Sorry, I Don't Hate

Susan and I were brought up in families where our parents completed high school and we lived paycheck to paycheck. Our parents brought us up to value education, work hard and to be respectful of others regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds. Regardless of the faults or short comings of our parents, they taught us not to hate.

Recently someone asked the CEO of Barilla Pasta, one of the largest pasta companies in America whether we would be seeing any gay couples in their advertising. The CEO responded that (I am paraphrasing) that there would never be gay couples in Barilla ads and that if that was unacceptable, they could buy their pasta from another company.

Needless to say, Barilla was bombarded with negative feedback which forced an apology. In response to my email, Barilla sent the following email:

Dear Dr. Gerald,

At Barilla, we consider it our mission to treat our consumers and partners as our neighbors – with love and respect – and to deliver the very best products possible. We take this responsibility seriously and consider it a core part of who we are as a family-owned company.

We are working hard to learn from this experience, and appreciate you taking the time to share your comments and valuable feedback.

Sincerely,

Barilla

Case # 163841

Sorry, I will buy my pasta from another company. If the CEO was a class act, he would resign.If we don't stand up against hate, someday the haters will  come after us.

Changing Our Website

Most of our new patients learn about our office from the internet and specifically by visiting our website.  We have had a website for more than 10 years and we have always used the wedding photo of one of our patients on our homepage. The bride's teeth were restored in 1999 and I have always loved the results. I entered her case in the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry Smile Contest in 2000 in Boston but I did not win unlike the previous year in San Antonio when I did earn a first place for my work. When I complained to my West Coast Mentor, Dr. Frank Spear that I was not able to pull off a 'repeat'  in Boston he consoled me by saying, "The judges wanted to see lots of porcelain and you just showed them a beautiful smile."

I live in fear that my best cases are behind me an that I may not do any fabulous cases ever again. Fortunately, another great case always seems to come along and my latest case is being considered as the replacement for the Bride on our homepage. I just love Black and White photography and we are considering the unusual step of using a Black and White photo on our homepage.

What do you think?

double click on the image 

Dr. Benjamin Why Do I Need a New Crown?

Patients sometimes cannot understand how a crown that they paid $850 TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO has worn out and needs to be replaced. People fully understand that their 15 year old $2500 refrigerator has 'died' but a crown should last forever.  This photo is a picture of a tooth that had an old crown that had started to leak. This means that the metal in the crown had fatigued,became slightly bent and permitted saliva to get under the crown.  You don't have to be a dentist to see the black part of the tooth near the bottom of the photo. That is what tooth decay looks like.  Yes you could wait until the crown falls off when the decay becomes advanced but why would you?  Patients usually understand when I ask them when was the last time that they had purchased only one set of tires in their lifetime?  Everything a dentist does...including me...will fail. The definition of a 'good dentist'  is a dentist that makes things fail at the slowest possible rate.

Now do you see why I take so many photographs? Trust but verify.

Care and Concern

I would be highly upset if one of my patients expressed an opinion that I did not care about my patients.    I would never tell anyone that I was 'the best' clinical dentist in the world because I know that there are dentists who are better at restoring teeth than I am.  No one can ever say "You Don't Care About Me." because that would be completely false.

I saw a young patient  (30 years old) on Tuesday that was seeing me for a consultation about two recently placed front crowns and about a burning mouth ; she was regretting the day that she let her dentist cut down her front teeth for crowns. She showed me photos of herself when she was in her early 20s so that I could see her teeth before the crowns. To be honest, I was not even looking at her teeth but was looking at how much weight she had lost sometime over the last 7 or 8 years and how she had gone from a beautiful young woman to person with no fat whatsoever in her face (or elsewhere) to the point of being emaciated.

The longer I spoke with this patient, the more I understood that her displeasure with her teeth was only a small part of why she was unhappy. As you can imagine, it is very difficult to speak to a patient about matters of privacy especially when they do not involve teeth. That said, I have a professional obligation to help my patients because I care about them and I am concerned about their general well-being.

I am not a father but  I can only imagine how this patient's father feels about how unhappy is daughter is and how concerned he probably is.

It was my impression that this patient was suffering from post- partum depression and I strongly suggested that she contact both her physician and her ob/gyn physician  to manage the fungal infection and her lack of happiness.

I received the following email today:

Dr. Benjamin, 
The burning from thrush is lessening slightly, not much, but the doctor told me it could take some time. I saw my primary care doctor yesterday and she prescribed a very low dose escitalopram 5 Mg for anxiety. I was lectured on my weight loss, it was a little more than I realized. I'm still having an ache in one tooth that travels upward and a lot of sinus pressure. Thank you for giving me the push to see the doctor and for your concern and follow up, I appreciate it.

Later in the day, I saw a long time patient (25 + years) who appeared to have lost a considerable amount of weight although she was always thin. I immediate addressed her loss of weight even before I sat down to look at her teeth. She told me that she had been seeing a doctor who told her that she had an absorption problem but with was  little success with the treatment. I strongly suggested to my patient that she needed to go to The Cleveland Clinic, The Mayo Clinic or NY Presbyterian Hospital in NYC for an evaluation. Unexplained significant weight loss is an indication of a serious problem that must be explored and a diagnosis determined.

I was not sure how my patient would accept my suggestions but all she could say was, "Thank you so much for your recommendation. I will call them when I get home."

No one can ever say that I lack concern for my patients.