Maybe I should do something different

Last Sunday,
I went to Yoshi's with a dear friend who'll be going to New York.
We had the pleasure of watching Vienna Teng and Alex Wong.

I knew that it was nice, but I never thought that it'd make me rethink my life.
I'm still focused on dentistry, and getting better, but I'm glad to know that I'm not stuck being some William Hung.

My off hours have been spent way too much on the Internet looking at 19th century infill planes.
Or looking at manga. Or looking at building really great guitars. Or looking at old surgical instruments, hand tools, and ergonomic design...and just tinkering away.


Lately, I've been trying anything I can to not think about dentistry.

I think that songwriting fits the bill well.
-Matt

Craftsmanship

Dentists seem to fall into two categories: craftsmen and non craftsman.

I hope to fall in the former.

As a craftsman, I believe that it is vitally important to keep inspired.
People are never static objects, and each patient has different needs, demands, and an outlook on life.

Anyways, all this may be my way of rationalizing my impractical hobby/obsession with crafting fine things. I'm a tinkerer, a self-taught luthier, and a former martial artist...and now, I'm thinking of reproducing some of the fine old tools from the past.

Hell...I might buy a new camera to take some better pictures of stuff.

Here's a link to a guitar builder who has always inspired me.

Sorry I haven't been posting much...

I've been building a guitar.

I've been rethinking this blog, and what it is.
Originally, I was going to create a separate persona to educate patients and make dentistry less scary. However, there's a lot more to life than just pure dentistry.

Anyways, don't be surprised if my posts become very, very different.

Dental la-la-land

A couple hours ago, I realized that I'm probably too far into dental-la-la-land.

As a dentist, I know that dentists can easily get caught up in the new toy of the week: dental lasers, CERAC, underarmor sport guards, and stick on veneers. While these technologies offer very real benefits, I'm pretty sure that most people don't really care about it.

At the end of the day, most patients care about their smile.

At the end of June, I'll be going to a very well-regarded CE course on smile restoration by William Strupp. It'll be in Clearwater, CA. It's expensive. It's also supposed to be the best of it's type.

However, when I think about my patients...it'll be worth it.

-Matt, Dr. Goodtooth

Two weeks later

Two weeks after coming back, I've started to process my experiences in Cambodia.
However, I don't really know how to use the picture function on blogger yet.

I'll probably be posting up some memories (without pictures) the next couple weeks, and adding pictures as I figure out how.

-Matt

"I'm not going to rob you"

On the way to work today, I walked past a young black man with a 1990's era Marin Mt Tamelpias...a nice, underappreciated hardtail from an underrated company.

In my head I was thinking, "Nice bike."

The bicycle was on the ground. The gears looked intact, but I wasn't sure if there was a slipped chain. Overall, the cabling looked nice with minimal stress points.

As he lifted it and rode past, I respectfully made way for him.
And he said "I'm not going to rob you."


Wow.

There's something to be said for a society that creates such a terrible misunderstanding.
It feels like those shouting about equality and tolerance, are causing more problems than helping.

If you have any suggestions on how I can help, please leave a comment.

Back from Cambodia

I'm back from Cambodia.

It was an amazing, very blessed time.
There were amazing dental needs, and very amazing people.
Honestly, I learned a lot more from these people than they from me.

However, I've got to recover from jetlag before I can post more about it.

-Matthew