Dentaltown March 2015 - (Page 14)

professional courtesy column Married to My Profession Our cover story this month connects with a topic that is near and dear to my heart: women in dentistry. According to a graphic in the Jan. 20, 2015 issue of ADA News, the 2013 dental-school graduating class was 47.2 percent female. We have made some great progress since 1995 when I graduated from SUNY at Buﬀalo School of Dental Medicine and our graduating class was comprised of only 25 percent women. Now, you might initially react with a comment like this: "What could a guy possibly understand about women in dentistry?" It all started in 1996 when I married one of my classmates from dental school. We started our careers working apart. This was more from necessity than choice. We did residencies at diﬀerent hospitals and worked as associates in diﬀerent practices in upstate New York before we made the decision to migrate to Arizona. Once we settled into our new hometown and made the decision to stay long term, we made plans to open a practice of our own. It made the most sense to combine our eﬀorts and have the ability to control our schedule. During the 13 years that we have been in pratice together, the question that I hear most often from patients is a version of this: "What's it like working with your wife?" or "How can you work with your wife all day?" I tell them the simple truth-when we are busy working with our patients, we actually spend very little time together at work, and when we are at home, we rarely spend time talking about teeth. I will say that when we do share a dental story at home, it's refreshing to share it with someone who understands the challenges and frustrations associated with our profession. I think that some couples struggle to understand each other when they have diﬀerent careers. From the beginning, we developed a division of responsibilities that was eﬀective for maintaining peace at home and in the oﬃce. I handle all of the ﬁnances and management of the practice and my wife is always on top of matters with our family at home. Since we opened the practice, we would work together only two days a week and be alone the other three. This was done in part to keep the practice open ﬁve days a week but also to accommodate our children. We had two very young children when we opened the practice and another was born during our ﬁrst year in business. It was a true blessing to allow my wife as much time oﬀ as she needed and I had some days home with the kids once she came back to work. To this day, we are able to adjust our schedules to take turns picking up the kids at school, attending sporting events or spending time at home when they have a day oﬀ. When I ask my wife what she enjoys most about our profession, she tells me that having the ability to be ﬂexible with her schedule when our kids were babies was at the top of her list. She also enjoys the ability to make a good living while working part time-she's in the oﬃce three days per week. Dentistry can be great for women, and women are great for dentistry. My wife said that some patients prefer women and she believes that a female dentist can sometimes relate better to an oﬃce staﬀ. I will say it is a blessing to be married to my business partner. We have a wonderful team to support us and we have patients who will see one or the other or both of us. I hope you enjoy our Women in Dentistry section, which starts on page 86. Please share your comments online at Dentaltown.com. Reach me by email: tom@ dentaltown.com or on Twitter: @ddsTom. ■ Who are the women in dentistry who have inspired you? Comment at Dentaltown.com/magazine. by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine 14 MARCH 2015 // dentaltown.com http://www.Dentaltown.com http://twitter.com/ddstom http://www.dentaltown.com/Dentaltown/Article.aspx?i=384&aid=5271 http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown March 2015

On Dentaltown.com
Howard Speaks: 20 Feet from Stardom: Delegate like Jagger
Professional Courtesy: Married to My Profession
Continuing Education Update
Help Me Treatment Plan This Case
CBCT Technology: What Will the Future Bring?
New Luting Composite: Variolink Esthetic
Cone Beam 3D—Is It Really for Me?
Four Digital Marketing Mistakes that Impede Practice Growth
New Products
Poll
From Scaling to Therapy: A Day in the Life of a Dental Hygienist
The Value of a Dental Practice: Why Tracking “Attributable” Expenses Matters
I am Seeing a Lot of HPV Lesions in the Mouth Lately; What is the Protocol, Remove Them or What?
Dental Podcasts: What They Are and How They Work
Service Profi le: Garfi eld Refi ning
CE: Posterior Maxilla Implant Rehabilitation: A Challenging Task
Product Profile: Dentsply Caulking
Women in Dentistry: Intro
Women in Dentistry: Work/Life Balance: Flexibility and Creative Scheduling Go a Long Way
Women in Dentistry: The Lucy Hobbs Project
Women in Dentistry: Female Dentists in Conservative Muslim Nations Face Challenges and Threats
Women in Dentistry: The American Association of Women Dentists: Representing Women from Products to Leadership
Ad Index
Women in Dentistry: Q&A
Women in Dentistry: The Sky's the Limit: Hygienist Turned Entrepreneur Shows What's Possible
Product Profi le: SmartBox
Dentally Incorrect

Dentaltown March 2015