You gotta have heart?


The title is taken from a  song from Damn Yankees, You gotta have heart".  Sometimes when I'm teaching at NYU College of Dentistry, I witness the way students handle adversity. Since it probably takes about ten years to truly master dentistry, most experience adversity and even failure on a regular basis. The trick is to not give up. Those destined to become excellent dentists just keep plugging away and don't give up hope. In fact much learning takes place by analyzing why things go wrong. Thomas Edison said it best when responding to a question about all his failures while inventing the incandescent light bulb. He didn't really fail but he had tried 1000 things that didn't work. This philosophy should be applied to dentistry as well.

As dentists we try performing procedures many different ways and to come up with a more perfect recipe we often need to try techniques that don't provide the optimal results we are looking for. That being said it is necessary to recognize our "failures" and keep striving for a more perfect solution. Character is a trait that in my mind is a prerequisite for truly great dentists. They must recognize their shortcomings and continue to strive to be the best dentists they can be.

Last week I went to my son David's white coat ceremony and there is a part where the students recite a pledge that they will put their patients needs first. The pledge, although somewhat corny should be a dentists primary mission: To help their patients and to do their very  best to maintain their oral heath. Pleasing an employer, making tons of money or driving a fancy car is really beside the point. Helping  patients by providing the best dentistry possible should be our primary mission.

The pleasure in dentistry is that we can, through our mastery of dental skills often accomplish this goal and really make a difference. Having this  purpose in life is to my mind one of the secrets to living a happy and meaningful life.

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2020/02/you-gotta-have-heart.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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