Everyone Needs a Mentor
April 20, 2011
In the 15 years I have been in Rowley, there has not been one time when I have wished I lived anywhere else. My wife is from Indiana, and every time we go out there to visit, the scenery has changed. The population has grown tremendously over the 20+ years I have been going out there. And the stores……you would not believe the amount of shopping plazas there are. I always wonder how so many stores can survive with all of their surrounding competition. Everything is new, there are tons of golf courses, the church is much more active, etc. However, I still always love coming back to this area and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
It is the same for my profession. Despite the many challenges of this profession, if I could do it all over again, I would still choose to be a dentist. I didn’t decide to go to dental school until late in my senior year of college. People ask me all the time, “What in the world made you decide to look inside of mouths every day?” Believe me, I asked myself the same question when I decided to apply to dental school. It was a last minute decision. When I am asked that question now, I tell people that I don’t look at it like that. I guess it is my approach. I see myself as an educator and a health care provider who wants to help people decide to what level they want their health to be.
For a dentist, and for that matter anyone in any profession, to be successful, they must know themselves and have standards they are able to communicate with passion and energy. One thing is very clear, behavior, with its impending results, is a choice. We make choices every minute of every day. What we choose to do with the paths presented to us is a choice. Being frustrated with your job, trying to copy others instead of discovering yourself, as well as dental care, is a choice.
All dental care is elective. There is nothing that you have to do. That is what makes this profession the most fun and rewarding for me. If you are a dentist who worries about how much of a particular procedure you do or tries to sell dentistry as a commodity, you will become frustrated. That is why there tends to be a high burn-out rate in this profession. It should be about education. It should be about people and caring about their health. If you care, they will come.
If you, or if you have kids in high school or college who are wondering about what to do with their life, introduce the possibility of a career in dentistry. Ask your dentist if they would talk to you or them about the profession or even do mentorship.
Having said that, I had someone ask me recently if my son (a high-schooler next year) showed any interest in dentistry yet. He has not and really needs more education and life experience to think about what to do with his life after school. Although I would not discourage him from choosing dentistry as a profession, I am forcing myself not to push him in any particular direction.
Mentorship and internship are important for every person considering a profession. Just as choosing the dental care you receive, the more information you have, the better it is for you to make a decision about what is right for you as an individual.
I mentioned this in a column a while ago, but if you a high school or college-age student who needs help with direction, there is a great program to consider in Scottsdale, AZ. For more information check out www.youngandmotivated.com.
Hotter than Haiti!!
April 15, 2011
Well, I am back from Haiti and yes it was hot! I had such a wonderful experience I cannot wait to go back. It was no Caribbean vacation by any stretch of the imagination, but so much good work was done by everyone in my group.
I want to share my experience with anyone who is interested and will figure out a way to do so with some kind of public presentation. It is impossible to get the real feel for the condition of this poverty-stricken country without being there. However, between the 212 photos I took and the daily diary I kept, I think is possible to get an idea of how the people of Haiti live.
I am not going to share too much in this column about the trip because I want to give Stuart from The Town Common the opportunity to do his post-trip interview with me. However, I will share one aspect of the trip that touched me.
There are so many things that I learned about the Haitian culture and about how lucky I (we) are to live where we live. We all take many of the things we have for granted. Simple things most Haitians don’t have like running water, electricity, toilets, etc. The one basic thing we rarely think of on a daily basis is life itself. The Haitian people do not have to prioritize too many other things in their life other than basic survival.
There is no Best Buy or Home Depot where you can go to get that 50” flat screen or power tool you have been dreaming of. Although cigarettes are available, there aren’t teenagers smoking on the corner or behind the school. It’s too expensive and not needed for survival. Most of their monetary resources go to basic necessities such as clean water and basic food.
The Haitian people live for survival, their family and their health. As a society, they have a lot to learn in order to be able to make progress. However, it amazed me how many people came to my daily clinic and just wanted to have their or their child’s teeth cleaned. They know enough that their teeth are important to them. They know what it is like to live with pain and wanted those situations rectified but wanted to do whatever they could to keep the rest of their teeth.
Many, if not most, of the people of Haiti believe that they are being challenged for a reason. The earthquake last year took their situation from bad to worse but from what I gathered from my short stay, their faith in better things to come has allowed them to move forward.
Don’t get me wrong….I am not going to sell my house and live in a tent on the side of a barren mountain. However, I do think it was an experience that will make me think a little differently about certain things. I also think that although I am not going to be the one that changes the country around, I do have the ability to make the lives of some people a little easier. I am looking forward to returning and many of them are looking forward to my return too. It is tough to say you wouldn’t go back after having such a rewarding experience the first time.
If you have any desire to learn more about opportunities in Haiti or from home, send me an e-mail.
Doctors And Dentists Need To Work Together
April 10, 2011
Dentists play a key role in screening patients for many disorders relative to nutrition and in providing appropriate referrals into the health care system. Although the importance of integrating diet and nutrition guidance into dental care has been advocated for decades by educators, it continues to be ignored except by a handful of prevention-oriented practitioners.
Many of the world’s most significant health problems are linked to poor dietary practices, including over-nutrition and under-nutrition. Nutrition plays a fundamental role in health, and dental professionals have the opportunity to be a critical link between discovery and wellness.
There is a great deal of evidence linking oral infections, including periodontal disease, nutrition and immunological response. We have clear evidence linking oral disease with adverse pregnancy outcomes, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke. In addition, obesity, which is an epidemic facing our country, is significantly affecting the incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and overall lifespan. We know there are direct connections between these problems and oral disease. What is the role of the dentist? Should the dentist just be a tooth fixer?
As the body of data linking systemic health conditions and oral infection grows, the expanding understanding of the gene-nutrient reaction may result in more profound discoveries. As of now, many dentists fail to fully appreciate that the scientific bridge between oral disease and systemic health is often mediated by diet and nutrition.
The beneficiary of this profound evidence should be you, the dental patient. It should not only be the responsibility of the physician or specialized nutritionist to incorporate this information into practice. The dentist should be playing a key role.
For the most part, the dentist is the only one who examines the mouth. It used to be that the dentist only looked at the teeth and only fixed problems if the arose. By now, most dentists screen for periodontal, or gum, problems as well as oral cancer. The trend is to address these problems earlier than ever before.
Patients will often say to me, “I’ve been going to the dentist all my life. Why have you or any other dentist never said anything about that before?” I always use the analogy of cholesterol. It used to be that 250 was the number to be at or under. As evidence grew that cholesterol plays a more significant role than thought before, that number quickly dropped below 200. People tend to have ingrained in their head that the dentist just looks at the teeth and treatment should be the same as 25 years ago.
As science continues and evidence grows, things change. It is the responsibility of all health care providers to work towards a more integrated health care system.
