Practice-Building – William F. Halligan, DDS

Would You Like Scaling and Root Planing With That?

by Andrew

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ngela, a bright, pretty, 30 year old came to me for a TMJ exam last week and when I asked her who her general dentist was, she told me she didn’t have one.

“I just moved to San Diego from the east coast and I am looking for a new dentist. I went to Acme Dental Clinic (not the real clinic name) for a dental exam but I’m not going back there. I think they’re a scam.”

“Really? What happened?”

“They told me I needed 4 visits of deep cleaning for my periodontal disease and that I should also get my teeth whitened. They were selling those things pretty hard. I just got a bad feeling about them.”

I did six-point perio probing. This young lady had no visible calculus and I found one place—mesial of #3—that had a probe score of 4 mm. All the other scores were 2 or 3 mm. Healthy, normal gum tissue and no bleeding points whatsoever. Four quadrants of root planning? Totally unnecessary.

I put down my perio probe and Angela looked up at me. “Well?”

“Well, I’m just trying to find a polite word for BS. Sorry, I can’t think of one.”

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Andrew

40 Years of Passion for Dentistry

by Andrew

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen I received the phone call from a USC dental school classmate inviting me to a 40 year reunion, I was something way short of excited. I hadn’t stayed in touch with more than a couple of the guys—and I use that term generically to refer to both male and female-type dentists—and I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the results of 40 years of leaning over a dental chair and listening to the high-pitched whine of a handpiece.

Andrew

Sand, Stars and The E-Myth

by Andrew

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n our second bedroom is a bookshelf with quite a nice collection of books. The problem is: I haven’t read them all. One of those unread or partially read books is The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. I bought that book decades ago, opened it, read a few pages and put it back on the shelf. It just didn’t resonate with me. Maybe I was too young to get the message, or maybe I was just too darn dumb to pay attention. I never got rid of it however.

A few months ago my wife, Andrea, and I met Michael Gerber’s wife Luz Delia. She understands The E-Myth very well, so well in fact that it took her about 90 seconds to explain the nittty-gritty of it and how it definitely related to my practice. She gave us a gift: a new book entitled, The E-Myth Chiropractor. That book also sat around, but not for very long.

Andrew

The Long View—thinking long-term about your practice

by Andrew

“I love dentistry. I’d even do it for free. In fact, sometimes I do. And so do you. The difference is I know when I’m doing it for free.”
~ Omer Reed

To The Dentist: Thinking about your practice long-term

[dropcap3]I[/dropcap3]n a recent column in his Dental Town publication, Howard Farran wrote that in our current economy a dentist should reduce fees and join the discount dental insurance plans in order to stay busy and survive the downturn. He also recommended using low cost—read “cheap”—dental labs for work that requires a laboratory. This week, I just want to throw in my 2 cents. My opinion? Howard’s wrong on this one. Since Dr. Farran has an MBA and is one very bright dentist,