Known by the Quality of Your Work

I am fairly well known in dental circles in the United States and places as far away as India.
I don't know a lot of dentists personally but many dentists have seen and admired my work.I have not sought out notoriety nor do I want to be a 'famous' dentist but I have developed a good reputation among dentists who know fine restorative dentistry.

This week, a dentist from Texas asked dentists that are members of the Crown Council and the ACE forums to help find a dentist for a patient relocating to Saratoga Springs, NY where I practice. A dentist in Charlotte, NC placed the following post on both of the dental forums:

Gerald Benjamin is your guy...perhaps the best composite artist I've ever seen,
and I mean artist! Not your typical dentist...and definitely not typical results.
http://www.benjaminsmile.com/index.html

It is a sincere honor to be known by the QUALITY OF MY WORK.

It makes me very happy to know that other dentists think my work is excellent. It should make YOU happy as well to know that the work that you have in your mouth is deemed to be excellent.

Community

One of the great qualities of humans is that when tragedy strikes, we are capable of coming together to support the victims of unfortunate events. Dentists, I have found out in my long career, can be a very strange lot.However, when one of our colleagues, Dr. Kirk Gleason,lost his son near the finish line of the Philadelphia marathon due to a massive heart attack, the dental community rose up to support Dr. Gleason.

Many attended the wake last week and the wait was over 2 hours. Dentists from more than 150 miles away attended the wake to pay our respect to our friend and colleague who was the Executive Director of the 4th District Dental Society of the State of NY.

We mourn the loss of Dr. and Mrs. Gleason's son Chris. May their wonderful memories of their son be a source of comfort in this time of great sadness.

I commend the dental community for their show of support for the Gleason Family.

Another Dental Forum

I have been a member of the ACE Dental Forum for many years and have enjoyed many compliments about my work from other dentists on that forum.

I recently decided to join another dental forum, the Internet Dental Forum which limits members to actively practicing dentists.

Last Sunday, I posted my first case on the IDF and a dentist wrote me the following kind words:

Beautiful job, your earlier posting said your resins are highly regarded,
you are too humble. You should be teaching your technique, problem most of
us (especially me) still couldn't get that result. You justifiably should
be very proud.

I want to be as fine a clinical dentist as I can be so that I can do my best taking care of YOU. This is not about making money but rather fulfilling my obligation to those that put their trust in me that I will take care of them. It is an awesome responsibility to care for another human being...I know that very well; I have been doing it for almost 35 YEARS.

My Feelings Exactly

I love watching SUNDAY MORNING, the CBS morning show. Last weekend Gloria Allred,the attorney who represents only women and has won a stunning quarter of a billion dollars for her clients was asked if she planned to retire soon. Ms. Allred, who is 70 years old but looks much younger replied:

This is my passion.
This is what I love to do.
This is what I was meant to do.
This is my Life.

This is exactly how I feel about being your dentist. I love what I do and I will continue as your dentist until the first day that my skills decline.

I could not imagine not loving to go to work.

Truth Be Told

I don't know whether you read three recent health related stories in the NEW YORK TIMES.
1. Last Saturday, Dr. James Andrews, a reknown sports medicine surgeon specializing in knees and shoulders made a very significant statement. MRIs are almost completely useless in diagnosing shoulder and knee problems prior to surgery. Then why do doctors order MRIs? Because you and I demand that they take them AND they generate approximately $1200 each. USELESS!

2. Early detection of many cancers has no impact on the survivability of the patient.Virtually ZERO. What the article said was that those people who had an agressive form of cancer were indeed going to die of that cancer. For many patients though, their survivablity does not depend on whether the mammogram catches the tumor today or next year.

3. Searching and testing for prostate cancer is far more damaging than finding and treating prostate cancer.

So what does all this mean for you and I?

It means that there is too much money involved to do the right thing.