Organized dentistry is working harder for the profession than most dentists realize — and nobody makes that case more compellingly than someone who has lived it from the inside. In Episode 38 of The Technology Evangelist Podcast, sponsored by Medidenta Digital Solutions, Dr. John Flucke sits down with Dr. Brett Kessler, Past President of the American Dental Association, practicing dentist since 1995, and one of the most candid and courageous voices in modern dentistry. From a deeply personal story of recovery to landmark advocacy work on dental benefits reform, dentist wellness, and the future of oral health, this conversation covers ground that few in the profession have been willing to explore publicly.
Key Insights on Organized Dentistry, Wellness, and Oral Health’s Future:
- Origin Story: Dr. Kessler’s path to dentistry was anything but straight. An engineering background, an abandoned medical school application, and a fraternity brother’s nudge sent him toward dentistry — and he never looked back. He met his wife in dental school, completed a General Practice Residency that would later anchor much of his leadership philosophy, and built a fee-for-service practice in Denver centered on comprehensive, esthetic, and reconstructive care.
- Recovery as a Superpower: Dr. Kessler entered dental school with a substance abuse problem and graduated with a worse one. After hitting his bottom in Michigan, he eventually embraced treatment, got sober, and has now been in recovery for over 27 years. Rather than hiding that chapter, he made it the foundation of his advocacy — fighting to remove punitive measures from dental licensing boards for practitioners who seek help, and becoming a trusted resource for colleagues in crisis. He credits the mindfulness tools from his recovery program as the core of his leadership effectiveness, and considers sobriety the best thing that has ever happened to him.
- Smile Again and Community Impact: While building his private practice, Dr. Kessler partnered with a Denver treatment center serving the homeless population, providing free dental care in exchange for patients staying in treatment. That program evolved into the Metro Denver Dental Society’s Smile Again Foundation, ultimately supporting hundreds of volunteers treating patients recovering from substance abuse and domestic violence. It drew national media attention — including CNN — and put Dr. Kessler on the radar of organized dentistry at the national level.
- From Advocacy to the ADA Presidency: A CNN segment on his work led to an invitation to testify before Congress on dental treatment for people in recovery. That appearance opened doors to American Dental Association leadership. He became President of the Colorado Dental Association in 2012–2013, championed a comprehensive adult dental benefit in Colorado Medicaid that expanded access to care for 300,000 people, and eventually rose to serve as ADA President — a role he describes as the most challenging and most rewarding year of his life.
- Dental Benefits Reform — The Long Game: Dr. Kessler offers one of the most detailed explanations of organized dentistry’s multi-stage strategy for reforming the dental benefits landscape. The approach begins with Dental Loss Ratio transparency laws modeled after Massachusetts, where 71% of voters approved a DLR ballot initiative the ADA helped fund to the tune of $5.5 million. The strategy then pushes for plan design reform from the traditional 100/80/50 structure to 100/80/80, followed by raising annual maximums that have not changed since 1972. Parallel tracks include ongoing legal challenges to monopolistic practices in the industry and Supreme Court challenges to ERISA plan exemptions from state DLR laws.
- Reconnecting the Mouth to the Body: One of Dr. Kessler’s signature pillars as ADA President was integrating oral health into overall systemic health. He envisions a near future where A1c testing, microbiome screening, airway assessments, and sleep apnea management are standard parts of the dental visit — and are reimbursed accordingly. Pilot programs are already underway, showing that investing in oral health drives down costs on the medical side, creating a compelling case for medical insurance plans to include dental benefits as a loss leader.
- AI in Dentistry — The Real Opportunity: Beyond radiographic detection, Dr. Kessler sees AI as the most powerful clinical assistant ever built — one that briefs a dentist on a patient’s full history and preferences as they walk into the operatory, handles real-time clinical scribing, calculates insurance approval probability before a procedure is presented, and frees front-desk staff from hours on hold to engage meaningfully with patients. He also raised the important question of whether third-party payer AI should be held to the same clinical data standards as diagnostic AI — a standards conversation organized dentistry is already actively leading through the ADA.
- The Shift from Surgical to Chronic Disease Management: With caries rates declining across generations, Dr. Kessler argues the profession must shift from a drill-to-get-paid model to one where prevention, lifestyle consultation, and regenerative materials are both the clinical standard and a reimbursable service. He describes a future where early-stage defects are treated with regenerative coatings rather than restorations — better outcomes, lower overhead, and the ability to serve more patients each day.
- Oral Health 2050: As chair of the ADA’s Oral Health 2050 project, Dr. Kessler is leading a partnership with the Boston Consulting Group to imagine what oral health delivery will look like 25 years from now. Five panels are addressing education, practice models, technology and AI, benefit structures, and dentist wellness. White papers will be released panel by panel to drive ongoing professional conversation and help organized dentistry shape a preferred future rather than simply react to one.
Dr. Kessler’s takeaway: the golden age of dentistry is not behind us — it is directly ahead. Technology, AI, systemic integration, and organized dentistry working on behalf of the profession are converging in ways that could expand access, improve outcomes, and fundamentally redefine what it means to deliver oral health care. But none of it happens without dentists showing up, staying members, and lending their voice to the work being done on their behalf every single day by the American Dental Association.
To learn more about dentist wellness resources and the ADA’s well-being programs, visit the ADA Wellness page.
This episode is Part 1 of a two-part conversation — stay tuned for Part 2 with Dr. Brett Kessler coming soon.
