General Dentistry

Hey all,
Nice to be back after a couple days off.
I am back to the grind after a four day weekend.
My staff and I had a great time at the FNDC. We had lunch and dinner together, then we went and saw the Wallflowers in concert. The FNDC usually has some kind of concert or show on Friday night.
Talk about a fall from grace. One year you have a top 5 song on the charts and the next year you are playing for 200 people at a dental convention. Wow.
But a good time was had by all. Even my associate came and hung out. It is great to get out of the office and spend time together and have no pressure.

Anyway I did want to do a little magazine review on the latest General Dentistry from the AGD.
I usually pick it up and skim through it. I will read an article or two. This month though, everything jumped out at me.
As an aside, do you get like 40 magazines a week? I through away more trees in a week than I care to think about.

I have always thought the AGD's publications were great. Thing about the periodicals is there never seemed to be strings attatched to the articles.
I know people (I love saying this, "I know people", it makes me feel cool) at the AGD and can attest to their integrity. There are rules put in place so an article can not be a reason for an advertisement.
Like have you ever noticed that in a magazine like Dentaltown (which I haven't even opened in 4 years, so maybe I shouldn't comment on it) there is an article on how great the Root ZX is and wouldn't you know there is a full page ad for the Root ZX on the next page.

Anyway, I read the AGD's stuff.

Back to the magazine...
So the first article is on Fosamax and bisphosphanates. Everyone needs to know about this. This is the HOTTEST topic in dentistry right now. I had a man that was in last week that is having problems with an extraction site (he took his own tooth out) and he is on an oral bisphosphinate.
I don't know what the heck to do and then I read the article.
Great stuff.
Next article Lab Communication. Also great stuff.
I kind of have a different situation. My lab is less than 2 miles from my office. All crowns that my ceramist needs to know about I just tell my patient to drive over with me.
I drive by his place everyday and stop in about 2 times a month.
But this is article is about how lab communication is coming into the 21st century. No more drawings to communicate what you want. You take a picture and point out what you want (aren't computers grand).
Next,
Polishing porcelain...there are things in my practice that I know there are things out there and I know all I have to do is ask and I just don't. I am working and thinking to myself, "there has got to be a better way to do _____."
One of things that I always said, "there has got to be a better way to do this" was polishing porcelain. Well, it turns out there isn't. Thanks for this, it makes me feel good. And that is what is all about.
Now the next article I read twice.
Prosthetic implant challenges.
Here is a dude that is putting himself out there. I love this type of writing. He says in the introduction, "What happens to the restorative dentist when the surgical results are compromised?"
He is saying, things are not always perfect, let me show you one of these cases.
The case turned out great but one thing about this article is it left me wanting more. So I wrote Dr. Strong an email.
At the end of the article he did not leave any information about himself.
So after some finagling, I was able to contact him.
By the by, I encourage all of us to write authors emails. I have done this for a long time.
I once wrote dude that was doing "research" and wrote an article on teeth bleaching. Then at the end of the article it states that he was paid by the bleaching company he endorsed. RED FLAG.
I challenged him on it.
Needless to say, he was not happy. But it is the internet, he can't hurt me through the computer. I don't think.
Sometimes I write people to tell them they did an awesome job and sometimes I write them to tell them I don't agree.
But in the case of Dr. Strong, I wanted to know who screwed up. Was it the surgeon? Was he pissed when the patient came back?
I asked him these questions in the email.
I hope he writes me back and I will let you know about the conversation.

A couple of articles later....
Preheating resin composite. Wow. I have know about this but I didn't know how to do this. Now I do. They tell you why they do it. The article tells you how to do it.
And I am not even half way through the magazine.
Next article was about a simple bone cyst. Guess what walked into my office last week.
A BONE CYST!!! Yes, I am not making this stuff up.
I had a conversation with my oral surgeon and I ended up scanning the article (and the oral diagnostic question at the back of the magazine) and sending it to him.
A couple of articles later...
Calcium hydroxide affects sealing of warm gutta percha.
WHAT?!!
This affects my daily life.
I will not bore you with all the articles, but it was page after page of articles that speak to me, mister general dentist.
The article were succinct. Get in, get out. This is how I read and how I shop.
The photos were mostly all great (I still need pictures. When I was 9 years old, I wouldn't read a book unless it had pictures. Things haven't changed much).
The authors are not paid. There is no one profiting from writing an article or endorsing a product.
That's what I am looking for in a magazine.
If you didn't get it, you can look it up on the agd.org website.
http://http://www.agd.org/publications/issue/?PubID=17&IssID=722

Great stuff this month AGD.
Keep it up.

On a personal note...
I had to go to the hand surgeon yesterday. I having pain in my right index finger.
I am having trouble shaking people's hands. I cannot open a water bottle, I cannot squeeze the top to unscrew it.
You know it does worry a dentist a little when the hand starts hurting.
My surgeon and I are on a first name basis. I broke my wrist two years ago, playing basketball.
Then I had surgery on an old injury on my left pinkie. Then after I stopped playing basketball, I thought playing flag football was a good idea...NOT. I broke finger on some one's belt loop.
But this problem was not self induced. I was worried.
He took some xrays and there is nothing structurally wrong.
He says take some Ibuprofen TID for 3 weeks and come back in.
Yesterday was the come back in appointment.
Of course I didn't take the meds like I was suppose to but it is better. He says he could just shoot some juice in the joint and there is a chance I would never think about it again.
I decided to wait it out. If I can avoid a shot in my finger, you bet your sweet toosh I am going to.
I will keep you posted.
Oh, I watched August Rush on Monday. I give it a 5.

Talk to you Friday,
john