Category: Opinion & Editorial

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]

The recent passing of Dr. John Kramer, one of Ohio dentistry’s giants, and the richness of his life as described in his passing, prompted me to think about where our profession has come and where it may be headed. John embodied the caregiver who not only served his community in his professional duties, but went further, embedding himself in its ... [continue reading]

It is graduation weekend and my heart is full. Our last child is graduating from high school, closing one book in his life and hopefully embarking on his next phase when he starts his direct entry DMD program at Case in the fall. The profession of dentistry has brought me so close to other mom-dentists like me, who have used this beautiful life to ... [continue reading]

How we communicate as dental colleagues has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. Younger dentists share stories in text threads with dental school classmates and you may connect with a referral through a text rather than sending a letter or picking up the phone. These changes can be felt throughout organized dentistry as the “baby boomer” ... [continue reading]