The Foundation With Dr. Sami Webb

September 21, 2026 · 30:26 · with Dr. Sami Webb

Dr. Sami Webb is the CEO and a Founding Partner of EPIC4 Specialty Partners, a doctor-founded, doctor-led organization that provides specialty practices with operational support while preserving clinical autonomy. She is also the Founder and an Orthodontist at Webb Orthodontics, a six-location practice serving western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. Practicing since 2004, Dr. Webb is known for building efficient multi-location systems, expanding access in rural communities, and delivering patient-centered orthodontic care to adults and children.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[2:13] Dr. Sami Webb’s path from collaborative study group roots to building EPIC4 Specialty Partners around shared values and doctor leadership
[5:04] Why the right partnership matters more than simply maximizing the sale price of a practice
[11:08] Dr. Webb’s focus on protecting patient care, community trust, and the legacy doctors spend decades building
[16:22] How younger doctors are changing expectations around ownership, career growth, and quality of life
[20:10] Dr. Webb’s vision for creating meaningful ownership, mentorship, and leadership opportunities for the next generation
[22:06] What true partnership can look like through collaboration, autonomy, shared ownership, and administrative support
[25:39] Dr. Webb’s long-term vision for sustainable growth, strong values, and choosing the right partners

In this episode…

Building a specialty dental practice takes years of patient care, team building, and community trust, but growth can also bring burnout and operational strain. So how can specialists protect what they have built while creating a healthier path forward?

For Dr. Sami Webb, a specialty dentistry leader who built a thriving multi-location practice, the answer starts with finding partners who share the same values, standards, and long-term vision. Rather than treating partnership as simply a financial transaction, she emphasizes protecting clinical autonomy, practice culture, patient relationships, and a doctor’s legacy. Dr. Webb also highlights the importance of reducing administrative burdens so doctors can focus more on patient care, leadership, and mentorship. Creating meaningful ownership opportunities for younger doctors is another piece of building a more sustainable future for specialty dentistry. Ultimately, sustainable partnerships come down to choosing the right people and building a model designed to last.

In this episode of Straight Talk With EPIC4, Anne Wemhoff talks with Dr. Sami Webb, CEO and Founding Partner of EPIC4 Specialty Partners, about sustainable, values-driven partnerships in specialty dentistry. Dr. Webb explores protecting practice legacy, reducing burnout, and creating ownership opportunities for younger doctors. She also discusses clinical autonomy, collaboration, and choosing the right long-term partner.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments

“We are here to help make you better and to take some of those administrative burdens off.”
“I think that us doctors are so competitive, and not with others, with ourselves.”
“It's all about your reputation and really living up to what you said you were going to be.”
“I think people started putting an emphasis on family and quality of life.”
“It's just finding best fit, that best partnership out there, and really talking to doctors and other organizations.”

Action Steps

Choose partners who share your values and growth mindset: Strong alignment helps protect practice culture, patient care standards, and the legacy you have worked to build.
Reduce administrative burdens without giving up clinical autonomy: Offloading responsibilities like HR and payroll allows doctors to refocus on patients, teams, and the work they enjoy most.
Create meaningful ownership opportunities for younger doctors: Giving emerging specialists a path to equity can strengthen their commitment, leadership, and long-term investment in the practice.
Build collaboration into the partnership model: Sharing best practices and supporting fellow doctors helps practices solve problems faster and benefit from collective experience.
Protect long-term sustainability over short-term growth: Being selective about partners and deal structure helps ensure the organization can remain strong, reputable, and values-driven for years to come.

Sponsor for this episode...

This episode is brought to you by EPIC4 Specialty Partners.

At EPIC4, we partner with specialty dental practices, including orthodontic practices, led by doctor-owners who want partnership, growth, administrative relief, or succession support without joining a traditional DSO.

Our mission is to help you spend less time buried in payroll, HR, compliance, lease negotiations, and day-to-day administrative tasks — and more time focused on patients, teams, growth, leadership, and legacy.

EPIC4 is a doctor-founded, doctor-centric Specialty Partnership Organization built to help dental specialists scale their practices, create wealth, protect their autonomy, and build an EPIC life and practice.

Visit www.goepic4.com today to learn more.

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Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:07

Welcome to Straight Talk With EPIC4, the specialty dental podcast, showcasing bold leaders, innovators and change makers as they share candid insights, lessons, and actionable strategies. Ready for real conversation? Let's dive into today's episode.

Anne Wemhoff: 00:25

And hear. I'm the host of Straight Talk With EPIC4, where I talk with inspiring specialty dental leaders and doctor owners who are building successful practices and shaping the future of dental ancestry specialty dental industry. Today, we'll share stories, insights, and strategies from our very own Dr. Webb.

A brief message from our sponsors today. And that's EPIC4 Specialty Partners. EPIC4 is a doctor founded, doctor centric specialty partnership organization built to help dental specialists scale their practices, create wealth, protect their autonomy, and build an epic life and practice. For more information, visit www.goepic4.com.

Today, on our very first show, I'm super excited to have our very own CEO, Dr. Sami Webb, join us. Dr. Sami Webb is a practicing orthodontist with over 20 years of clinical experience. Dr. Webb has built Webb Orthodontics into a thriving multi-location practice and is our CEO right here at EPIC4 Specialty Partners.

As a doctor and business leader, she is passionate about helping orthodontists build successful practices while maintaining their clinical autonomy, unique culture, and connection to their communities. Welcome, Dr. Webb, thank you so much for kicking us off.

Sami Webb: 01:57

Thank you, Anne, for having me. I'm super excited to share the story of EPIC4.

Anne Wemhoff: 02:02

Well, let's get right into it. Start our listeners off with why does EPIC4 exist?

Sami Webb: 02:13

EPIC4 was originally a vision of. From a group of orthodontists that came from the Shulman Study Group, all orthodontists from some of the top practices in the country. And everybody has their own. Why? But we did research other companies out there in the industry.

When we came to that point in our career where we knew we needed to go a different direction and we couldn't find anything out there. So we decided, let's build our own. And that's really where it began. We, we, we got together. We had spent years as colleagues.

We had shared best practices. We had collaborated by email meetings. And so this was a group of friends and colleagues that were very like minded and wanted to create something special in industry, something different, and something that really captured our value system. We spent a good year just really diving into who we wanted to be. We laid the foundation set, set the vision.

And I'll tell you, if you go to goepic4.com, every single word on that website was written by these doctors. It was not written by. They were not written by a company. These were. These were.

Like special words from the founders and all created in their true, true passion.

Anne Wemhoff: 03:47

I love that. And, you know, I can envision you guys, you know, really on on teams because we were really founded with you guys having all of these meetings. You know, in the cracks of your evenings and etc.. And, and I can see you guys just really, you know, building that and, and starting the company. And I think that, you know, that's so special and unique because that, you know, one of the biggest things that we say is that EPIC4 was built by doctors for doctors.

I can say what that means to me, but as a doctor and as somebody that's looking into joining a group, what does that really mean?

Sami Webb: 04:37

Yeah, this was really about creating something special. I can tell you my story of why I'm here today. I got to the point in my career where I had grown my practice so large I couldn't sell it. I couldn't bring in an associate to buy it, nor run this. Run this beast, that.

Anne Wemhoff: 05:02

Traditional route, right?

Sami Webb: 05:04

Yes. And those students coming out of school now have so much student loan debt that it's really hard for them to go and buy a practice. And I was also getting burnt out. I had kind of stopped living in a way, because the demands of the practice get harder and harder. And those doctors listening know what I'm talking about.

And so I found myself at that, that juncture where I had to make a decision. And I started looking at some of the other companies, but couldn't find one that really resonated with my needs. And it's at the end of the day, this is not about a paycheck. It's not about how much money you can get for your practice. This is really about a partnership and really picking who you're going to partner with.

I have worked way too long in Web Orthodontics to create. My legacy that I want this to continue on for generations. I want to have good doctors here. I want to know that my community is cared for. And so I really wanted to be careful and protect that legacy.

And that is at the heart of EPIC4 is really protecting those doctors legacies and making sure that we have good doctors in there to, to continue that. And we really, really focused on doctors because we all know at the heart of patient care is it takes the great doctors in the chair and those people providing the quality care, the customer service, having the great teams, the culture, and it doesn't do us any good if we have a revolving door of doctors coming in and out. And in some of those DSOs, that's what you see is doctors will say, well, I'm going to go work three years here, and then I'm going to go do this. And you what really happens is we hurt the patients and it affects the patient care. And then pretty soon that legacy that that doctor had built slowly declines.

And that's, that's really what we're trying to protect. And we also feel an obligation to our profession and to the generations of orthodontists coming behind us. We want to be able for these doctors to come find a forever home to, to come to one of these great practices where they can get mentorship, leadership, they and they can become an owner. So an EPIC4 we set aside a portion of our company to be able to gift that ownership to these to these younger doctors, because again, a lot of them don't have the capital to buy into a practice. There's not as many practices for sale.

And, you know, a lot of them don't want to work at a traditional, oh, so because they don't want to be just, you know, a provider, they want to be part of something bigger. They want to have a piece of that ownership. And so we set that piece aside of EPIC4 to truly gift that ownership to these doctors and in exchange, what we expect from them is to be a long term partner and to take great care of patients, carry on the legacy and, you know, be be great providers also help lead the teams and, you know, provide that culture that's needed in those practices.

Anne Wemhoff: 08:15

I think, you know, you bring up such a good differentiator. And, you know, if you were to go back, you know, back to that time before you were even thinking about EPIC4 and, and EPIC4 being an option if you were to look at, at us, EPIC4 not knowing it as us and look at the other options out there. What would you say besides that piece of, of it would be some of the biggest differentiators.

Sami Webb: 08:43

I always say it's the people and the partners in this group. This is an amazing group of clinicians, people who care deeply about the profession and the quality of care that they provide. And I think that's what sets us apart and even down to our administrative team. I wish that people listening could truly meet each and every one of our administrative team, our support team, because they love this company as much as we do, and they put their heart and souls into it. Proud to be based here in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, of all places.

But these are Midwestern people. They are the hardest workers, and they are passionate about EPIC4. And if they believe in what we're doing and what we're trying to create. And that speaks volumes as well.

Anne Wemhoff: 09:43

I couldn't agree more. I mean, I'm a little biased, but most, most definitely couldn't agree with that more. And I think that, you know, you bring up such an important piece about being Midwest based and how important that really is to us at our roots. And, you know, you spoke to it a little bit, but tell me a little bit more of why that Midwest base is such an important piece of our culture.

Sami Webb: 10:10

Well, I'm going to be biased as well because I am from the Midwest. But I mean, these are people who truly care about people, their ethics, their values and, and work ethic. And I think that a lot of those things have been lost. And, you know, some of the larger cities, I will tell you, even my team at Web Ortho, I have an amazing team and I truly believe that that comes from their upbringing. You know, how they're raised in that Midwest area.

Anne Wemhoff: 10:44

I love that. I think, you know, that really plays well into that legacy piece that you mentioned, too, because you can't teach someone to care. So, you know, talk to me about how when you guys have that, that future in mind, why that legacy piece was so important to you and the founders.

Sami Webb: 11:08

Well, I think at the core, it comes from who these people are. And again, it starts with that patient care and. Wanting to provide the absolute best care and best experience for those patients and knowing that at some point when you step away, there's this fear that is my community going to be supported. Are these patients going to be cared for in the same way as when, you know, I was there? Are we going to be taking care of our general dentists?

And it's a big fear for many doctors. And you, spend your entire career building that, building that reputation and that rapport. And it is for me, that's everything. And at the end of the day, I want to know that I did my best for my patients, my community, and my team. And it would be devastating, you know, to see that decline.

And I think that's probably how most doctors feel.

Anne Wemhoff: 12:13

I think one of the really, truly unique pieces about joining EPIC4 is that you do get to keep that your name. You know, you get to keep web ortho, you don't become someone else because we want you for who you have and what you have created. You know, talk about how when you join up what a burden lifted that looks like.

Sami Webb: 12:42

Yeah. I think when doctors really look at their career, I would say that the doctors love the patient care. But what starts to become heavy in weighs on them is going to be the HR, the payroll, the the bill pay all. I mean the marketing, all those things start to weigh heavily and they start to take you away from that, that patient patient care piece. And pretty soon it starts to take away the love and passion you may have had for, for treating patients.

And that's really what EPIC4 is trying to do is take away those burdens so that you can really, you know, get that passion back, truly focus on patient care, your teams, you know, mentoring and associate. And it's almost impossible to do nowadays when you are managing all those things. And I do think that's why we're seeing younger doctors burning out earlier in their career and looking for solutions. Coming to us, you know, looking at EPIC4 you would think it's a lot of the older doctors, but we're seeing many doctors in their 40s 50s and they've just kind of hit that burnout stage. And so for me coming in, what I, what I love is that my team knows no different.

We come to work, we do the same thing every day that we've always done. We treat our patients the same way. Nobody tells me how to treat my patients. And that speaks to that clinical autonomy piece. And.

My team gets a lot of added benefits because now they are not just stuck in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Now they get to collaborate with teams across the country, the office managers, the treatment coordinators. So it opens a new world to them as well, but not. I would say that HR is probably one of the hardest things for us doctors, and one of the biggest burdens that's taken away is probably that HR and payroll piece. Now we're still involved with our teams 100%.

But you know, if we have struggles, we have somebody to hold our hand through that process. It's just I think it's really a game changer for any doctor out there that may be, you know, hitting that wall and thinking, I can't do this much longer, I need help.

Anne Wemhoff: 15:16

And it's, you know, so helpful to have someone to lean on. You know, if you were just the and not just, but if you were a single doctor, you know, working your practice and you have all of this on your plate, it's hard to be like, okay, well, what should I do? Sometimes you just need someone to bounce stuff off of and talk through, you know, those hard things like HR to be like, well, what? What should I do? You know, even though, you know, probably it's just nice to have someone, like you said to, to hold your hand to help you through that process, somebody to lean on.

I think that's so important. And I think, you know, you mentioned this a little bit before, but the future generation is, is so important to the industry and, and what's coming up next. And, and I've heard you tell this story before. So I'm going to ask you to tell the story about your daughter. And she's like, oh, no, I do not want to be an orthodontist.

So tell me a little bit about that story if you would.

Sami Webb: 16:22

Yeah, I would have loved for my kids to go into dentistry. And my daughter was, you know, wanting to go to med school. And I kept saying, you know, what about dentistry? And she finally just looked at me and she said, mom, she's like, I have seen what you do and how much you work. You know, nights and weekends, owning a business, seeing patients, caring for your team.

And she said, I don't want to do that. And she said, I, I want to be in medicine, but I want to go to work and I want to go home and I want to. I think that practice life balance is much more critical now for some of these younger doctors. I. And I even think Covid changed things.

I think people started putting an emphasis on family and quality of life. And we're seeing that change. And I, I think that's why a lot of the younger doctors are looking at oso's DSOs, because they are looking for that lifestyle and not having to put in all the extra time because we, I mean, all of us doctors that have been doing this for a long time, we know individually, we've all been recreating a wheel and there's really no reason to do that. The wheel's been created. But now we can make things better.

And that's really why an organization like EPIC4 is great, because you don't have to spend your time creating what others have already created before you, and they don't have to make all the mistakes that I made early on trying to figure things out. I, you know, it'd be great if I could go back to my younger self and have something like this, because I think I probably would have not burned out or I would have enjoyed my career more, I probably would have been able to take off more than two weeks for maternity leave. I mean, it's incredible what some people have had to endure trying to build a practice.

Anne Wemhoff: 18:23

If you could go back to that younger self, you know, just freshly out of dental ortho school, what would you tell her?

Sami Webb: 18:38

I don't. I don't know that I would have done anything different. But I would have told her to take more time to breathe and that it's going to be okay. I think that us doctors are so competitive and not with others, with ourselves. And we're perfectionists, and we just continue to try to build and build and build and kind of knowing when it's okay to say like, hey, we're doing great.

It's okay. And not continue to keep building.

Anne Wemhoff: 19:21

I think, you know, I think that's, that's fair. And, you know, obviously, if you're, you're in this profession and you're at particularly the doctor level, you're a high achiever, right? So it's natural to be like, well, this is just what I do next. And I want this and I want more, you know, because that's kind of the motivating, motivating factor. So, you know, when you think to the next generation of doctors and it being so important to you know, you guys really designed this to give the partner and associate doctors an opportunity for equity, you know, without requiring that full traditional, as we think of it in the industry buy in.

So what were you guys trying to what problem were you trying to solve with that?

Sami Webb: 20:10

I think that most doctors want more than just. Patient care and a paycheck. I think they truly want to be leaders. They want to be invested. They want to help build something.

They want to help grow something. They want that mentorship. They want more. And I don't think that professionally, a lot of them will be satisfied, you know, just going to work and getting their paycheck. I truly believe they want more than that.

And so we're trying to provide that to them, to give them that ownership. Let them become leaders, help lead the teams and really be involved in that growth of a practice. And, you know, if they want to start a practice within these organizations, they can do a de novo start up. They still have those opportunities, but they may not have to take on the debt, and they don't have to try to figure it out because we've already figured that out. Let's help them and mentor them.

Give them, give them the same opportunities that we had, you know, 20, 30 years ago that aren't as available to them.

Anne Wemhoff: 21:21

Well, right. Because, you know, they're coming out of school with more debt than, you know, ever before. And certainly what, what you were facing back, you know, 20 years ago. And more. And so I think that being able to offer that as such a important piece of the puzzle that's missing from other models, I think, you know, in that partnership piece, you talk about, you know, what, what does partnership mean?

And so, you know, how is being a true partner different or differ from, you know, just saying, hey, now I'm part of this large organization, larger organization. Well.

Sami Webb: 22:06

That's why we call ourselves a partnership organization. And it's really focused on that partnership word where every doctor is a partner, like I said, including those associates. But this is truly a partnership. This is not, hey, I sold my practice and now somebody is controlling me. We are not here to control anybody.

We're not here to tell you what to do. We are here to help make you better and to take some of those administrative burdens off. It's also, you know, when, when doctors come into our practice or, you know, owner owner partners come in, they are now owners of a larger organization and their owners in everybody's practice. So now we own, you know, pieces of everybody's practice. So you truly are a partner and you're there to help them and support them.

Hey, I'm having this issue. How do I fix this? And so we truly believe that collaboration is, is a, is a key to success. And that came from a lot of our history with the Shulman Group. We were used to that collaboration piece, sharing best practices, whether it be clinical or business.

And we brought that over into EPIC4. So we have we have meetings together, we have keys together, we have annual meetings. And it really is about being a partner. And when we look for partners, we are not looking for maybe a great practice. That just produces a lot of revenue.

We're looking for a great partner, Doctor Who. Who has the same goals, the same values, the same growth mindset, and, and really fits our culture system. And so we do say no to a lot of deals because we believe that this is like a marriage and you have to love who you're married to. And it is a partnership for sure.

Anne Wemhoff: 24:00

I mean, I can see that just in, you know, conversation we have and it goes back to the people, right? We want to make sure that you're the right fit for us. And that, you know, you're going to fit into this big old family of ours. When you look into, you know, ten years down the road, what do you think? Practice ownership is going to look like for specialty organizations, for specialty practices.

Sami Webb: 24:31

I think that as time goes on, there will be less solo practices out there. I do think there's going to be a shift, and a lot of people are going to go this direction, and that's just due to the nature of the beast, of trying to own and be a doctor. I mean, you see the same thing in medicine. There used to be physicians that owned their own clinics. It's rare to see that.

Now. I think, you know, the majority of physicians are owned by a hospital or a larger system. And that's because running a business, being a doctor, managing your practice, it's a lot. And I don't think people realize that for sure.

Anne Wemhoff: 25:21

I think, you know, so let's, let's keep on this, this track here. So 20 years from now, when you look back at what you and the founding doctors have created. What do you hope that EPIC4's legacy will be?

Sami Webb: 25:39

It's all about your reputation and really living up to what you said you were going to be. And I think that the people within EPIC4 hold very strong to their value and their words, and we will not veer from that. We will always continue to be of the highest standards. And I hope at some point, you know, people recognize our name. I know that we who all of us doctors who spent time forming EPIC4.

We want to be proud of the company that we formed. We want this to be a sustainable company. There's a lot of companies that have formed that have gone down this road before us who have maybe not done things the right way and now don't exist. And that's where we don't want to be. And that's why we're very cautious in the partners we bring on.

How we structure our deals is because it doesn't do us any good if we're not sustainable. So this is a long term endeavor, a long term partnership. And we've proven it out so far. We've been a very successful company. I'm just so proud of what we formed.

The people in this organization, the partners that we have brought in are just absolutely phenomenal. And it is just going to continue to get stronger. And as our name gets out there and people know who we are and what we stand for.

Anne Wemhoff: 27:14

Well, I love that. And I have it leads me into my next and final question. But before I ask it, I wouldn't be doing my job as the director of marketing if I didn't point people to our website. So if you have been listening to this and you want to know, hey, how do I learn more about them, please go and check out our website at www.goepic4.com. And we would really, truly be happy to have any conversation with you if you're early on in the process, far along in the process, we're happy to have a conversation with you and meet you wherever you're at.

So my last question to you, Dr. Webb, is if a doctor is listening out there and it's like, gosh, I really am still not sure if I want to join a group. And I know you had some hesitations in the beginning when you were looking at it, but you know, also they know just much like you. I can't continue to do this all by myself. What would you want them to know about EPIC4 about your journey too.

Sami Webb: 28:24

I think it's natural and it's really just about having conversations. Reach out, talk to us, talk to our doctors. Do your research. Don't listen to every broker you know, you talk to. But.

I think at the end of the day, people know inside when they hit that point and I need help or I need to, to transition. And all of the acquisitions we've done so far, all of our transitions have been wonderful. And at EPIC4 our team is there to truly walk you through the process, your team, through the process. And we are on site holding your hand because it's very scary. I remember being terrified to tell my team, and they loved me so much and supported me.

They were actually like excited. And so I think just knowing that whatever decision you make, if you if your team loves you, they're going to support you. And then it's just finding that best fit, that best partnership out there and really talking to doctors and other organizations. And, you know, is it what you thought it would be? Reach out to EPIC4 and I think that we can show you that we can offer you solutions to really help your help your career.

Anne Wemhoff: 29:49

Well, Dr. Webb, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on. Thank you so much for joining today.

Sami Webb: 29:55

Thank you and appreciate it.

Outro: 30:02

Thanks for listening to Straight Talk With EPIC4. We'll catch you next time. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes.

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