He Went From Vet Hospitals to Running a 130-Office Dental Group | Dave Gaspar, BOAC #59

In this episode of The Business of a Clinic, Jared speaks with Dave Gaspar, CEO of SmilePartners, a dental support organisation with 130 offices across seven states.Dave’s career has taken him across two different but surprisingly connected areas of healthcare: veterinary hospitals and dental clinics. Before becoming CEO of SmilePartners, he worked at Banfield Pet Hospital, then Pacific Dental Services, before moving from COO to CEO at SmilePartners.That journey gave Dave a deeply operational view of what makes clinics work. He has spent time in the field, inside practices, alongside clinicians, front office teams, dental assistants, veterinarians, and dentists. His perspective is that successful retail healthcare is not necessarily complicated, but it is hard. Clinics need providers, patients, care delivery, and payment. The challenge is that human beings sit inside every part of that system.Jared and Dave discuss the similarities and differences between veterinary medicine and dentistry, including patient communication, insurance, payment, emotional decision-making, treatment acceptance, and the role of empathy. Dave explains why veterinary medicine taught him so much about trust, especially because the patient cannot speak for themselves and the family has to make decisions on their behalf.They also explore what it means to scale a dental group without losing touch with the frontline. Dave shares why he believes leaders need to spend time in the operatory, understand how dentists think, learn the insurance side of the business, and stay close to the clinical and non-clinical realities that shape the patient experience.The conversation also covers hiring and onboarding dentists, moving from COO to CEO, reducing friction across a large group, and how to evaluate new technology and AI. Dave’s framework is simple: does it help the patient, the clinician, the team, and the business? If technology does not reduce friction across those areas, it may create more problems than it solves.The episode closes with one of Dave’s most important leadership lessons: slow down, build the relationship, align on the why, and do not disappear when things get difficult. In a healthcare world increasingly focused on automation, Dave’s view is that people, trust, communication, and relationships still sit at the centre of great clinics.In this episodeDave’s journey from veterinary hospitals to dental group leadershipSmilePartners and scaling to 130 offices across seven statesWhat dental clinics can learn from veterinary medicineWhy retail healthcare depends on reducing frictionThe difference between dental insurance and veterinary payment modelsWhy veterinary medicine can be more emotionally chargedPatient communication when the patient cannot speak for themselvesEmpathy, sympathy, and trust in healthcare decisionsWhy clinic success is simple, but not easyThe four things every successful dental or vet clinic needsProviders, patients, treatment delivery, and paymentWhy human beings make every process harder to executeLearning dentistry from inside the operatoryWhy leaders need to understand the front lineTreatment acceptance and motivating patients before pain startsHiring, onboarding, and supporting new dentistsBeing shoulder to shoulder with cliniciansMoving from COO to CEOWhy Dave’s role now is to reduce friction at scaleHow to evaluate technology and AI in healthcarePatient, clinician, team, and business impactWhy explaining the “why” matters before rolling out changeAI receptionists, verification tax, and hidden frictionWhy healthcare still needs people, even as automation growsThe leadership lesson Dave learned in veterinary medicineWhy showing up during hard moments builds trustKey ideaGreat clinics are not built by technology alone. They are built by people who reduce friction, explain the why, stay close to the frontline, and build enough trust to help patients, clinicians, and teams move forward together.About the showThe Business of a Clinic explores how private healthcare clinics can grow by improving patient relationships, patient engagement, clinic operations, retention, follow-up, commercial systems, and the overall patient experience.