Dental Info

 Yesterday was my last day working before my week off.  Our office will reopen Monday August 31rst. I am spending the next week in Woods Hole revisiting my old summer stomping grounds. This year I probably will enjoy life in the slow lane and decompress. Woods Hole was where my family spent entire summers when I was growing up. We had a small boat and I went fishing , played tennis , and probably spent too much time baking on the beach. This time I will be attending an old friends funeral, Paul Gross. Paul was a scientist, violinist, sailor and former director of the Marine Biology Laboratories in Woods Hole. My father  and Paul shared a lab summertimes with him when I was young.  They had a giant fish tanks with sea urchins and lobsters and the research they did allowed us to spend summers there. Some of the lobsters even  ended up on our dinner table. My father also love to take us fishing for flounders , puffers and scup. We often returned from these o...

 The truth is rather simple..At this point I try and maintain a work/life balance. I am working 2 1/2 days per week in my office and one day per week being an attending dentist at Mount Sinai's dental residency program. While the news I read daily in newspapers is truly concerning , it seems that most or all of the events depicted are out of my individual control. Accordingly, I stick to what I know best, dentistry. I am fixing the world one tooth at a time and it gives my life more meaning. I still find dentistry satisfying  and the patients I am treating or supervising treatment (at Sinai) depend on me .  I plan on working as long as my health and stamina allow.  My son David is seeing his own schedule , one day a week in our practice and I expect that as time goes he will get to know all my patients and eventually it is my hope that he will be willing and able to take over the practice , when the time is right. Mean while, I enjoy my interactions with patients and...

 We have always made our hard guards without tissue contact and most times we use full maxillary coverage. Most times we specify two metal ball clasps between the first molar and second bicuspid. These clasps can be adjusted if needed to tighten the fit of a loose night guard (night guards tend to wear and get   looser with time. We still use a lab that knows how to fabricate these guards using an analog manner  but are using digital impressions to capture both arches and the bite. Our lab uses a 3D printed model and then applys the metal ball clasps and applies cold cure acrylic. These 'hybrid' nightguards seem to combine the 'old' tried and true lab techniques with newer digital techniques for taking the impression and fabricating a 3D printed model.  These guards require less effort to fit to patients mouths and patients seem to be very satisfied with their fit. They seem to fit more passively with less discomfort due to the tightness that many patients compl...

 Most weeks I am working a full schedule on Monday and Tuesday. David is seeing patients on Thursday. Some Thursdays I am in the office, but mostly I am not seeing patients. Fridays I spend time as an Attending Dentist at the Mount Sinai Dental Residency. Occasionally if I am performing a lengthy procedure I see a patient or two on Wednesday. My assistant Jennifer is answering our office phone on Wednesdays. My goal is to come into the office no more than three days each week.  As a recovering Liver Transplant patient, my doctors have advised me to limit my work to 4 days per week. Having Wednesdays off seems to agree with me and Thursdays I spend time on clerical office matters for the most part. I understand that my 'limited' schedule may frustrate some people, but for now its what I can do. from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2026/04/what-days-are-you-in-office.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

 It really depends on the dentist and his practice. I personally enjoy doing some of our patients cleanings. Historically  I have always been open to accepting hygiene appointments and find it a good way of connecting with our patients.  That being the case, many dentists choose to employ hygienist to do their patients recare appointments in order to free up time for them to do their restorative dental or other more challenging and lucrative procedures. For most of my career I have employed hygienists to perform some of the cleanings for my patients. This was an efficient way to handle recare and most paitents like having a hygienist clean their teeth. Still some patients seemed to prefer my cleanings and the time I would spend with them. When my son David has joined our practice, He also accepted hygiene appointments. As a matter of fact, recently when my long time hygienist left, we decided not to  replace her and My son and I have been able to absorb her patient...

 In the last 10 years or so , it has never been easier to deliver both excellent and time efficent dentistry for my patients. New technologies and materials have made this true. At this point, for most crowns I utilize either Zirconium or lithium dislicate materials to fabricate monolithic crowns , that are easier to fit and more durable than the older pfms that I utilized. While I still schedule one hr for fitting my crowns, truth be told, they now rarely require the full hr and often are completed and my patient dismissed in about 35-45 mins. Also digital radiographs, 3d scanning and AI , when used properly, are terrific tools that make a dentists easier. All of our technologies still require skill and judgment to provide optimal outcomes, but I am convinced that when properly utilized these tools make dentists better at achieving great results for our patients. Our office doesn't do single visit permanent crowns since the labs I use probably provide a higher quality result the...