December, 1998
The Dental Forum on CompuServe
One group of dentists has banded together to give each other support in all areas - professional and personal.
Originally published: April, 1996
Dentistry can become rather lonely. We are highly trained, highly specialized professionals who go on about our business in relative isolation. Even if we practice in association with one or two others of our kind, we have limited contact with the profession as a whole. We need the contact and influence of more than our partner or the dentist down the hall.
We attend continuing education programs and various association and society meetings in an attempt to keep abreast of current information and also to rub shoulders with other DENTISTS! Besides finding out what’s new with medical waste and OSHA, modern methods and materials, patient motivation and office management, we need to commune with like souls about the life of a dentist. We need to commune with like souls about life in general!
What do you do if it one week since your last major meeting and six weeks before the next? Maybe you are lucky enough to have a local study club. Maybe you are lucky enough to have an office in the middle of a professional complex, surrounded by other dentists eager to exchange information with you. Maybe not.
One group of dentists has banded together to give each other support in all areas – professional and personal. We have members in almost every state of the United States. We have members in England, Scotland and Germany. We have members in Australia and Japan. We talk about everything imaginable and some things NOT imaginable.
In the past two months, we have discussed to some degree or another:
- difficulty with mandibular blocks
- unruly patient behavior (including patients who try to negotiate fees and hours, patients who arrive drunk, and how to get the odor of human feces out of the reception room carpet!)
- divorce
- surveys for the dental practice
- relationships between the general dentist and the specialist
- processed lab temporaries and veneers
- patient dismissal letters
- amalgam
- amelogenisis imperfecta
- HMOs
- antibiotic prophylaxis
- dental computer software
- cancer patients
- Medicaid
- adjusting bites
- various restorative problems and suggestions
- implants – successes and failures
- ADA and AGD meetings
- FOOD
- cosmetic dentistry
- orthognathic surgery
- dentistry as a career
- the Internet
- sealants
- fluoride
- disinfection and sterilization
- orthodontics
- lip lesions
- endodontic perforations
- Actisite
- relocating
- fractured teeth
- composite inlays
- dental care for immigrants
- newsletters
- frontdesklessness
- office design
- parameters of care
- continuing education seminars
- retirement
- Kaposi’s Sarcoma
- metal sensitivities
- techo-geeks
- porcelain repairs
- impressions
- “Seinfeld”
- appointment scheduling
- left-handed dentists
- electronic anesthesia
- x-ray processors
- instrument sharpening
- top ten things we hate about managed care
- acupuncture
- porcelain laminates
- preventive dentistry
- glass ionomers
- dentures
- murderers as patients
- bone and tissue grafting
- articulators
- whitening toothpastes
- pregnant dentists
- nitrous oxide
- music
- managed care
- automated endo
- diet cola
- cementation
- operatory signal lights
- selling a practice
- copper plating
- fractured cusps
- tendonitis
- expanded dental hygiene
- temporary cements
- hepatitis
- erosive lichen planus
- national board exams
- composites and root canals
- lawyers
- office games
- cantilevers
- hydrocolloid
- atropine
- gagging
- x-rays
- office attire
- bruised tooth syndrome
- loupes
- cameras
- fiberoptic headlights
- high speed handpiece lubrication and autoclaving
- contamination of water lines
- short women dentists
- patients who “forgot their checkbook.”
- and trying to stay awake while doing composites!
How can such a wide-spread international group of dentists and dental personnel discuss so many topics? We get together often. Daily, in fact. We all come and go and chat with each other in the Dental Section on CompuServe. While Chuck is watching the late night news in New York, Ben is having his lunch in Perth. While Vito is freezing in Ontario, Mike is roller blading in Florida. While Alan is cheering for the Chargers in San Diego, Janet is eating bagels in the Bronx. While Fred is backpacking in Washington, Rick is playing Crocodile Dentist in Connecticut. All you need is a modem and curiosity. The information age is here and we are all taking advantage of it. You should, too.
Contributed by:
Sam Feinstein, D.D.S.
Sysop of the Dental Forum on CompuServe CIS
