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Thinking Clearly | The Smile Squad #1
By Dr. Jesse Ritter
Accurate decision making is key to life.
Multiple times per week I sit down with patients to discover their goals, educate them on their current dental health, discuss consequences of non-treatment and review what is possible for their dental health.
Once a patient has decided they want to be healthy and that a significant amount of dental work is necessary to make that happen, we come to an important question:
Doc, what are my choices here?
Option #1 - Universally, there is always the option to do nothing. That doesn't get you to your goals but it's certainly an option. Always.
Option #2 - Move forward with the recommended dental treatment. Intentionally diagnose, plan and execute to reach a desired end result. Fantastic.
But there's a third option that often gets missed and almost always needs to be brought to the forefront:
Option #3 - Do all of the recommended dental treatment AND MORE over the next 10, 20 or 30+ years. Because things are being left unaddressed things will progress. Over that time period you'll likely deal with multiple dental emergencies, break some teeth and potentially lose some teeth. You'll likely spend several hours in a dental chair multiple times per year to react to and fix things that are "broken". Over the long term, you'll end up doing all of the dentistry and the end result will NOT BE A DESIRED END RESULT. It'll be a hodge podge of single tooth treatment. Mismatched crowns and an uneven bite. Nobody wants that.
You will have spent more money, more time and end up with a worse result. Not only that, you will have missed out on the years of enjoyment that dental health provides. Potentially, you may have lived all of those years avoiding being photographed or keeping your mustache long just to avoid the pain of looking at your teeth. That's no way to live.
The life-permeating moral of the story is this: When you don't make decisions based on accurate knowledge of the ACTUAL CHOICE you are making, it is almost impossible to choose wisely.
I believe it's vitally important to take the time to walk patients through achieving ideal dental health and quality of life. This is why I regularly offer an entire hour of my time with patients to discuss their dental health and life goals, educate them on how we can reach them together and offer up potential solutions to getting what they want.
Her last day with us was May 17th. She was with us for 3 1/2 years. Brittany received an incredible opportunity with Henry Schein and had to take it. She'll be moving her family to Tennessee in a few months once her training is complete. We were very saddened by her departure but are incredibly proud of her for this accomplishment. I wish you all the success in the World Britt!
Her first day with us was May 23rd.
She has been with us for over 3 months now (hard to believe Dana).
You'll likely speak to one of these two ladies when you call. :)
Hope's first day with us is this coming Monday, June 6th.
Due to staffing shortages up to this point, Dr. Weller's availability has been greatly reduced. Over the coming weeks we will likely get back to him having availability on Thursdays. I appreciate your understanding during this transition and we are doing everything we can to accommodate a pleasant transition to our office for Dr. Weller's patients.
In Service,
Dr. Jesse Ritter
