My Father's Sayings

I have had several staff members ask me to spend some time writing down some of the sayings that I use all the time when dealing with a variety of patient issues. Many of them have been refined over a period of years but the vast majority of them are based on my life’s experiences both with my family as a child and with my substantial experiences in dental school. With that in mind, I thought I would do several blogs regarding some of those old sayings. I think I will start with several of my father’s old sayings who was an engineer and not a dentist but several of his sayings are applicable to dentistry.

The first one and probably my favorite is that “You pay for the inadequacies of your youth as you get older.” This is very true in dentistry.  If you have cavities when you are young and you have to have fillings done, most likely you will eventually have to have additional restorative procedures accomplished on those teeth as you age. If you have gum problems when you are young those will definitely haunt you in older age as your ability to heal decreases and gum problems become more progressive.  This reminds me of the 2^nd saying which was “the Lord wastes good healing on the young as they don’t appreciate it”.  Once again, if you have gum problems when you are young the healing capabilities that you have as you get older decrease and periodontal problems increase. You can certainly deal with this problem with great oral hygiene but it is always going to be an issue. The next quote which I oftentimes find humorous and I relate a patient at least once a day was my father’s comment to me “Mark, you can have one or two things in life. You can either have children or almost everything else you ever wanted.”  Fortunately, my father and mother picked children otherwise I would not be here. I chose children and I think for our future children are an extremely important portion of our lives and the future of our country. I will be doing more quotes from my father and from my dental school experiences in future blogs. See you in my next blog.

Let's Face It, Being a Dentist Isn't Easy

Make no mistake about it, I love my job.  I have been doing it for over 40 years and hopefully anyone who has done a job for 40 years really loves it.  However, let's face it, being a dentist is not easy.  You are not just running a small dental practice, you are running a small business which is also your families' livelihood.  You are running a small business that requires you to stay-up on all the latest procedures and techniques, hire and fire staff who are an extension of you and your business, all in the effort to improve the lives of your patients even though they don't really want to be in your chair.  It is a tough gig that is demanding and can be draining.  Between the government and its companies, I spend about 40% of my time making them happy.  I came out of dental school wanting to help people have a better smile and better oral health, yet we battle every day with patients that don't want to come in and some days it seems like I care more than they do.  In addition, as with every small business we have staff who don't exactly get along and patients that think I act too much like Steve Martin in "Little Shop of Horrors."  It is an interesting profession in which I have to hear several times a day "it is not you doc, its just that I hate dentists."  Fortunately, I really love my work and I look forward to it everyday, coming in and dealing with all the nuances of a modern dental practice and I plan on doing it for years to come.

See you at my my next blog.