DOCS Education is proud to showcase members of our ‘2018 Best-in-the-Nation Sedation Dentists’ honor society.

This edition's luminary: Dr. William Nudera is a veteran of the United States Air Force, where he served as a Captain in the Dental Corps, including a deployment to Cairo, Egypt, tasked with treating soldiers on their way to Afghanistan.

 

When William Nudera, DDS, MS, graduated from dental school, he planned to spend his career as a general dentist. But during his deployment as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Dental Corps, he was stationed at a base with a board certified endodontist who infected him with a love for the dental specialty.

Stationed in Cairo, Egypt, the lone dentist treating soldiers on their way to Afghanistan, Dr. Nudera worked from a tent, equipped solely with a desk lamp and a portable digital x-ray unit. The experience taught him to work efficiently and with purpose.

Dr. Nudera, today a highly respected endodontist with offices in Chicago and Bloomingdale, IL, has carried the lesson he learned in the military over to his civilian practice, Specialized Endodontic Solutions.

“I don’t consider myself fast,” Dr. Nudera says. “I consider myself efficient because I treat with purpose.”

 

“It’s not just good enough to be good anymore. You’ve got to be great.”

 

Dr. Nudera likens his work as an endodontist to that of an artist.

“The radiograph is my canvass, and I love to paint beautiful images of root-canal-treated teeth on that canvas,” he explains. “In order to do that, you’ve got to have the methodical, systematic approach to treating. It’s not just good enough to be good anymore. You’ve got to be great.”

One crucial dental tool that Dr. Nudera relies on is his DOCS Education training in oral conscious sedation, which has allowed him to provide his patients with the best, uninterrupted treatment using a safe sedation protocol.

“The root canal gets a bad rap in the media, and it’s one of the most horrific procedures that is perceived by the patient,” he explains. “Having the option to sedate a patient has opened up a whole new possibility for us to better serve our patients in a more comfortable and predictable way.”

Before attending a DOCS Education conference, Dr. Nudera recalls that he would prescribe triazolam or another sedative “here and there for a patient that was a little anxious but I never really was doing it correctly.”

 

In a highly competitive market, Dr. Nudera and his colleagues have earned a reputation for excellence.

 

In fact, he says, before taking the DOCS Education program there would be some patients for whom oral conscious sedation would be “hit or miss,” leaving him puzzled about the effectiveness the process.

“But taking the DOCS program, and understanding the fine nuances of how the medications should be prescribed, and what the pre-operative procedural workup should be, has allowed this process to become streamlined for me,” he says.

In a highly competitive market, Dr. Nudera and his colleagues have earned a reputation for excellence, so much so that nearly 100% of his practice is built on referrals from general dentists in the area.

“It’s just really gratifying when we get those calls,” Dr. Nudera says.

 

VIDEO INDEX

[00:00] What motivated you to become a dentist?

[02:23] What attracted you to endodontics?

[03:01] Tell us about your experiences in the Air Force

[04:23] How fate – and forgetting his lunch – led him to the military

[06:14] How did your military service change the way you practice in your civilian life?

[07:46] You’ve been practicing for nearly 20 years. What still inspires you each day to see patients?

[08:55] Dr. Nudera explains how, as a specialist, he goes about marketing his practice

[10:25] Why he works to educate general dentists on the new methods of saving teeth, rather than extracting them

[11:01] Why oral conscious sedation has become an integral part of his endodontic practice

[13:47] For Dr. Nudera, every patient presents a fresh challenge, no matter how many times he’s treated similar cases

[14:08] Where does he see himself going in the next five or ten years?

[15:14] After hours, Dr. Nudera enjoys spending his time behind a musical instrument or behind the lens of a camera

[15:38] End of Interview

 

About Our “Best-in-the-Nation” Honor Society

While every dentist who provides patients with safe, effective sedation following the proprietary DOCS Education protocols deserves a salute, some of our most distinguished graduates have earned the hallmark of "Best in the Nation" - a designation our faculty and staff bestow on fewer than 1-in-every-200 of our alumni.

If you know of a DOCS Education graduate who merits inclusion in our recognition program, please email us at [email protected]. In 100 words or fewer, tell us why this dentist is among the elite of the elite. Please be sure to include your name and contact information, should we have any questions.

Previous “Best in the Nation Sedation Dentist” Profiles:

  • Dr. Carol Wolff retired at the end of August 2018 after more than three decades providing restorative, cosmetic, preventative, and sedation dentistry to her patients at Maple Drive Dentistry in Atlanta. Appointed to the Georgia Board of Dentistry by then-Governor Zell Miller, Dr. Wolff served from 1998-2003, including two years as president. She was chairperson of the Board’s investigative committee. In 2014, the Northern District Dental Association, which encompasses the greater Atlanta area, honored Dr. Wolff as its Dentist of the Year.
  • Dr. Keerti Sahasrabudhe named her practice Enso Dentistry – Enso being a symbol of the Zen philosophy representing wholeness, completeness, tranquility, and balance. Many fearful and anxious patients who previously avoided the dentist altogether now happily visit Dr. Keerti for regular restoration and prevention appointments and have become evangelists for her Redmond, WA-based practice, recommending it to family, friends, and colleagues.
  • Dr. Dave Potts has been serving the people of Libertyville, IL, and surrounding communities since April 1974. He embraced oral conscious sedation early in his practice and is now treating the grandsons and granddaughters of some of his earliest, most fearful patients.
  • Dr. Peter C. J. Chiang earned the 2018 award as the 10th Annual Safe Sedation Dentist of the Year. Dr. Chiang’s practice, Central Coast Pediatric Dental Group, located about an hour south of San Jose, CA, has three locations and includes six pediatric dentists, six general dentists, and one dual degree MD/DDS.
  • Dr. David Kurtzman, whose award-winning practice in Marietta, GA, caters to special-needs patients, including those with developmental disabilities, physical handicaps, significant mental and medical problems, and severe dental phobias.
  • Dr. Brian McKay, who specializes in comprehensive restorations and has safely and successfully treated more than 3,000 patients relying on his DOCS Education sedation training.
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