This lighthearted, easy-to-read book provides advice and tips from experienced clinicians to fill the gap in practical knowledge left by dental school curricula. The book offers advice on a wide range of topics such as getting a practice started; attracting and keeping patients; dealing with dental emergencies; and practicing risk management. It also provides clinical treatment tips, as well as advice for when to refer cases to specialists.

ISBN: 0-86715-400-4
160 pp; 21 illus

Table of Contents:

Preface
Contributors
1 Practice Models: How Do You Want to Practice?
2 Wal-Mart or Nordstrom: Selecting Your Market Niche
3 The Other Professionals: Accountants, Lawyers, Bankers, Insurance Professionals, and Management Consultants
4 Half-Hour Trauma Management
5 Passing the Kid Test: How to Deal with Children . . . and Their Parents
6 Grandmas and Grandpas: Treating Older Patients
7 Restorative Dentistry: Changed but Not Gone
8 Endodontics: More Than Just Deep Rubber Fillings
9 Periodontics: Preserving the Foundations
10 Getting Wired: Incorporating Orthodontics into a General Practice
11 Hold ’em or Fold ’em: How Much Oral Surgery Is Enough?
12 Treating Medical Miracles: Meeting the Needs of Medically Compromised Patients
13 Hospitality in Practice: Building Relationships with Hospitals, Physicians, and Surgeons
14 From Second Opinions to Hired Guns: Making Specialists Work for You
15 It’s All About Relationships: Clinical Practice Management
16 Continuing Education: Avoiding the “Con” in Con-Ed
17 Getting Involved: Dental Politics Is Like Owning a Condo
18 Your License: Complying with Practice and Clinical Standards
19 Risk Management: Staying out of Trouble
How to Submit Your Advice and Tips
About the Authors

Preface

Over the years that we have worked as supervisors and instructors of residency and graduate programs, recent dental graduates have asked us for advice about clinical, business, and professional issues. But recently it seems that the number of questions has increased, indicating that dental students are accumulating less information about how to make it in the dental world. This decrease in practical knowledge likely came about with the economic recession of the 1990s that led to extensive budget cuts at dental schools. This in turn eliminated the positions of many community-based, part-time clinical instructors who were an integral part of a dental education. It was these “wet-fingered” part-time clinical instructors who taught us the tips, tricks, and management systems that worked best in practice. Now, undergraduate dental students must look to full-time dental educators who have never (or rarely) worked in private practice for advice on private practice issues.

In the course of our teaching, research, and clinical practice, we have been fortunate to meet dentists and dental specialists from around the world. Our contact with these excellent and highly respected dentists provided us with the unique opportunity to tap into their expertise and experience. This book covers the topics that we recognize as weaknesses of a number of dentistry programs. The most notable examples are expeditious management of dental emergencies and professional practice and career management.

This is not a course book. It is a compendium of the practical knowledge of clinical professors, community-based clinical instructors, and private practitioners. The information in this book is level IV evidence: the opinions and clinical experience of respected authorities, which is often a bountiful source of creativity in dental practice. This book offers the advice of dentists with thousands of years of collective clinical and business experience.

It will be noted that some pieces of advice offered in this book are contradictory. We felt it was important for the reader to be provided with more than one point of view, often a deficiency of current dental education. Like all advice, take what you want and ignore the rest.

This book contains information from clinicians who enjoy practicing, teaching, mentoring, and passing on their knowledge to other dentists, just as they did when many of them were clinical instructors. While we were able to draw upon the ideas, advice, and clinical tips of many successful dentists during the compilation of this book, we realize there are still many other dentists out there with important knowledge to share. It is our hope that they will offer contributions to succeeding editions.

This book was a collaborative effort. However, we wish to single out some colleagues for their special efforts. In particular, we would like to thank Drs Paul Abbott, Robert Carmichael, Robin Conway, John Cox, Marshall Freilich, Aaron Goldfarb, Albert Gusenbauer, David Hanmer, Douglas Johnston, Helen Johnston, Peter Judd, Nicky Kilpatrick, John Lind, Doug Smith, Nestor Snihura, Dick Speers, Bryan Tompson, Flavio Turchet, and Robert Von Doussa for their exceptional contributions and advice.