Orthotown May 2017 - 35

a Combo
Adults want quick results and faster
treatment times-which means aligners
alone might not be the best option
Have you ever noticed that among
our orthodontic peers, we seemingly
know how to do everything? I'm not
talking about just tipping and torquing
teeth-I mean everything.
I was recently at a local orthodontic meeting, eating breakfast before
lectures began, and was impressed
by the far-ranging subjects of conversations at the table. Topics included
everything from woodwork, aviation
and investments to home electronics
and parenting. We aren't just dabblers
in these pursuits outside the oral cavity.
In fact, I don't think self-ligating
brackets were even mentioned once.

Orthodontists like to
dig deep into specifics
Orthodontists, in my experience,
are the living embodiment of the
phrase, "If you want something done
right, do it yourself." When we discover
something interesting, we dive deep to
learn everything about a subject. We
subscribe to industry magazines and
are all over the web-both learning and
posting articles. We join organizations
in these fields to learn, teach and lead.
To nonorthodontists, it may appear
that the practice of orthodontics is so
easy and guaranteed to produce wealth

that orthodontists use these outside
hobbies to stave off boredom. In my
opinion, it's not boredom that pushes
orthodontists into such disparate
hobbies-it's our specialist nature.
As specialists in the field of dentistry, we've learned the intricacies and
nuances of a specific subset of dental
treatments. It becomes our internal
neural programming to look at anything
interesting and try to discover all the
subtleties of a small subset.
Thus, those conversations at breakfast weren't about "woodworking"
but about turning wood on a lathe to
create beautiful wooden bowls. They
weren't conversations about "planes,"
but rather instrument approaches in a
single-engine Turbo Cessna 182 into
the airport in Van Nuys, California.
Our specialist nature drives us to take
what we learn and experience in our
practice-both at the level of the teeth
and listening to our patients' needs
and wants-and to develop improved
treatment modalities.
In the competitive and quickly
changing environment where my
practice is, we've been watching forces
in our field playing out. Patients'
demands for quicker treatment
delivered during consumer hours,

by Blair Feldman, DMD, MS, MSEd
Blair Feldman,
DMD, MS, MSEd,
is a graduate of
the University of
Pennsylvania School
of Dental Medicine
and the University
of Detroit Mercy
Department of Orthodontics. Feldman
divides his time among his practices in
Scottsdale and Surprise, Arizona, and the
Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health
in Mesa, Arizona, where he is an adjunct
faculty member. He recently received a
Gini Award from Smiles Change Lives for
donating treatment to disadvantaged
patients.

orthotown.com \\ MAY 2017

35
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