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    Season 2 · Episode 6

    Helping People Smile, Moving Countries & Digital Distribution

    ZADAN with Anirhudha Agnihotry

    · 1:37:15

    The conversation

    Anirhudha Agnihotry, who goes by Anir, opens by explaining why he lets people try his full name. ZADAN then describes crashing his Boosted board when two cyclists stopped to fight on the sidewalk in front of him. From there Anir traces his path: entering dental school in India at 17 on his father's advice, a first research project on bleaching stained composite fillings, and following his older brother to the US, where he had to go back through dental school to practice.

    Much of the conversation is about getting accurate health information to patients. Anir explains why he started the Oral Cancer Organization, how news outlets misread the research on flossing, and why charcoal toothpaste is untested. ZADAN pitches a content plan built from Anir's popular Quora answers. They also cover tooth decay as a global problem, a game in India that nudges children toward healthy food, Indian traffic, privacy, Anir's goals, and family expectations around marriage.

    Topics, with timestamps

    Pick a time to start listening right there.

    1. Anir's name and why he lets people try
    2. ZADAN's Boosted board crash on the way to work
    3. Growing up in India and choosing dentistry
    4. Why making people smile keeps him in dentistry
    5. Following his older brother to the US
    6. His first study: bleaching stained composite fillings
    7. Starting dental school over to practice in America
    8. Founding the Oral Cancer Organization
    9. A social media plan for Evidence Dental
    10. The flossing headline the news got wrong
    11. Tooth decay and a game that changes kids' diets
    12. Learning to drive and Indian traffic
    13. Goals for OCO, research and a possible PhD
    14. Marriage expectations in India

    Worth hearing

    • Anir lets people attempt his full name rather than shortening it, because he sees the effort as a sign of how interested they are in working with him.
    • He first preferred medicine, took his father's advice to study dentistry, and says the reward is seeing people who arrive in pain leave able to smile.
    • His first published study tested a discontinued chlorine dioxide bleaching product on stained composite fillings; a project meant to take a month took a year and a half of research and about four years to publish.
    • Practicing in the US meant national boards, English proficiency exams and an advanced standing program, part of roughly 11 years he spent studying and working.
    • He started the Oral Cancer Organization to get dental students looking for oral cancer early, since dentists are often the first to look inside a patient's mouth.
    • He wrote his flossing post after a patient cited news stories saying floss doesn't work, which he says misread a finding of no direct evidence as no evidence at all.
    • ZADAN recommends batching 13 videos for three months of weekly uploads and linking social accounts on Anir's website so search engines connect them.

    ZADAN's original episode notes

    On this week’s episode, with the guest appearance of Anirhudha Agnihotry is a Dentist and Owner of a nonprofit called the Oral Cancer Organization running a blog, "Evidence Based Dentistry with Anir" utilizing his research and observations to spread credible information and studies in his field of dentistry. Working in tandem with the digital age to pursue his passion and grow his ability to aid his community.

    In this episode Anir and I talk about my first major Boosted Board wreck using the word like a million times. We discuss moving and uprooting your life and how he established his new life in the US from India, his passion for being able to put a smile on someone's face and help them when they might not be able to help themselves, how perspective can be shaped by culture and location and so many other awesome topics; so without further ado I give you, Anirhudha Agnihotry.