It is difficult these days to walk down the street and not have a cloud of smoke engulf your face from a nearby electronic vaping device. My first response to this occurrence is to hold my breath or attempt to dodge the cloud altogether. When I am unable to do so, I am always shocked … Read more
Did you set any goals or New Year resolutions? Did you feel that by the time 2020 arrived you would have achieved or accomplished certain things? Have you reflected on why you have or haven’t succeeded? When the New Year rolls around, I always find it’s a time I catch myself reflecting on the year … Read more
“Environment” is a real buzzword in the news today. Pollution, climate, sustainable, maintainable, crisis, emergency. Do we have control or not? One area where we as dental professionals have some control is the oral environment! We are the custodians of our patients’ oral environment. Of course, things can spiral out of control when our patients … Read more
Let’s talk about the month of December. It’s that time of year when my office becomes increasingly empty as the days pass. My fellow employees start to use the rest of their allotted vacation time and I can’t help but worry if every task will be checked off not only my shopping list but my … Read more
Evidence Based Dentistry (EBD) may be defined as a process which combines “the best available scientific evidence and the clinical expertise of dentists with the patient needs and preferences in order to serve as the foundation for clinical dental care”. Therefore, combining the innovative findings of medical and dental research with clinician knowledge is highly … Read more
Over the years our profession has managed to confuse patients by what we call ourselves. Can you tell the difference between dentists with various letters after their names? What is a bona fide (Latin for “in good face”; legal meaning “sincerely, without deception”) specialist and a generalist? Today, I am afraid, we may have confused … Read more
Since Oral Health Office is dedicated to all things business related, I thought this would be the perfect platform to share some exciting (non-dental) news with you, our dedicated readers, about our media company, Newcom Media Inc. If you are not aware, Newcom Media produces magazines, websites, trade shows and events for the dental, automotive, … Read more
The July edition of Oral Health regularly highlights new products, new techniques, and new technologies. These are the innovations that improve our patients’ oral and general health, and make clinical dentistry better, faster, and easier. Inventive approaches make the practice of dentistry more exciting, something to look forward to each and every day. It should … Read more
When the American Dental Association ratified its “Policy on the Role of Dentists in the Treatment of Sleep-related Breathing Disorders” in 2017, the intention was to clarify the boundaries between medicine and dentistry to make sure dentists didn’t overreach into the diagnosing of apnea. The policy statement, recognizing the many comorbidities that also occur in … Read more
They say the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. With busy lives, it can be difficult to find the time to volunteer. But volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they have the heart. Volunteering is at the very core of being human, as no one has … Read more
“Gotta hit the club/Like you hit them hit them hit them angles” – Nice For What (clean version), Drake On November 15, 2018, the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario accepted a new revision of the Standard of Practice for the “Use of Sedation and General Anesthesia in Dental Practice”. This made Ontario the … Read more
I understand that it’s mid-February but I’d like to officially wish all the dedicated readers of Oral Health a Happy New Year! If you read the previous editorial in our January issue, we welcomed a new Editorial Advisory Board Member to our team, Dr. James Yacyshyn. I offered him the opportunity to write the first … Read more
Practicing in a profession where our primary focus is the well-being of others, we often don’t take the time we need for ourselves. When I was applying to dental school I repeatedly heard the comment that dentists had the highest suicide rate of any profession and was cautioned by others. Although I don’t believe this … Read more
It’s that time of year. The alarm goes off and you get out of bed to start the day. You peek outside the window and surprise – it’s still dark. Your motivation to get the day started is lagging. You pull yourself together and head to work. You manage to have a successful and productive … Read more
As a society we are in the midst of a popular growing obsession with mindfulness as the secret to health, happiness and success in any field of human endeavour, including dentistry! What was a fringe movement in our busy society is now becoming an increasingly prominent part of our cultural landscape. Cultivating “mindfulness” into your … Read more
Oral Health Office focuses on the practice management side of dentistry and each time I sit down to write my editorial, I aim to shed light on the positive benefits of working as a team. Leadership and coaching, strategizing and collaboration, and the overall benefits of working collectively to ensure that happiness, and the dedication … Read more
Iran this line by ten colleagues. All – with the exception of one – interpreted it in a negative way. They felt that it referred to a gloomy future; when things have gotten worse rather than get better. In their view, the future will be darker than their memory of the past. Yet, the statement … Read more
Simply put, change in inevitable. All around us, change is happening on a daily basis. Why is it that so many of us are instantly turned off by the thought of change? It’s constantly happening, yet we still allow ourselves to let it become overbearing. If we could only learn to let change encourage us, … Read more
Greetings fellow colleagues! I hope that all of you have had a great summer and are looking forward to fall. I am honored to be the new Orthodontic Editor for the Oral Health Journal. I follow in the footsteps of Dr. Randy Lang, who has left a wonderful legacy. I feel privileged to be part … Read more
We all remember graduating dental school and thinking to ourselves: “What’s next?” The future is full of possibilities; we must make decisions which will ultimately affect the rest of our careers and lives. Some of us knew right away that general practice was not for them, whereas specialties like surgery, periodontics or endodontics presented opportunities … Read more