PAGD Keystone Explorer Spring 2020

Keystone Explorer |  Spring 2020  1 from the editor’s desk | Creativity as an individual – It’s when all you have is an avocado, peanut butter, and a packet of gelatin and you were asked to bring a dessert to the party. When you blend your esthetic and Tetris skills to reorganize your storage garage/meditation space on a limited budget. It’s the daily problem solving skills of life that we take for granted. Creativity as a clinician – It’s when you have a large restoration that requires some “original” use of a matrix band. When your chubby-cheeked patient, with a strong gag reflex needs treatment on a second lower molar. When your emergency broken front tooth needs to look presentable for her engagement photo-shoot this afternoon. We have all found ourselves in these types of situations as dentists, when you think, “they didn’t teach us this in dental school,” but somehow we use the resources we are given and get the job done. Creativity as a business owner – It’s when your patients need treatment that they can’t afford, and you find ways to stage their treatment to accommodate their budget. When an employee calls out of work last minute, you shift schedules and utilize the skills of those available to continue with your workday. And when a pandemic closes down the office for an indefinite amount of time, you find ways to keep your practice afloat, your employees dedicated, and your patients loyal. This pandemic has our daily lives maximally disrupted and while we can’t help but feel scared, anxious, and outright stressed, it is forcing us to get creative. Disruption will foster innovation, and my belief is that it’s this innovation that will help us through and also get us out of this mess. We need to think outside of the box, and now, we have plenty of time to do just that…think. Share your creativity and innovation with each other. For this audience particularly, the PAGD website discussion forums will give you access to Pennsylvania dentists who are being given the same legal restrictions as you. You may find a colleague right down the road who will give you a socially distanced pat on the back and help you to problem solve in a way you couldn’t imagine on your own. It’s not often that we can relate to each other so well as this global situation has threatened our most basic needs. Use the communicative technology that we have available to us to help dentistry come out on the other side a newer, stronger, smarter profession. MariaGarubba, DMD, FAGD Editor, PAGD Keystone Explorer Turning Crisis into Creation MariaGarubba, DMD, FAGD “Disruption will foster innovation, and my belief is that it’s this innovation that will help us through and also get us out of this mess.”