University of Tennessee College of Dentistry – A “Dream” Review
My dental school ID. I look like I’m 12 years old!
It’s nearly 25 years after graduating from the gruesome experience of dental school, and I’m STILL having nightmares about it. Literally. Last night I dreamed that I had to retake a series of tests on the basic sciences. I was worried I had forgotten too much about the basic sciences. And, this is not the first time. I’ve had “dental school dreams” many times – probably 2 – 3 times a year.
Just to be clear up front… I love being a dentist. I guess that should be a foregone conclusion for those who know me. But, even if this blog is your first introduction to me, the blog alone is evidence enough. Dental school didn’t ruin me for dentistry, thankfully. I “blossomed” after dental school. A lot!
I’m 48 years old, and I still occasionally have dreams / nightmares about school. Continue reading
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I’m home today with my daughter who has strep throat. A few moments ago, my wife (on her way out to work) told me that there was a headline on Yahoo.com about someone dying from wisdom tooth surgery. Oh boy. Here we go (again). More bad press for dentistry.
Besides being a dentist, manager, bookkeeper, CEO, chief bottle-washer, and cook… I’m the official “light-bulb changer.” And over the years, I noticed that it seems like I’m ALWAYS changing bulbs in my office.
They use the BR-40 size bulbs. And, it seemed like they were burning out very quickly and frequently. And, like with many things, I procrastinated. Oftentimes, burned-out bulbs would remain in place for way longer than they should have. This simply doesn’t look good to patients and visitors to the office.
Several months ago (April 2011), a long-time patient had tooth #8 blow up. The patient is a 80 y.o. male. It was a perio-endo lesion (with root resorption evident), and we decided extraction and replacement with an implant would be the most predictable result.
I went to a local dental meeting last night, and one of my dentist friends said to me, “Dude, you have some balls posting what you post on Facebook!” My initial thought was that he was referring to my outspoken views on a number of things. I don’t hold back much, as many of you will probably agree. He then went on to say that he’d NEVER post what I post. I chuckled and said, “I’m sure I’ve pissed off a few of my friends and family. But, if you don’t make a few enemies along the way, you’re probably not trying hard enough… and probably not being yourself.”
I recently got an email from a certain website design company that caters to heath care practitioners. It rhymes with “Sage Fun.” I’m sure the email is well-intended, albeit self-serving (nothing wrong with that, really). And, I’ve never heard a bad thing about this company. But, to the typical dentist, it may be alarming enough to spur action that involves spending more money – perhaps unnecessarily. Here’s the email, and I’ll follow with some more commentary and food for thought. (If you don’t want to read the whole email, it basically says, “You’d better do this, or else!” OK… Now you can skip to the commentary if you want.)
Stop Spamming My Blog Around
With a nod to Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty (Stop Dragging My Heart Around)…
Everyone wants the link juice.