Now that it’s been leaked in the Asheville Citizen-Times, I can announce that, come January, 2013, I will be your new Vice-President…of the North Carolina Dental Society Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees serves as a link between the dentists of the state and our state legislators, and helps promote policy to maintain the high standard of dental care... read more »
Social media has changed the rules of the game in how businesses attract new clients. That’s not news, but in dentistry, where most practices still rely heavily on word-of-mouth referrals, we are just recognizing the amplified effect of this new type of exposure. And that’s a good thing. Although the ability for a patient to post a review of our... read more »
We lost a good one today. Colene House has just completed a 41-year run as a Registered Dental Hygienist—an ultra ultramarathon in the practice of clinical dental hygiene. We were proud to have her for 23 of those years in our office. And it wasn’t her choice. Over time, Colene unfortunately developed a carpometacarpal (base of thumb) condition that ultimately became... read more »
The 1,433 study participants, aged 20-79, were asked to self-report how many dental xrays they thought they had. Cost and time constraints restricted the researchers from validating all of the responses. Of the ones they did, it was found that the respondents actually over-reported how many xrays they had. The respondents were not analyzed for genetic predisposition to meningiomas. Might that be a contributing... read more »
Disturbed. Agitated. Intrigued. These are the emotions I felt as I exited the theater a few days ago after watching one of our latest blockbusters, The Hunger Games. At Christmastime, I had politely accepted the book trilogy, then quietly put it away, as I professed to have no interest in reading about kids killing each other, reality TV-style, in a... read more »
The love you take, Is equal to the love you make… --“The End,” The Beatles, Abbey Road Over the last three weeks, we’ve lost three patients in our practice family due to illness. By any measure, that’s a lot, but what’s more interesting is the fact that none of these folks were anonymous-type people—each of these folks made an... read more »
When someone stays in a dental office for 20 years, they’re committed—or should be! Dentists are notoriously picky types, who can’t have anything done for them fast enough, and if something isn’t accomplished quickly—they change their minds. It’s kind of like working with an unstable radioactive isotope that either blows up or fizzles out…and you don’t know when either is... read more »
Admittedly, I interrupted the conversation after it had started, but when my assistant, a fellow Southerner, said the word, “Snutterfluffer,” I just had to question her. “Did you just say the word, ‘Snutterfluffer?’”, I asked, with a high degree of certainty that no other Southerner had ever uttered that word before. “Yes,” she said, “I did.” At which time my... read more »
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,” he said as I went back in to retrieve the fractured root that necessitated the removal of his tooth and fabrication of a three-unit bridge. An unfortunate turn of events, but one taken in stride by my 88-year-old patient, a retired army colonel who served through several wars, beginning with WWII,... read more »
Tooth-colored fillings and implants in spaces, Sealed root canals and bright, shiny braces, Veneers on teeth and the smiles that they bring, These are a few of my favorite things…. Geez, apparently all of the holiday gifts and carbohydrate-rich food coming through our office has sugar plums dancing in my head. And, despite my best efforts, my heart seems determined... read more »