Adapt and Overcome
Team Pfister has been adapting to changes in orthodontics for over 36 years.
In the past few weeks’ Team Member Spotlights, I introduced you to my Orthodontic Smile Team. During our 36 years in practice, we have amassed a combined 211 years of experience in orthodontics (including myself).
Through the years, we have been to hundreds of courses and listened to hundreds (if not thousands) of lectures to stay educated on the newest and greatest approaches to moving teeth and helping patients create their unique smiles. Through education, we have changed old procedures and developed new, more efficient ones that minimize discomfort and maximize orthodontic therapy.
Yes, there have been a lot of changes in orthodontics…
From full bands around a tooth to single one-point bracket attachments, growing jaws instead of cutting them, moving teeth with clear trays versus brackets and wires. Some of these changes were implemented quickly, while others took more time and energy to get them off the ground. But through these last three decades, patient comfort, reducing cost, and producing more stable results have all been our goals of change.
As I was reflecting on how changes occur in our lives (both planned and unplanned), I couldn’t help but reflect on our current Covid situation.
I have read at various times over the years that the end of mankind will not be at the end of a gun barrel or nuclear holocaust, but rather from a bug or, better-stated, germ warfare. Covid 19 has definitely shown the weaknesses in our worlds’ viral defense program! We basically got caught with our proverbial pants down, totally unprepared. Even though we have gone through outbreaks before - AIDS is just one recent example - we obviously didn’t learn or take to heart the possibility of encountering a more virulent bug. We have the CDC, but even they were caught unprepared and with no rapid deployment systems to protect the public and defeat the intruders.
We have outsourced so much of our manufacturing that when stuff hits the fan, we couldn’t produce enough toilet paper, masks, or hand sanitizers to protect our citizens! This has been a tough education for all of us, most especially our leadership in Washington. Hopefully, positive changes will occur that will protect us in the future from an even more virulent visitor that may reach our shores. As we have seen over the summer, when the chips are down and things go South, mankind is a resourceful lot and we know that necessity is the mother of invention! I hope, through all these challenges, our attention to personal protection and cleanliness and ability to create antibodies and vaccines in short order will be greatly improved!
Yes, this has been a deadly virus for some, an inconvenience for others, and a financial windfall for a few. I hope my readers have taken the time over these last seven months to take stock of what is truly important in their lives. I would be surprised if you didn’t learn a few ways to live your life a bit more simply (and probably healthier) as we slowed down and enjoyed our family around us during the quarantine.
They say we are what we eat. But I feel it’s in the unique personalities we bring, in taking time to mentor our youth, and in our efforts to make this world a better one… that is our Defining Legacy.
This weekend, go out and watch a sunrise or sunset, hike a trail or sit on a hillside and take in the sights and sounds of a Pure Ohio Fall. Let the aroma of dried leaves, crisp temperatures, and a kaleidoscope of natural colors awaken your Soul, so you can take stock of how lucky you are to be you.
- Dr. Pfister