Talking With Dr. Jason Tambor

Good morning and welcome to the Shatkin F.I.R.S.T.® Monday Morning Minute.

Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Minute. This morning we have the good fortune of having Dr. Jason Tambor, a fine superstar in the mini and mono implant world. We picked him up on waivers out of Rutgers Dental School and Jason is going to tell us a little bit about his story of how he came to be an associate of Dr. Todd Shatkin’s. So tell us a little bit about how you got into dentistry first and then tell us your progression.

Yeah, the story. Thank you for having me. So I was working for my father, who’s a dentist in New Jersey for about 15-20 years, and I was a dental assistant. And I would have never said I was going to be a dentist when I was a teenager if you asked me. I was going to be a rock star. And that was how it was going to be. And then once I got into my twenty’s and I was playing music professionally and kind of seeing lifestyle and kind of that, I decided, you know what? I love working my hands. I love talking to people, helping people out.

I Remember calling my dad and I’m thinking about applying back to college to go to dental school. And I was like, Are you sure? Because it’s not just, oh yeah, next week, it’s a whole ten year pretty much undertaking. And I went to Rutgers University, went to Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, and then just kind of ran on to my residency at Morristown Hospital and ended up here eventually.

Yeah. So when you finished dental school, I know that you were thinking about going with Dr. Rodriguez out to her MDIC in New Jersey. Yes. But then what did you you came to one of our courses, correct? Absolutely. One of our implant courses.

So I was hearing my dad got into minis I don’t know the exact year, but I was in dental school and he was telling me about Buffalo and all these courses he was coming to. And that’s when he was really transitioning from a general dental practice, doing a lot of CEREC dentistry and cosmetic dentistry into mini implants and getting into the kind of aesthetic associates world and marketing in that whole way. And then when I about finished, I got into residency and I came to my first course. My first course here was Dr. Gordon Christensen was here and Terry Jarna was here. And a lot of these just big names and dentistry and hearing everything that weekend and the camaraderie here, it definitely was one of those wake up calls like, I have to see what’s going on here.

And I started shadowing Dr. Rodriguez in New Jersey and they were fantastic. And then Robin down there in Union City and then came back to one more course before COVID happened and Dr. Shatkin asked if I’d want to come to Buffalo. And he would train me up and do all this thing. And as soon as I got the offer, I was like, where do I sign? I’m there. That’s how I’m here.

You packed everything up in New Jersey and you moved out to Buffalo? Yeah, I finished my residency, my wife and I, who’s just finishing up her doctor at the University of Buffalo. So we do have a UB degree here. Yes. We kind of up and moved here. And then I started in pretty much August of this is 2020. So I’m over. I’m in my third year now. Oh, wow. Okay, so it’s gone fast. It’s gone fast.

And we should let everybody know that Dr. David Tambor is one of our greatest mini dental implant centers. He’s out in Tucson, Arizona. So this runs in the blood a little bit. Absolutely. So this is awesome. Absolutely. Since you’ve been with Dr. Shatkin, how many implants have you placed?

How many implants have placed? I would imagine I probably had to be close to 1500, almost 2000, I would imagine, just already. But just kind of based on, of course, the volume we have here and the amount of dentures, roundhouses, single teeth, just the amount of volume we have here. You get a lot of work quickly. Right. And that’s really invaluable coming here, learning the courses.

I Remember the first one especially. Todd had a dentist stabilization next to a single tooth, next to a roundhouse and just kind of seeing the workflow and kind of the dentistry that could be performed versus I was trained on. Conventional implants and just waiting six months a year to integrate and then to uncover and just seeing the progression of medicine and dentistry to a noninvasive pretty much workflow. That’s really what made me want to learn more about this process and kind of minimally invasive dentistry and implants.

And I know you and I were discussing that a lot of conventional companies who have really like, poopooed many implants for so long are starting to come into our work. Absolutely. You see that Straumann and big names. So it’s pretty much the way I even talk to patients about it, where it used to get an appendectomy and there was a big incision.

Now it’s laparoscopic surgery and medicine, and dentistry is just getting less and less invasive. It’s happening. TVs used to be £1000. Now they’re flat screens. This is just the natural progression of dentistry and medicine. Flapless, minimally invasive. And it’s nice to see in terms of especially the younger generation, obviously, Dr. Shatkin and Dr. Powers and my dad, they’ve been doing this for 20 plus years. But the younger generation, having the big names and dentistry behind it kind of helps validate and makes you know that you’re going in the right direction with what you’re doing.

That’s awesome. Yeah. Fantastic. So when you first came to the course in Buffalo, tell me what you found most helpful when you came out. Yeah. Most helpful, I would say, would be the kind of the infrastructure that’s put in place here, the amount of the resources you have, the amount of doctors here and everyone’s. This is the cliché thing, but it’s true. When you come, you always pick up something, and it’s not necessarily at the course. It could be you’re talking to one of the docs from Dr. Aiello or Dr. Rodriguez or my dad or Larry Stroud, any of these guys, and you’ll pick up little tidbits.

And I think it was that Camaraderie, and everyone doing the same thing, and it’s really a positive learning environment, and everyone’s having a good time. It was really that whole thing. And for the interest of helping people out, and that’s really what made me want to really kind of dive into this world more. Yeah. And we feel the same way. It’s a great community.