Category: Opinion & Editorial

The recent COVID-19 pandemic made “vaccine hesitancy,” relative to reluctance about receiving vaccination against the culprit virus, a household word. That term had been around a while, but less known and previously related to the international discussion about all childhood vaccinations and their implication in the spike of autism spectrum ... [continue reading]

Before I was ever in leadership with organized dentistry, before I was a dentist, and before I even knew what my life’s work would look like, I was part of a community – a group of individuals existing together through residential, familial and relational proximity. They were there when I was born; they were in my school and in my church. No ... [continue reading]

As we approach the end of the year, I always become reflective and spend time being thankful for the joys of being a dentist and a member of the ODA. One thing that I feel we don’t appreciate as much as we should is peer support. We need to treasure the support of our peers and offer it wherever we can! As an author, one of the great ... [continue reading]

As I write this today, I look up at the airplane flight monitor and I am somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean almost at the tip of Greenland. I am on my way back home just in time for Thanksgiving after going on an amazing 15 day trip to Pakistan. Initially we built our trip around my husband’s invitation to speak and conduct a surgical workshop ... [continue reading]

When asked what his favorite composition was, bandleader Duke Ellington said, “the next one!” That’s the nature of the artistic process. We’re fully alive and engaged in the space between now and what’s about to come. We’re hearing so much about burnout in the profession. While there are many causes of individual burnout, it’s ... [continue reading]

During my campaign for the ADA Trustee position, my column had to go on hiatus. ... [continue reading]

In the course of writing this column and other academic exercises that occupy my semi-retirement, I come across human behaviors that perplex me and lend truth to the old adage, “You couldn’t make that stuff up!” Some items make me pause and ask where we are as a species. Others make me sad. I thought these, across the spectrum of funny to ... [continue reading]

Today’s column is going to sound like a rant but it isn’t one. It’s just me reflecting like always on things that I think and talk about every day. Every time I engage in any dental community, be it online forums or some written article in some dental economic publication of the day, I feel that the topic of work force issues bubbles to the ... [continue reading]

Enter any major retailer at the moment, and you’re sure to see beach towels, sparklers  and picnic supplies heavily discounted as the retail world shoos away summer and makes room for the colorful onslaught of Back-to-School merchandise. At the time of this writing, summer is in its golden hour, and all too soon its twilight will be upon us, ... [continue reading]

Next May, I, along with the best damn dental class to ever step on a rheostat in Postle Hall, will have completed 10 years of service to patients and the profession. We will be handsomely rewarded with the distinguished title of Artists Formerly Known as “New” Dentists, just like the legendary Prince. If only… in a perfect world. No, ... [continue reading]