Still Learning

I just arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the Global Dental XP meeting. This is, as the name implies, an elite international meeting which concentrates on restorative dentistry (fixing teeth) and implant dentistry  which is exactly the type of dentistry that I do on a daily basis.

My good friend and colleague from Bangalore, India is always amazed that I am still heavily involved in learning my craft at my 'advanced age' as he so gently puts it.

Why would you pay me to take care of you if I was past my prime and a dental 'has been?' I have devoted my life to my profession and nothing but my relationship with Susan is important in my life.

You want me to be at this most important meeting so that I can continue to provide the best possible care to you and your family.  I am well over 4,000 hours of CE and might even make it to 5,000 before I retire in 9 years.

I do it for YOU!

A Recent Development

I inform all of my new patients that I am a general dentist that limits my practice to fixing teeth and restoring implants....from simple to complex. I hold a Certificate of Proficiency in Esthetic Dentistry from SUNY/Buffalo School of Dentistry (2001) which means that I am a general dentist with a specialty in Esthetic Dentist. Given that there is no such thing as a 'cosmetic dentist', I am the closest thing to a specialist in esthetic dentistry.

I have almost 4,000 hours of post graduate education and was a little ole country dentist for over 30 years of my 37 + year career. For everything that I done and accomplished, I remained a complete unknown in the Capital District dental community. This is something that I sincerely regret and I would not let that happen again if I could have a 'do-over.'

During the last month, I have seen two new patients for cosmetic consultations. I have a fair number of consultations but these two patients are different. Each patient had complained to their general dentist that they did not like the appearance of their front teeth and each dentist informed their respective patients that they could not or would not be able to solve their problems and that they 'Needed to go see Dr. Benjamin in Saratoga Springs.'  One of the dentists told their patient, " Every dentist thinks that they are a cosmetic dentist but I would only go to see Dr. Benjamin."

I have never met these dentists nor have I ever heard of them. I am honored that the at large dental community is taking note of my work. Four decades  of being an 'unknown' is a long time.

Being Appreciated

I have a middle aged patient who came to my office about 4 years ago with the complaint that her crowns were falling out. This patient had a complex medical history including diabetes and a benign brain tumor. X-rays revealed that ALL of her root canals (about 20) had failed and that removing all of her teeth would be in her best interest despite the fact that she had followed every recommendation a dentist had made. Dr. Banchs confirmed my conclusion that her teeth could not be saved.

My patient is so much healthier today  because she has removed her chronically infected teeth and given the fact that diabetics cannot fight infection as a non-diabetic would do.

A few weeks ago my patient was in for me to check something and she said to me, " You and my ENT (a physician treating problems of the ear, nose and throat)  have spoiled me. I have never had doctors before that truly care about me and how I am doing."

I thanked my patient for her most kind comments. It is my job to take care of you and I take that responsibility very seriously. When I refer you to a dental specialist like Drs. Banchs, Byrnes , Bulford, or Cooney among others, it is because I feel that you need more expertise than I have and I need you to be taken care of. I make no money when I refer you to another dentist and in fact, sometimes Dr. Cooney ends up moving your teeth instead of me cutting  your teeth.

I care passionately that you are well taken care of.

Interesting Story

Root Canal Experts holds an annual golf tournament as a way of thanking referring dentists and, more importantly, to help foster a professional relationship among like minded  dentists. Many of these dentists maintain contact with each other throughout the year but for some, the golf outing is the only time that I will see these dentists during the year.

One dentists that I only see once a year came up to me and told me that she had an interesting story for me. She was up in the Adirondacks  visiting her lake cabin and the small town where it is located. She was online behind an attractive middle aged man and immediately took note of his smile. Unable to control herself she told him that he had a perfect smile and he so lucky for his beautiful smile.

The man thanked her and said, "Dr. Benjamin is my dentist and he gave me this smile...And my son's smile as well." The dentist was amazed because she  assumed that he was one of the fortunate people with a naturally beautiful smile.

What a great job I have.

601 Blogs

This is my 601st blog and arguably the least important.

I try to bring you interesting insight about me, my office, my dental profession or just things that you might have missed in the news.

I am NOT the best dentist in the world but I sure would like to be and I certainly am trying to be and none of my blogs say that I am.

I want to be your dentist, have a great office  and do the best dentistry that I am capable of doing.

Why?

Because I love being a dentist and I love being YOUR dentist.

How Can Health Care Cost So Much?

There is a great article in today's New York Times about physicians earnings when compared with the earnings of the administrative side of health care and this is what it shows:

"The base pay of insurance executives, hospital executives and even hospital administrators often far outstrips doctors’ salaries, according to an analysis performed for The New York Times by Compdata Surveys: $584,000 on average for an insurance chief executive officer, $386,000 for a hospital C.E.O. and $237,000 for a hospital administrator, compared with $306,000 for a surgeon and $185,000 for a general doctor."

So if we want to be angry at the high cost of medicine now you know who to blame. For all the Aetna policy holders, the top person at Aetna earned $36,000,000 last year in compensation while the average FAMILY physician earned $165,000 which means that he earned 218 TIMES what the average doc earned. Put another way...you could hire 219 physicians to help treat patients (and eliminate waiting times) or you could pay ONE CEO who sits in a nice office and cures no one.

How is this working for us?

If you would like to read the full article please go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/sunday-review/doctors-salaries-are-not-the-big-cost.html?hp&rref=opinion

Not Again

I attended a wonderful cousins party today in Northern New Jersey. I saw a first cousin that I had not seen in 50 years as well as cousins that I had not seen for the usual 10 year period.

As is usually the case,  people at parties want to discuss either negative outcomes in their dental treatment or the cost of dentistry.

One cousin told me that he broke a tooth while visiting one of his children in Portland, Oregon but that he was most fortunate to find a dentist who could do the treatment in one day because he had a machine that fabricated crowns in 20 minutes. My cousin told me that the dentist did root canal therapy AND placed the crown all in ONE appointment and as he barely finished his sentence, I said, "That root canal WILL fail!" He responded that he kind of knew that because the tooth still hurts unlike other root canals that he has had. As Dr. Banchs, one of the best root canal specialists in the world, has told me..."Many single visit root canals will fail."

Another cousin asked why dentistry cost so much. I respectfully informed him that:
1. When Susan and I got married we spent $9 a week on groceries or $3 a bag.  Today, we spend $90 a week at the grocery store or $30 a bag.... That means that groceries have gone up 10 Times what we paid in 1971 and we ate meat back then.

2. When I began as a dentist, a crown cost $325 and today I charge $1350 or roughly 4 Times  when I started.

3. A car in 1977 when I graduated dental school cost about $4,000 and today it is about $27,000 or 6.5 times the cost.

My point is that dentistry like everything else is very expensive but  dentistry has increased far less than many other things in our life.

And yet another cousin told me about the Union dentist that he went to and.....well you get the point.

We Are in Big Trouble

I attended a cousins party this afternoon and on the way home stopped at a rest area on the Thruway. I purchased a package of crackers for Susan and I. The crackers cost $1.09 and I  gave the clerk a 5 dollar bill. Before she gave me the change, I handed her a quarter so that I would not have a pocket full of change ($.91).

The correct change should have been four one dollar bills, a dime, a nickel and a penny ($4.16).

The cash register told her to give me $3.91.

And the clerk could not figure out in her head how to give me the correct change so she gave me $3.91.

American education is in serious trouble and I can now prove it.

Why I Love My Patients

I have many patients that travel 40-50 miles each way to come to my Saratoga office. I have other patients that travel 3.5 hours EACH WAY to have their dentistry in our office and literally passing thousands of dentists along the way.

One such patient has been making that round trip 7 hour journey for more than FIFTEEN YEARS.

She has been having a problem for a little more than a year that has been quite a challenge to diagnose and I finally was able to arrive at an answer for her and with her physicians help, we should have a confirmation of my thoughts.

I received  two emails from my patient when she arrived home in which she said the following:

"I also want to tell you that even though I occasionally question driving all the way up to you--and everyone else questions me--there is never a time that on the way home I am not thankful for your expertise, kindness, and humanity.  Thank you for being my dentist and more."

"As always, thank you for your pursuit of excellence in the work you do.  Thank you also for all your advice above and beyond dentistry.  I am determined to get to the bottom of my acid reflux problem and hopefully will have some information next time I visit."

Whenever she sends me these kind words, I reply that it is a privilege and a pleasure to take care of her.

And I mean it.

"Thank you. I am Very Grateful for What You Have Done for Me"

What treatment did I do for this patient?
Did I relieve her pain or swelling? NO!
Did she break a front tooth in a fall and I perfectly fixed the tooth so that she could go to work without embarrassment? NO!

I took out all of her mercury fillings and restored her teeth with bonded resin (white) fillings.  I do this every day of the work week for my patients but this was special in the eyes of this patient.

All of her 20 year old mercury fillings had tooth decay under the fillings and  the teeth  were very close to breaking apart because of the decay. I SHOWED her photographs of the decay in her teeth.

I took out the old mercury fillings, removed the tooth decay and dramatically increased the strength of her  teeth with the bonded (white) resin fillings (using rubber dam, of course)....And I removed no healthy tooth structure to place a crown which many dentists would have done.

I can understand her appreciation and gratitude.