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If you speak to any 10 year old boy who plays basketball, he will have immediate recognition of the names Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Michael Jordon.
If you ask any 10 year old youngster who plays golf who Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson are, they will tell you every statistic about each player.
I gave my final lecture for the dental residents on Wednesday in the reschedule presentation and was amazed that young dentists have NO recognition of the super stars of our profession...NONE.
This shouldn't really surprise me since many full time practicing dentists can't recognize any of the best dentists in the world and even if they have heard of these fabulous clinicians, they could care less. I have long thought that people who become dentists march to their own drummer and it is not a beat that I like. As I have told you before, a significant proportion of dentists believe that each dentists has a right to determine what excellence is which makes absolutely no sense to me.
Every profession, every craft, every industry has standards of 'acceptable', unacceptable and excellence. But if dentists don't know WHO their stars are, it is a rejection of standards of excellence.
From the time that I entered dental school, I looked for the professors who demonstrated passion and an incredible interest in our craft. My first reaction when I see excellence in dentistry is: "I want to be able to do that kind of work or I want to be like him or her."
I have no clue on how to change young dentists but something tells me that the number of dentists who decide to take that journey to dental excellence will become smaller over the next 30-40 years.
How sad!
