In this enlightening podcast with Dr. Al Burns, we learn from his extensive experience in dealing with associate in candidates and how to make the right match with a practice owner.  Dr. Burns shares his expertise and experience, what questions to ask, how to survey the practice as well as making sure it will be the right fit overall.   Get yourself ready and take the chance to learn, and gather all the information you need to make the right decisions on where you want to practice. Biography: Dr. Al Burns is a 2007 graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Dentistry.  He then completed a Pediatric Dental Residency at The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children's Hospital in June 2009..   He and his wife Lisa moved their family across the country to Seguin, Texas, and opened from scratch their first dental practice, Alligator Dental six days after graduation.  Since then Dr. Al and his wife Lisa have worked tirelessly to build a successful dental practice.  Today they have four growing locations and a central administrative office.  Alligator Dental employs almost 50 staff and sees over 30,000 patient encounters annually.  Dr. Al is a hands-on owner but practices full time and has an amazing administrative team that helps him run his organization.   In addition to his private practice. Al has been part-time faculty at the pediatric dental program at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio since 2009.  He has taught pediatric practice management at numerous programs and spent time himself as a part-time associate doctor in his early years as his practice was growing.  In addition to hiring many of his own associates, he has mentored and counseled hundreds of residents in the transition to private practice with advice on contracts, evaluation of work opportunities, and being a sounding board.    Despite the success of the practice Al and Lisa's greatest accomplishment is making their life work as spouses and business partners and raising their seven children who are all presently teenagers. About the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry The mission of the AAPD is to advocate policies, guidelines, and programs that promote optimal oral health and oral health care for children. The AAPD serves and represents its membership in the areas of professional development and governmental and legislative activities. The AAPD has over 10,000 members. Learn more about the AAPD at aapd.org. About Newly Erupted’s Host: Joel H. Berg is a consultant in the dental industry and practices Pediatric Dentistry part-time in the Phoenix, AZ area. He is Professor Emeritus and former Dean at the University of Washington. Dr. Berg is a board-certified pediatric dentist and is a Past-President of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and Past-President of the AAPD Foundation. He is an editor of the book Early Childhood Oral Health and has published extensively on subjects including dental restorative materials for children, and medical management of dental caries. His current research interests include the development of dental caries prevention programs using risk assessment models to manage dental caries as a disease. He lectures to dental professionals regularly on "Medical Management of Dental Caries". Dr. Berg is also the host of AAPD’s other podcast, Pedo Teeth Talk! Looking for CE Hours that you can earn from the comfort of your own home? Visit AAPD’s Education Passport at https://educationpassport.aapd.org for CE from previous Annual Sessions, CE Courses, Symposiums and more! Check out AAPD’s other podcast- Pedo Teeth Talk! Looking for episodes on more clinical topics? Pedo Teeth Talk is a podcast specializing in pediatric dental topics relevant to you and your practice. Listen on iTunes, aapd.org, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, Android and more! Without our p