Today at church, I had the strange vision to develop a cooking class to equip fellow servants of the Lord.
As I mulled over the truly important things, it made me think of dentistry: particularly mise en place...or to have everything in the right place.
Like a chef, a dentist should have everything well organized, and in it's proper place.
The burs should be arrayed in a logical fashion. The handpeices should be polished and oiled.
The lab area should be clean. The chairs should be spotless.
Controlled messiness is fine. Disorder and slop is unacceptable.
Anyways, that's my take on things.
-Matt
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Chocolate - is it wrong?
I've recently become very interested in the possibility of making my own chocolate truffles.
I'm not too satisfied with most of what I can afford, and the boutique chocolates available are too expensive for my paltry, student-loan riddled pocket book.
Anyways, I'm not sure if it'd be totally wrong...but I'm really tempted to give it a try.
Please let me know what you think!
I'm not too satisfied with most of what I can afford, and the boutique chocolates available are too expensive for my paltry, student-loan riddled pocket book.
Anyways, I'm not sure if it'd be totally wrong...but I'm really tempted to give it a try.
Please let me know what you think!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
My obsession with beauty
I wish I wasn't obsessed with beauty.
The thing with dentistry, is that I think it's really important to have a good idea of beauty.
With so much flim flam, I believe that understanding the basic tenets of beauty is very valuable for my patients.
After all, I'm in the business of making people feel beautiful.
In my obsessive self-quest, I've met many pretty people and truly beautiful people as well.
I've seen countless masterpieces of art. I've handled and made a few myself.
Beauty is perfection.
Perfection is attained by perfect practice.
Perfect practice is by carefully measuring results, calibrating and removing sources of error.
If this sounds like drudgery, it sort of is.
However, I think that this is a worthy price for my patients.
-Matt
ps. Hopefully, I'll get a decent camera sometime in 2011 to show you what I mean.
I stopped taking photos, as they don't do justice to the subject.
The thing with dentistry, is that I think it's really important to have a good idea of beauty.
With so much flim flam, I believe that understanding the basic tenets of beauty is very valuable for my patients.
After all, I'm in the business of making people feel beautiful.
In my obsessive self-quest, I've met many pretty people and truly beautiful people as well.
I've seen countless masterpieces of art. I've handled and made a few myself.
Beauty is perfection.
Perfection is attained by perfect practice.
Perfect practice is by carefully measuring results, calibrating and removing sources of error.
If this sounds like drudgery, it sort of is.
However, I think that this is a worthy price for my patients.
-Matt
ps. Hopefully, I'll get a decent camera sometime in 2011 to show you what I mean.
I stopped taking photos, as they don't do justice to the subject.
Why I haven't been posting
Dear readers,
My apologies for not posting much the past several months.
I've been working on the job search, and recently been a bit unmotivated.
I've learned that DentiCal creates a certain mentality and a certain lack of gratitude.
Even with the 25% chance of reimbursement, even with the 20% reimbursement of fees, even with putting up with a higher chance of getting sued--I have to deal with patients that can't be bothered. It's been a bit upsetting, so I've been focusing my attention on other things like spending time with friends, and learning to be a normal 27 year old.
Nevertheless, I really love dentistry.
Even with everything that sucks about dentistry, I can't help but love it.
It's like the chef with scarred and pitted hands.
I know of no other profession where I can be constantly challenged with getting better, where I'm paid to make friends, and where I can be paid to treat people like family.
I was chatting with Dr. Li at the Berkeley Free Clinic.
We agreed that reimbursements are down. Overhead is up. Our staff drive better cars than we do. However, the trust that we receive from our patients is sacred and beautiful.
And I wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world.
But we wouldn't trade this
My apologies for not posting much the past several months.
I've been working on the job search, and recently been a bit unmotivated.
I've learned that DentiCal creates a certain mentality and a certain lack of gratitude.
Even with the 25% chance of reimbursement, even with the 20% reimbursement of fees, even with putting up with a higher chance of getting sued--I have to deal with patients that can't be bothered. It's been a bit upsetting, so I've been focusing my attention on other things like spending time with friends, and learning to be a normal 27 year old.
Nevertheless, I really love dentistry.
Even with everything that sucks about dentistry, I can't help but love it.
It's like the chef with scarred and pitted hands.
I know of no other profession where I can be constantly challenged with getting better, where I'm paid to make friends, and where I can be paid to treat people like family.
I was chatting with Dr. Li at the Berkeley Free Clinic.
We agreed that reimbursements are down. Overhead is up. Our staff drive better cars than we do. However, the trust that we receive from our patients is sacred and beautiful.
And I wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world.
But we wouldn't trade this
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Why Obamacare scares me
After about eight months of paperwork, I'm finally a MediCal/DentiCal provider.
The thing is...MediCare has been largely cut since July 2009.
It only covers kids 6 months to 18 years.
It only covers a limited number of not-ideal procedures.
And get this...it pays ~$20 for an exam, $5 an Xray, etc.
I'd lose money after paying my staff.
If Obamacare touches dentistry, I'm genuinely scared.
The thing is...MediCare has been largely cut since July 2009.
It only covers kids 6 months to 18 years.
It only covers a limited number of not-ideal procedures.
And get this...it pays ~$20 for an exam, $5 an Xray, etc.
I'd lose money after paying my staff.
If Obamacare touches dentistry, I'm genuinely scared.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Dental Van
Last night, an interesting ad came up on Craigslist: an opening for the Oakland Dental Bus.
It's a nonprofit service created by a lawyer-turned-dentist in Arizona.
Originally, it was run out of his home.
Now, it's a national organization the provides dental care to needy kids in schools across America.
This is how it works:
The van goes to the school site.
Equipment, Xrays, chairs, portable ops are set up.
Patients are seen, treated, and (if needed) referred to get further care.
This sounds just like what I did in Cambodia, but in some ways better:
1. No airline ticket or antimalarials needed.
2. I can help the local community.
3. I get paid (not much) doing it.
It sounds like a lot of fun!
It's a nonprofit service created by a lawyer-turned-dentist in Arizona.
Originally, it was run out of his home.
Now, it's a national organization the provides dental care to needy kids in schools across America.
This is how it works:
The van goes to the school site.
Equipment, Xrays, chairs, portable ops are set up.
Patients are seen, treated, and (if needed) referred to get further care.
This sounds just like what I did in Cambodia, but in some ways better:
1. No airline ticket or antimalarials needed.
2. I can help the local community.
3. I get paid (not much) doing it.
It sounds like a lot of fun!
Visiting an orthodontist
I was tempted to do two posts, but I won't.
This is one of the times when I really wish that I had a better camera for dentistry.
At Dr. Vicki Wang's office, I was given a quick review on cases for interceptive dentistry.
Essentially, there are a cases that should be caught before they get really bad:
1. Open bites
2. Cross bites
3. Skeletal malocclusions
It's important, because the bone gets harder once a youth turns into an adult.
One that happens, it requires expensive, painful surgery to get it fixed.
This is one of the times when I really wish that I had a better camera for dentistry.
At Dr. Vicki Wang's office, I was given a quick review on cases for interceptive dentistry.
Essentially, there are a cases that should be caught before they get really bad:
1. Open bites
2. Cross bites
3. Skeletal malocclusions
It's important, because the bone gets harder once a youth turns into an adult.
One that happens, it requires expensive, painful surgery to get it fixed.
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