Category: Opinion & Editorial

     On Sunday, May 20, 2012, I gave the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine Commencement Address. It was a humbling experience to address the next generation of dentists on such a special occasion, but one I enjoyed immensely. Below is an abbreviated version of my remarks.      ... [continue reading]

     I’ve just returned from chaperoning another eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C. Brian, my youngest, is now completing grade school and will be starting high school.  This is my third and last excursion as a lead chaperone. We spent three days with 53 14-year-olds and 19 parents touring the nation’s ... [continue reading]

     “The truth is, marijuana probably isn’t going to make you kill people. Most likely isn’t going to fund terrorists, but pot makes you feel fine with being bored, and it’s when you’re bored that you should be learning a new skill or some new science or being creative. If you smoke pot you may ... [continue reading]

     Recently at my office we had an incident occur that required me to do some extra coaching of my staff. We had a problematic patient call the office, and the staff member who took his call was not comfortable dealing with the situation. She proceeded to pass the call off to my office manager who handled the situation ... [continue reading]

     I have received a significant amount of positive feedback related to my recent series of columns on the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of the legal challenges to President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.  This month, I continue to discuss issues related to this potentially landmark case that ... [continue reading]

     I spent most of this week dealing with the media fallout from the release of the Yale University study on dental radiographs and brain tumors.  Where I was talking to reporters, we all will be explaining things to our patients for quite a while.  My task as an ADA spokesperson is to put a story like this in ... [continue reading]

     One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”      The youth replied, “I’m throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is ... [continue reading]

     As you know, it is an important time to be a member of organized dentistry. As I travel the state in my capacity as ODA president, talking to various local dental societies and other dental groups, I like to ask my colleagues a series of questions that revolve around what our profession would look like if the ODA did not ... [continue reading]

     Last month, the ODA Today featured a forum on the main issue in the case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, known to some as “Obamacare.” We featured competing columns discussing whether the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution authorized ... [continue reading]

     As many of you know, I read extensively outside of dentistry.  I try to see what is going on in the world of business and attempt to find parallels to the practice of dentistry.  Respected marketing guru Seth Godin was blogging recently about what he called “Information Density.”  From a ... [continue reading]