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I’ll Go to a Dentist I Can Tell What to Do! (x-rays again)

Posted on March 26, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

Moray eel at “cleaning station.” The shrimp probably doesn’t require x-rays.

Ugh! It doesn’t happen much, but it’s one thing I encounter in my practice of dentistry that is truly maddening. It’s maddening because my personality is one that relies heavily on logic and facts.

We all get patients who are (for a variety of stated reasons) reluctant to have diagnostic x-rays. Many will claim it’s the cost. I come back with offering them for no cost, and then they discover another objection. Some are literally phobic of radiation. They’ve been advised by friends and even “authorities” like TV’s Dr. Oz to avoid dental x-rays. Of course, the advice from these third parties is not typically based in any sort of science or fact.

At age 48, one thing I’ve discovered is that when it comes to positions held on emotional grounds, no amount of science, math, or facts will sway that person. Despite knowing this via many years of experience in these “debates,” for some reason I continue to try to win people over. I really should give up. Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.” Continue reading →

Posted in Practice Management, What Happened Today | Tagged x-ray refusal, x-rays | 70 Comments

Distracted Walking (by cell phone) as Dangerous as Driving!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

Distracted cell phone walker.

This morning, there was a segment on NBC’s “Today Show” about violent cell phone robberies. The crux of the “investigative report” was that cell phone companies refuse to “blacklist” stolen cell phones. That means that a cell phone that has been stolen can be re-used with a new number and service account. Naturally, this creates a black market for these stolen phones, AND the cell service companies continue to make their money.

The Today Show segment featured a number of surveillance videos of violent encounters related to cell phone robberies. Some of the victims were beaten quite badly (including potentially deadly kicks to the head). Below is the Today Show video segment (if it’s not working, click here to go directly to the Today Show page). Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Security & Safety | Tagged crime, crime prevention, self-defense, situational awareness | Comments Off

How Can (the other) Dentists Charge So Much Less?

Posted on March 15, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

Yesterday, I saw a patient I’ve been seeing for only a couple of months. He has fairly extensive restorative needs, and we’re “chipping away” at them. He’s lost some teeth. Others needed root canal therapy. Multiple crowns are in progress and planned. Implants are in his future, too.

At yesterday’s appointment, I did a core build-up and crown on #15, which recently had endodontic treatment. It was not an easy tooth to restore due to extensive damage and difficult clinical access. Thankfully, using the Isolite made a nearly impossible job quite a bit easier (than it would have been).

It was still a challenge. And, the patient took notice how hard I was working. After we were done, this conversation followed: Continue reading →

Posted in Practice Management, What Happened Today | Tagged fees | 3 Comments

This Time It’s Personal – Your website, that is.

Posted on March 8, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

Make it personal! Your website, that is. I’ve long preached that dentists MUST be involved in the content creation for their website. But, that DOESN’T mean you have to create your own website. I get that objection a lot from dentists. They know I built my own, so they assume I’m suggesting they do the same. I’m not! Pay someone else to build your website. But, YOU must have a hand in the content. I’m talking about both copy (written text) and images. Today I’m focusing on copy writing (text).

The proof is in the chair!

I have a new patient in the chair as I’m typing this. He found me with a Google search. He had been to other dental offices. “But, I felt like they were car salesmen. I had to get out of there. So, I did a Google search, and I could tell by your website, you weren’t like them.” BOOYA! He’s right! I’m not (like the others)! Neither are you. But, how will they know, if you don’t tell them? Continue reading →

Posted in Editor's Favorites, Marketing, Websites, What Happened Today | Tagged copy writing, website content, website copy | 3 Comments

You Never Know What They’ll Search For on Google

Posted on March 6, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

It’s funny how little seemingly insignificant observations inspire me to write. And, then I can’t stop myself. I have to do it NOW. 🙂

Let’s get ana-lytical… ‘lytical..

I regularly monitor traffic on my websites using Google Analytics. Analytics, which is a FREE service, offers a wealth of information about website visitor behavior.

In recent months, I noticed that my dental practice website is getting a majority of traffic from the keyword, “cavity” or “cavities.” That means people are Googling “cavity” and landing on my website. Cavities? Really? It seems a rather mundane topic to be searching. But, that just goes to show that consumers…. NORMAL people… think differently than dentists. How can you take advantage of this? Continue reading →

Posted in Marketing, Websites, What Happened Today | Tagged google analytics, long tail, websites | 19 Comments

Groupon Is Fee-splitting. The ADA chimes in.

Posted on March 5, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

Back in January, I wrote an article on the blog about Groupon. Among the many issues I discussed was the rather thorny issue of fee-splitting. There are state and federal laws against fee-splitting in healthcare.

I just became aware of an ADA (American Dental Association) missive about this very issue with Groupon. It was published in November of last year. http://www.ada.org/news/6576.aspx Read it for yourself!

Excerpts from the article include these ominous passages: Continue reading →

Posted in Marketing | 10 Comments

New Blog Feature: Cool Archive Widget!

Posted on March 2, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

Collapsible Archives!

2011 expanded. Then October expanded. This is a screen-shot. The real thing is over to the right. 🙂

Just a quick admin update for The Dental Warrior blog. Now that I’m past 106 posts, I wanted an easier way to access and view the archives.

The “archive” section on the right (under the “10 Most Popular Posts” section) is more user-friendly than the previous version. It collapses and expands by year, month, and lists the posts within each month on command. Very cool!

You can expand / collapse each year and month by clicking on the arrow next to each one (or by clicking on the year / month links). This way, you can view and access the entire archive neatly and without creating a huge, long page to scroll through.

To the right is a screen shot with the year 2011 expanded and October of that year expanded.

Anyway, I’m constantly seeking new and better ways to make this blog easy to navigate and use. 😀

Thanks to all who have been visiting and sending such positive feedback! 🙂

PS… I just installed the same widget for the “Categories” list.

Posted in Dental Warrior Announcements | Tagged blog features | Leave a comment

Super-cool Intra-oral Photo Sharing With Patients

Posted on February 27, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

I’ve been meaning to get this set up in my office and then sharing the idea with you for quite some time. FINALLY, I got around to doing it… the way I wanted to do it. For most of my career, I’ve searched for the holy grail of intraoral photography and a way to share it with a patient in an easy and expedient manner. And, I found it!

Intraoral photography is an essential part of my daily practice.

I’ve been using photography in my practice for around 18 years. I started with a film SLR camera and a separate intraoral video camera (IOVC). My intraoral video camera was the Acucam Concept III. I paid about $10,000 for it! It was a monstrosity that “traveled” in the office on a big, heavy cart on wheels with a TV on top of it. At the time it was state of the art for taking intraoral images and then showing them to the patient. The IOVC was quite good for single tooth images (and single tooth dentistry). But, for shooting quadrants or full arches, it was less than adequate. I find that quadrant and full-arch images are more easily understood by patients. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Presentation, Clinical Technique, Photography, Tips & Tricks | Tagged digital photography, intraoral photography, ipad, patient education, wi-fi | 34 Comments

Check those BPs! (redux)

Posted on February 21, 2012 by The Dental Warrior

This will be one of my more brief blog posts.

Last May I wrote about the discovery of malignant hypertension in three patients who presented for tooth extractions. All of them had systolics over 200 and diastolics over 120! Yeeeeee-ikes! The patients were all in denial and insisted I go ahead with the extractions. Of course, I didn’t. And, I sent them to see their physicians.

When a patient has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, I don’t want to be the one nudging them over. While the patients were frustrated with my insistence on not doing the extractions, I explained the real dangers including cardiac and cerebrovascular (stroke) events.

You’re not “just a dentist.”

Just this morning, the son (Ron) of one of the aforementioned patients came in for his routine recall visit. He told me his father had a stroke in September. And, then he said, “YOU found it!” Ron’s dad was in inpatient physical rehab through January – FOUR MONTHS.

Ron also told me that his dad was PISSED when I wouldn’t extract his tooth because of his blood pressure. He said, “Your dentist is full of shit.” But, Ron pressed on, convincing his dad that I had his best interests at heart.

So, here’s how it went with Ron’s dad when I saw him the first time last April… Continue reading →

Posted in Clinical Technique, What Happened Today | Tagged blood pressure, hypertension, medical history, stroke | 5 Comments