Happy New Year! My wish for you, your family, and your dental team is a New Year filled with all of God's blessings! This is the season for making steadfast resolutions that are usually headlined with losing weight. All kidding aside, this is a great time of the year to choose our future rather than the future that will just happen if we do nothing to change it.
I will not spend a lot of time on goal–setting because there are many books and articles that do a much better job; however, from my experience, intentional written goals are fulfilled and unwritten goals are not.
If you look on the spine of your copy of DE, you will note that this is Vol. No. 100. This means that Dental Economics® is 100 years old this year! When I was in dental school, it was named Oral Hygiene and was the same size as Reader's Digest. The name was changed to Dental Economics® in 1967 before the magazine was purchased by PennWell®. We are proud that DE is the only advertising–supported dental magazine that is 100 years old. For those of you who are interested in history, we will provide some during this significant anniversary year.
Be sure to read the 2009 Fee Survey article by Rick Willeford, MBA, CPA, CFP®. This year's survey was compiled from 25,000 dental offices throughout the United States. This gives DE the largest number of offices ever used by any magazine for a dental fee survey. The numbers you see in the charts will be the most accurate ever!This was accomplished with the help of the Academy of Dental CPAs (www.ADCPA.org) and the Henry Schein Dental Company (www.HenrySchein.com). The survey article will give you more information than before.
In addition to the great information in the article and charts, you will also be able to find fees by your zip code, so that you can mine deeper and find specific data for your area. To go from the global to the “specific” numbers, Henry Schein Dental has graciously teamed up with the ADCPA and Dental Economics® to allow you access to its new Fee Analyzer through www.dentistryiq.com, our new Web portal. Enter the first three digits of your area code to find specific fees for your area.
Last August, I attended the “RDH Under One Roof” meeting. I introduced Dr. Richard Nagelberg to a room full of dental hygienists and stayed for his two–hour seminar. His presentation was full of the latest information on the connection between gingival inflammation and our general health. I soon found myself taking notes like crazy!I had lunch with Richard and we discussed the information he had presented. I was so fascinated that I went to Nashville, Tenn., to visit the Oral DNA Labs to get even more information. I have been a fan of Dr. Nagelberg's for a number of years. He is a general dentist from Philadelphia who has a great style of teaching that enables him to help his audience to clearly understand difficult information. I asked him to write a monthly column for DE, starting this month. Don't miss it!
Dr. Joe Massad will be writing a monthly column that will be on the last page of the magazine. His topic will be tips that you can use in your office every day. As a bonus, the tip will also appear as a video on dentistryiq.com every month. So, you can read it and then see it in action!After a two–year absence, I am bringing back John McGill, MBA, CPA, JD, to write about financial matters. John is well known to DE readers. John has written for us for 22 years, the longest tenure of any of our DE authors. Welcome back, John! We all look forward to your return this month and every month.
I have one more change to tell you about. We have decided to change our covers this year. We will no longer be featuring a dentist on the DE cover each month. Look for continuing coverage of outstanding dental offices in the magazine, but not on the cover.
All of us at PennWell® thank you for being loyal readers of DE. We are proud to be the best read dental–management magazine in the dental industry. Please let me know if we can be of more service to you. The best way to reach me is by e–mail at [email protected].
joe Blaes, DDS, Editor — email: [email protected]
Toll-free phone number (866) 274-4500
