867: From Artist to Technician: Unlocking the Power of Whole-Brain Dentistry – Dr. Charlie Ward & Joshua Polansky

Are you a dentist who is an artist, scientist, or maybe even a therapist? In this episode of Clinical Edge Fridays, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Charlie Ward, visiting faculty member from The Pankey Institute, and Joshua Polansky, owner of Niche Dental Studio, to share how success in dentistry requires both hemispheres of your brain. Dentistry isn't just fixing teeth! To learn why both sides matter and how to develop the different skill sets you need, listen to Episode 867 of The Best Practices Show!

Learn More About Dr. Ward & Joshua:

• Send Dr. Ward an email: charlie@bmoredentalarts.com 
• Follow Dr. Ward on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcwarddds
• Learn more about Dr. Ward’s practice: https://www.baltimoredentalarts.com
• Watch Dr. Ward’s webinars: https://restorativenation.com
• Follow Joshua on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nichedentalstudio
• Learn more about Joshua’s dental lab: https://nichedentalstudio.com
• Register for Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward’s Mastering Treatment Planning course (October 2-4, 2025): https://pankey.org/registration/?courseId=17004&tuition=0&lodging=true
• Register for Dr. Ward’s Mastering Aesthetic Restorative Dentistry course (June 17-20, 2026): https://pankey.org/course-category/mard
• Register for Dr. Mazzola & Dr. Ward’s Mastering Dental Photography course (July 30, 2026 to August 1, 2026): https://pankey.org/registration/?courseId=17781&tuition=0&lodging=true

Learn More About ACT Dental:

• ACT’s webinars: https://www.actdental.com/135
• ACT’s website: https://www.actdental.com
• ACT’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actdental
• ACT’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/actdental
• ACT’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actdental
• ACT’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3137520/admin/feed/posts/
• ACT’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/actdental

More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:

• Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listen
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• Join ACT’s To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/ttt
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Main Takeaways:

• Don't just tap into the analytical and technical side of your brain.
• Dentistry also requires a high level of artistry and creativity.
• Develop the emotional maturity to not strive for perfection.
• In working with patients, you need emotional intelligence.
• Look within to identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Quotes:

“My buddy Mike, years ago, told me — let's call it a midlife crisis that I was having at 39, or whatever it was. I was telling him, ‘I really want to do more aesthetic dentistry. This is where I enjoy my work the most.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, that makes sense. You're an artist and a teacher.’ I was like, ‘That doesn't sound like me. What?’ Then, I thought about it. I was like, ‘I do the aesthetic things so that I can photograph them so I can show other people how to do it. It's exactly what I am.’ I didn't realize that until then. So, am I more of one than the other? I think I was artistic before I was systematic.” (6:18—7:02) -Dr. Ward

“I also used to strive for perfection. The only thing that it did for me was lead me to burnout, smoking, and drinking. Perfection is deadly. I would actually say striving for perfection is dangerous.” (13:11—13:31) -Joshua

“I'm a very open-minded person. When I see good work, I don't shit on it. I say, ‘Oh my God, that's amazing.’ So, I keep taking in what I think is perfect, and then I keep trying to make subtle changes to try to make it better. But I'm not striving for what I used to deem as perfection because, in all honesty — this isn't like a cliché thing — it does not exist. It does not exist. It just doesn't exist, and you have to be mature enough to understand that it doesn't exist.” (13:50—14:23) -Joshua

“I don't want to say this, but for a doctor, I think striving for perfection is a little easier because their prep gets covered by [the dental tech’s] work. Our work is out there for the world. Like, when we look at our work, it's hard. You're naked to the world. If you see something is off, it's off. That's why I see what Charlie sees in this case. I do. But I think it looks good. I just think it looks good. And I think once you start sacrificing “excellent” for “perfection”, that's when you make mistakes. He'll go to [“fix”] it. He'll make it worse. The patient will say, ‘Oh, I used to like how it was.’ Now, you go down a rabbit hole of you have to remake them. Now, I get angry. So, it gets crazy. I think we have to be mature and know where to draw the line. The problem, I think, for young dentists is they haven't understood where that line is yet. That's where that chaos evolves. So, when I say that perfection is dangerous, I would follow that by saying you should probably go through a period of — not torture, but you should feel pain until you understand where your bar is. You should set a bar for yourself.” (14:25—15:41) -Joshua

“I always saw Josh as an artist that became a technician through, I'll say necessity, exactly as he described it. I like the way he put it. Like, we see things a certain way. We see things through a certain lens or a certain perspective. So, when I'm taking a photo of something, I think Josh sees things similar to the way I see them. I think just as I became more technical to make my systems better, he had to become more technical to deal with the type of cases that he was doing. It wasn't all single centrals anymore, that he was hand-layering 15 single centrals to get the right one. He was trying to figure out how to deal with a hybrid that was fracturing. We need to know technical information about thicknesses of materials and torques and screw sizes. Like, all of these things are not artistic anymore.” (15:55—16:51) -Dr. Ward

“I think that we both have to be technical because we both own businesses. I think that running a business from a creative side only could become very detrimental because our artistics have a lot of feelings. We always feel a certain way. In running a company, I think that that would be a problem. I know a lot of technicians who run their businesses off their feelings. Unfortunately, they don't really work out. So, at some point, the analytical side has to kick over and take over. Charlie and I, as we worked together over the last however many years, we both went into business also at the same time together. Charlie has grown into a bigger practice with more associates. I've grown into a bigger lab with more employees. So, I think that that's another reason our left side kind of built out of necessity. That was a survival thing. Like, ‘Sink or swim. If I don't think like this, I will probably go out of business.’” (17:12—18:18) -Joshua

“I think I'm more creative because I enjoy creativity. I don't enjoy analytical stuff. I don't enjoy Newton Centimeters. I know it all, but it doesn’t get my juices flowing, whereas creativity still gets me excited. Not just in the dental world, but I love art. I love creativity. I love seeing things differently. So, I think I'm more creative. However, I think I used to be way more creative. I think that the adult may have entered the room with me and kind of keeps me — there's a dialogue, and I think there's an adult that now keeps me on a leash, where he knows I used to be free. I know now that people depend on me. I have a team. I have a lot of people that look at me. They look — not up to me, but I mentor people. I have to take it more seriously. So, although I enjoy being more creative and saying what I want, doing what I want, and acting like I want, I think the left brain kicks in and tells me like, ‘Calm it down a little bit.’” (18:34—19:46) -Joshua

“It's interesting why we would become more technical. I think as I'm hearing Josh say that, I'm sure I became more technical the longer I owned my business and the more I wanted that to grow and be successful. I think that from a chairside dentist's perspective, I wanted to be better. I think I realized two things. I wasn't going to do the things to the level that I wanted to do them unless I became more systematic — that I would have the most control if I could be more systematic. That also allowed me to be able to teach it to other people because I can then conceptualize what I was doing.” (19:49—20:46) -Dr. Ward

“It's not just a creative and a technical. There's also, I think, a very big emotional component to this on how to actually have this inner dialogue and then extrapolate that to the public that's your patient, that's your team member.” (22:23—22:40) -Joshua

“One of the reasons why we became so technical out of necessity is we are not artists by nature. It's what we want to be when we make teeth or when we’re a dentist. But by definition of our job, we are problem solvers. People only come to us with problems. Making teeth is a problem. That patient went to Charlie because it's a problem. And we have to solve these problems. So, when these problems arise, I feel like our right and left have this crazy fight inside, and it's like a nanosecond. But then, our emotional intelligence kicks in on how to explain this to somebody to — not only get what we want, because that sounds very manipulative, but we can explain it in a way to guide it towards what our decision was. Where I think if you're . . . an emotional person, you just yell something out, it might be what is reality, but now we're not on a path to solving the problem because now you scared the patient. Or you yelled at the technician, and now . . . So, you have to have an emotional component that I think is the glue between the right and the left to be able to move with the world in order to solve the problems that you're tasked with every day.” (23:03—24:15) -Joshua

“Most of us in dentistry are very technical people. But that emotional component — that you have to work with people — is part of that. The fact that you're dealing with such an emotional part of the body, not just what it shows when you smile, but also that people are very vulnerable, and they have to allow us to work on them. So, if we're not using that right side of our brain that is creative and emotional and we're only using the left side of our brain, at some point, we're going to have issues that are difficult for us to deal with. So, we've got to tap into both.” (28:15—28:57) -Dr. Ward

“Look inside of yourself. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I would say look to other people to help define what your strengths and weaknesses are, which is pretty hard because you have to be vulnerable and take some criticism. But you don't really see yourself. Like we were talking about our wives earlier, my wife has definitely pointed out things to me that I can work on. I think that once you hear them, you have to look and say, ‘Okay, creativity is my strength, so I don't need to work on that. But I do have issues with frustrations when it comes to solving problems. So, look into working on that.’ That's how I think I changed, was recognizing where my weaknesses were and being open enough to work on my weaknesses.” (29:09—29:55) -Joshua

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

0:49 Are you a right or left-brained dentist?

5:53 Being a technician versus being an artist: Dr. Ward.

10:03 Why perfection is dangerous.

15:46 Being a technician versus being an artist: Joshua.

21:57 Incorporating the emotional component.

25:59 Final thoughts.

31:06 More about Joshua and Dr. Ward and how to get in touch.

Dr. Charlie Ward Bio:

After graduating from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science degree in 2004, he went straight into the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. He earned his DDS degree in 2008, and since then he has completed the Essentials courses and many others at the esteemed Pankey Institute, where he now serves as visiting faculty. He is currently a member of the Maryland State Dental Association and the Academy of General Dentistry.

Joshua Polansky Bio:

Joshua Polansky earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, Summa Cum Laude, from Rutgers University in 2004. While working part-time at a dental laboratory, he took advantage of an opportunity to apprentice with distinguished master technician, Olivier Tric, of Oral Design Chicago. His eyes were opened to a whole new world of possibilities, and he made the decision to become a master dental technician following the path that Tric had forged.

Joshua continued to acquire technical skills by studying in Europe with other mentors and experts in the field, such as Klaus Mutertheis. He earned his master’s degree in dental ceramics at the UCLA Center for Esthetic Dentistry under Dr. Edward Mclaren, and continued his training under Jungo Endo and Hiroaki Okabe at UCLA’s Advanced Prosthodontics and Maxillofacial Program working on faculty and residents cases.

Joshua currently resides in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he is the owner and operator of Niche Dental Studio.