Blog Archives

Medicare, Medicaid and Dental Insurance: A Personal History

3/27/2019

Health coverage and insurance schemes, both public and private, such as Medicare, Medicaid and Dental Insurance, have dramatically affected healthcare professions since their introduction. It has been a real education for me, being a firsthand witness to many of these changes.

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Divine Guidance

3/26/2019

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How we adults wish sometimes that we could be the child, taken care of, looked after, protected, as we do for and with our beloved children. The world can be a scary place.

Yet we spend the greatest part of our lives being adults, called to personal responsibility, coping, courage, commitment, motivation, and dedication.

It’s easy to feel alone. We yearn for guidance, surety.

This is where trust and faith come in. It’s about something greater than ourselves.

It’s about knowing you are Divinely guided.

It’s about knowing the turns you take in the roads of life will work together for good.

It’s about knowing God can make a way where there “is no way.”

It’s about expecting the best, and then trusting you have Divine guidance.

It’s about experiencing that life includes love - and loss.
It’s about knowing the problems are not the problems, but rather are there to bring you to strength.
The Grace is there. But for the trust, the faith.

Start now.

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How to Handle the Rest of Your Career

3/22/2019

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Having a genuine, loving attitude towards your patients makes for a happier career for the dentist. A wonderful family in our Abu Dhabi practice helps to illustrate this point.

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Happy and Successful? Relationships are Key

3/20/2019

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Success and joy in life and in dental practice are found in loving, healthy relationships with family, patients, employees, suppliers, lenders and others. Dr Chris Baker talks about cultivating these relationships in your life and profession.

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How Do You Feel?

3/18/2019

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Worry - something we all learn to do.

Worry - something that creates more worry.

Worry - something that pushes away the things you want.

Worry - something that makes you feel terrible.

Worry - Work at ridding yourself of worry.

To manifest your desires - success, joy, happiness, peace, abundance - you won’t get very far with worry in the mix.

Shift the way you feel and watch what happens. If you can get rid of thoughts of worry, you will find things to worry about will lessen and disappear.

Bob Newhart did a very funny skit about worry, called Stop It.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw) Worth a watch, as its message is timeless and true.

Taking a clue from that playbook, as you find yourself worrying, or obsessing on negatives, tell yourself, “Stop it!”

As the musical group, The Police sing, “Every move you make, every word you say, every step you take…”  Every thought you think, every word you say and every move you make is creating your future.

Dwell on the positive. Your thoughts become your life.

Le Chaim - to Life!

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Orthodontics: Going for Gorgeous

3/13/2019

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Very often, the main motivator for any dental treatment, orthodontics especially, is to look gorgeous. Good looks are a priority to the patient or her parents -- this often even taking precedence over something directly contributing to the good health of the patient... like fillings.

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Your Favorite Restaurant

3/10/2019

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Living in this luxurious amazing time, we have favorite luxuries - favorite restaurants, favorite vacation spots, favorite sports teams, favorite…

We choose food, travel, teams to cheer, movies, luxuries upon luxuries.

We spend time with news, negativity, complainers, shopping, services, confusion, worrying.

Choose to nourish yourself.

Choose your favorite nourishing and protective luxuries - like meditation, reading inspiring words, gratitude, loving and being loved more, positive people, taking in the energy and beauty of nature.

Sure - enjoy your favorite worldly luxuries, with a new and broad awareness and practice of gratitude, of love, of purpose.

Keep company with the people who challenge you, who help you get better. Choose your people wisely. Let them help you change your thoughts, beliefs and actions for the better, and reciprocate for them.

Be a person of talent and virtue, shared with others.

Be the luxury and enjoy your life’s luxuries - physical, spiritual, intellectual, financial and relational. Live a life that is an example of an exceptional life. Your favorite.

Love,

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Kicking Some Brass (Wire Ligatures)

3/7/2019

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A vexing problem, mesially ectopic molars at their worst, can cause resorption of roots and may themselves impact and never erupt. Brass wire ligatures are one option to improve the trajectory of the ectopic molar.

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Upside Down and Inside Out...

3/6/2019

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The New Wisdom in Orthodontic Treatment

For years, Orthodontic Conventional Wisdom taught us our treatment sequencing should be:

1. Level and Align, then;
2. Resolution of Transverse Discrepancies;
3. Vertical separation (disclusion) of the incisors as needed, to allow;
4. Correction of the sagittal relationship of the posterior teeth, and finally;
5. Retraction of maxillary anterior teeth and;
6. final detailing.

In his 2000 World Journal of Orthodontics article, “Ordinary Orthodontics”, James McNamara reviews these steps of conventional wisdom’s sequence and says, “It is hoped that some of the details described here as ‘ordinary orthodontics’ will contribute to the improvement of fixed appliance therapy as practiced on a daily basis.”

The New Wisdom is all turned upside down and inside out! Now we are enjoying starting treatment sequencing with Sagittal Correction of Posterior teeth, during which the incisors can be sectionally aligned if desired.

Sagittal Correction BEFORE Resolution of Transverse Discrepancies!

Sagittal Correction BEFORE Vertical Correction (though Vertical correction may be coupled with the Sagittal correction if desired.)

Sagittal Correction that changes the face for the better, and often provides vertical improvement as well.

Fantastic! is the only description that fits.

The D2 Sagittal Corrector from OrthoArch is a tool of thrills and chills in your hands. Why? Because you start with it! And your occlusion goal of Class I is reached in 3-5 months. Can you even imagine turning your Class II or Class III patient’s occlusion to a Class I treatment case?

The D2 utilizes elastics during the time of greatest compliance, at the beginning, rather than the time of least compliance, late in treatment when the patient (and parent) is tired of it all.

Upside down and inside out: The D2 allows you to help the recalcitrant patient by explaining that the braces don’t go on until THEY have completed this part of THEIR treatment.

UPSIDE DOWN and INSIDE OUT: You have just helped the patient and parent “own” their problem. When they ask, “But can he/she just go ahead and ‘start’ the braces?”, your answer can be, “As soon as he/she has completed his/her bite correction.”

WOW.

If you haven’t started treating with the New Wisdom, today is a great day to do so!

Some BTW’s for you:

- Be sure to utilize lower lingual arch in your child and adolescent patients. That leaves them only one compliance to follow - the elastics. Adding an Essix is an unnecessary burden.

- Over-correct slightly by a millimeter or so. You’ll be glad you did as you do final detailing.

- Utilize a Nance, ULA or TPA if you are not going to expander after the D2’s, just to help retain the correction you’ve got.

- Enjoy seeing your treatment times be about 12 months, OR LESS.

- Utilize Sagittal Correction in Mixed dentition !

- Utilize Sagittal correction, THEN clear aligners if you have a responsible patient whose needs are suited to aligner therapy. You’ll reduce the number of aligners needed!

It’s a New Day, with New Wisdom. You can indeed LOVE seeing the Class II or Class III malocclusion patient!

Case Explanation:

The following case shows a patient in mixed dentition with Class II malocclusion and crowding. The D2 Sagittal Correctors were chosen to correct the posterior occlusion to Class I and to create some of the arch length needed for the permanent canines and bicuspids when they erupt. Using the D2 for sagittal correction along with a lower lingual arch provided a 4-month correction to Class I. Following the sagittal correction, utility arches were used to align incisors, idealize overbite, and overjet, and further correct arch length.

The D2 appliance consists of two parts: a posterior component which has a free-floating metal bar attached and is first bonded to the six year molar. The posterior bar is cut to length and can be measured to fit any size span. The anterior component is bonded on an anterior tooth, in this case the primary first molar, after placement of the posterior bar into a reception hole in the anterior component. (These components are universal and can fit both the right and left sides.) The patient then wore elastics full-time, resulting in the sagittal correction and additional arch length.

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The World Doesn't Care

3/4/2019

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Oh, how we wish to be significant. Oh, how we wish to be important.

So we become “pleasers.” We become “approval addicts.”

And the world doesn’t care - or even notice.

We miss our own significance. We miss our own importance. We don’t appreciate our own value.

And the world doesn’t care.

The world doesn’t care whether you choose to stop here, or to go higher.

So YOU have to care.

Care enough to truly love.
Care enough to rise.
Care enough to learn and grow.

Your significance, your importance is IN YOU. You attract others who care because you truly love. Be yourself. Be YOU. Be happy.

You have to care.

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Dr Chris Baker

Dr. Chris Baker is Past President of the American Orthodontic Society, a pediatric dentist and teacher of orthodontics, An author, dental practice consultant, mentor, and a current or former faculty member of three U.S. dental schools, Dr Chris practices and blogs in beautiful Abu Dhabi, UAE, and glorious Texas, USA.

The New Wisdom in Orthodontic Treatment

Case Explanation:

Dr Chris Baker

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