Category: Opinion & Editorial

If I could go “Back To The Future” there’d be one overriding question I’d ask both of my currently deceased parents. “Mom, Dad ... I never doubted your sincerity when you told me NOT to start smoking as I transitioned into my high school years. But Dad, what’s up with leaving your pack of cigarettes on the ... [continue reading]

Dr. Ruchika Khetarpal participated in the Institute for Diversity in Leadership, and through the program she created DATPath Accelerator to help increase diversity in the field of dentistry. I will not forget my first day walking into the meeting room at the American Dental Association (ADA) building in Chicago. The room was a buzz! (Most ... [continue reading]

As my teaching career at OSU has evolved, my role as an educator has taken on more of a medical model. Most of my week, I actively treat patients in the dental clinic in the medical center and have fourth-year dental students with me in more of an attending/student relationship than the traditional dental clinical instructor experience. This works ... [continue reading]

Ah, the holiday season is upon us. As a matter of fact, it has been upon us since August. Yes, that’s correct. I actually saw holiday decorations right next to the school supplies at a local superstore. (Copyright laws forbid me from mentioning the name, but it rhymes with “shwalmart.”) My first thought was, “WHY?!?” ... [continue reading]

Recently, I overheard a conversation between two of our member dentists that really disturbed me. It seems that one of the dentists referred a patient to see a specialist. Upon assessing the situation, the specialist told the patient in no uncertain terms that the general dentist “made a gross negligent mistake.” YIKES!! Having served ... [continue reading]

Back in the day, everyone knew about the travelling salesman. He came from out of town, bringing new products and solutions to problems. Even solutions to problems you didn’t know you had. The travelling salesman was a commonplace occurrence ... and everyone hated him. That’s because he came to town, did and said whatever it took to ... [continue reading]

As a newly minted 70-year-old dentist, I think I qualify at both ends of the doctor-patient relationship to comment on this issue! The American Dental Association has done due diligence in working up this issue for the leadership and membership, and by the time this opinion gets into “ODA Today,” we’ll likely already know our ... [continue reading]

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), herd immunity (also known as community immunity) is a situation in which a sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness) to make its spread from person to person unlikely. Even individuals not vaccinated (such as newborns and ... [continue reading]

We all can agree there are certainties that accompany our daily lives. With our birth there will eventually be our demise. The sun rises and sets, thus there’s light and darkness during what we refer to as a 24 hour day (arctic areas excluded). My next statement is a bit more sketchy. Our conscious actions produce either positive or negative ... [continue reading]

I read with interest the “ODA Today” article about the recent meeting of orthopedic surgeons and dentists to discuss antibiotic prophylaxis for patients with prosthetic joints who are undergoing dental procedures. I applaud Dr. Goff for organizing this long needed collaboration to build consensus among practitioners in this area. While ... [continue reading]