Carrying the Torch: How Dr. Michael Gelb is Continuing the Legacy of the Gelb Center as a Serial Entrepreneur

Dr. Luke Shapiro, DDS

DR. LUKE SHAPIRO: SINCE YOUR DAD (DR. HAROLD GELB) WAS A DENTIST, DID YOU FEEL PRESSURE TO ALSO DO DENTISTRY? OR HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT?

Dr. Michael Gelb: No, what happened was I used to hang out with my dad at the office. I ended up talking to a lot of his patients. And it was really the patient stories that inspired me. I saw how he had changed the lives of so many people, and that inspired me to say, “Wow, this is a pretty cool field, and I think I could do this! Wouldn’t it be great to be able to change people’s lives?” That’s what got me. I never went into dentistry to do teeth. It was really initially only to do TMJ.

SO, HOW DID YOU GET THROUGH DENTAL SCHOOL WITH DOING CAVITY FILLINGS AND EXTRACTIONS?

First of all, they would attack me. Dr. Joe Marbach would say, “What are you doing here? There’s no chiropractors lecturing today.” I was given a hard time. And then, of course, I was a loudmouth and would raise my hand when they started talking about centric relation. They were still shoving the jaw back into the rear-most upper position, and my dad was anterior superior.

So I had to struggle to keep my mouth shut. And then, of course, the courses were very tough. The biochemistry and all of those courses were with the med students at Columbia. It’s a very, very competitive environment. When I got to the third and fourth year, I was fine clinically, but I did give the professors a hard time in some of the clinical lectures.

AND NOW YOU HAVE THE GELB CENTER. IS THIS WHAT YOU ENVISIONED WHEN FIRST STARTING OUT?

So starting, I wanted nothing to do with apnea and sleep. I worked at Rutgers for five years in their mini residency, and I was not at all interested in the sleep apnea lectures by Jeff Nahmias from Beth Israel Newark, and I didn’t want anything to do with kids. Now, I’m most passionate about airway and I’m most passionate about children. So my whole thing has changed. My mother was a myofunctional therapist, so I’m just with my daughter coming in the third generation.

We always had physical therapists here. We have some of the best physical therapists rotating through here. We had biofeedback back then. We had nutrition. But I want to keep expanding the Gelb Center for women, for children, really making it a whole children’s center. But I want to really focus on healthy orthodontics to help with ADD behavior and cognition in kids, as well as growth and development. People are excited about TMJ and sleep. I am seeing young dentists and dental students, and they now want to be airway dentists. I’ve never seen that until this year, and that’s a very exciting thing. My hope is that the young orthodontists will see the value of incorporating airway into their treatment plans.

HOW DID YOU LEARN ALL THE BUSINESS SKILLS ASSOCIATED WITH RUNNING THE GELB CENTER?

My dad, for a while, was running a small business investment corporation. He was running a movie company. So he almost left dentistry two or three times when his stocks did well. His friends made millions, but he had insider stocks that he couldn’t trade. He showed me a work ethic. He showed me what it was like getting here at 7:30 AM. I thought he was out of his mind, because back then I had young kids. I would roll in around 8:30 AM, and he would go, “Good afternoon, Michael.” He would give me a hard time, but he showed me a work ethic, and he ran a tight ship.

He always used medical insurance as a vehicle. He always was ahead of his time with TMJ. And he was one of the first people in the country to give up dentistry and only do TMJ. My practice is kind of unique in New York City. From a business standpoint, I think the two biggest things were home sleep studies and CBCT technology. That’s what enabled us really to look at the airway and be able to measure how well someone was sleeping. And now with the technology of Oura rings, Whoop, and Fitbit, a lot more people are into that as well.

CAN YOU TOUCH ON YOUR WORK OUTSIDE OF THE OFFICE WITH COMPANIES AND SPEAKING?

I get royalties from different companies because I helped invent some appliances. So the speaking gigs have always been great supplemental income, and it’s a good way to stay relevant. I also have a company called Airvata, and that’s been exciting. I’ve had a lot of patents that I’ve gotten where I’ve never developed the actual device. It’s never come to market, so there are a lot of things that you do as an entrepreneur and as an inventor, and I’d say eight out of ten never really go anywhere, and you hope that two out of ten will become a success.

HOW DID YOU BECOME GOOD AT SPEAKING? DID IT COME TO YOU NATURALLY?

Well, there are two things. One is that when I first spoke with my dad, we didn’t have PowerPoint. I had to pay someone thousands and thousands of dollars to make a presentation since there was no PowerPoint. So it’s a whole different ball game now. We used to have to take photographs and slides, and we lectured with slides in a Kodak carousel. We couldn’t get graphics on there. So it was a much, much harder thing. I would see my dad do it, but it took me a couple of years to become a better speaker. And then I work with Katherine Eitel. She’s given me some concepts on public speaking. And I think it’s something that evolves with time, you know, more concepts, fewer words on slides, more big picture stuff.

WHAT PERCENT OF YOUR TIME WOULD YOU SAY YOU DEDICATE TO THE GELB CENTER VERSUS THE OTHER VENTURES?

I’d say 80% Gelb Center and 20% the other ventures. People always say you should work on your business and not in your business. Unfortunately, I grew up with my dad’s philosophy. I’m the one who’s the rainmaker here, and I see a lot of the difficult patients, but the more that I can send the patients to my associates, I think that’s the goal. I look forward to continuing the legacy with my daughter Marissa, who’s an SLP and myofunctional therapist. It is exciting to see the Gelb Center continue to develop and grow.

Dr. Lucas Shapiro is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine, where he received his Doctor of Dental Surgery. He completed his post-doctoral orthodontic training at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. He currently practices orthodontics at Lemchen Salzer Ortho in NYC. He started the Instagram page @futuredentists, works with the educational organization @ignitedds, and has an orthodontic tiktok page @drshap