Category: Opinion & Editorial

Christopher Nolan’s new film has sent a lot of people back to Homer this summer, and back to a question that’s older than dentistry itself: what does it actually mean to come home? The Odyssey isn’t really about monsters or gods, not at its core. It’s about a man who wants, more than anything, to be recognized. Odysseus spends 10 years ... [continue reading]

When I️ was in grade 10, we studied William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The original line, spoken by Juliet, actually goes like this “What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” This famous line points to the quality of a thing that matters, not the label. It is an intriguing concept that ... [continue reading]

Every autumn semester, I do something to my third-year students that they don’t see coming. Early in the Practice Management course, after the syllabus review and the grading rubrics and the obligatory jokes about how many of them will actually read the material, I hand them an assignment that has nothing to do with crown preps or oral ... [continue reading]

Did you have to read “The Odyssey” in high school or college? Lucky me, I studied it once in high school and then again in college, coupled with lengthy essays on hero arc and the balance between protagonist and antagonist. But I must have learned something because I’m writing here today, for you, dear reader. As a young woman in a small ... [continue reading]

Last week, I sat in seat 21A on a United 777, somewhere over the Pacific, watching my brother-in-law fly his last flight. Mark Sheehy has been flying for 40 years. He served the first part of his career in the Air Force, flying combat search and rescue missions in the MC-130, and retired as a colonel in 2012. He spent 36 years flying for United ... [continue reading]

In the medical and dental world of education, the end of June brings about news of post-graduation plans. From anticipated one-year fellowships to associateship contracts, the one thing that we rarely hear about is the start-up dental practice right out of dental school. Now what is interesting is that this perspective is a little different from ... [continue reading]

A May 4, 2026 NYTimes article entitled, “A Cavity Doesn’t Always Need a Filling” talks about the variation in our profession’s assessment of the need to restore a hole in a tooth or cavity (or “carie” which always makes me think of a football statistic).1 Dentists interviewed by the author, Erik Vance, provided a range of explanations ... [continue reading]

What do we own? It’s a simple question, but it quickly gets complicated. If you own a piece of land and a heavy rain washes the topsoil downstream, can you go and retrieve it? Legally, that soil was yours. But practically, ownership didn’t protect it, and it won’t bring it back. You can own the deed to the land and still lose what ... [continue reading]

I’ve been learning Spanish. It started as practical preparation for a return mission trip to Guatemala — a chance to connect more deeply with patients and staff, to offer more than a gloved hand and a smile, to actually speak to the people I’m hoping to serve. The app I’m using is genuinely helpful. The lessons are well-structured, the ... [continue reading]

I’m not a space exploration superfan. But maybe I should be. I grew up a few miles from the birthplace of Neil Armstrong.  I loved the movie “Hidden Figures,” and in a bit of a stretch, my preferred airport is the John Glenn International right here in Columbus. The majority of what I know about modern-day space exploration is gleaned from ... [continue reading]