Are You still working?


Its interesting when a generation X or a millennial collides with a baby boomer. I personally am a young baby boomer (64).and the other day I went to a visit to a specialist doctor who was in his early forties. He asked me if I was still working  and he asked where I practiced as well. I replied that I was still practicing in Manhattan.

He looked surprised by my answer and I  am not sure whether I should be flattered or insulted by his question and surprised reaction. My gut feeling is that the generations that follow the baby boomers can't wait for us to retire and make more room for their generation Unfortunately for them, many of us feel no obligation to give up our careers and explore a non forced retirement. Short of a medical condition that impairs with my ability to perform, I see no good reason to seek an "early retirement" since I find my career and work to be engrossing and frankly retirement and the lack of responsibility that goes with it,  is not all that attractive to me. Furthermore, continuing education and learning to incorporate new technology keeps me engaged and keeps dentistry fresh.

Going into work and treating my patients is a responsibility I welcome, since I find that serving a useful function in my community gives my life continued meaning and keeps me from pondering the issues of my eventual mortality as well.

As to the generations that follow, I offer the following advice.  If you are fortunate, you will  get to my age or older, and at that point you may understand us better . I remember how I felt about my elders when I was younger, but my feelings are modified now that I have gotten older. It is a basic truth that we sometimes don't understand others, who are different, until we ourselves experience what they have.

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2017/10/are-you-still-working.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of
Read more

Tongue Ties: What Parents Need to Know

Image
For a long time, people just didn’t seem to know much about tongue ties. In the early years of my practice, few of my patients had ever heard of a tongue tie. When I pointed out that they or their children might be tongue tied, I was often the very first practitioner who’d mentioned it to them. When I told them that a tongue tie might actually be the root cause of their oral myofunctional issues, or even their sleep apnea , I’m sure that some of them thought I was crazy. But in the last few years, things have changed so much! Initially, there was a small increase in the number of patients who were contacting me specifically about tongue ties. Dentists and orthodontists also began reaching out more frequently to discuss the application of myofunctional therapy exercises to tongue tie treatment. But in the last year or so, that little bit of interest has become a surge of awareness. Tongue ties and their effects on health and craniofacial development are finally becoming mainstream.
Read more