I Am So Honored

I have told you before that the student LIVES to be complimented by his or her mentor. I have been most fortunate to have had the support of many of my mentors during my long career.

That said, many times we influence people and gain their respect at great distances because of the internet. I have 'known' dentists for 20+ years on dental forums but have never had the pleasure of meeting them in person.

Today, an older dentist from Texas presented the dentists who he has followed during his early years and who have served as his mentors. He concluded by asking other dentists on the forum who we followed and who inspired us.

One dentist that I know all of my 20+ years on this forum wrote the following:

"David Hornbrook solidified my confidence in doing cosmetic cases.

And via the many internet forums over the years I have learned so much that I consider Rick, Guy, Ray Voller, Gary Henkel, Gerald Benjamin, Jeff Blank, John Highsmith, Suz, Gerilyn Alfe, Sander and so many others as mentors, whether they knew it or not.  All you guys have made me a better dentist."

Another young dentist that I met 3-4 years ago said the following:

"I have yet to met anyone more challenging than Gerald. I will also admit, I am very hard on mentors as I usually question them more than I accept from them. Gerald is one of the few who have withstood my cynicism.  It is too early to have a top 5 in my career, but Gerald stands above the rest.

I will also state that Gerald is the only doctor who has agreed to let me try and replicate the 'Tucker Gold Study.'  This is a question I frequently ask and most turn me down. I am not sure when I will be able to get up there  to do so, but to allow this level of transparency in someone he has never met speaks volumes about him and his confidence in his clinical dentistry, which is something I don't see very often. "

Matt

Matt and I did not see eye to eye at the beginning because I could not see any passion for clinical dentistry. I showed him my direct posterior resins that I would place for MY patients instead of destroying teeth for crowns, especially in younger patients in their 20,30,40s. He did not believe my success with resins but he admired my commitment and passion to help each and every one of YOU. Unbeknownst to me, he decided to copy my style of dentistry and began taking 100s of hours of  high quality Continuing Education. 

Matt has become a 'convert' to excellence. I am truly honored by his commitment to excellence and I am thrilled to have been his mentor.

A 16 Year Old Boy Can See it From 2,000 Miles Away But an Adult Can't See It From Around the Corner

This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see an email in my office email account. When I opened it, this is what a young man from Minnesota said:


Message:
Dear Dr. Benjamin, 

My name is Max, and I am a tenth grader at Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope, Minnesota, and I am now looking back at your blog, that I found when I was in 8th grade. I found your blog in 8th grade, in my Tech Ed class, when we were constructing Pull Toys, and we needed a name for our toy, and we named it "Gerald". So, my partner and I googled the name "Gerald", and we found your picture, and we printed it out, and plastered it all over our pull toy. We got an A on the assignment, and I recently found the pull toy in my garage, and I remembered you being all over it. As I looked you up, I just wanted to say (from reading your blog), is that you seem like a fantastic dentist, and a great doctor. So, keep doing what you are doing, and I hope you find a little bit of joy reading this from a 16 year old kid from Minnesota!

Take care,

I wrote back to Max telling him that his comments made my day and that I hoped that he would pursue excellence in everything he does and to always do the right thing...

Even Doctors Don't Believe That There is a Difference

Most physicians and dentists believe that they are good at what they do.. A very old article (2004) appeared in the New Yorker Magazine about the differences in medical care and medical outcomes.

This is the article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/12/06/the-bell-curve

Doctors themselves were shocked to learn that some hospitals have significantly better outcomes than other hospitals.

How can this be???

Human nature. Every physician and dentist firmly believes that they are better than average until they are confronted with the results of their own outcomes.

This is why it is soooo important to be evaluated and treated by the best.

A Champion Always Gets Up Off of the Canvas

Champions have as much heart as they have talent.

Tiger Woods demonstrated that yesterday. Injuries and personal issues caused his fall from grace and many thought that redemption was not possible.

The heart of a champion.

Offended by Negative Reviews

After 42 years, I am still saddened when a patient leaves our practice. When someone writes a negative review about our practice, I am deeply offended.

A relatively new patient wrote that I am outrageously expensive....

What she meant to say is that she did not value fine restorative dentistry and if that is the case, then she should not be a patient in our practice.

This is like walking into a BMW dealer and telling the salesperson that they can buy a Ford, Chevy or  Toyota for 1/3 of the cost of the BMW...That is not comparing apples to apples.

As I have told you for the last almost 20 years of writing blogs is that I will never hurt you to increase my income. That I will never destroy your tooth structure with a crown to increase my wealth...That I will never listen to an insurance company and provide the least expensive, lowest standard of dental care for you or your family rather than do the best that I can do.

When patients complain about fees it is because they don't care about excellence OR the cost is above their comfort number that they believe that dentistry should cost.

As I wrote in a blog yesterday...one of my colleagues said, " Gerald does things the right way but most of us (dentists) cannot make a living without placing crowns." (Paraphrased)

If a patient thinks that all dentists are the same...that is fine. But I KNOW that it is not so.

Equally Great Advice for Young Dentist and Young Physicians

Milton Packer, MD wrote a great short article to his young colleagues:

https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/revolutionandrevelation/79125?fbclid=IwAR0itWFpaTGs6YpGMOU92SASWTpmJj7P9xSdSloI8tcoYB2OzREDjYFk_UU

Asking whether medicine was their job or their career? The difference, according to Dr. Packer, is that if health care is your job, you are only concerned about making your employer happy. If health care is your career, then your goal  is to find positions that allow you to pursue your own goals and development. If you think of medicine as a career, you select positions that allow you to keep focused on your mission. He feels that being the best at some aspect of your job is very important  in a career but not the only important thing...What he truly believes is important is challenging conventional thinking and take your own path.

In 1956 we obtained the ability to bond to enamel and in 1992, we learned how to bond to dentin, the layer of tooth structure just below the enamel. At that moment, I realized that what I had been taught in dental school was no longer valid information when treating patients. Dentinal bonding meant that I no longer had to destroy tooth structure for a crown and therefore teeth would last longer and perhaps an entire lifetime.

I was roundly condemned by colleagues  but 25+ years later, I was right in not following conventional thought. How do I KNOW that I was right???? Virtually all of my long term patients of 20, 30 and even 40 years have almost every tooth that they started with me as their dentist...And they don't have many crowns.

I took a big risk and all of you won because you have kept your teeth.

"Gerald Has the Right Model, if You Can Do It"

A very fine dentist near Pittsburgh, PA posted a case on one of my few remaining dental forums in which he said that his patient was WILLING to have ceramic onlays placed on her teeth but that he could not destroy healthy tooth structure (and hurt his patient) in order to make a higher profit. This dentist is very talented and preferred to place conservative, direct bonded resin restorations over the more profitable onlays.

I wrote the dentist who has been a friend of mine for 20 years and commended his integrity for doing the right thing.

Another dentist posted his response on the forum and said,

"If direct resin fees were  raised to what the should be, more would be done and teeth preserved. A back ass model for sure. We are paid more to destroy teeth instead of more to preserve them. Gerald has the right model if you can do it."

Truth be told. We all know that insurance companies are responsible for tremendous numbers of crowns placed for patients  in America.

Congratulations for being wise enough and care enough to select our office for your care. I will always do the right thing even it means making less money. You get to keep your own teeth your entire life and I have the privilege of taking care of you.

Win-Win

And other dentists KNOW how I treat my patients.

Two Hour Drives Each Way

The average dental patient will drive 5-8 miles to visit a dentist.

Yesterday, two different patient each traveled more than 2 hours to have direct bonded resin restorations.

Two HOURS. One patient has been my patient for more than 30 years while the other patient has been with me for 5+ years.

Why would people travel that far for routine dentistry?

1. Because they trust me.
2.Because they know that I will take care of them.
3.They know that my work will last.

Despite the fact that my office is located in Saratoga Springs, the overwhelming majority of my patients do not live in Saratoga Springs.

If you believe that every dentist is the same, you would never travel 2 hours in each direction and you would never be MY patient.

SUNY/Buffalo Lecture

So how did my lecture go?

I showed dental students and post doctoral students about 20 cases that approached world class quality. And how did the students respond?

NADA....NOTHING....

NOT a single student asked a question.

Not a single student came up after class and thanked me or commented on my cases.

They exhibited no passion or excitement.

I left feeling unsatisfied especially given the fact that I spent 50 hours in preparation for the lecture..

SAD

Everything that a Dentist Does Fails

All dental treatment FAILS given a sufficient amount of time. The definition of a 'good' dentist is a dentist that makes things fail at the slowest possible rate.

I placed a 3 unit fixed bridge in patient's mouth in 1994. The patient has been in my practice about 35 years. As with most crown and bridge cases, the patient developed tooth decay around one of the supporting teeth causing the bridge to need replacement.

Was my patient angry?  Of course not...He had used the bridge for 25 years and reasonable people know that that is a very long time. (How many cars had he bought in 25 years?)

Very good dentistry lasts a very long time but that does NOT mean that it will last forever. How long do the shingles on your roof last???  It tells you right on the box..."This is a 25 year shingle."

The average bonded posterior resin filling lasts 7 years...Mine are lasting 20+ years  which means that they approach the longevity of an amalgam filling...

Dentistry is one of the best consumer values.