Being Your Doctor

We have many opportunities throughout the week to see patients that are having other medical issues and are besides themselves because local physicians are unable to pin down a diagnosis. I am a big fan of the TV program, Mystery Diagnosis and it amazes me how long it takes and how much treatment the poor patient has before a wise doctor decides that the patient neeeds to see a true expert which is usually in a differenct city.

I have been treating a patient for a few years who was diganosed with a significant auto-immune disease and treated with some potent medications. I strongly suggested that she leave the Capital District and obtain a consultation at the reknown, Mayo Clinic. When I saw my patient last week, she told me that she DID in fact go to the Mayo Clinic and that she definitely did not have the illness for which she had been treated for the last five years.

I examined a relatively new patient recently and she told me that she was having a significant amount of trouble with her ankle and that she was going to have surgery locally. I strongly suggested that she go to Hospital For Special Surgery in Manhattan for a second opinion. She was examined by one of the best ankle surgeons in the country who told her that she needed an ankle replacemnt and that probably no one in the Albany area would be able to treate her problem.

My job is to take care of you and I will do everything possible to make sure that you receive great care.

Why Patients Travel

I restored a tooth for one of my long term patients who has been with me for 30 years. As with most of my long term patients, we have become friends and he knows that I will do the very best that I can to take care of him. Before I had given Don some novocaine, he told me that he had seen two of my former patients and that they had been treated by their new dentist and it was just not the same as when I was their dentist.

Sometimes our best patients are former patients who left our office to find another dentist. When they decide to return to our office, they first have to convince Donna that they are now sincere about their oral health. Almost every person that we accept back into the fold apologizes for leaving and recognizes that a dentist is not a dentist; Traveling to Saratoga now becomes a non issue.

I thank all of you who have remained my patient all of these years. No one cares more about taking care of you than I do.And I believe that you know that.

"The Defense of Mediocrity2"

The discussion on the IDF dental forum on the 'rights' of mediocre dentists to be mediocre continues and those dentists rising up to support mediocre dental treatment is deafening.

It is astounding to me that a dentist would go on an international forum DEFENDING mediocrity. The dentist from Pennsylvania stated that we must be accepting of average dentists posting their work so that the below average might see this and 'aspire' to mediocrity.

Oh really???????????????

This is like saying average level athletes have a RIGHT to appear in the Olympics.

Forget the fact that I am a dentist and this is a dental blog. What is happening to our great nation when mediocre is not only tolerated by celebrated?

Mind you...when I posted my comments, it was NOT to criticize the actual treatment of the dentist. It was a gentle reminder that if you are going to show your work to the world, there are acceptable ways to do that ie take one's gloved finger out of the photo by using cheek retractors.

I guess that a patient has a right to select a mediocre physician or dentist but then I wouldn't be their dentist.

"In Defense of Mediocrity"

In 1970, Senator Roman L. Hrushka spoke in support of Judge G. Harrold Carswell's nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States. The problem was that the American Bar Association and other legal groups considered the Judge to be mediocre at best but the Senator gave a speech on the floor of the United States Senate supporting Judge Carswell in which he said,

"Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos."

Yesterday, a dentist from Arkansas posted a case that personified mediocrity. The rules of case presentation strongly recommend that you not present a photograph with the dentist's fingers holding up the lips and using cheek retractors is required. The dentist stated that he 'didn't have time to use cheek retractors' (which take approximately 5 seconds to use)and his fingers were fine. Also, his patient had told him that she hated her smile and asked for suggestions so he very marginally improved her smile with a "little reshaping" of her teeth.

Those of you that are my patients or are readers of my blog know how I feel about professionals who are mediocre. When I placed a response to the dentist's case presentation on the dental forum, I gently suggested that he used cheek retractors and he had an obligation to do a direct resin mockup to ACTUALLY show the patient treatment options.

Other dentist were highly insulted that I would be critical of another dentist and posted that I was out of place in my very gentle suggestions. Yes, I am intolerant of mediocre dentist who take patients hard earned money and refuse to do their best.

Senator Hrushka was very wrong, in my opinion, when he stated that mediocrity on the Supreme Court should be acceptable and encouraged.

I will defend your right to Excellence in dental treatment whenever another dentist speaks in support of mediocre dentistry.

The Olympics Select the Best

There is no doubt that virtually every athlete in competition at the London Olympics is in the realm of world class. Competition leaves no doubts about who the best of the best are in each event. Athletes love to compete with each other as a means of rating themselves in the events in which they compete.
Dentist on the other hand, HATE to compete against each other because losing would mean that patients might leave one dentist for another, more competent clinician. And by not competing, it allows each dentist to claim that they are as good as the next dentist in the neighborhood.

In 1999, I entered one of my cases in the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry Smile Contest in San Antonio, Texas. My staff an I believed that the results that we achieved for our patient was spectacular and worth showing other dentists what we had accomplished. The cases were shown to independent judges without any indications of which dentists had completed the work and my case was selected as THE BEST IN CLASS for the type of work that we had done. All of the nationally recognized dentists who I had studied with came over to congratulate me on my spectacular achievement and it was at that moment that I became nationally recognized for my work.

Winning the contest was secondary to becoming the first American dentist to attain a Certificate of Proficiency in Esthetic Dentistry from the State University of NY at Buffalo and to date, there are probably fewer than 75 dentists in the country with a University based Certificate and none in the Capital District.

Many patients and dentists believe that all dentists possess the same level of knowledge, skill, talent and passion and that it is way too difficult to find 'the best' dentist even if one exists. The fact is that today it is very easy for one dentist to distinguish him or her self from other dentists.

I won a nationally held contest, I post my work on international dental websites for other dentists to critique, I teach and mentor other dentists and my passion for my work has never been greater.If a patient wants to find a highly proficient dentist, it would be very easy to do.

I love my work and I hope that it shows!

The Ace in the Hole

"Ace in the hole" is an old expression meaning that you have something in reserve just in case you need to get out of a challenging situation.

I saw a patient today who I treated 11 years ago when I virtually rebuilt her entire front tooth with resin bonding. Today she presented with the resin veneer in a plastic bag as it had come off of her tooth. These restorations are not meant for long term use and are generally used when a patient can't afford a crown.

I meticulously cleaned the resin veneer and the remaining natural tooth and carefully rebonded the restoration back onto the tooth and who knows, the patient may keep the restoration for a quarter of a century.

At the end of the appointment, my patient tells me that she has her routine dentistry done by her "REGULAR DENTIST." I always chuckle to myself when patients tell me that they only come to me when there they have a challenging dental problem. Some people keep me as their "Ace in the hole" instead of their regular dentist.
I AM a 'regular' dentist. lol