Mike's Newsletter | AI Transparency Arrives. Psychedelics Get FDA Momentum.
- Mike Vidikan
- Jul 27
- 7 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Welcome Orthoprenuers!
Every week, we bring you the latest in practice management, marketing, profitability, and next-level ortho techniques so you can work smarter, grow faster, and build the practice you want.
In this issue:
🚨 News Update
🦾 Mike’s Prompt
✨ Astro Outlook
🗓️ Plan Your 2026 CE Calendar
📢 Juan’s Marketing Tip
🔥 Trending in the OrthoPreneurs Facebook Group
🎙️ The Orthopreneurs Podcast
✨ Final Thought
🚨 News Upadte
🐟 Substack “Claudefishing” Helps Readers Detect How Much Was Written by AI
Substack rolled out Pangram, an AI-detection tool that lets readers scan any post (100+ words) to estimate how much was written by humans vs. AI. CEO Chris Best framed the move around “Claudefishing” — his term for the gap between a reader’s assumption that a human wrote something and the reality that a machine did. The scan results are visible only to the person requesting it, and Substack is also adding an optional “How I make this” statement so creators can disclose their AI process upfront. Pangram estimates that as much as 40% of text on some social platforms is now AI-generated.
Why it matters: Readers are noticing that more and more content these days is AI-generated. For example, I obviously use AI to help identify and summarize news items, sharpen my arguments, and clean up grammar, but I don't think you care if this paragraph is 100% written by me because it’s pretty damn interesting. What people mind is when someone uses AI to sound like an expert when they aren't… like that GP around the corner whose SEO strategy includes AI-generated content about orthodontic treatment.
🧠 FDA on Fast Track for First Psychedelic Approval — Big Pharma Now Betting Billions
On April 24, 2026, the FDA issued National Priority Vouchers to three companies developing psychedelic therapies: Compass Pathways for its synthetic psilocybin (COMP360) for treatment-resistant depression; the Usona Institute for psilocybin for major depressive disorder; and Transcend Therapeutics for methylone (TSND-201), an MDMA-like compound for PTSD. These vouchers compress FDA review from 10–12 months to 1–2 months after application submission. The move came after President Trump signed an April 18, 2026 executive order directing federal agencies to accelerate research, review, and approval of psychedelic drugs as treatments for serious mental health conditions. The FDA also finalized clinical trial guidance in July 2026.
The regulatory momentum has caught big pharma’s attention: Eli Lilly recently made a $3.8 billion bet on psychedelic medicine, signaling confidence that the market will reach roughly $7 billion in sales by 2032.
Why it matters: For decades, psychedelics were fringe research. Now they’re FDA-approved mainstream medicine within months, and major pharmaceutical companies are backing it with billions. This is a seismic shift in how we treat depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions. What was considered radical five years ago is becoming standard clinical practice.
🦾 Mike’s Tip of the Week: Be Specific About What You Want Back
The setup: You ask a question. Claude gives you back something. But it's not quite the format you need, or it's too long, or it misses your actual use case.
The principle: Always tell Claude what you're going to DO with the answer. That changes everything.
Real example:
Instead of: "Analyze the transcripts from the consults we didn’t start last quarter."
Try: "Analyze the transcripts from the consults we didn’t start last quarter. I'm going to use this in a meeting on Friday with my TCs to show which cases we lose most often. Give me a one page summary of the findings with metrics. Also include suggested steps we could take to improve and win these cases."
Why this matters: Without that context, you might get back a 10pg document nobody reads instead of a 1pg summary with bullet points that your TC will take to heart. The use case changes the output. Try it.
✨ Astro Outlook: Leo Season Wants You Visible
Week of July 27: ♌Leo♌ season is fully here, which brings the focus back to confidence, leadership, and being seen. Mercury retrograde has just wrapped up, so the fog around conversations, decisions, and team communication should start to lift — but this is still a better week for easing forward than forcing a massive rollout overnight. Venus in ♍Virgo keeps the practical energy strong, which means the best move is not the flashiest one. It is the one that makes the system cleaner.
The practical moment: this is a good week to step back into visibility with more clarity. If you have been waiting to record the video, update the website copy, restart a team conversation, or put your own voice back into the practice’s marketing, Leo season supports that. Just make sure the details are tight before you go public.
Best use of the week: Pick one place where your practice needs stronger leadership and cleaner communication. Clarify the message, tighten the handoff, and then step forward. This is not the week to hide behind “we’ll get to it later.” It is the week to make the next move visible, practical, and intentional.
🗓️ Plan Your 2026 CE Calendar
The Sleep & Airway MeetingFri, Dec 04 | Arizona Biltmore, LXR Hotels & Resorts
THE MOST UP-TO-DATE CLINICAL INFORMATION ON SLEEP-DISORDERED BREATHING & AIRWAY.
The Orthopreneurs CE Calendar keeps every major workshop, congress, and study club event in one place — searchable by month, so you can plan your travel and your team's coverage well ahead of time instead of scrambling the week before.
Whether you're chasing CE credits, looking for your next study club, or just want to see what's coming up before you lock in your schedule for the quarter, it's worth a five-minute look every month.
Bookmark the calendar, pick your priorities early, and stop letting CE planning become a last-minute scramble.
📢 Juan’s Maktering Tip
Your GP Referral Pipeline Is Quietly Shrinking — Here's the Fix
General dentist referrals still account for roughly 35-40% of new patients at the average orthodontic practice, and referred patients convert at higher rates and carry about 16% higher lifetime value than patients who find you any other way. But this pipeline isn't as stable as it used to be — a recent industry survey found referrals from general dentists actually dropped year over year, partly because more GPs now offer clear aligners themselves instead of referring out. If you haven't touched your referral relationships in a while, this is the channel most likely to be quietly leaking.
Here's how to actually work the relationship instead of just mailing a holiday card once a year:
Pull a referral-source report by GP for the last 12 months. Most owners can name their top 2-3 referring dentists but have no idea which relationships have gone quiet.
Send a same-week update after every referred patient's first visit — not just a form letter, but a specific note on what you found and what the plan is. GPs remember who keeps them in the loop.
Make the referred patient's experience reflect well on the referring dentist. That relationship is their reputation on the line — treat the visit accordingly.
Ask directly about aligners. If a GP has started offering clear aligners in-house, find out why before assuming it's about the money — often it's about not wanting to lose the patient relationship, which is solvable with better communication.
Show up in person at least twice a year, not just through a rep or a newsletter. A short face-to-face visit does more for the relationship than any mailer.
Track starts-from-referral by source, monthly, the same way you'd track a paid ad channel. If a top referrer's volume drops two months in a row, that's a signal to reach out — not a coincidence to ignore.
The bottom line: Referral relationships don't maintain themselves just because they've worked for years. The practices holding onto this channel are the ones treating it like the marketing channel it actually is.
🔥Trending in the Orthopreneurs Facebook Group🔥
💬 For those of you who own two orthodontic locations, how did you structure the business entities and DBAs?
My accountant recommended setting up my second location under a separate corporation with a different tax ID, so I have now formed a new entity for that office. I believe one reason for doing this was to keep the second practice separate and make it easier to sell in the future.
Now I am trying to decide whether both locations should operate under the same DBA or whether the second location should have a different DBA. Using the same practice name would be better for branding, marketing, and patient recognition, but I am concerned that having one DBA used by two separate corporations could create administrative, legal, insurance, banking, billing, or future-sale complications.
For those who have two locations under separate corporations:
Do both locations use the same DBA or different DBAs?
Have you experienced any issues with insurance credentialing, contracts, banking, payroll, billing, Google profiles, or selling one location?
What were the main reasons behind your setup?
I would really appreciate hearing about your experience and what you would do differently.
🎙️ On the Podcast: Why Specialization May Be the Key to Practice Growth l 5MF
In this episode of Five Minute Friday, I’m challenging you to think beyond the traditional model of marketing to every parent in your community for routine pediatric orthodontic cases. When every practice is chasing the same audience with the same message, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand out—especially as the orthodontic market experiences slower or declining case starts.
You do not need to copy my niche. The goal is to identify the cases you truly enjoy, develop the expertise to treat them exceptionally well, and make sure your community knows you offer that service. When you become known for something specific, you can reduce competition, build a stronger referral network, charge appropriately for your expertise, and create a practice that is both more profitable and personally fulfilling.
✨ Final Thoughts: The Relationships You Stop Nurturing Are the Ones That Go Quiet First.
The Relationships You Stop Nurturing Are the Ones That Go Quiet First.
It's easy to notice when a new marketing channel underperforms. It's much harder to notice a referral relationship, a loyal patient, or a team member's engagement slowly cooling off — because nothing dramatic happens. It just goes quiet.
This week, pick one relationship you haven't actively invested in for a while — a referring doctor, a long-time team member, a patient family — and do something specific about it.
Growth isn't only about adding new things. Sometimes it's about noticing what's gone quiet before it's gone for good.
– Mike Vidikan
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