Category: Opinion & Editorial

For decades, the dental profession has relied on a simple formula: clinical expertise plus professional credentials equals patient trust. Walk into any dental office today, and you’ll still see the familiar elements of this approach — diplomas on the wall, white coats and the assumption that professional authority naturally commands respect. ... [continue reading]

See below for references relevant to the central points of what follows. Those interested in understanding the known and possible effects on dentistry, directly and indirectly, can review these for a deeper dive into our future. Earlier this year, Congress and the president enacted legislation, commonly called One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), ... [continue reading]

My car was in the shop recently. I took it in because the car texted me that it needed service! When I first got my license, cars had an oil light, and that was about it. When that red warning appeared on your dashboard, you knew trouble was brewing under the hood. But by then, damage might already be done. Today’s vehicles are engineering ... [continue reading]

If there is one part of owning a practice that continues to give me massive anxiety, it is the Personnel Policy Manual. HR 101 would suggest that every business that has employees must have a manual and it should not only be reviewed frequently for compliance with state and federal regulations, but also be nimble to roll with the changing needs of ... [continue reading]

I’m a dental student at Ohio State University and am passionate about organized dentistry and public health dentistry. I was raised in Morgan County, Ohio, and plan to return to Southeast Ohio as soon as I graduate. Working with underserved populations is the key driving force in my passion for dentistry. In rural counties where public health ... [continue reading]

Every morning, we put on our scrubs, adjust our loupes, and step into our operatories. What we’re really doing is donning our superhero costume and entering our Fortress of Solitude – or perhaps our Batcave. After nearly four decades of practice and countless conversations with colleagues across Ohio, I’ve come to realize that we dentists ... [continue reading]

I’ve lived in Ohio my whole life. I attended public school in rural Ohio, the University of Toledo for college and The Ohio State University for all my dental training.  Like many, I have also been around the world – to Hawaii and Hong Kong, Alaska and Zurich. But I have never been to Iowa. My professional life and education have been ... [continue reading]

As I sit in my office surrounded by textbooks that will soon seem quaint and technology that’s evolving faster than our curriculum committees can keep pace, I’m struck by a fundamental question facing our profession: Are we writing the script for dentistry’s future, or are we simply casting the familiar actors in a play we’ve been ... [continue reading]

Close to 50 years ago, I had my first run in with the dental CE police as a young licensee in Iowa. The Iowa Dental Board had instituted a CE requirement, very rudimentary and reasonable in quantity, but new to dentistry in those days. They gave new graduates a two-year reprieve based on the freshness of their education. I tried to make the logic ... [continue reading]

There’s a curious thing about currents: we rarely notice them when they’re in our favor. But when we’re paddling upstream – against resistance, against entropy, against inertia – they become impossible to ignore. For today’s dental professionals, every day often feels like we’re paddling upstream. But that shouldn’t be a complaint ... [continue reading]