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Being Thankful For What We Have A Dentist Perspective

wisdom — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:01:49 +0000

An interesting article ran in the MyView Section of the American Dental Association titled “A time to be thankful for all that we have,” written by Richard A. Mufson, D.D.S., and published November 7, 2011. http://www.ada.org/6541.aspx

In the article Dr. Mufson discusses how he will typically ask other dentists the standard question of “how are you?”

This typically goes into discussions of the dental practice and whether or not financially the practice is doing well or not.

Dr. Mufson then says he had no real desire to talk about the dental practice but about how the person really is.

Dr. Mufson goes on to say

“When caught up in our daily routines and the trials and tribulations of everyday life, many of us may not always be closely in touch with, nor take the time to be grateful for, aspects in our lives of highest importance to us, and those which make us most happy and whole. Some of these, of course, would include our health, well-being and happiness of our families, our friends, our colleagues, others in the world we respect and care about, and the positive and intimate relationships we share with one another. Many of these relationships have involved the mutual sharing of great experiences, in great places, with unforgettable and fond memories, all of which are truly irreplaceable.”

Dr. Mufson says that one needs to remember to be thankful for each day because you could very well have taken away from you what you have such as your health and loved ones. Therefore you need to remember to be appreciative for all that you have.

The tone of the article boils down to

“Don’t confuse your career with your life.”

People are often caught up in being motivated by money and also desire to maintain that for which they have worked years for to achieve. This is understandable given the society of today but remember what is most important in life and be sure to be grateful and appreciate of it.

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Dad is a Dentist

wisdom — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:18:30 +0000

I am surprised I had not heard of this before, but Mark Zuckerberg yes the guy who is a co-founder and runs Facebook and who has an estimated wealth of many billions, has a dad named Edward Zuckerberg who is a practicing dentist.

The American Dental Association (ADA) recently discussed Edward Zuckerberg in their article Websites a “no-brainer’ for dental practices written by Kelly Soderlund appearing September 8, 2011, and located at http://www.ada.org/news/6200.aspx

Yes Dr. Zuckerberg has his own dental practice in New York and his website is located at http://painlessdrz.com/

Yes of course Dr. Zuckerberg also has his own facebook page http://www.facebook.com/painlessdrz

I am a bit surprised that Mark Zuckerberg’s dad is still practicing dentistry and still works a full schedule since he is over 56 years old and his son is pretty well off financially. I suppose he must love being a dentist and likes the prestige with the profession.

Image of Mark Zuckerberg from http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewfeinberg/2325658400/sizes/m/in/photostream/ and has a Creative Commons License.

In another article in the Los Angeles Times titled Meet Edward Zuckerberg, tech-savvy dentist (and Mark’s father) written by Nathaniel Popper appearing March 30, 2011, and located at http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/30/business/la-fi-zuckerberg-father-20110330

Dr. Zuckerberg says

“If I wanted to put a poster of my son on the cover of Time magazine somewhere in the waiting room, I guess I could, but I just choose not to….I guess I’ve lost some of my identity. I’ve always been the dentist, and now I’m the father of the Facebook guy…You know, I’m still the dentist.”

It seems like having a very famous son has some challenges for running a dental practice. The biggest change of course is having all your patients want to talk about Mark and Facebook. Of course the movie The Social Network all about Facebook came out last year and Edward Zuckerberg says the portrayal of Mark was ” “inaccurate” and “disturbing.”

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Second Opinion Advertisements for Dentists

wisdom — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:13:12 +0000

An article in The Journal of the American Dental Association titled “Are Advertisements That Offer ‘Free Second Opinions’ Ethical by Rod B. Wentworth (October 1, 2011, vol. 142, no. 10, pages 1199-1200) talks about the ethics involved with dentists advertising “free second opinions.”

In the article it says

“So simply offering free second opinions is not in and of itself unethical. It is perfectly acceptable for a patient to seek a second opinion. In fact, dentists should consider suggesting that their patients obtain second opinions, especially when they have questions or concerns about the appropriateness of the recommended treatment.”

One issue raised in the article is that in a second opinion, if a patient has any x-rays they should be sent along with the patient for the second opinion to avoid unnecessary radiation.

The other issue raised is giving second opinions without making disparaging remarks about the patient’s dentist from the first opinion also known as jousting. Doing so can result in possible disciplinary action against the dentist and may have potential legal implications but as a patient if it was warranted I would like to hear the truth.

The purpose of a free second opinion would of course be to help dentists take patients away from each other.

I think second opinions from different dentists is a good idea in some cases but as addressed in this post http://blog.teethremoval.com/are-dentists-ethical-or-scam-artists/ knowing whether a dentist is being too conservative, too aggressive, or somewhere in the middle is difficult often for patients to know. I tend to think more dentists at least in the U.S. lean towards the aggressive side but certainly some are more conservative in their treatment approaches.

The author ends by saying

“Second opinions are not cut-and-dried in an ethical sense. Advertising them certainly is not unethical, and patients are free to select the dentist of their choice, which they may do on the basis of the information received in a second opinion. However, certain actions, such as criticizing a dentist unjustly, administering unnecessary tests or treatment, or misrepresenting fees, skills or experience may be unethical. Only the dentists involved know their motivation and whether it leads to unethical conduct. One hopes that dentists will take the high road to ensure that the oral health of the public and the welfare of patients are of primary importance”

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Medical School Student Costs in the U.S. are Affecting Mental Health

wisdom — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:10:34 +0000

A research letter titled “U.S. Medical Students’ Health Insurance Coverage for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association vol. 306, no.9, pages 931-933, in September 7, 2011, and written by Rachel Nardin and et al. discusses how medical students are often sleep-deprived, depressed, and have thoughts of suicide. This can lead to lack of empathy for their patients and contribute to additional medical errors once they graduate. It can also lead to substance abuse. Even so these medical students are not being adequately treated for their psychiatric disorder or substance abuse due to wanting to avoid adding additional costs to their already substantial debt from school.

The study looked at health insurance offered by 115 of the 129 U.S. medical schools between June and December of 2010. It found that the coverage for mental health varies substantially.

J. Wesley Boyd one of the study authors says via an article published on wbur.org titled Study: Cost s keep Med Students From Much-Needed Mental Health Care written by Carey Goldberg and published September 7, 2011, located at http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2011/09/med-students-psych-care/

“Troubled students often resist seeking treatment at the onset of their symptoms, fearing high out-of-pocket costs and an accumulation of more school debt. But with any psychiatric disorder or substance abuse early intervention definitely correlates to better outcomes….mounting debt from long stints at expensive schools weighs very heavily upon the students and most will do anything they can to avoid increasing it…. We need our medical schools to push themselves to provide students with more affordable care. What’s best for the health of our students will result in better physicians and the future wellbeing of their patients.””

I have previously discussed the issue of increasingly out of control costs of college and medical school in the U.S. http://blog.teethremoval.com/astroturfing-and-how-your-thoughts-are-being-manipulated-by-corporate-interests/ and http://blog.teethremoval.com/lets-give-our-kids-a-chance-to-succeed/. Many students graduate after medical school with debts higher than $150,000. Private school debts are naturally higher than those of public schools. Also see this article http://blog.teethremoval.com/college-conspiracy-and-united-states-hyperinflation/.

Things in the U.K. are very different than in the U.S. with regards to cost. An article titled Patient Safety in the US and UK, Part I: The Doctors written by Bob Watcher and published September 4, 2011, and located at http://community.the-hospitalist.org/2011/09/04/patient-safety-in-the-us-and-uk-part-i-the-doctors/ discusses how in the U.K. medical school students enter a 6 year program right after high school and graduate from their medical school with very little debt. In the U.S. students go to a 4 year college to get an undergraduate degree and then on to a 4 year medical school. With the average student debt of an undergraduate degree of around $27,000 and the average student debt of a medical degree of around $158,000 (depending on the school and if private or public of course) students in the U.S. can expect a debt of around (if not much more) $185,000 to become a doctor.

As I have previously discussed on this blog in an earlier post:

“Unfortunately I am beginning to think that the ballooning out of control cost of higher education is a scheme designed by large corporations and special interests so that things such as medical procedures promoted on shaky scientific ground and continuing to lower the definition of various diseases so that more and more drugs can be sold will become more and more the norm since the doctor will be an indentured servant to their debt.”

Additional Sources:

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/medical-student-section/advocacy-policy/medical-student-debt/background.page?

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/16/136214779/college-student-debt-grows-is-it-worth-it

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Free Speech Rights For Patients Online

wisdom — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:49:48 +0000

An interesting article appears over on drbicuspid.com over at http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=pmt&pag=dis&ItemID=309247 titled “Lawsuit claims dentist stifled patients’ free speech rights” by Donna Domino and posted on Dec. 1 2011.

A discussion is made of a New York dentist and a class action lawsuit that was filed in late November. The complaint was filed by the Public Citizen Litigation Group.

In the case a patient went to the New York dentist and signed an agreement by Medical Justice in which the patient agreed not to denigrate or disparage the dentist on the Internet or other broadcast media.

The patient went to the dentist because of a sore tooth and was charged $4,766 for two office visits. The patient says the insurance claim was sent to the wrong insurance company and was 25 times the going rate. The patient requested his records so he could submit the claim by himself but was told he would have to go to a third party who would charge 5% of the total bill just for copying the records.

This led the patient to get frustrated and posted negative ratings of the dentist on Yelp and DoctorBase.

This prompted the dentist to demand the comments to be removed and began invoicing the patient $100 per day for copyright infringement.

The lawsuit filed attempts to address the issue of restricting online criticism and seeks to show that the agreement signed by this patient is null and void. Further it alleges that patients signing these types of agreements violates dental ethics.

Paul Alan Levy, an attorney at Public Citizen involved in this case is quoted as saying

“What began as a case of a sore tooth is now showcasing an unconscionable practice in which doctors and dentists force patients to leave their constitutional rights at the office door. If people are upset about their care, they have a First Amendment right to tell people about it by going online and posting their thoughts on Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, and the like.”

As commented by a user of the article on drbicuspid.com the patient did have a week to potentially find another dentist.

Even so I can see how if the patient was in pain and being asked to sign forms limiting their ability to make comments online this could be problematic.

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