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I Am at War

Posted on April 16, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

I first posted this on Facebook. I’ve added to it a bit here. And, I’ve since taken a break from Facebook. It’s unfortunate that so many mistake their own cognitive dissonance, precipitated by thoughtful posts that contradict their prejudices, for “offense.” It’s unfortunate that, since they lack the ability to articulate a cogent counter-argument, they strike out by “reporting” me for “offending” them. I’ve lost a lot of friends over this.

I’m posting and venting about this, because I’m pissed that my own country (and even my own colleagues) are trying VERY HARD to put me out of business. I also realize that some well-intentioned folks are “worried” about me, because of how I express myself. Rather strongly, you might say! 😊 I dare suggest that MANY feel exactly as I do. I just happen to have the balls to say it and the ability to articulate it well. It’s my super-power! 😉 I’m OK. But, I don’t care who I “offend” with this screed.

Our country is at war.

This is war. I am at war. I really do feel that way. Not a “shooting war,” mind you. Not yet. This isn’t the Persian Gulf in 1990. But, honestly… it feels worse. This is much worse. I wasn’t worried back then. I knew what I signed up for. I had an entire Navy battle group around me. And, I knew that we would kick ass if and when we had to.

Today, I’m at war with the bombardment of negativity about this fucking virus. It DOMINATES our lives now. Every waking moment of every single day, with no end in sight. No glimmer of hope.

I’m at war with the notion that we should ALL shut down, virtually indefinitely… the consequences of which will be FAR worse than the damage caused by the virus. Well… not actually ALL of us. The “chosen ones” aka “essential” are exempt. I’ll touch on that a bit more later.

I’m at war with my own profession. I have “colleagues” who are publicly jockeying to REPORT any other dentist who dares to see patients in need. I wish I was kidding. It’s rampant!

I’m at war with Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Editorial | Tagged Constitutional infringements during COVID / Corona, Shutdown | 6 Comments

Why I’m not fazed by COVID-19

Posted on April 2, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

I first posted this on my personal Facebook feed. I expected a lot of negative feedback. But, the opposite happened, for the most part.

I am not fazed. And, this bothers a lot of people.

It seems the new measure of a person is his or her capacity for righteous indignation, pandering for “social justice,” and public virtue-signaling. Keeping up with the Joneses is no longer a material pursuit. It’s an emotional attention-getting pursuit. And, hoo-boy… has this “crisis” provided that opportunity in spades.

I’ve had some friends extremely upset at me for not being as “worried” as they are. I’ve had to “un-friend” some on social media for being rather nasty. One long-time (~20 years) friend and colleague gleefully admonished me for having my practice still open and that I’d be “shut down soon.” He had missed the fact that my state had already shut us down except for emergency patients. But he was apparently happily anticipating the impending shutdown of my business. That’s not cool at all.

I’ve been chastised for being “cavalier” in my posts about this Coronavirus. I’ve been excoriated for not demonstrating the proper amount of fear and dread. I’ve endured the derision and contempt of colleagues even for being open to see emergency patients. Many dentists, incidentally, have run for the hills, ignoring their training and expertise in infectious disease control. They’ve closed their offices and are referring emergency patients to the ER. Or, they’re not even answering the phones at all.

But, I’m the bad guy. According to some… a really bad guy. For seeing emergency patients. My own colleagues are PISSED that any dentist would see patients. Some have accused the dentists who are open, of “stealing” or “scooping up” their patients. You know… the ones who they’ve left in a lurch, refusing to see them.

Perhaps my position and lack of alarm is due to perspective. So, here’s my perspective:

Consider that I came into Dentistry at the time when

Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Editorial | Tagged Corona, coronavirus, coronavirus and dentistry, covid-19 | 39 Comments

A “Simple” (but not easy!) Cosmetic Bonding Case

Posted on March 18, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

Taking a brief break from the Coronavirus hysteria (I’m not done!) to post some dentistry. A friend just boldly posted on Facebook: “Stay home. Close your business. Don’t go out. Live in fear…. No thanks!”

Me, neither! I did this case today. It had been planned for months. Patient is a young woman who has some congenital dental issues. She has had cosmetic bonding done twice before. Her chief complaint was the appearance of teeth #s 6, 7, and 10.

#6 is mesially tilted and rotated. #7 is a peg lateral (as you’ll see). #10 is actually #11. The tooth in position #11 is a retained deciduous canine.

We talked about all options including ortho and veneers. She wanted minimally invasive and “minimally expensive” treatment. She asked if I could JUST re-do the bonding. I sure can!

Here are some side views:

Here’s a close-up of #s 6 and 7. Pretty, eh? Continue reading →

Posted in Case Presentation, Clinical Technique | Tagged bonding, cosmetic bonding | Leave a comment

And one last thing about the Corona hysteria…

Posted on March 16, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

I’ve stayed out of posting on social media like Facebook, though I’ve been lurking a bit. It’s a good thing I’m staying out of the fray, as I’d likely make a lot of enemies by calling out people specifically.

So, I figured I could post my thoughts here in more “generic” form without calling out any particular person. 🙂

First… if you read my last two posts… it’s working! Today was pretty full. Not a banner day, but decent. Tomorrow’s schedule is even better. Next week is even better.

A few of today’s patients told me they appreciated my email, and it made them feel better. Booya!

I sent a third email out today to reinforce the previous two. But, that’s it… no more emails. I don’t want to bug them.

<rant>

To those dentists who are caving to the hysteria….

I’m an adult. I’m a free American. I’m a trained doctor, well-versed in infection control. I’ve dealt with HIV, H1N1, Hep B, Hep C, and other bugs far more virulent than this one.

I don’t need “guidelines” from a gov’t lackey looking to score political points. I have all my training and over 30 years of experience. My patients are also grown-ass adults who can make their own decisions with my professional input, for which they’ve trusted me for years.

If “universal precautions” didn’t work, we’d all be dead by now.

We are OPEN. My patients are coming. And, we’re all going to LIVE happily ever after!

If you choose to discard your own training, experience, and the exercise of critical thought in deference to the edicts of government lackeys… and then leverage your weakness as delusional “virtue signaling,” knock yourselves out. I’m not doing it. I’m going to work and living my life.

No doubt, those who are reflexively shutting down because they were told to are subject to the pervasive guilt complex that has long-infected the dental profession. It also goes to show that dentists are prone to the herd mentality.

As I like to say, “your mileage may vary.”

</rant>

I shall now don my asbestos suit. 😎 Contrarians unite!

Posted in Current Events, Editorial | Tagged coronavirus, COVID / Corona shutdown | 16 Comments

Bad News = Opportunity… Part 2

Posted on March 14, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

OK… So, by now most of us have witnessed the full-on panic in America. It’s crazy. If I’m honest, I will say that I don’t suffer fools well. I admit that I am contemptuous of those who adopt the “herd mentality.” And, man are we seeing that!

Like many practices, mine has seen a lot of cancellations or simply delaying scheduling planned treatment. Next week’s schedule is full of holes. Big holes. What to do?

First, I sent out a mass email to my patients to allay their concerns as it pertains to Coronavirus and dental treatment. You can see that email here. I also posted it on my practice Facebook page and my practice blog.

Then it occurred to me that I might incentivize scheduling next week. So, I sent out another email yesterday: Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Editorial, What Happened Today | Tagged coronavirus, coronavirus and dentistry, covid-19 | 15 Comments

Bad News = Opportunity

Posted on March 10, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

Coronavirus is all over the news. The resulting unjustifiable panic is the real “pandemic.” Perhaps we should call it “pande-MONIUM?”

The news offers many opportunities to communicate with our patients with context that can be leveraged due to hyper media coverage of a topic.

I just posted this on my practice blog site, my practice Facebook page, and sent it as a mass email to my patients. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Marketing, What Happened Today | Tagged coronavirus, covid-19 | 3 Comments

Walmart Dentistry – It’s for real!

Posted on February 28, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

I wrote about Walmart Dentistry a few years ago. In the previous iteration of “Walmart Dentistry,” it was my understanding that it was a DSO renting space in a Walmart retail location.

This time it’s different. Walmart opened a new health clinic in Georgia. It has a medical and a dental side. Run BY Walmart. They also published their fee schedule, with costs that are notably lower than the “average” out there in the real world.

Cheaper than a haircut! Click on image to download their full fee schedule.

OMG! OMG!

So… is it time to panic? I submit that this could be GOOD for our industry. Well… good for PART of our industry. Mind you, I am a solo fee-for-service private care practice. I am “out of network” for all insurance plans and don’t generally even accept assignment. The vast majority of my patients are self-pay (cash). I won’t get into the merits vs challenges of such a practice. But, I’ll simply say, “It ain’t easy! But, I’m the captain of my own ship.” 🙂

Race to the bottom!

Should private care practitioners (even those participating “in-network”) be worried about competing with Walmart? I say NO. Not a bit. Who should worry? Corporate Dentistry, that’s who. Click the link to see evidence of that. The DSO industry (aka McDental) has taken notice! I’ll admit to looking forward to indulging in some sweet schadenfreude while Walmart and the other McDental chains (Corporate Dentistry) race to the bottom! The only problem for DSO McDental: Walmart is already at the finish line.

Both McDental and WallyDental are targeting the same audience: Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Editorial | Tagged corporate dentistry, Dental service organization, DSO, walmart dental, walmart dentist, Walmart Health | 17 Comments

The Power of Photography (and a quick mock-up)

Posted on February 4, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

A quick blog post here. A recently new patient has had some basic restorative treatment. I asked him about his front chipped teeth. The initial chips were caused by an accident when he was a kid. He never had them repaired. But, they are chipping away even more in recent years.

He was reluctant to repair them, because he felt that the “imperfection” was part of his “look.” He also mentioned that he did not want perfectly straight edges on his teeth. He liked the imperfect look. On the other hand, he was concerned that they may break even more. His initial reaction was to put it off for now.

Today, he was in for a composite restoration of a cervical “abfraction.” After I was done with that, I asked him if it would be OK to do a mock-up on the two front teeth. It would give him an idea of what is possible with bonding. I also told him we can “characterize” the edges so that they’re not perfectly straight.

I did the mock-up in about 2 minutes. I intentionally made the incisal edges “imperfect.”

I took before and after photos and gave them to the patient. He was impressed! He’ll be back to have it done!

For the final restorations, I’ll spend a bit more time on the central incisal embrasure. I like them a bit smaller and sharper.

Posted in Case Presentation, Clinical Technique, Tips & Tricks | Tagged bonding, composite mock-up, mock-up | 1 Comment

Gold is still the Gold Standard!

Posted on February 3, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

Today, I had a patient scheduled for a crown on #3. The tooth had a couple of deep occlusal amalgams with some darkly stained cracks on the marginal ridges. Oh sure… we can debate, “to crown or not to crown” or “when to crown” until the cows come home. I submit it’s a judgement call, based on experience and leave it at that.

Would you crown it? Ha! Never mind. I don’t care! 🙂

Once seated in the chair, she asked if we could do gold instead of porcelain. Her husband had recently gotten a gold crown on his 2nd molar, and he remembered well the advantages I presented to him. He had relayed that same information to his wife, my patient today. Admittedly, I had not offered gold, as #3 is usually near what I call the “cosmetic transition zone.” Given that, in my experience, so few people will consent to gold, I generally limit the option to 2nd molars. In those cases, my “pitch” on the advantages of gold is compelling.

Perhaps, this experience was a reminder to start offering it more often for other teeth.

She said, “I can’t see it anyway, and I like the idea of less tooth being drilled away.” Of course, I agreed with her! Oh… she’s a bruxer, too. After a bit more discussion, it was a done deal… gold it is! There was no reason to prep the facial and lingual surfaces for full coverage. The plan was for a gold onlay.

I began by removing the amalgam and cleaning up the “schmutz.” I wanted to visualize the extent of the crack before prepping. Continue reading →

Posted in Case Presentation | Tagged cracked tooth, gold onlay, onlay vs crown | 13 Comments

Today I Met a Real World War 2 Hero!

Posted on January 21, 2020 by The Dental Warrior

His name was John Katsaros. And what a lucky day it was!

Today was just another regular day at the office. I went out to lunch by myself at one of my usual places. I sat in a booth, facing the front of the restaurant. As I was finishing up my lunch, I noticed an older couple being seated in the booth right in front of me. They sat next to each other facing me. The older gentleman was wearing a hat that said, “Purple Heart – World War II.”

Being a patriotic veteran myself, I felt compelled to buy the couple’s lunch. I’ve never done anything like that before, but I just wanted to do it. There aren’t many WW2 veterans left alive today. They are a very special group of people! I previously wrote about another WW2 hero, Army dentist, Captain Ben Salomon. When my server dropped off my bill, I asked him to put their lunch on my card, too.

Since I was done eating, I got up and stopped by their table and said, “I just wanted to thank you for your service, and lunch is on me.” They were quite surprised. They asked my name and then asked me to sit with them. A lovely couple. Married 61 years! He’s now 97 years old.

John and Mary Katsaros and me.

We chatted, and he was quite eager to share his story with me. He was a waist gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress (bomber). Hard core stuff! His plane was shot down over France. Three of his crew were killed in the aerial gunfire. The rest bailed out of the plane at 27,000 feet! He said at that altitude you pass out from a lack of oxygen and hope you wake up in time to pull the parachute ripcord. His right arm was shattered by a bullet when his bomber was shot down. He broke several ribs and both ankles when he hit the ground.

B-17 Flying Fortress

He was captured by the Gestapo. Escaped. Captured again. And escaped again with the French Resistance. A Jewish doctor hiding in a cellar Continue reading →

Posted in What Happened Today | Tagged B-17 Flying Fortress, John Katsaros, World War II hero | 7 Comments

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