Category: Opinion & Editorial

Too many years ago, I served on the volunteer board of a state epilepsy association and had my eyes opened to the psychosocial issues faced by persons with seizures. The loss of dignity when an adult with seizures is arrested because he or she experienced a seizure on the street and was assumed to be intoxicated was a scenario I had never ... [continue reading]

As most of you know, Mother’s Day has just passed. While we all may not be mothers, we all have one. I’ve been a dentist longer than I’ve been a mother, and in some ways, I think dentistry has prepared me well to be a parent. Working through a busy schedule is about as multi-tasky as it gets, (who hasn’t done payroll while ... [continue reading]

My son Brian and I had takeout Chinese food for dinner the other night. His fortune cookie said, “A dose of adversity is often as needful as a dose of medicine.” We both agreed that sounded like something written by someone in deep you-know-what who was trying to make himself feel better. So many of our problems are the result of ... [continue reading]

Last month I alluded to the fact that some of our profession’s specialists might have a more advantageous status in their dealings with third-party payers. Well ...  yes they do ... and more than just a few specialists reside in our profession’s penthouse accommodations. For you “young’uns,” way back when there ... [continue reading]

At this juncture of my career, I find myself obsessed with practice management courses versus those courses that teach the latest and greatest in endodontic technique. Does it mean that I am at the pinnacle of being an endodontist and all that is to be learned has been learned? “No … of course not” she emphatically stated. Is it ... [continue reading]

We love order and predictability in life. People spend years working on predictions. Better predictions, better results. To achieve success, business gurus urge us to “skate where the puck is going to be.” We study what has happened in the past and work to understand the patterns. From these, we create models that are designed to ... [continue reading]

About once a month I make trips to Cincinnati. Every time I return home on I-75, a specific beggar seems to be a fixture at the end of the exit ramp that I take, and I’m not certain he’s legit. Sometimes I give him money, but most times I don’t make eye contact and keep moving. That’s the key to begging success ... ... [continue reading]

I was struck by a Bankrate.com poll that was released this January. Their “Money Pulse Survey” was conducted in December 2015 and reported that 63 percent of Americans cannot afford a $500 unexpected expense. Think about that for a moment. Nearly two-thirds of Americans don’t have $500 in savings. For years, we have been told by ... [continue reading]

“For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple … and wrong” - H.L. Mencken This assessment of today’s complex social and scientific problems still rings true, and access to dental care falls into this category. Only the naïve would believe that more money and more providers will bring access to ... [continue reading]

In the Shakespeare play, Prince Hamlet in his famous speech contemplates death by suicide versus the troubles of life, and weighing the alternatives and consequences of both decisions. Many dentists look at becoming a Medicaid provider in the same light. Not to cheapen one of our great literary works of art, but this is a question we all at some ... [continue reading]