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Service of Dentistry
Some years ago, my elderly aunt Melba was in a nursing home in San Jose. She had Alzheimer’s and needed some extensive dental treatment. This could only be accomplished by sedating her, so her daughter/my cousin arranged for me to use a local dentist’s office there in San Jose on a Saturday. The dentist even…
Read MoreWho Does a Dentist Go To, To Fix His Own Teeth?
Years ago, I read a story of a vacationing dentist visiting a one-dentist town on a small island off of Greece. The only local dentist in this town needed some dental work and he sat in his own chair while the visiting dentist fixed him up. Back in the day, my childhood dentist practiced the…
Read MoreTaking Care Of The Uncared For
Many years ago, I attended a dental meeting where representatives of the dental organization spoke about the unmet needs of nursing home residents. I was moved by compassion and felt an unavoidable desire to do something about it. I found a dentist (Peter) in the Seattle area that had been treating those who had often…
Read MoreKaren Picks A Plan
Karen was very anxious about her decision of what dental plan to sign up for. Which plan is best? What are the monthly costs? Which services will be covered? Which one’s will not? What does “yearly maximum” mean? Traditional, PPO’s, Company plans, Individual plans are just a few of her choices. Little did Karen know…
Read MoreInsurance – Episode Three
In episodes One and Two, I discussed the history and the current trends in the business of dental insurance. I referred to these as the “dark side of the force.” Here, I would like to discuss the alternative, or the “light side of the force.” This is a membership plan. Patients pay a monthly fee…
Read MoreInsurance – Episode Two
In you missed Episode One, you can get caught up here. In the 1960’s a group of dentists here in California formed a dental insurance company named California Dental Service, otherwise known as the CDS. The dollar amount of payments was $1,000.00 per year. I remember the price of gasoline at that time being 28…
Read MoreWhy We Don’t Go to the Dentist
Based on my decades of experience, let me take a guess at why you do not visit the Dentist.
Read MoreCrowns – Not for the Head, Just as Expensive
There is much confusion on what a dental crown does. When a tooth has decayed and/or broken down beyond the ability to be preserved and protected with the use regular filling material, partial to full coverage is often recommended – i.e. THE CROWN. Metal crowns can be of stainless steel, gold or Titanium. Tooth-colored (most…
Read MoreThe Oxymoron of Dental Insurance
In the 1960’s a group of California dentists formed a dental insurance company called the California Dental Service, which later became Delta Dental. Later came the PPO’s the HMO’s to which I call them the OhOhOhs’s (uhoh OO’s). The CEO’s of these OhOhOh’s get paid many millions of dollars each year. The dentist doesn’t get…
Read MorePatient-Doctor Communication
What did you say? Why didn’t you say something earlier? Human communication is a surreal experience. We have foreign languages that separate us, non-verbal communication that is not observed, music that the performer has not experienced, written word not understood etc. But what confounds me more as a Doctor is how much miscommunication or lack…
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