 Articles
The following of
my thoughts and writings over the years. Many of us that love
to read are drawn to the pen. Some have been published in
dental journals, some are about to be and others are just
musings that may strike a cord in you. Enjoy, I will be adding
to this quite often, so keep in touch.
Click on the title
to view the complete article.
At midnight, May
17, 1968, the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion left Rota, Spain.
Its top secret orders were to sail west toward the Canary
Islands. As it slipped beneath the waves, the pride of the US
submarine fleet and its 99 crew men were never seen again.
“Dentistry is an ethical issue” Dr. Harold Wirth
This is a big-E. What is ethics? Is it merely doing the right
thing? What is the right thing? Can ethics be taught? Is it
learned throughout life? Does it change according to the
circumstances?
There is no doubt that any attempt to discuss ethics is an
ambitious and daunting task. Even an attempt to define ethics
can be lead us into a labyrinth of philosophies of historic
proportions. Most would agree ethics centers on a certain
commitment to standards. Therefore, for the sake of time and
space, our discussion of ethics will center on three areas of
commitment:
Commitment to others.
Commitment to personal growth and education.
Commitment to be financially sound.
There are many similarities in the staging of a play and the
performance of a dental office. In the magnificent musical
Phantom of the Opera, the compelling phantom affects much of
the performance by achieving his desired outcome from behind
the scenes. Can we follow his lead and create an office
experience that routinely exceeds our patient’s expectations
without us explicitly directing every scene? It certainly
would lend itself to less management and more empowerment for
our co-workers.
Let us then suspend our belief in dental teams and the all the
accompanying sports analogies and enter the world of grease
paint and foot lights.
In 1985 I found
myself in a dental practice of my own making. However, it was
not the practice I had imagined I would have. I was incredibly
busy with little time to develop relationships with my
patients and staff. The dentistry provided was always
convenient but not always what was the most appropriate for
each individual patient. The dental practice consumed most of
my time and deeply affected family and personal relationships.
In 1920 the
evening crowd strolling along Toledo’s Madison Street was
experiencing the sounds of the centuries colliding. The
culture of America was about to roar. The Great War was over
and ragtime was morphing into the sensual sounds of jazz.
The comprehensive
dental evaluation, that is the hallmark of a thriving dental
practice, has much in common with the investigative method
that is demonstrated in the very popular, CSI TV series.
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