It is only Monday but I have already heard from SIX young dentists asking me questions about their work or informing me of the progress that they are making in their work. This is just incredible on several fronts:
1. It shows that my young colleagues WANT to improve their skills despite the less than ideal dental school educations that they received.
2. Quality young dentists are the only hope that the profession has against the Corporate take over of dentistry. If that happens, dentistry of the mid 2000s will be considered the golden era of American dentistry.
3. It demonstrates that despite being in my mid 60s, I am still a relevant factor in my profession and a value to my patients.
To this last point, my patients should know that we have made 5 major technological changes/improvements in our our practice:
1. We recently purchased a new CEREC machine which will permit us to do single appointment crowns , bridges and onlays. Despite the fact that it has been our goal to keep as much tooth structure as possible until our patients are older, many have reached their late 50s and early 60s without any crowns but their teeth cannot have any additional fillings.
2. We are transitioning over to electric hand pieces (drills) which are quieter and more powerful. I was one of the first in the country to try electric hand pieces almost 20 years ago but they were so heavy that I eliminated them from my practice. I tried again to change over to electric hand pieces 10 years ago but they remained heavy. Now, because there are so many female dentists, with smaller hands, the hand pieces are no longer heavy.
3. I started using a different matrix system to create beautiful resin bonded front fillings. My previous matrix was introduced into my practice in 1998.
4. Instead of paper forms we introduced iPads so that you can enter your information electronically or online.
5. We are confirming our appointments with emails and automatic computer phone calls rather than have Donna do this manually.
I know of no other older dentist still at the forefront of technology and a willingness to help young dentists with their work.
I want to remain relevant and take care of you at the highest possible level.
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12 Comments
"Trust me it's NOT hard " Trust ME it ain't
easy. The way you set up , prep the areas,
especially small ones speaks volumes
I may not be able to do that but I can see
and understand what is exceptional
I'm sure it took few years to master that
How many? 40?
Really Nice
Rocco
Again, dental schools are masters at teaching how to create and fix carburetors in a fuel injection world. Everything is challenging to a dental student and schools believe that placing amalgam is 'hard enough' for students. Nonsense! Teach them and they will learn.
Sadly, resin based dentistry will soon be the way of the past. Few care to learn this fabulous modality of treatment. The destruction of mass amounts of tooth structure for crowns and inlays has become the norm.
I truly believe that what you show should be a goal on daily dentistry and the vision we all have to have for long term teeth survival.
Patient should undergo this type of approach as much as possible.
Thanks for sharing
Armando
I do agree with Armando´s point of view.
Why this images are so unusual?
Thanks for sharing.
Jorge.
Thank you for your comments.
We are losing sight of what our profession is about: allowing patients to keep their own teeth.
Unfortunately, our poor dental school education, our fabulous technology, our talent (or lack thereof) and how we are paid for our work all encourage the mass removal of enamel, the only part of the tooth for long term structural integrity of the tooth. The more tooth structure that we remove, the more we are paid.
In my practice, I tell my patients that what they pay me for is to walk out with every mm of healthy tooth structure...and I charge a significant amount for that.
As I recently told the Dean at the Dental School,
"You need to fire half of your faculty and double the pay." He told me that he could not do that and I told him that if I could, I would fire him. If we do not teach excellence, students will not know excellence.
For the past two decades I have proven that resin is a fabulous material to the scorn and dismay of my colleagues.
It is my belief, which means that there is a small possibility that I am wrong, that dental schools, controlled by the ADA which sets curriculum and requirements, is teaching yesterdays dentistry. This makes it virtually impossible for today's graduates to enter high level practices but also makes them ripe for clinic style (medicaid mills) or corporate style dentistry.
Why even teach mercury based dentistry?
Why don't our young colleagues learn more about occlusion considering all of the information that we have learned over the last two decades?
Why do our young colleagues have such a poor understanding of diagnosis and treatment planning?
Why does the faculty perpetuate the myth that resin, properly placed under a rubber dam to retain the most amount of natural tooth structure is an inferior material to porcelain? Why is the 'standard of excellence' determined by the number of crowns placed?
I make a very good living placing direct resin restorations without destroying tons of enamel.