14 www.pagd.org Q dentistry issues This is an article written about someone who will never read it, but whom the article is all about…our patients. Using the interdisciplinary mind, our patients will soon discover that you are not just about a tooth, but that you are about oral health; that you are not just about restoring a cavity, but you are about their well-being; and, finally, that you are not just about the patient’s veneer—you are about embracing them as a person. My thesis, however, is a deeper question of anticipating and preparing for the dentist of the future and the future of dentistry. Like medicine, are dentists going to be further controlled by government, insurance companies, DSO organizations, and lack of group leadership? Are we going to preserve and even grow our boutique careers that truly represent us or is that a fantasy? Will we be truly caring for patients, or will we be caring about speed and the bottom line? When patients get it that we hear them and we see them, they feel safe. Only then can they hear us and hear what is possible for their smile and their oral health. We have all heard that patients don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. They really do want to look good, feel good, smell good, and appear successful. They know that teeth are essential for this goal. Sometimes, all that a patient needs are trust in you and to give themselves permission that they are worthy of investing in a beautiful smile and healthy mouth. The purpose, therefore, of writing this article is not to point a finger, assess blame, belittle, discredit, or deprecate restorative dentists. It is quite the contrary. Dentists have been able to boast the most successful quality patient- oriented practices and there is no letting down. In fact, shame on endodontists for not creating better relationships with you sooner so that this article would never have even been required or requested. Endodontists, too, need to foster the essential three words for success: Communication, Communication, Communication. Now a word to restorative dentists. I request that you give your endodontist a little grace. We are what I refer to as “one tooth” dentists. In fact, our world is as narrow as it gets in dentistry. We are peering through a microscope at ONE canal in ONE tooth and we DO IT IN THE DARK. We cannot SEE and DO at the same time. We may think we can, but we can’t. This is unique to all of dentistry. We can only see the first millimeters inside a canal and then we make an educated guess about the patient’s root canal system anatomy using pretreatment CBCT 3D imaging, an apex locator, feel, and the wisdom that comes from previously making every possible mistake. We are very much alone, and a feeling of loneliness can overcome every endodontic clinician. For example, a few years ago, there was one group that I was teaching in Vancouver where the clinical assistants take a nap when an endodontic treatment was on the day sheet because it was boring, and they had nothing to do! Solo endodontics for any dentist can be lonely, indeed! It feels sometimes like no one cares but the dentist themself. Meanwhile, your patient assumes you are performing optimally at all times! This article is as much about endodontists as it is about what endodontists want the referring general dentist to know. After this article is published, I invite restorative dentists reading this article to write a sequel titled, “Everything the Referring Dentist Would Like to Tell the Endodontist but Were Afraid to Say.” The backstory of this interdisciplinary subject was born out of a need. The need belonged to Dr. Ralph O’Conner, a 1970’s progressive thinking dentist from Lakewood, WA. He was the founder of the Tacoma Study Club which was the world’s beginning mecca for the transformative and breakthrough operatory delivery systems and workflow including laydown dentistry, four handed dentistry, and the critical, and rarely practiced today, “Patient Interview” scheduled before ever seating the patient in the operatory. Ralph was mentor for our Northwest Network for Dental Excellence in Tacoma, WA. This group is represented by all dental specialties and has impacted global interdisciplinary dentistry in more ways than ANY other single group in the history of dentistry and continues to do so. Individually and collectively, the Study Club members have profoundly enhanced the level of global dentistry. Ralph called specialists “limiteds” because our knowledge, skill, care, and judgment were limited to a narrow scope of dentistry. He was and is still right. Specialists think they know everything, and it is the general dentist’s job, who knows about a lot of dentistry, that he or she is the dental treatment quarterback and all roads leading to comprehensive dentistry must go through the QB. Period. LESSONS LEARNED I surveyed the endodontists of Washington and although the response was minimal (because we are down in that dark canal and are ignoring the rest of the world), I did receive input and together with my want list, we offer TEN LESSONS for all of us to benefit from and to strengthen our tomorrow’s patient treatment outcomes and positive experiences. If restorative dentist and specialist do not
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