Finding Balance and Building a Successful Dental Practice

“I wanted to have my Limudei Kodesh and Limudei Chol under one roof,” said Dr. Husney, a member of Lander College for Men’s Class of 2018 who now operates his own dental practice near Lakewood, New Jersey. “I wanted high-caliber rebbeim and a high-quality education. I didn’t want to give up my learning, and I didn’t want to give up my education.”

Dr. Husney enrolled at LCM after studying at Yeshivat Toras Moshe in Israel and Yeshivat Chofetz Chaim in Brooklyn. At Lander, he majored in biology, taking the full pre-dental track while maintaining a demanding beis meidrash schedule. He spent three years in Rabbi Eliyahu Soloveichik’s shiur, an experience he described as formative, and was awarded the Beis Medrash L’Torah Award, given to students who demonstrate exceptional commitment to learning.

“I felt that I didn’t lower my level coming from yeshiva in Israel,” he said. “I was able to keep up a very high standard of learning, and even grow. That’s not a simple thing. You need the right maggid shiur and the right chavrusa and the right environment.”

After graduating from Lander in 2018, Dr. Husney attended Rutgers University School of Dental Medicine, completing his degree in 2022. While he had initially considered medical school, dentistry ultimately felt like a better fit.

“I liked the feasibility of dentistry,” he said. “It has a good quality of life while still being in the medical field, and you can be your own boss. That combination really appealed to me.”

Dental school, however, was far from easy. Dr. Husney married while still a student at Lander and had his first child before beginning dental school. During his four years at Rutgers, his family grew rapidly.

“It was very, very hard,” he said. “The first two years were grueling — much harder than I expected. Tests and quizzes nonstop. I was waking up at 5:30, davening with a minyan, and trying to keep up with everything. I had two children during dental school. We now have four boys. It was intense.”

Despite the pressure, he said his years at Lander prepared him for the challenge.

“I was as prepared as I could be,” he said. “It wasn’t light, but I knew how to manage responsibility.”

After graduating, Dr. Husney worked for about a year as an associate dentist before making the decision to open his own practice.

“Financially, dentistry is very challenging if you work under someone else,” he said. “With student loans, debt, and inflation, ownership was a better long-term fit for my goals.”

He explored buying an existing office but ultimately opted for a startup, building his practice from the ground up.

“It’s very stressful,” he admitted. “You must figure out everything — property, contractors, equipment, software, billing systems, labs, advertising, staffing. There’s no one big challenge. It’s a lot of little things.”

Staffing, he noted, has been one of the most demanding aspects of running a practice.

“Managing and building the right team is one of the most challenging — and important — parts of ownership,” he said. “But it’s also very rewarding.”

Today, Dr. Husney’s practice treats approximately 30 patients a day with the support of hygienists and additional dentists, allowing him to focus on the procedures he enjoys most, particularly surgical work.

“I’ve structured my practice so each provider focuses on what they do best,” he said.

As his practice stabilized, Dr. Husney made a deliberate decision to recalibrate. He now spends part of the week in clinical care and part managing and developing the practice.

On workdays, his mornings begin early, with shiur, tefillah, and learning before arriving at the office mid-morning. On non-office days, he spends extended hours in the beis medrash at Yad Yoseph Torah Center in Brooklyn, where he learns in a kollel framework and participates in a chaburah led by the rosh kollel, focusing on halachic sugyos from the Rishonim through the Beis Yoseph.

“There was a time in school when learning half an hour a day was pushing it,” he said. “As my career developed, the time slowly came back.”

Dr. Husney credits Lander with teaching him how to manage competing responsibilities without abandoning any of them.

“It’s a middle ground between full-time yeshiva life and professional life,” he said. “You learn how to juggle shiur, seder, and studies. You don’t just drop learning when things get busy.”

His wife agrees.

“My husband is very balanced,” she said. “That’s definitely something from Lander. Today, a lot of people in business don’t know when to put work away and focus on learning or family. Seeing how the rebbeim modeled both was very important.”

Dr. Husney is candid about the tradeoffs his choices require.

“Sure, I could work more days and make more money,” he said. “But the balance — and the calmness — isn’t worth giving up. I’m able to support my family, and I don’t need to work nonstop.”

Looking ahead, he hopes to continue refining that balance.

“I do have a goal of eventually learning half a day every day,” he said. “That’s still a work in progress.”