The Invitation: SUNY/Buffalo School of Dentistry calls

Last Memorial Day Weekend I was invited to visit my Dental School so that I would learn what roll I would play at the school in the future. I met with the Dean and the Chairman of the Department of Restorative Dentistry to review recent events at the School. In November, the Dean and his wife (also a dentist) visited my new Saratoga office so see how a high quality and ethical dental practice functions. Last month, I was invited by the Chair of Restorative Dentistry to give an all day lecture to 7 of the top senior dental students which was extremely well received by our students. Last week, the former Dean called and invited me to come to the School, meet the new Dean and have dinner at his home. In addition, I will learn what my new position will be although I signed papers which said, 'Associate Clinical Professor.' I am looking forward to returning to my Dental School again in an 'official capacity' rather than as a 'visiting instructor.'

I am honored to have attained a sufficient amount of knowledge and expertise in the field of fine restorative dentistry to teach the next generation of dentists.

About 30 years ago, there used to be an ad on television with the slogan, "You have come a long way baby."

Indeed I have.

Teaching and mentoring

During the last 18 years, I have dedicated my professional life to learning as much as I can and to that purpose, I have taken more than 2500 hours of continuing education and invested 2.5 million dollars. Spending money on one's hobby is easy to do.
For the last 5-10 years, I have been teaching and mentoring other dentists so that they can learn to take better care of their patients.Why would I do this and 'What's in it for me?' I do this because it is the right thing to do; I certainly have nothing to gain financially by helping my young colleagues. In fact, I have "complained" to one of my good friends and colleagues that by helping the other dentists, that I am giving away all of my "secrets" to which he responded:

Have no fear there is no one who can do what you do they would never take the time you do nor would they get the same results

That says it all. I help my young colleagues because it is the right thing to do and there is no risk to MY professional success because most dentists lack the love and passion for what they do.

Teach on!

Not Again

Yesterday I had a consult with a beautiful young woman of 36 who had 6 poorly done (ok ugly) veneers placed in 2002 by a dentist in Syracuse, NY. Last month a local dentist convinced the patient that he could give her the smile of her dreams by placing 10 porcelain fused to metal crowns. What the dentist actually did for the patient was:
1. Remove a lot of beautiful and irreplaceable natural tooth structure
2. Place 10 dark, opaque, short crowns

Was the patient happy? No!!!
Were the patient's expectations met? Absolutely not!!!

Why did this happen and why is that we read about the plane crashes, the perforated intestines during routine colonoscopy,failing root canals and ugly cosmetic dentistry cases ON A DAILY BASIS?

WHY???????

The book 'The Outliers' provides us with much of the answer. Supposed 'experts' who haven't studied the required 10,000 hours to become a master at what they do are passing themselves off as true experts. In dentistry, we joke about a dentist who is an expert after taking a weekend course and doing the procedure exactly once.

If you find excellence by chance...consider yourself extremely lucky. Excellence will require that you do some investigation on the internet, invest some time in asking around and your willingness to not only demand excellence but be willing to PAY FOR EXCELLENCE.

Excellence requires more time and costs more. Where have I heard that before????
And let me give you a hint: Your insurance company will NOT PAY FOR EXCELLENCE....But YOU sure can.

Like Nike says: "Just DO It." And if you are unwilling to pay for excellence, you will spend three times what excellence costs in trying to correct your problems as a result of mediocrity or worse.

"Excellence" in 10 Minutes

Excellence in 10 minutes is an oxymoron if I ever heard one. An oxymoron is when you combine two terms that don't go together such as 'excellence' in a small amount of time...Excellence IS EXCELLENCE even if it takes all day to achieve.
Why am I making a big deal about this?
A few days ago I spoke with a patient who told me that he went for his regular colonoscopy and when he awoke, he was told that the doctor had perforated his intestines, a life threatening event. The New York Times ran a front page story a couple of years ago stating that many GI specialists were spending only 10 minutes performing a colonoscopy but those GI specialists who took 30 minutes found 3 times the amount of polyps.If time is about money...then what we are seeing is that doctors and dentists are doing "the best they can" as FAST as they can...Is that an oxymoron or what?
Some dentists do the exact same thing; the 59 minute root canal or the 2 hour veneer case. What is the problem with this??? Failure or an unhappy patient is frequently the result. How long SHOULD a root canal take? Until the canal system of the tooth is absolutely clean. And how long should a veneer case take???All day if necessary to produce the desired functional and esthetic results
So where have we gone wrong? Everything has become about the MONEY. But you already knew that.

What Others Say About Our Work

I spoke with the designer of our new Saratoga office this afternoon just to keep in touch. Sue Barrett is one of the finest designers of beautiful dental offices in the United States. We chatted about the economy and she said that things appear to be turning around for her firm but she definitely sees less of a demand for palatial dental offices costing millions of dollars...Sanity is returning.
Towards the end of our conversation, she said to me that since she met Tricia and me, she has looked at cosmetic dentistry in an entirely new light. What she told me is that she sees lots of people walking around with 'cosmetic dentistry' but that is the problem...She can identify the artificial nature of the dentistry. Sue said that our office has set a new standard of excellence in cosmetic dentistry for its beauty and our ability to mimic the naturalness of nature.
I can think of no higher compliment for our work.
My job is give our patients the best possible dentistry with regards to fit, function and fabulous esthetics. I am honored when people in my profession or associated with the profession compliment our work.

I Could Not Say It Better

Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger the pilot that safely landed a plane in the Hudson River retired yesterday after 30 years with USAIR. Sully made some damning statements about the airlines and other professional pilots.
To quote extensively from a CNN Report:
"I have been fortunate to have followed my passion for most of my life, working in a profession I dearly love."
Pilot experience requirements and pilot fatigue are among his chief concerns, he said. Outdated regulations and regional carriers that compete on the basis of cost, consequently hiring less experienced pilots, contribute to the profession's problems.

"Each generation of pilots hopes that they will leave their profession better off than they found it. In spite of the best efforts of thousands of my colleagues, that is not the case today," Sullenberger said in his written statement.

Sullenberger leaves his profession in worse shape than when he started "by any measure," he said.

Why am I telling you about this? And What does this have to do with Dentistry and my profession?

EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When cheap is what patients demand then low quality is what they will recieve which means that it will AWAYS cost more to redo the dental treatment and teeth will be lost. Perhaps Sully was referring to the regional airline that lost a plane and 48 lives when two inexperienced and poorly paid pilots crashed a plane in Buffalo last year.

I have recently started to see dentistry that is reminiscent of some of the work that we used to see in the 1970's and before the modern era of dentistry. Root canals ineptly done, undiagnosed periodontal disease, 'bonded white fillings' that failed before the first bite of food touched the tooth and beautiful natural tooth structure that is removed for crowns and onlays simply because insurance pays more for crowns than for beautiful, strong and tooth conserving bonded white fillings.

So what is this about? Sully said it best," Regional carriers (DENTISTS) that compete on the basis of cost, consequently hiring less experienced pilots (DENTISTS OVER-TREATING, PERFORMING TREATMENT THAT THEY ARE NOT COMPETENT TO DO, USING CHEAP LABS AND MATERIALS) contribute to the profession's problems.

What Sully and I are telling you is the same thing. When the public doesn't want to pay for quality the results will be lost teeth and lost lives.

A Vistor Part 2

Two weeks ago a young dentist travelled all the way from Bangalore, India to Saratoga Springs, NY to study with me for a week. It was an incredibly fast week and it was great to have him both as a guest in my home and as a dentist in my office.
I received an email from Dr. Ashok yesterday telling me that I have "ruined him" by teaching him excellence. I sent Dr. Ashok an email and told him that I had merely helped him move from the unconsciously unknowing to the consciously unknowing which means that now he knows that he doesn't know. Every professional knows what it feels like to not be able to do what they see other dentists or physicians do. Feeling inept is not a pleasant feeling.
Dr. Ashok's patients are much better off after he has spent a week learning. I commend Dr. Ashok for having the courage to recognize that he didn't know what he didn't know and have the intelligence to do something about it.

Dr. Benjamin teaches at SUNY/Buffalo Dental School

Last Memorial Day weekend, the Dean of SUNY/Buffalo Dental School and the Chairman of the Department of Restorative Dentistry (Dr. Munoz) asked me to return to the school to discuss my future role at the Dental School. Last Friday, I drove 5 hours in preparation to teach a course to a select group of senior dental students. I had the pleasure of spending all day Saturday with the students. The morning session was a lecture entitled, "The Direct Resin Mockup as the First Step in Predictable Excellent Results in Eshtetic Dentistry." This is the same lecture that I delivered to practicing dentists in Saratoga Springs the previous week. The afternoon session was a hands on course to teach my young colleagues how to manage resin so that they can achieve beautiful bonding on front teeth.
My visit was the very first time that a nationally recognized clinical dentist travelled to the school to teach dental students.
Why would I do this??? For the Money???? Never! I do not accept money when teaching at my alma mater, UB Dental School. So WHY did I go to Buffalo to teach?
I strongly believe that it is an obligation of the profession to teach excellence to our young colleagues. As my mentor, Fred McIntyre says, "If we do not teach excellence to our students, they will not know excellence." I wanted to show the students what a wonderful profession dentistry is and that when we treat our patients, it is an obligation to aim for excellence in our clinical dentistry.
I was honored to learn that my young students loved my lecture and that no one had ever given them a lecture like mine.
I was also delighted to have the Chairman of the Department tell me that there is no other faculty member at the Dental School who can do what I do at the level that I do it.
This was incredibly validating since UB Dental School rejected me as a student three years in a row....Redemption is sweet.

Peer Reviewed Article

I am thrilled to tell you that I had an article published in a peer reviewed journal. It is very easy to become published in what the profession calls "Throw Away Magazines." However, an article that is published in a peer reviewed journal takes a long time to write, be judged acceptable by a member of the profession and then revised as a result of comments of a board of reviewers. Needless to say, it has been more than a year to get my article published.
If you would like to read my article, cut and paste this link.
It is interesting to note that while most dentists my age (62) are either retired,semi-retired or just bored with dentistry, MY career has begun to flourish. I have opened a new dental practice, published an article and have lectured in Baltimore, Saratoga and Buffalo.
My career has a long way to go.

An Indirect Matrix Technique for Fabrication of Fiber-Reinforced Direct Bonded Anterior Bridges
Gerald Benjamin, DDS; and Gregori M. Kurtzman, DDS

http://www.compendiumlive.com/article.php?id=3258

Published!

My first article in a peer reviewed dental journal, The Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry (Jan/Feb 2010) arrived today.
I have invented many of the techniques that I currently use but I have never been motivated to share my methodology prior to publishing the technique in the magazine. As many of you know, my greatest enjoyment comes from actually treating you, my patient. Teaching also is a great source enjoyment.
When we reach a certain point in our careers, we recognize the importance of transferring what we have learned to the next generation of our colleagues.
The School of Dental Medicine has asked me to present a lecture to 6 of its most motivated senior dental students and in a few weeks, I will show them what the work will look like when someone loves their work.
These have become interesting times for me.