Profile of Dr. Ivan Chicchon: Who is the Creator of Implant Ninja?

Dr. Ivan Chicchon, an Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry graduate, is an implant surgeon who started the dental center, Implant Ninja. Dr. Chicchon is also an author, having written 4 books – namely, “Screw Dog: Surviving $800,000 debt, and chasing my dream.” While being a dentist, an implant surgeon, the creator of an implant company, and an author all at the same time are a most impressive feat, that hats that Dr. Chicchon wears are far from being the most interesting thing about him. 

In his formative years, Dr. Chicchon mentions having a tough time in high school. “I went to school in Stockton, but I got kicked out of my first high school. I went to another one, and then got kicked out again,” says Dr. Chicchon.

After high school he made his way to Pacific, where he was a Pacifican student for two years, until transferring to University of California, Davis. Dr. Chicchon has parents who are dentists, and had decided early on that he wanted to “do his own thing”: “I studied economics, Chinese, and was super into other things,” says Dr. Chicchon. 

It was a conversation with his grandfather that led him to the Dugoni School of Dentistry. As mentioned prior, Dr. Chicchon had an interest in economics. He cites “being interested in economic development, and feeling the transformative power of economics.” His grandfather, an economist, nudged him to build upon what his parents had developed. 

And so, he did.

“I was like, alright. I dropped out of Davis, ended up taking all my pre-requisite courses in a year at UOP, took a bunch of summer classes, studied hardcore for the entrance exam, and got in.” says Dr. Chicchon. 

Studies at Dugoni initially started as a shock for him with the hard sciences – sciences like biochemistry and physiology. Inevitably,  Dr. Chicchon ran into stress, and its accomplice, burnout. 

Critical to moving through the stress prevalent in dentistry school were two factors: his wife, and finding a niche that he enjoyed. “I did feel super stressed at one point, and I wanted to drop out because I felt like all these things didn’t align with who I was. I addressed it by finding something that I could be excited about, a niche that I can get on board with,” Dr. Chicchon explains. 

His wife – who was his fiancé throughout school – kept him motivated. He recalls being on the phone with her, and telling her that he wanted to drop out. In his words, “it felt like she smacked me on the back of the head to get my act right, and to figure it out. And I did.”

After finishing dentistry school, and doing three years of speciality training in Michigan, he had accumulated around $800,000 in debt. However, Dr. Chicchon was not able to start working and paying off his debt just yet. 

Post his three year training in Michigan, he planned to start practicing. His wife was pregnant with their first child, and at one of their first visits, they were told that they should see a specialist. The specialist told them to terminate their baby. 

Dr. Chicchon and his wife decided to deliver their first of two daughters, Olivia. Dr. Chicchon recounts that his wife and him “had to face this new situation where we had all these medical problems. We had to shuttle her back and forth to the ER in SF randomly… we had a temporary apartment that was 5 minutes away from the ER.”

With the birth of Olivia, also came the birth of his first book, and of Implant Ninja.

Dr. Chicchon had both hospital bills and debt to pay off. He began to monetize the content that he was creating on social media: “I wrote a book and I was able to sell thousands of copies of it. The instability we were facing forced me to come up with a different way to make payments… while I was in and out of hospitals, I started to grow a brand and that turned into Implant Ninja.” He describes Implant Ninja as starting off as him being transparent; sharing what he was learning online, regardless of whether people were watching or not. 

Fast forward a couple of years, and Dr. Chicchon describes what a work day now looks like. He cites incorporation of a lot of rest into his work days. This is from a shift in initially being motivated by fear and aspiration, to now finding motivation in curiosity and creativity. Creation of his work schedule is also largely, if not wholly, determined by spending time with his family. 

In speaking with Dr. Chicchon, it was clear that there was a breadth of wisdom that any student, or individual, can truly benefit from hearing. As such, excerpts of his advice on imposter syndrome, and on advice he would give to his former self is given below.

On imposter syndrome: “The perception that  other people are smarter than you, or are doing cooler things than you, those perceptions are self-generated. It exists in you. it's not the truth, it's not how it really is. is. You overestimate those things. To avoid this, just be transparent… everyone lives a very interesting life. [But] everyone selects what they want to share with the world, and so it looks like everyone’s life is amazing. If you just share what is truly going on in your life people can relate to that more and it is relatable.” 

On advice he would give to his former self: “The best advice is to trust yourself and not think that something is deficient in you. Trust what you think and your rationale. If you’re asking everybody, ‘hey what should I do’, they are just getting a little glimpse of your scenario, and trying to give you advice that is very safe. Instead, you should just use your own rational thought process and do what you think is best.”

While it is clear that Dr. Chicchon is accomplished, and that the aforementioned information is not all encompassing of everything that he does, let it be noted that he actually doesn’t have it all figured out. He states that he figures what he needs to do along the way, and that he doesn’t know much about things prior to jumping into them. He is simply doing the best he can.

Dr. Chicchon’s fun fact: “I’m a super good sculptor – I made an almost life size Yoda.”