August 2008 | Vol. 84, No. 8
Dennis Engel, DDS
WDA Journal Editor

It’s August and the summer of 2008 has finally arrived.

We’re well into the cultural festival season in Milwaukee; music of all types is echoing off the buildings downtown and living on the lakefront is easy. On the other side of town, the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team is embroiled in an exciting pennant race.

The summer I turned 16, my favorite songs were “Oh Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison and “I Get Around” by the Beach Boys. I remember driving our white Corvair, windows down, through the neighborhood with a transistor radio on the dash turned up full volume. The Braves baseball team left town a few years prior for greener pastures in Atlanta. Life didn’t seem easy to me at the time, but it was much simpler.

In those days, most stores were closed on Sundays, TV programming on all five stations stopped at midnight and gas was 25 cents per gallon. Becoming a dentist was the furthest thing from my mind, but I do remember my dentist had a receptionist and a hygienist.

Things have certainly changed over the years, haven’t they? Nothing is closed on Sundays, we have over 200 TV channels to choose from 24 hours a day, gas is over four dollars a gallon and I don’t have a favorite song in 2008.

Over the years, various dental factions have tried to change the makeup of the dental team to no avail. We have had non-professionals try to run professional corporations and we have struggled with the independent practice of dental
hygiene and lesser-trained individuals given the ability to perform “simple” dental procedures.

But surprisingly, for the most part one thing still remains constant. The dental team is still lead by the dentist and still includes a receptionist/office managing team and dental hygienist. The dental team has grown to include office managers, financial arrangers, dental assistants and dental therapists. Each part not more important then the other allows the dental team to work efficiently, ethically and professionally to provide the highest quality of care this world has ever seen.

This reminds me of a quote by the great baseball legend Babe Ruth, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” Knowing Babe Ruth’s life story, you wouldn’t think he would have such insight.

But this quote, like the successful dental team, has withstood the test of time with very few changes. We have added more players and expanded some of their duties, but the truth is the best dental team has the dentist as the team leader.

Gas prices will probably limit your cruising on the back roads in your car with the windows down and the volume up, but do the next best thing. Gather your favorite CDs, go in the backyard, turn up the volume and enjoy the music.

Don’t think of messing with the dental team; it is fine just as it is.