Category: Opinion & Editorial

As I write this column, it is June 19. Things change rapidly, so I wanted to provide some reference to my comments. I have received several questions from members about our Ohio State Dental Board guidelines, so I had a conversation with the Board President, Dr. Kumar Subramanian. I relayed the questions that I had received and he reiterated that ... [continue reading]

Thanks to the pandemic, we have had time recently to consider more of the softer side of dental care. Understanding what makes our relationships with patients valuable and patient care successful is of paramount importance. In private practice for years and now in discussions with students, I stress the responsibility of dentists to be leaders for ... [continue reading]

A favorite of health care future-gazers these days is value-based care (VBC) or you may have heard it called pay-for-performance (P4P). Like much of health care reform, it comes down from Washington, from those who wish to transform our health care system from its present state to something few if any have ever seen. In a nutshell, VBC intends to ... [continue reading]

While sitting at my desk waiting for emergencies, I dozed off with dentistry on my mind. . . I don’t know about you, but I find keeping track of all the sales tax on our services is nearly impossible, not to mention dealing with the patients’ anger about spending more money. Oh, and the record keeping for local anesthesia that we are ... [continue reading]

I was being interviewed this week by a reporter about how dental practices were returning to seeing patients. She wanted to know how “the average person” was feeling about going to the dentist. Considering that, even pre-COVID-19, only slightly more than half of the people in the country see the dentist on a regular basis, wondering ... [continue reading]

I think the words “unprecedented times” have been used ad nauseam. As a collective brethren, we have probably all shared the same emotions during this global pandemic. Like the stages of grief, I feel we have all gone through stages of “handling.” This time my little column won’t do justice to all the things I have to ... [continue reading]

I couldn’t have been more than 5 years old. Our family home was in the “Valley.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with Cincinnati’s geography – the Mill Creek runs through a valley between some of our “Seven Hills” and ultimately empties into the Ohio River. In the early ’50s the ... [continue reading]

Like many of you, I have been shocked, angry, dumbfounded, frustrated, scared and quite uncertain of the direction our country is being taken. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic and as soon as we prepare to reopen our practices after helping to flatten the curve, our country bears witness to yet another string of unarmed Black Americans having ... [continue reading]

The mantra “a patient doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” gained a new level of significance with the onset of the current pandemic.  Never before has the public been more attuned to the protocols, process and procedures in the intimate confines of the dental office.  The notion of trust ... [continue reading]

I would like to commend the selfless workers of the dental profession during this pandemic. As the medical professionals are lifesaving and help to direct the ultimate safety of our society, we all owe gratitude to them. Although general dentists and dental specialists are not included in the first line of health care workers, their need can be ... [continue reading]