Lifelong Learning

We have all heard the saying that we should not judge a book by its cover. This concept applied to dentistry is that we should not judge our patient’s ability to accept and pay for ideal dental treatment. This concept of not pre-judging was proven again just last week in my own practice.

A couple in their early 50’s came to our office for a consultation on dental implants for the  husband. This is not meant to be critical, but the couple did not look like they had the resources to afford ideal care or any care, for that matter. The patient’s dental condition also showed the effects of long term neglect. He was missing quite a number of teeth and the old dental treatment he had in his mouth was failing. The condition of the remaining teeth in his mouth was very marginal.

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Lifelong learning is a key to having a thriving practice. One of the projects that I recommend to our clients is a project we call ‘Book Club’. Here’s how it works.

You invite your team members to participate and dedicate a certain lunch hour each week to the book club. You buy every team member the book and you also provide lunch on the day of the book club so that you can make it a working lunch. Each week you assign a short reading segment and then talk about it together in your book club. You can discuss what you learned in that reading segment and most importantly, talk about how you can apply the information to your practice.

Here are 4 fabulous books that should be high on your list of book club titles:

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I just returned from speaking at the Dentistry Show in Birmingham, England. It was a great conference attended by thousands of Dentists and Team Members who came from throughout the UK. A highlight of the trip was attending the Heart Your Smile fundraising event on Friday evening. Let me tell you more about the Heart Your Smile Project.

Over a year ago my friend, Dr. James Goolnik and a group of his colleagues decided that it was time to change the public perception of dentistry in the UK. Seems the public perception of dentistry was sour and there was a need to get the public more interested in good oral health. The Heart Your Smile Project was born out of this decision.

The project was created to accomplish the following:

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One of the best books I have ever read is Dale Carnegie’s, How to Win Friends and Influence People. I have a well-worn copy of this book in my library that I reread at least every six months. If you have never read this classic on human behavior, run don’t walk and read it now.

In this blog post, I will adapt the tips in the book to the dental profession. There are so many powerful tips that I had trouble selecting the best. Here’s a few:

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On this Valentine’s Day, with thoughts of Love in the air, I have a simple question for you to think about. Do you LOVE dentistry?

It has been my life’s work to study successful dental practices and I have noticed that a common denominator of many successful Dentists is that they absolutely love dentistry. Oh, don’t get me wrong. You can be successful without loving what you do, but it is a hollow victory. The real winners are those individuals that truly love what they do. Seems to me that more Dentists could benefit from finding passion in their life’s work.

If you are at a point in your dental career where you could use a bit of a spark to find passion in what you do here is a list of the top 5 ways to love dentistry:

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