We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kalli Hale a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kalli, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I have had the privilege of having people in my life who have taught me incredible life lessons. ‘Discipline’ was ingrained in me as a young child as early as I can remember. My parents are both dentists, my mom had it incredibly hard growing up with difficult, strict, parents and married young. She worked 3 jobs to support my older my sister and put herself through dental school. There wasn’t anything difficult in my life I encountered that my mom wasn’t able to navigate for me and give perspective on the situation.

A few years into my dental career I began my journey into whole-health biologic dentistry which changed my practice in multiple ways. Shortly after, I listened to a renowned airway dentist speaker who encouraged me to seek extensive training in sleep-disordered-breathing and Obstructive Sleep apnea. I had no idea how this would catapult my career and bless me as both a provider and a human being.

I am now mentoring dentists all around the country, I speak monthly at dental conferences sharing the impact we can have on developing children (and adults) in regards to dental expansion and oral appliance therapy. I own multiple practices in the greater Houston area (re-branded as The Airway Dentist) and feel it is my purpose to make sure we START “DOING IT RIGHT”, for our kids, RIGHT NOW.

Kalli, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in dentistry, both parents are dentists, and I worked in their office in high-school. My foray into dentistry as a career was no surprise, but once there, my path shifted, and I evolved from chairside dentistry to being one of the most influential forces in the field of sleep disordered breathing and obstructive sleep apnea. I love expanding our reach to the community with my family/business partners to build new dental offices with an airway focus. I travel monthly to lecture worldwide on this topic. I love shifting the mindset in my colleagues and my patients on how pediatric and adult orthodontic treatments should be done – different from what many of us experienced over the last 50 years: focusing on nasal breathing, tongue ties, myofunctional therapy & upper and lower jaw expansion. My schedule is demanding, especially as a mother of three but I love my work. I am blessed to have been extensively trained in orthodontic techniques by experts in the field of sleep dentistry and am honored to guide my patients to living their best, healthiest, lives by getting the proper nights sleep they deserve. For far too long, orthodontics has been done improperly, leaving children (and adults) with small jaws and insufficient tongue space. Once we start getting this aspect of dentistry done properly during the childs critical developmental years, we will see healthier generations to come.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I have long felt my personality was best fit to be a nurturer and provider. As I was growing my first major dental office I felt empowered by making sure I was available to my patients whenever they needed, and that they had the best experience they could have while being at “the dentist”. With each patient who entered my door I wanted to make sure they didnt feel like a “number” and that I was only after their money. Reputations in the dental industry can make or break you, so I wanted them to get the “real Kalli” as a human being, a mother, a small business owner, and know that whatever treatment I recommended would be identical to the one I would recommend for a family member. Soon after word was spreading about my office I noticed people commenting on social media groups, neighborhood Facebook pages, etc recommending me. It was enlightening to see the amount of people that would come to see me just b/c someone they knew had a great experience. It single-handedly built the referral network in my office and is something I am eternally grateful for.

Any advice for managing a team?

This is such an important question – for people running health care practices the turnover can be exhausting and at times, defeating. I was lucky to be under the mentorship of my parents who had successfully maintained their ‘core staff’ for 30 years! They guided me so many times on having difficult conversations, setting expectations of the patient experience I wanted my patients to have, and how to be a good leader as I was teaching them my standards. We do not micromanage. I love empowering my team to bring my ideas, leaning on each other in a nurturing environment and making sure they all know I have their back. I have removed patients from our practice due to disrespecting my team – which is not easy to do, but necessary. If you want your team to have YOUR BACK, they need to know I have theirs; I will not keep a disgruntled, high maintenance patient in my office when they do not treat my team with the same respect they give me. Spending time making sure your employees know you love them, value them, and appreciate them, is essential. We do morning huddles where we give shout-outs to people who have gone the extra mile!

Contact Info:

• Website: theairwaydentists.com
• Instagram: @theairwaycentereddentist, the.airwaydentists
• Youtube: The Sleep Well Journey
• Other: thesleepwelljourney.com

Image Credits
Photographer: Nine Petal Films for in-office shots with patients, Mekenzie Noel Photography for headshots & family photo