidities or the medical things that pop up are things like high blood pressure and acid reflux, um, the risk factor of cancer, five times higher risk of cancer of any kind. A University of Wisconsin study here in the United States, uh, if you have sleep apnea that's left untreated. I always start my lectures uh when I'm on stage and say, you know, Google, uh talk into Chat GPT or into Google uh life expectancy and sleep apnea. You'll see that most studies show 10 to 20 years off your life if you're not being treated for it. And so the the the medical comorbidities are there, including depression and anxiety, the mental health effects that lack of good quality deep sleep has and sleep apnea can cause. And in the dental world, which we look in the mouth every day on your checkup appointments, on your crown appointments, or anything like that, the dental implications are very high. And and the listeners here, I'm gonna give you some pointers. Uh the self-assessment here, grinding of your teeth. If you see your lower front teeth wearing down, you're grinding your jaw, moving it back and forth, you're trying to keep your airway open in the middle of the night. That's a big indication that you may not be getting enough air. A large scalloped tongue. If the tongue, the width of the tongue is is is really wide compared to the the the width of your arches of your jaw from left to right, the tongue doesn't have a place to sit against the roof of the mouth or on the floor of the mouth. And so it tends to fall back and cause that obstruction. The tongue falls back, hits that soft palate uh where the back of the throat is, where that punching bag is called the uvula, and that can cause uh an obstruction called sleep apnea, and the vibration against it is called snoring. And so these are the some of the landmarks that we look for in the mouth. Dry mouth is another indication, a mouth breather. Um, and these aren't just for adults, Doc. It's it's very prominent in children. Uh, you know, if if your child grinds their teeth, if your child snores, that is a huge red flag. That is not cute and funny or just like dad. That is a red flag. They should be evaluated by the pediatric ENT right away to make sure their adenoids and and tonsils are not uh causing the obstruction, which would require pediatric ENT surgery. And they should be evaluated even at the age of four or five or um and up for orthodontic evaluation to possibly expand their jaw to create room for the tongue. If their jaw is very narrow, our jaws are becoming more narrow nowadays because our foods are more pureeed as we're getting uh as children are growing and they're not eating meats and stuff like that as much. Uh, so our jaws are more narrow and tight, and and that causes more obstruction. And if the jaw is further back, the lower jaw is further back, so that so the kid has an overbite. Um, that's an indication also that possible sleep apnea and snoring can happen in the child. And and that can be corrected with functional appliances at the age of four, five, six before all the adult teeth are in, uh, so that it becomes a lot easier because they're developing at this time. So this is very important in the pediatric world as well. Bed wetting ADHD symptoms are reduced tremendously when when um when the kids are sleeping better and getting enough oxygen. So we touched a lot on adults and and children. So if there's any snoring on kids, uh any ADHD symptoms, bed wetting, grinding of the teeth, dry mouth, mouth open breathing, please have it evaluated by a pediatric guentee and an orthodontist.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Great message. Now we had a conversation before because I have a particular interest in Alzheimer's disease, and I'm I'm very well aware of the link between sleep apnea and Alzheimer's disease. Can you share your thoughts on how dentists are becoming more central in identifying these risks?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, you know, after 24 years of being a dentist, it's it's sad that sometimes I have these patients that I've, you know, we've had relationships with, right? If any of the doctors are listening, there are some relationships that we've developed over the years with our patients that are truly, I call them friendships, especially in the dental community. Uh, we see them every three, four, six months, and you know, we know a lot about their families. They sometimes know about ours. Uh, and so when I see them progress into Alzheimer's and they come in and uh they now have a caretaker and they can't can't remember the few things from the last time that they came in and whatnot. And I see the symptoms. I see the signs of sleep apnea. We did we, you know, I see the signs and wear and and and symptoms of sleep. I also see the signs uh of gum disease, the the correlation between uh bacteria and gum disease and the uh the connection to the mind and the cognitive section of the brain. You know, you can desiccate the brain with from oxygen because you're not breathing well, that'll ultimately kill brain cells. And uh, but also gum disease is a is a big link not only to heart disease, which we've known, but now also Alzheimer's. So floss, water pick, and brush your teeth, get into the dentist every three, four, six months, get your cleanings. Uh, I love water swishing. Today I was having uh look at this shake here. It's uh bunch of blueberries in there, a chocolate protein shake, uh, you know, and that's kind of makes your mouth a little bit more dry. And I grab some water and I water swish, you know, keep the mouth moist so the bacteria levels don't grow. They love dry environments. And uh so dentists has a really big pivotal um a role here. If you see gum disease, uh, it's not just for keeping your teeth in your jaw and not losing your teeth, and it's also related to, as we said, cardiovascular issues, heart issues, and now Alzheimer's. And and so sleep, uh Look at look at those symptoms or those red flags, such as the grinding of the teeth, the large scalloping of the tongue, high arched palate, retreated jaw, dry mouth issues, and discuss with your patient. They need to be evaluated with a home sleep study, get on their hygiene program so that they can reduce their chances of many things, including Alzheimer's.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Amazing. Thank you. Um, you obviously have a big educational role in the stuff that you do, but I'm just want to ask really, how are you helping practitioners go from going from being aware of these issues for education to actually implementing solutions like some of the things that you've discussed?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, and that's done really through my coaching program. And the the reason why I put the program together is because you can learn the online training on how to look for sleep. I have an online uh module within a few hours you'll know exactly what to do, but then you got to implement. And what does implementation mean? Where do where do we send for the home sleep study? Don't buy your own equipment. You know, it's hard to manage all that while you're doing a bunch of other things within your practice. Uh, and so so I have my doctors refer their patients to the home sleep testing company. They'll handle the sleep study, they'll get the medical doctor diagnosing that sleep study through that home sleep testing company, and then you get the results. I bring you in, Andrew, and we go, hey, we were right. Uh, you have mild, moderate, severe sleep apnea. This is your results that signed off by a board certified sleep physician. Um, and uh these are your treatment options, which are CPAP, oral appliance, or surgery. And majority of patients fall under mild and moderate. They're great candidates for a mouthpiece. The ones who are severe uh based on that home sleep study result should really try the mask. If they fail and they cannot tolerate it, just like I did. Uh, you can still provide a mouthpiece as a dentist. You just can't have that expectation that they're going to be cured and healed, but it's better than nothing than leaving them at that uh the severe state. There's also surgical implications that they can be referred to in ENT for surgical evaluation. Uh, a device called Inspire for severe patients is a is a is a uh a little um device that's built in surgically underneath your chest muscle here. It's attached to your uh the nerve for your tongue and it sends little impulses, little electrical impulses, signals to the tongue to keep the tongue uh kind of taut and not flaccid so that it doesn't fall back and it can cause obstruction. So, in severe cases where an oral appliance cannot work because they're severe, they can't tolerate the CPAP machine, the Inspire device has become very popular over the last decade as a surgical intervention. So the system has to be in place for what to look for in the mouth, what to look for in the medical history, the way to have the conversation with your patients, and then ultimately be able to have them get a home sleep study because no one has time to go to a lab. Uh, you know, so so remove that barrier for them, have them do it at home, get diagnosed, and then ultimately know how to treat uh the patient through those three different modalities of oral appliance, CPAP, or surgery. Thank you.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Are there any um clinical tools or protocols that you think are being underutilized in this field in your experience?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Well, I mean, the problem is look in dentistry, we're looking in the mouth all the time and we're shy to scare the patient and tell them what we see sometimes, right? We're people pleasers and and uh we have to create a relationship so the patient doesn't go, oh, you know, Dr. Rad is trying to sell me something. That's all in your mind, by the way. If someone looked in my mouth in 2009 and said, Hey, you know, Dar, are you sleeping okay? You know, they saw the grinding of the patterns, they saw the large scallop tongue, that could have saved me from this accident, you know, and so we got to get out of our heads. It's the limiting beliefs that physicians and dentists sometimes have uh that we may not want to discuss this, this is not in my scope, or this is, you know, the physicians like we like to stay in our lane uh and just do cardiology. Well, if you're an oncologist, if you know that University of Wisconsin studies showed that five times higher risk of cancer of any kind, and you know that there's a cancer risk for sleep apnea patients, and you just got a patient for the fifth time today that was diagnosed that you diagnosed for cancer, how are you not doing a sleep apnea study recommendation with the sleep doctor down the street or in the building? It it it be it doesn't make any sense that you're just focusing on what you were taught when you know that there's a relationship with sleep to so many different medical conditions, and cardiologists with arrhythmias or high blood pressure. That could be a result from sleep apnea and sleep apnea only. And so if you get them on an oral appliance through the uh mechanism of getting them referred to a dentist that does it in your area or a physician that provides the CPAP machine, there's a high likelihood that their remission of cancer or the treatment of cancer will be cancer would be successful. There's a high likelihood that they may get off of high blood pressure medication and their arrhythmias may resolve themselves because their heart isn't erratically breathing to get oxygen to their brain. So, this is the biggest frustration point is there's so many comorbidities with different medical specialties that are correlated to contribute and contributed from sleep apnea, but everyone wants to stay in their lane, and that is my goal. And I'm I'm standing on top of the mountain and try to scream as loud as I can for not just dentists to look in the mouth and see those signs, but also the physicians to be able to see ask that question how well do you sleep at night? I just diagnosed you with cancer. Oh, I sleep like crap. I wake up 10 times to go pee. Uh, you know, my wife tells me I gasp for air. Oh, well, maybe we should also have you go talk to sleep doc down the street and have that evaluated because that'll help with anything else that we do, let alone your quality of life.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Thank you. So let's switch gears a little bit to the business and operation side of what you do because you are running a business at the end of the day or businesses. What's working particularly well for you at the moment in your world?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Well, you know, the the hardest thing to do is doing it all. When you when you have patients and you have a practice that you're running, uh of course I have an associate. As I mentioned, I'm only there five days a month now. Uh, you can't see patients all day, four days a week, and try to do anything else, such as speak, lecture, uh, coach and train or develop products. Um, you know, that these things take time. A lot of time, uh, you know, I hate social media and I love social media at the same time. I think it's completely changed the dynamic of how our children are learning things, uh, what they view as real, which is really not that real because ultimately most people are posting the best things that are happening in their life and the best situations and cases and and whatnot. And but I I do believe social media is a great tool to educate the masses. Um, that has been the connecting tool for all four of my different kinds of businesses with my uh dental practices, with my speaking, with my coaching doctors, and with my products. Um, it's given me a lot of opportunity. I think that's maybe how you and I met as well, uh, is through this network of LinkedIn and Facebook and Instagram to be able to and YouTube shorts. Uh, you know, you gotta post stuff. If you're a clinician, uh Google, as of July 2025, is uh pulling for the algorithm for recommending doctors based on posts on Facebook and Instagram. So your social media posts now are very, very important. Uh, whether it's of uh uh in the medical field or in any sales of any company of any product, um, those posts now are being pulled for search engine optimization. And so you got social media is is is become the link. Uh we're in it. AI's in it, you know, we're we're in the trenches of AI. And and how do we get recommended on AI? How do you get recommended? How do I get recommended when someone's speaking into their phone, looking for a dentist that treats sleep, right? So you got to know how to reverse engineer the recommendation through AI, and you could just ask AI for that, by the way, and it will let you know. Uh, but you know, posting a lot of blogs on your website, uh, QA format, that helps a lot. Uh, making sure your Google page is optimized, posting things on that as well for your businesses, no matter what business you have, and then making making sure you put post as much content as possible with your captions and your hashtags, matching to words that your clients or your patients uh would ultimately search for. That's the ticket to making all the businesses uh uh as successful as possible.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

So social media is a double-edged sword. That's all the advantages of it from what you've been saying around promoting yourself and being found, um, and then the frustrations that go with it. But was there anything else that is a frustration in the work that you do, whether it's um on the sort of more managerial side or the nitty-gritty of the admin side? What are the things that kind of are time drains for you or bottlenecks?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, you know, the basic running of a practice or running of a business with you know the HR and the payroll and all that is is really, really it's it's not easy to do. And uh some people have managers for their practices and and and help with that, which can alleviate the pressure. Um, you know, you you have to have the proper systems in place. Uh, you can't just, you know, you you have to be organized, right? And and there has to be set times for you to do certain things. Within my practice, for example, um, you know, I have a system where I know what days I'm going in, what days I'm not. Even on my schedule today, there is an hour for me to be able to just go for a walk. You have to, you can't just constantly keep working. You have to create some time and space for your mind to calm down. Um, I don't know, Andrew, do you meditate at all?

Dr Andrew Greenland:

I do, absolutely.

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, so you know, I've I've I've been through the works of Dr. Joe Dispenza. I went to his retreat a few uh weeks ago as well. Um, and I do believe that there's that balance uh and harmony, really. It's more harmony that you need to set aside somewhere between 10 to 30 minutes, if not more, to be able to uh go into gratitude in your meditation, go into an abundance mindset, and then all of a sudden things will come to you. You you will actually see synchronicities follow through and come to you. So you're not in this constant race, you know, of providing and protecting and doing, and I'm not doing enough. And you know, once you get into that gratitude mindset, you'll realize how much you've done is a lot and enough, and then you'll create more space for things to come to you as opposed to you chasing it.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Thank you. Um so if you had a magic wand and you could fix one thing in the business or coaching model or the practice model or the wider world of dentistry, what would it be? You only got one wish.

Dr Dar Radfar:

You know, uh it's when you turn the age of 45, in the United States at least, I don't know how it is in other countries, you're it's recommended that uh a person goes through something called the colonoscopy. Uh, you know, and so you voluntarily drink something for 24 to 48 hours, and then you go in and you get put out and you get you know scoped and and hopefully they find nothing. And if they do, they you know take it out and biopsy, and and that's recommended at the age of 45 as standard of care, because one in 23 people in the United States have colon cancer. We talked about all the relationships to sleep apnea, all the comorbidities, the cancer risk, the heart attack, the stroke, the mental health, the dental concerns that can happen from grinding and acid reflux, and all diabetes type 2 and and erectile dysfunction and all these things that it can affect. Yet there's no mandatory, let's call it high recommendation uh sleep study for anyone that turns 40. That would be my magic wand, is is making that standard. Home sleep studies are recommended for anyone over the age of 40. I don't care whether you're you know, uh overweight, underweight, it makes no difference. Because imagine of all the medical issues that you could reduce, imagine how much energy people would have more for their kids, for their family. Imagine how many more relationships you would be able to save. Imagine um how much expenses, medical expenses, you'd be able to reduce just by knowing and having that power through a simple home sleep study and ultimately getting treated simply through an oral appliance. If you're a candidate, mild to moderate, on and if you're severe, trying that mask and seeing if you can do that. So that would be my magic wand is making this a mandatory, whether you're at a physician, a dentist, makes no difference. It's uh part of your your journey through life is when you hit that 40 mark, get a home sleep study.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Great advice. Um obviously there's a huge amount of a huge number of patients out there that probably are uninitiated and don't know they need somebody like you. But what if they all showed up on your doorstep next week in terms of you had a huge demand for your services? What would happen?

Dr Dar Radfar:

I mean, uh it that would be an exciting time for me because uh, you know, nothing's better than when you treat a patient with an oral appliance and they come back and the wife comes with, and I'm like, oh hi, I haven't met you yet. She's like, Can I just give you a hug, Dr. Rad? Uh, you know, you literally saved my marriage. And, you know, I always go to the all the comorbidities and the risk factors that we we do. You know, if if I had a line out the door for uh creating sleep appliances or helping patients with home sleep studies and ultimately maybe directing them to other physicians as needed, uh, it would really make me feel fulfilled. You know, at the end of the day, I fell asleep at the wheel, I crashed my car, um, I had arrhythmias that I had to deal with. Uh, you know, I was uh not as a happy-go-lucky person. Grumpy Dr. Rad was my kind of my nickname in the early morning until I got settled in at practice in my practices, until I made my oral appliance. So, man, it would be very uh a lifelong fulfilling prophecy if I could help even more patients. But the best way for me to help them is through helping physicians and dentists become aware and dentists in general to become uh have that ability to be able to treat. If I can help a dentist and in a city, they can hopefully help dozens, if not hundreds, of their patients. And so through me, uh hopefully we can help thousands and thousands of patients worldwide.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Brilliant. So looking ahead, um, where would you like to take things over the next six to 12 months? Is there anything on the cards? Anything you're working on? Where are we going in the future?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, I definitely want to uh travel internationally and speak on this on stage and get the motivation and the power going behind this uh to be able to have other doctors listen. I'd love to get the MDs more motivated, including oncologists and ENTs and um and cardiologists, which is you know the biggest three, I would say, that that could help and with sleep. And I'd love to have a collective and and joining of the dental and medical education uh being done together. So meaning dentists speaking on uh about this in medical conferences and and physicians speaking to dentists and and letting them know how much they're needed. And I think that bridging the gap uh in the next six to twelve months between the two sides uh would truly, truly help become um more top of mind for the treatment and screening of sleep apnea so that we can better serve our patients.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Is there one thing that you wish more functional and dental practices knew about airway work before getting into it? I know you've talked about a lot of different things. If there was one message that you would really like to drive home that they really understood, what would that be?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, remove your fear and just do it. I mean, you pull teeth for a living, you drill enamel that's you know the hardest thing in the body off someone's you know tooth. It's not that difficult. Don't be afraid to make an oral appliance to help a patient sleep better. Get out of your own mind of I don't know how, I may hurt the jaw, I may change the bite. This patient may die of cancer, this patient may die of a heart attack, this patient may fall asleep at the wheel and crash into a family. What if it was your family and they crashed into? It only takes one moment, one incident, one patient that has that experience that you could have helped reduce or prevent. So, so get out of that limiting belief that you can't do this, educate yourself uh to how to do it, implement the systems and uh and help start treating patients. Start with yourself, start with a family member, uh, you know, troubleshoot with your staff, uh, you know, and and then maybe you can feel comfortable enough that you start making this a daily requirement within your practice.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

It's a really sobering and profound message. I've got to ask you about AI. Um, do you see a role for AI tech platform in supporting patient education or diagnostics or some aspect of this kind of work?

Dr Dar Radfar:

Yeah, I love that you mentioned that. I'm actually working right now developing my own AI software where you could take uh in conjunction with a company called Dentulu, and the CEO is one of my good friends. You could take a picture of your face, profile picture, a few pictures of your teeth and your tongue, um, and answer a couple few questions. And it will help assess the risk for you. And ultimately, we're doing it for children as well, uh, on how high the risk factor is for you to have having sleep apnea. And so that's going to be through an app uh that I will we will be pushing out through my website, drrad.net, dr-r-ad.net. That'll uh come out in the next month or so uh in 2026. Uh so I'm excited about AI being able to help self-assess people. Uh, and then ultimately, once we see if you're at a high risk, what will be the directives going forward? Uh, which is you can order a home sleep study here, get a telemedicine conference here. So there's no just, oh, now I know what do I do. Uh, there'll be a directive on how to help uh screen and ultimately get tested and then get treated.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Dar, thank you so much. This has been such a fascinating conversation. Great information, great education. I think a lot of listeners are going to walk away with a new appreciation for the role of dentistry and whole body health. Uh, but I'm so indebted to you for spending your time this afternoon talking to me. Really, really um thank you so much.

Dr Dar Radfar:

Thank you for providing the platform, and I hope everyone sleeps well.