Dental Leaders Podcast

Professor Tara Renton OBE brings four generations of dental history — and a career built on curiosity rather than ambition — to her conversation with Payman.
 From navigating undiagnosed dyslexia and a father who begged her not to follow him into dentistry, to becoming the first female chair of oral surgery at King's College London, her story is one of serendipity, resilience, and an almost obsessive interest in the patient behind the pain. 
She shares remarkable insights into orofacial pain — nerve injuries, psychosocial histories, patients whose chronic pain only begins to shift when someone finally takes the time to ask the right question — and makes a compelling case for multidisciplinary thinking in a profession she feels has been far too siloed for far too long. 
Sharp reflections on surgical safety, local anaesthetic technique, and the state of dental education sit alongside something warmer: a life philosophy that's disarmingly simple. Stay curious.

In This Episode
00:02:50 - Four generations of dentists
00:06:05 - Child dental health crisis
00:07:20 - New grandmother
00:10:00 - Choosing dentistry
00:17:05 - Serendipity over ambition
00:37:15 - The juggle: three kids and a PhD
00:41:00 - Bullying and misogyny in surgery
00:44:45 - King's: first chair in oral surgery
00:47:35 - Multidisciplinary pain clinic
00:49:25 - The Iranian patient
00:56:00 - Trust underpins consent
01:00:00 - Classifying orofacial pain
01:07:05 - When grief resolves chronic pain
01:12:15 - Blackbox thinking
01:17:00 - Local anaesthetic tips
01:22:00 - Wrong site surgery
01:25:30 - Dental student selection
01:27:15 - Redesigning the dental course
01:47:50 - Bruxism: rethinking the evidence
01:50:15 - Fantasy dinner party
01:53:45 - Last days and legacy

About Professor Tara Renton OBE
Professor Tara Renton OBE is Emeritus Professor of Oral Surgery at King's College London Dental Institute, where she became the first female chair of oral surgery — and one of the world's leading authorities on orofacial pain and nerve injury. Over a career spanning more than 40 years, she has authored over 250 research papers, completed a PhD centred on morbidity following third molar surgery, established a pioneering multidisciplinary pain clinic at King's, and carried out extensive medico-legal work in surgical safety. She is the co-founder of the patient resource orofacialpain.org.uk.

Mike Gray's path to dentistry was anything but straightforward — and that's precisely what makes this conversation so compelling. 
A former semi-professional mountain biker who raced the World Series across three disciplines, a musician who once had the head of Universal Publishing sitting in his living room in rural Wales, and a dentist who spent years doing everything he could to avoid dentistry, Mike has lived several lives before arriving at the one he clearly loves. 
Payman and Mike cover the full sweep — grief, therapy, surgical war stories, and an obsessive, self-taught approach to digital restorative dentistry that culminates in his POISE Protocol: a no-prep veneer workflow that he believes makes truly minimally invasive ceramics available to the vast majority of patients, not just a lucky five per cent.

In This Episode
00:00:55 – Introductions and first impressions
00:01:20 – Mountain biking career
00:09:15 – A friend's suicide, guilt and stepping back from maxfax
00:12:15 – Therapy
00:14:10 – Life on the World Series circuit
00:19:25 – From maxfax to music
00:28:10 – Blackbox thinking
00:33:45 – Music career — Alabama Three, Peppa Pig and Covid
00:49:25 – NHS dentistry debate
00:51:50 – Falling in love with dentistry
00:54:40 – Self-taught restorative and the digital workflow
01:00:25 – Ditching the articulator
01:01:20 – Prototypes, not temporaries
01:05:10 – Into implants
01:11:00 – Compassion fatigue
01:13:40 – POISE protocol and no-prep ceramics
01:25:10 – The Lodge and the course
01:29:05 – Resilience and failure
01:34:20 – Practice ownership
01:41:10 – Instagram
01:49:20 – Fantasy dinner party

About Mike Gray
Mike Gray is a dentist based in Wales, working at Parkway Clinic in Swansea and The Lodge — a referral and education centre where he hosts his sold-out POISE Protocol course on minimally invasive ceramic veneers. His background spans maxillofacial surgery, semi-professional mountain biking at World Series level, and a music career that attracted interest from Universal Publishing and, improbably, Peppa Pig. He teaches himself CAD, machines his own surgical instruments, and has spent five years developing a digital workflow for no-prep ceramic restorations that he believes renders feldspathic and heavy preparation largely redundant.

Rawa Jawad Quinn is a dentist-turned-tech founder whose restless energy and refusal to be underestimated have shaped every chapter of her career. In this episode, she tells Payman about growing up in Chelsea after her Iraqi family fled Kuwait with nothing, studying in Liverpool, and working across 16 dental practices before channelling her frustrations into Medicube — a consent and patient communication platform built to give associates the consistency they've never had. The conversation takes some wonderfully unexpected detours into quantum physics, telepathy, AI-driven futures and the spiritual experiences that Rawa can't quite explain but absolutely trusts. There's also plenty of practical wisdom on occlusion, practice culture and what it really takes to bootstrap a dental tech start-up while raising a three-year-old without a nanny.

In This Episode
00:00:45 – Introduction and welcome
00:01:25 – Growing up on the Kings Road and childhood in Chelsea
00:03:30 – Studying dentistry in Liverpool and reinvention
00:07:00 – Dyslexia diagnosis and learning differently
00:10:10 – The itch beyond dentistry
00:14:00 – Fleeing Kuwait, starting over in the UK
00:16:25 – Why her parents' medical careers put her off medicine
00:18:05 – Ambition, being underestimated and self-belief
00:23:15 – Spirituality, connectedness and trusting intuition
00:26:10 – Wanting it all — motherhood, marriage and a start-up
00:31:00 – Lessons from 16 dental practices
00:36:25 – Working in corporates and at Bupa
00:41:20 – NHS vs private practice
00:45:15 – The birth of Medicube
00:48:30 – How Medicube works and pilot results
00:55:55 – Finding a co-founder and the UCL connection
00:58:50 – Funding through grants, awards and bootstrapping
01:03:25 – AI, the Turing test and the future of work
01:10:25 – Robots, relationships and what makes us human
01:22:55 – Physics, multiverse theory and keeping an open mind
01:28:40 – Blackbox thinking
01:33:40 – A patient with buyer's remorse after crown preps
01:36:55 – Occlusion, full mouth rehabs and the Dawson Academy
01:43:20 – Tech conferences and the reality of being a founder
01:47:05 – Fantasy dinner party

About Rawa Jawad Quinn
Rawa Jawad Quinn is a dentist based in Belfast, currently working at Bupa, with a particular interest in full mouth rehabilitation cases. She is also the co-founder of Medicube, a dental tech platform that streamlines consent, treatment planning and patient communication. Rawa trained at the Dawson Academy and Chris Hall's programme, and has worked across 16 practices spanning NHS, private and corporate settings.

Andy Acton returns to the Dental Leaders hot seat for a proper deep-cut conversation about the business of owning a dental practice — from first purchase right through to the exit. 
Payman and Andy cover the current market (spoiler: banks still love dentists, and buyers far outnumber sellers), before getting into the real meat of the episode: owner fatigue. Andy breaks down the five categories of burnout he's observed across 25 years of working with practice owners, and it's the kind of honest, unglamorous stuff that rarely gets aired. 
There's also a brilliant success story about a single-surgery practice that became a near-£2 million sale in four years, plus some sharp advice on what not to do in your first month of ownership. 
Whether you're thinking about buying, selling, or just trying to work out why you're so tired, this one's well worth your time.

In This Episode
00:00:50 – Andy's business portfolio and the FTA family of companies
00:03:10 – Market snapshot: supply, demand and the state of play in December 2025
00:04:15 – Squats vs acquisitions
00:07:35 – What buyers are really looking for
00:10:15 – Occupancy levels and the case for maximising before expanding
00:13:10 – Corporates vs independents: deal structures and flexibility
00:17:10 – Patient attrition when the owner leaves
00:20:25 – Horror stories and success stories: flipping practices
00:28:15 – Young dentists buying early and the bank of mum and dad
00:31:05 – Would Andy encourage his kids to become dentists?
00:33:20 – Owner fatigue: five categories of burnout
00:35:25 – How valuation methods have evolved over 25 years
00:42:45 – Raising finance and banking terms
00:45:45 – The ownership lifecycle and signs of fatigue
00:55:55 – Sales readiness: the checklist
01:05:30 – Business education and the case for teaching it at school
01:13:05 – Understanding financial accounts and key KPIs
01:18:25 – Quick-fire: favourite business book, business hero, and the green lights philosophy
01:25:15 – Dental leaders who inspire Andy
01:32:25 – Fly on the wall moment: the Man United treble changing room

About Andy Acton
Andy Acton is co-founder of Frank Taylor Associates, one of the UK's leading dental practice sales and valuation firms. Alongside his business partner Chris, Andy has built a portfolio of dental-focussed businesses, including FTA Finance, FTA Media, FTA Wealth, and the Principals Club — a members-only community for independent practice owners. He has worked in the dental sector for over 25 years.

In this lively and layered episode of Mind Movers, Vanita Rattan joins Rhona and Payman to talk about medicine, entrepreneurship, motherhood and the sheer force of personality it takes to build something different. She traces her path from UCL medical school to formulating skincare for skin of colour, then opening clinics around the world before Covid forced a brutal pivot into social media and direct-to-consumer growth. What follows is not just a business story. It is a conversation about dyslexia, immigrant pressure, obsession, sacrifice, miscarriage, ambition and the cost of always operating in warrior mode. Honest, sharp and occasionally uncomfortable, this one goes well beyond skincare.

In This Episode
00:01:15 - Medicine to formulation
00:02:05 - Building global clinics
00:05:05 - Covid and the pivot
00:06:20 - Community over following
00:10:25 - Crisis mode and grit
00:15:00 - Opportunity cost thinking
00:20:15 - Dyslexia and determination
00:27:25 - Business, children and sacrifice
00:31:00 - Money, ambition and power
00:56:25 - Miscarriage and autopilot

About Vanita Rattan
Vanita Rattan is a medical doctor, cosmetic formulator and entrepreneur focused on skincare for skin of colour. After qualifying in medicine at UCL, she trained in formulation, built the Hyperpigmentation Clinic into an international business, and later grew a highly engaged skincare brand through education-led content and direct community input. She is known for combining science, straight talking and a clear mission to serve women who have long been overlooked by mainstream beauty.