Dentist Sued by Ex-Assistant over Cruel Behavior

August 25th, 2011

I have linked to an interesting article out of the Santa Fe New Mexican about a dental assistant suing her employer.

She worked for him for over five years before writing the letter that got her fired and him a law suit. No matter how you slice it, it’s a lose/lose situation.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Ex-assistant-sues-dentist-over–cruel–behavior

The dentist looks terrible to the public (who wants to go to a crazy dentist?) even though he may one day be able to clear his name legally.

If the assistant hasn’t already gotten another job, this may scare away other potential employers from hiring her.

Here are some of my thoughts.

  1. Never demean or embarrass others in public – not your boss, your spouse, your employee, your child, a patient… nobody.

  2. Continue Reading

I hope your day is going better than mine…

August 12th, 2011

I hope your day is going better than mine. Perhaps it began with the thought in bed that I could sleep in a little. After all it’s Friday and this is a day set aside, usually, to catch up on work and be a little creative. As is often the case, a little deviation from a more “mature” plan of rising early and getting to work left me waking out of a sort of crummy dream. This is a dream I didn’t need to have and really didn’t want to have (although I for one can never pick my dreams).

I’m sure you’ve had one of these. It’s the I-feel-weird dream. Somehow I was transported back to a time in my life where I am at some sort of twisted summer camp.…
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Does Eating Sugar Cause Cavities?

August 3rd, 2011

Image: www.enamel.pro

If you understand these two statements it will help you manage sugar in your life:

  1. It’s not the amount of sugar a person consumes that causes cavities.
  2. It’s the amount of time a tooth is exposed to sugar that causes cavities.

Here’s another way to put it. Some sugar habits cause cavities and other sugar habits cause obesity.

  1. If you consume a lot of sugary foods (and this includes those foods that have hidden sugar and don’t taste all that sweet) and you do not burn off the calories with exercise, then you will gain weight as your body converts the sugars to fat. BUT… this does not necessarily mean your teeth will decay.
  2. If every day for hours you bathe your teeth by sipping a single can of warm fizzless sugar cola, or you chew sticks of sugar gum, or you suck on hard candy in just a few months you can have a mouth full of decaying teeth.

  3. Continue Reading

NeXsmile and Periodontics, an Open Letter

July 6th, 2011

Dear Fellow Periodontist,

I was pleased to see this week (July 6, 2011) that The American Academy of Periodontology picked up the recent article about NeXsmile and ran it in their This Week in Perio weekly news brief.

I am using this event as my excuse to talk with you about the future of our specialty, something that has been on my heart now for a number of years. I believe periodontists are well equipped to work in the area of full-arch surgical implant placement utilizing the new technology developed here in San Antonio, Texas.

Back in 2006 I began working with prosthodontist Stephen M. Schmitt DDS MS around technology he had been developing over the previous ten years that uses a patient’s CT scan data, scanned dental model data and a digital smile picture to create not only a powerful 3D composite image for diagnosis and treatment planning, but also to rapidly manufacture devices in acrylic and titanium.…
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SA Express News Article @ NeXsmile

July 2nd, 2011

This article about how to simplify complicated patient using NeXsmile technology ran in the local newspaper business section on July 1, 2011.

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Great Literature and Twitter Part 1

June 25th, 2011

Twitter holds the opportunity of sharing great ideas, assuming of course that great ideas actually exist. Sadly in a culture that has as its principle value to not discriminate between ideas, the studies of virtue or great art become silly notions. Whatever anyone thinks is certainly as good as what anyone else thinks; and of course you mustn’t argue my point if you happen to disagree because that would be so unkind of you. Civility uber alles after all.

If discrimination is not allowed then there is no difference between the quality of the Mona Lisa and something I might paint this afternoon. Great art and great literature, therefore, do not exist and so it is a waste of time pursuing the silly idea that they might.…
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Recent Posts on MySA.com

June 23rd, 2011

About 6 months ago I was invited to write a blog for MySA.com. This is the Express News website. It gives me an outlet to post material that is either focused on San Antonio or a little outside of the purpose of my material here. I hope if and when you have time you take a look and tell me what you think.

Here are links to the five most recent posts:

 …
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You have Periodontal Disease, Now What?

June 16th, 2011

Patients have a right to understand exactly what it means when they are told they have periodontal disease. “You have periodontal disease and this is what it will cost to treat it,” is not enough information. Here are three things every patient needs to know about their oral condition.

1. An explanation of the periodontal diagnosis that includes descriptors.

Find out if your periodontal disease

  • - is early, moderate or severe.
  • - is localized to just a few areas or generalized. If localized, where are these areas and what might have caused it to occur there?
  • - will result in the loss of any teeth in the next three years. If so, which ones are they?

Unless you are able to clearly understand how many teeth are at risk and how involved each one is, you will not be able to make good decisions.…
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What Causes Gingivitis?

June 14th, 2011

Let me tell you a fun little story about how we came to know what causes gingivitis and how to best treat it.

In my field of periodontics prior to 1965 it was not universally agreed that gingivitis and periodontal disease (periodontitis) were caused by bacteria. Many scientists understood this, but because there was so much room for doubt the public was really in the dark. Floss was almost none existent in those days and brushing your teeth was certainly encouraged before going out on dates.

Then a dental researcher by the name of Harald Löe had an idea for a study. He wanted to demonstrate clearly the relationship between bacteria and gingivitis in order to help the public understand the importance of daily oral hygiene.…
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Twitter For Dentists

June 3rd, 2011

I’m in the vast minority of dentists when it comes to Twitter. Most of my colleagues (and for quite a long time I agreed with them) consider Twitter nonsensical.

Awhile back I was speaking in front of an audience of dentists and asked for a raise of hands. How many of you are on Facebook? Out of 50 dentists probably six hands went up.

How many of you are on LinkedIn? About four hands.

And how many on Twitter? I and one young lady way in the back were the only ones.

After the presentation a few friends came up and chided me about my questions. Essentially they wanted to know why I was wasting my time on Twitter. Permit me to explain some of my reasons in this post.…
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