Just So That You Know.

I was looking for an email address and an email popped up dated October 18, 2007. Our office Recession began July, 2007 when the headlines in the New York Times read: Congress starts to pay attention to Wall Street ie the Housing Credit Crunch.

The problem? I had no patients despite sitting in my office for 10 hours a day. And no one told me that we were on the verge of the Great Recession.

I sent an email to the manager of the lab I had been working with explaining my woes and the possibility of moving to Saratoga Springs.

This is the email that Tom sent to me:

Dr. B.,

You're one of the finest dentists I've know, clinically and professionally. Your patients have ben receiving the finest in quality care with you as their dentist. More people need to understand that. Maybe a move to a more patient friendly area would be best. They certainly would never be better served with you as their dentist.

Tom

This was very gratifying to see again especially at a time when again, I have no patients.

UNKNOWNS

The Unknowns are by definition, unknown.

That said, it is often common to hear someone say, "How could I know the unknowns."

Many dentists will often ask, "How could I be EXPECTED to know the unknowns?"

The truth is that most often, the unknowns that the dentist claimed were unknown, were only unknown to him or her  BECAUSE, they were to lazy to learn the KNOWN facts.

It is true, that you can NEVER KNOW THE TRUE UNKNOWNS, but it is our obligations as professionals to learn everything that we can because most things ARE KNOWN.

When People (and Government) Doesn't Want the People to Know the Truth

This Issue

Views 204 

 

Citations 0 

 

1

Clinical Trials Update 

March 24/31, 2020

Despite Law, Most Clinical Trial Results Still Not Posted

Anita Slomski, MA

JAMA. 2020;323(12):1124. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.2814

Less than half of US clinical trial results are reported on ClinicalTrials.gov in accordance with US law, according to a recent study in The Lancet.

Of the 4209 trials due to report results by January 2018, only 40.9% did so within the 1-year deadline, and 36.1% of the trials were still unreported by September 2019. Surprisingly, US government-sponsored trials had the lowest compliance. The authors blamed lack of enforcement.

A separate Science investigation backed up the findings. Of the more than 4700 trials the publication examined, 55.3% were reported late or not at all.

Making Things Better: Not Political

This is what I wrote in the Digital Comment section of the NY Times in comments about Thomas Friedman's column.


The Federal Government knows how much taxes each person has paid over the last year and it knows the business account that the money was sent to. Tomorrow morning everyone who earns under $4 million a year will have all of their tax money returned and immediately distributed by their employers. The money is returned to the taxpayer and in, effect, no one will have been laid off and no one will have missed a paycheck. In addition, employers agree to keep all employees and everyone returns to work in 10 days. I too agree that the saving of a relatively few lives is not worth the collapse of the entire economy which will take years to return to normal. Life is not without risk but far more people will die from depression, suicide, drug addiction and wife and child abuse than died of the virus in the next few years if we don't return to work.


Sometimes we need just a little of perspective:

Americans who have died from the flu this season : 16,000

Americans who have died from the Coronavirus to date: 484


Do I think that the Coronavirus is a health issue? 
I do not think that the United States was prepared for a Pandemic.

 In 2010 Bill Gates warned that America would face a Pandemic and was woefully under prepared.

In Early January our INTEL COMMUNITY told the White House that it needed to prepare for a Pandemic based on information gathered from China. (Washington Post, 3/20/20)

Do I have all the answers???? NO!!!!!!
And no one would ask me anyway.

Just a Thought from Jim Collin Author of "Good to Great"

Good to Great Quotes Showing 1-30 of 227

“When [what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine] come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Cut Rate Dentistry is NOT Better than no Dentistry

I see that a local dentist is advertising implants for $1,000.

Personally, I would not have discount dentistry using cheap implants from Korea or China.

 Not in my mouth.

Several years ago one of the labs used a non-proprietary implant screw to hold the post to the implant and all of the cheap screws came lose which meant that I had to start from scratch at no charge to the patient.

I contacted the lab and told them that under no circumstances were they to use non proprietary  parts. A PROPRIETARY SCREW  is made to specific high standards with assurances of quality. A knock off screw has no assurances other than it will be cheap.

It is your body and your choice.

You know my standard: If you were MY BROTHER, this is what I would do.

Not In My Office (NOT POLITICAL)

One of the headlines this morning on CNN said:

White House MD: Trump doesn't need to be quarantined after interactions with 2 people who tested positive for coronavirus

I would bet a year's pay that the physician allowed his patient to tell him what good medical practice is when he refused the recommendation to quarantine.

In our office, my patient is my boss EXCEPT when he or she is hesitant to do the right thing to address infection or function. (Aside: this means that I rarely mention Cosmetic Dentistry to any of my long time patients because a great smile is NOT essential to their health.)

If a patient ignores my recommendations for important dental HEALTH issues, I will ask them to leave our practice.  

MY JOB is to take care of my patients and if someone doesn't want to do that, they have almost a 1,000 dental offices to receive their dental care. 99% of my patients follow my recommendations.

If a new patient presents either as a regular dental patient or for a cosmetic consultation and they then go to another dentist for a second opinion,  I will not accept them as my patient. If a patient does not quickly see that I will ALWAYS PUT THEIR BEST INTEREST ABOVE MY OWN, they cannot stay in our office.

If I were the President's MD, I would have insisted on a Caronovirus test and/or quarantine.

Do it right of get someone else to take care of you.

"You Don't Know How Good it is Not to Have a Toothache"

I met a person about 10 years ago and about 5 years ago, he became my patient. I noted that 3 or 4 of his crowns had come off and were missing and his teeth were very sensitive to cold. A few of his teeth needed root canals as was evident from the x-rays and he was referred to Root Canal Experts.

"I don't mind having a root canal, but will they be able to get me numb? Dentists don't get me numb enough and I feel everything."

My response as always was, "Don't worry, you are now in a different realm with Dr. Banchs and this office."

All the root canals were completed, all the  crowns were replaced after Dr. Banchs completed his work and the 30 year old mercury amalgam fillings were removed and replaced with strong bonded white filling.

And he NEVER felt a thing.

He was in for a cleaning and a filling last week and I said, "It must be nice to have dental problems all the time" to which he responded, "You don't know how good it is not to have a toothache."

Finding people who believe and practice excellence to take care of you is extremely important to your health and happiness. Don't believe that a dentist is a dentist and a surgeon is a surgeon.  Like every profession there is the good, the bad and the exceptional dentist.

Choose excellence.

Slow Year

2008-09 were the slowest time in my career.

2020 is coming close to starting off like my slowest years.

A patient told me yesterday that patients don't come to our office for regular dentistry because  I am a COSTMETIC guy.

That is NOT TRUE...90% of what I do is 'regular dentistry' such as fillings, crowns, cleanings, x-rays.

Please correct your friends when they say that I am a Cosmetic guy and if they want excellent general dentistry.

Why We Don't Like Government (NOT POLITICAL)

I need to get a replacement Registration for my car at the DMV. I go online and find and complete the correct form and go to the DMV in Saratoga County this morning..Virtually empty....YES.

I go up to the check in desk and the lady says, "That's the wrong form!!!!!! That should have been changed online.... Fill out THIS FORM.

I sit down and complete the form and I answer the exact same questions on the new from with the exception of whether I had MODIFIED my vehicle (after the Limo deaths).

Government does not have a right to make mistakes that inconveniences the citizens. The DMV needed to ACCEPT the form that is currently online and THEN change the forms.

20+ years ago, I was returning from seeing my ill Father in NJ and when I went to get onto the New York State Thruway, there was a 2 hour, 10 mile backup to collect $.35. THIRTY FIVE CENTS!!!
I and others wrote Governor Pataki and told him that if he could not collect $.35 more efficiently then he had no right to inconvenience motorists. And so it was. The first toll on the Thruway was removed.

The person at the desk should have called her boss to call her boss and tell them to immediately change the form online...And she should have taken my completed form.
'
Thomas Friedman, Journalist for the NY Times wrote of the escalator in Virginia being out for over 2 years and how the passengers just adapted...Nope, someone needed to be fired. Government controls everything and it does not have the right to make dumb mistakes.

But you can have a Caronavirus test anytime you want.................NOT.