Category: Opinion & Editorial

Spring is a time for new ideas. Like the flowers and trees that begin to bud, we are coming out of a year-long winter. We’ve been dormant, but now is the time to bloom again! The COVID snow is melting and people are coming out of their winter quarantine. Like bears emerging from a den, we step out, stretch our arms to the sky, blink our eyes at ... [continue reading]

By now most of us in Ohio who are treating patients have received our second vaccination for COVID-19. When the governor put dentists into Group 1A, I knew it was because of our proactive leadership and their relationship with state legislators including the Ohio State Dental Board. Amalgamating the science and information from the regulatory ... [continue reading]

What should we remember? Years from now, when we look back … Author Paul Coelho said, “Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen or by having everything happen all at once.” I’ve been writing lately about charting our course forward carefully, with intention and optimism. This month, I would like to ... [continue reading]

Welcome to 2021. New year. Same virus. New vaccine. New hope! Many people loudly expressed that they wanted to bid adieu to 2020. As “adieu” is French for “goodbye forever,” I can certainly empathize with that emotion. Living on the west side of Cleveland for 30 years, I’ve become accustomed to the “Irish Goodbye” as an excellent ... [continue reading]

Had enough of politics and COVID-19? This column is a little different. I hope after reading it, you’ll feel better about the state and country we live in. My wife, Maureen, and I volunteered to be poll workers after reading pleas from election officials that fear of COVID-19 had diminished the ranks of those willing to work. It turned out to be ... [continue reading]

By any measure, 2020 has been an awful year. I won’t recap anything, because the memories are all too painful and fresh in our minds. We are stuck in the time warp that began in March and the carousel keeps spinning without end. As we begin the new year, few people are suggesting that there will be significant improvements anytime soon. So what ... [continue reading]

It is Dec. 1, 2020. In eight days I turn 50. As I consume the last of my Thanksgiving desserts that I made myself for the first time I peer through my front window and appreciate twinkling holiday lights looking for acknowledgment amidst a white furry blanket of snow, covering our Northeast Ohio landscape. To me it is emblematic of what this year ... [continue reading]

Almost a quarter century ago, while attending a “Dental Emergencies” CE program, the speaker went somewhat “off topic.” The Doctor/Lecturer stepped back from the podium and challenged his dentist audience ... to be something other than just clinicians and openly wondered if we considered ourselves a “total health ... [continue reading]

We are rapidly approaching my favorite holiday. As a kid, I looked forward to Christmas and my birthday. As a young adult, New Year’s Eve, Memorial Day, Labor Day and the 4th of July were prime holidays. I do have to confess that I have never warmed to Halloween, but I know it’s become quite the event these days for many people. Then ... [continue reading]

I’ve spent quite a bit of time and effort recently dealing with chipmunks. Not “the Chipmunks” (Alvin, Simon and Theodore), who sang their way through cartoons when I was young. They were cute and funny, and completely harmless. No, I’m dealing with the small furry kind that burrow in the garden and shrubs, digging all kind ... [continue reading]