HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

I am a baby boomer. I am part of the generation that was born between 1946 and 1964.  Baby boomers have the reputation for being quite independent.  There are 77 million baby boomers in this country, and they have driven the marketplace since they were born.  My practice has seen this over the years.

I began practicing in the early seventies when dental insurance became popular. I have seen insurance become a major force in the dental community, and I have witnessed its relative irrelevancy.  I have seen the coming and goings of closed panels, department store clinics and DMOs.  I have been part of the cosmetic revolution.

I feel that the key to success in today’s marketplace will be to pay attention to the “longevity” factor. The most important thing [click to continue…]

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5 Reasons Ryan Loves the Dentist

by Barry on August 9, 2010 · 0 comments

Ryan is like so many of our dental patients: he has some fear but he wants to get his work done when necessary.  Let’s face it, not many people line up for treatment, hence all those root canal jokes.  Ryan takes care of his teeth for many reasons, one of which is to stay away from me.

So when Ryan came in with a small chip on his upper front central incisor, he would have been fine to leave it alone…but not Grandma.  He hated needles, he didn’t want me to touch his teeth and he was kind of vain so he needed a perfect shade match.  When we were finished doing our magic (I promised him I would use only Weapons of Minimal Destruction), Ryan (and Grandma) loved us, here’s why:

1. No Needles

Although I only had to use the drill to do the least amount of shaping necessary, and to roughen up the surface.  Ryan felt nothing (he was amazed…I wasn’t).  I didn’t have to go anywhere near his gum tissue…I will explain that below.

2. No Mutilation

Who wants to get their teeth cut down for crowns and veneers?  I understand the price of vanity, but Ryan would have lived with his chip.  Don’t we all have patients like Ryan.  And in the center of the mouth getting one tooth shade corrected can be one of the most difficult things in dentistry…dentists today are jumping at the chance to prepare teeth.

3. No Shade Discrepancies

Okay, this is really where the lab takes over.  It’s pretty tough to make veneers that are this thin and esthetic.  We can match the underlying shade of the tooth by using feldspathic porcelain.  Note the contact lens effect in the center.

4. It’s Invisible

Both Ryan and Grandma were happy because it truly was invisible.  It was a case of under promising and over delivering.

5. Now We Love Ryan Too

The best part of this is that Ryan and Grandma have developed a strong trust in our practice.  It showed how competent we were to deliver on our promises.  They realized that we had really listened to Ryan and his latent objections.  Our intent was to do the very best for our patient under his circumstances and objectives (not ours).  This is how we build our practice.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

There are many ways to do minimally invasive dentistry.  I believe the success of this minimally invasive veneer case was due to the expert use of feldspathic porcelain by Niche Dental Studio, and the use of fine Dialite polishing wheels which helped to make all of the margins invisible.

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TAO the Book Installment 9 Culture is the Key

August 8, 2010

The nice thing about dentistry is that you have the opportunity to choose your own culture based on your own set of values.  I am fond of the expression by Boston Philharmonic maestro, Ben Zander: “It’s all invented anyway.” In his book The Art of Possibility, he describes the meaning of that expression:

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One Change Leads to a Yes

August 4, 2010

One moment she was okay, and the next she was one the ground holding her mouth.  She just got out of a taxi after the theater on a bitter cold March night in New York.  Her feet tangled as she stepped on the curb and down she went.  In that instant her circumstances changed. The  [...]

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7 Components of a Successful Practice

May 27, 2010

I read most of the dental blogs in the blogosphere.  One thing I enjoy about blogs is the interactive conversation.  Discussions can go on and on.  There can be great discoveries on a good blog.  It’s remarkable how dental blogs seem a bit different than others.  I find that dentists don’t often raise their hands [...]

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TAO The Book Installment 8 Values R U

May 19, 2010

WHO ARE YOU? The dictionary defines the word “philosophy” as guiding or underlying principles: a set of basic principles or concepts underlying a particular sphere of knowledge. Developing a philosophy is the starting point of developing a winning lifestyle or business. There is an order to everything in life. The vast majority of people are [...]

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One Thing that Will Give Your Exam Process a Quantum Leap

April 28, 2010

I have done a lot of examinations in my career.  Readers who are familiar with my book, The Art of the Examination, know how much stock I place in the examination process.  As the years go by I only become more firm in my admonition about the importance of a comprehensive examination.  I know what [...]

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TAO – the Book Installment 7 Create Culture

April 20, 2010

Working out your own personal philosophy is a starting point. Imagine a dental case where the dentist incorrectly determined the mandibular plane. Everything from that point forward will be effected, from function to that very popular buzzword – cosmetics (form). The only way to correct that mistake is to start again. When you start with [...]

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TAO – The Book Installment 6 – Can’t Sing Your Way Out

April 11, 2010

GIVE BIRTH TO A NEW CULTURE When I first began to search for ways to improve my practice, I was distracted by promises of quick wealth and easy rewards. The “gurus” promised to show me how to make more money through trickery and manipulative “strategies” that would make patients say “yes” to treatment. I tried [...]

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10 Ways to Become a Mediocre Dentist

April 7, 2010

Okay, a touch of sarcasm in the title, but I think it’s quite appropriate for our times.  The future of dentistry is in the balance. Unless you live in a cave, you can’t  have missed a cultural shift in our profession.  It’s been occurring for years, and now we are in a definite realignment.  It [...]

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