Editor - Publisher Statement
The ProsStars Newsletter
began publication in April 1995. 35 issues were published in the paper
format, which ended one year ago. Five issues of the online newsletter
have been published since. The five are archived at this site for your
convenience and review. The interest of the reader totally drives any
publication. If there are reader subscriptions they indicate interest
and in part pay for publication and mailing. A free online vehicle does
not provide the same feedback or any expense money, and although
accounting for numbers of “hits” is possible, such tracking comes at a
greatly added expense...Getting no feedback tells us that there's
plenty to read elsewhere, plenty of TV to see, enough scientific
information out there to fill available study hours, and most of all,
little interest in “issues”, issues which aren't important enough to
get all stirred up about anyway. Dentistry and its specialties cruise
along with little interruption and few crises. So “if it ain’t broke,
why fix it?”...
OK, another “issue” follows, but we’ll have to see some reader
interest, or it isn't worth having a debate with ourselves just to
produce a pretty website. A newsletter the likes of which is not seen
elsewhere; published five times a year; received at no cost and read in
a matter of minutes is really quite a deal! Does anyone but the editor
and publisher think so?
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CHANGE ENGINES
A good time to think about change is at year’s end and at the beginning of a new year. Happy New Year!
In today's world the way organizations, corporations, political groups,
schools and yes, even practices want to show progress and betterness is
by extolling their “change engines.” Along with this they will want to
make sure their own particular “leadership abilities” are well defined
and bringing about change. (Leadership may be a topic for a future ProsStars Newsletter.)
Each group will be sure to emphasize that they invented “change”, and
they will want to ensure that you pay attention to their manner of it.
After all, we pay good money to travel to dental meetings, one day
clinics, and short courses, just to hear another guru’s version of
change, be it technical or managerial, even if they have nothing new to
say or teach. And if that guru is a snappy, well dressed and well known
clinician with the right visual aids, or an office manager who isn't
that bad looking herself, we will be even more eager to hear them. The
most important of all is the new dean or the new department head or the
new commanding officer in the military! They will assure you that what
has gone on before was just a “preparation” for their new style of
change, a change which will immortalize them in that particular
organization.
Every business vehicle including the Wall Street Journal, Smart Money,
Fortune and Forbes magazines; and the latest in business books (The Change Management Handbook, Lance Berper, Embrace Change, Kent Bent, 20 books on Change
listed in the Achiever Newsletter) is attempting to enlighten you how
you should change for the better. Did you know you need all of this
information on change?
The loads of information on change can become bothersome and
repetitive! But let’s cut to the chase. All of life from day one and
from every day thereon is a series of changes. We’ll help ourselves if
we categorize our everyday changes and break them down to be better
understood. As we see it there are several effects of change to be
considered and they are:
• personal changes: effects from growth, education, moves, family, marriage, divorce, friends, and influences from injury and disease.
• changes from invention:
new developments such as TV, computers, cell phones, jet travel,
teaching aids, credit cards, automobiles, drugs and drug therapies,
Internet communications, package and mail transport, air conditioning
and refrigeration, and a host of minor new developments occurring so
fast that obsolescence becomes almost commonplace.
• systems changes:
your medical insurance sells out to a different carrier with different
programs and benefits; your route to work is being reworked and you are
detoured; your stops at the bank are now at ATMs and online; your dean
eliminates your department and combines others; your airline
reservations are now online and not personally carried out with an
agent; you drive through the toll booth with a EZ-pass; you run a gamut
of menus when wanting telephone information.
Personal Changes
If
you stop to think about it, most personal changes are a result of fate.
You didn't select your parents or where you born. Your friends happened
to be those placed next to you at school or living close by in your
neighborhood. You and your mate just happened to be in the same locale
at the same time and you both experienced an attraction for each other
that came without great plan. You won’t have the option to choose the
bug or the accident that will end your life. In summary, personal
changes happen, but you can’t affect them much.
New Developments
New
inventions will arrive faster than you can process them. You will learn
to use some of them and find advantages in many of them. These are what
add up to progress in our lives. They often make our work and our
personal lives easier and less strenuous. Would you rather be driving a
horse and buggy or a Mercedes S-500? Would you rather stand in line for
a pay phone or dial up your call on your cellular phone anyplace,
anytime. New developments are what offer excitement and interest in our
lives.
Systems Changes
These
are the changes to pay attention to. You may not be able to see them
coming. You may not be able to control them. But from time to time you
will be involved in them and they will grossly frustrate you. They will
affect your life so much that it will be changed forever, usually
adversely.
Aren’t we lucky that in our independent practices there is no frequent
leadership change, probably never in the life of the practice. Ah...one
of the great benefits of dentistry and the dental specialties: we are
our own bosses; our own leaders; our own CEOs; and our own Board
Chairmen. In addition, there have not been too many technical changes
to quickly overwhelm us. Fluoridation, the high speed handpiece and
implant dentistry are our most important changes technically in the
past fifty years. Luckily, minor dental materials improvements, gleaned
mainly from industry and the dental manufacturers have made our lives
easier at the chair and our techniques more acceptable by our patients.
A great systems change in our practices? Usually not, because we are in
control and we establish a system we can live with. Personnel changes
are the most frequent happenings in our practices and we usually fit
them into our systems without difficulty and without changing the
system.
Adverse Systems Changes in Dentistry and Its Specialties
Contrary
to a private practitioner’s good fortune, try navigating the changes
that come about from the elimination of a dental school department.
Consolidation with a new department head, new secretaries, new
telephone numbers, remodeled or new work spaces and clinics and a new
set of competitors for academic advancement are the usual changes. For
certain those are adverse change that need much individual adjustment.
What's worse is when the university president or its board of trustee
decides to shut down, eliminate, delete, vaporize the university's
school or college of dentistry. If you like teaching and depend on it
for a partial livelihood you are affected terribly by such change. Your
life changes; your livelihood changes and you can do little about it.
But do you know who likes it? The physicians and the medical school
like it, because what dentistry had the medics now have. Winner takes
all! Just ask the Georgetown University School of Dentistry's faculty
if this isn't true?
Or try comprehending what is happening in the military today. Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has instructed the Armed Services to
“transform” themselves, changing the nature of forces as to their tactics and doctrines with changes in the processes of force management. The intent of his transformation is to instigate new strategies using all of the services together to meet the threats of tomorrow's war. Now
what in the world would this have to do with military dental care?
Here's what: the military administrative hierarchies decided that money
and manpower could be saved by merging dental activities and commands
into those of medical. We in dentistry clearly understand that our
profession is separate and apart from that of medicine; and that we
have separate academic and research institutions and practices usually
apart from those of medicine. Dentistry is not, repeat not, a specialty
of medicine. Did Secretary Rumsfeld or the military line leaders ever
think of this or did his directions ever imply that “force management
strategies” should filter all of the way down to dental care. Very
probably not! It’s doubtful that he gave any instructions related to
dentistry. But the Armed Forces’ medical people took it and ran with
it, seeing the opportunity to do away with dentistry as we know it. Now
we have a very adverse systems change causing careers to be ruined,
wastes of training, lifetime goals altered beyond repair, and no
recourse available for the military dentists intimately involved. In a
very short while there will be no Army or Navy Dental Corps, at least
corps standing on their own, managing themselves and being solely
accountable for their missions. No, now the service’s Medical Corps
will now get the credit, and the money, and the promotions.
The Lesson to Be Learned
The lesson in the above two examples is this: don’t be complacent in
dentistry, especially knowing many of our deans intend to make “little
physicians” out of us. Don’t be complacent in dentistry's
perfectionism; doing everything correctly, with less, with great
promise from our financial successes. With the costs of medical care
rising astronomically the legislators; the deans; and the physicians
working within the health plans, in our universities, in the military
and in government all salivate when they look at dentistry's successes.
They quickly conclude that dentistry has to be part of the problem and
they can make it “the” problem with little effort. They see us as a nit
on an elephants back, and what little good we do should quickly be
picked off. Is this a paranoid viewpoint? Who knows, but just watch
your backside dentistry. Change happens! NDW
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The passing of a Quiet Giant
Dr. Alex Koper died quietly and comfortably at home on December 4, 2004.
Alex was born on January 15, 1917. He attended UCLA, later receiving
his Bachelor of Science degree from USC. He graduated from the USC
School of Dentistry in 1942. He entered the Army and was stationed in
the Pacific on the island of Guam. Following his World War II service
he returned to Los Angeles and practiced in Inglewood for many years
before relocating to West Los Angeles.
He was one of the first candidates to challenge the newly formed
American Board of Prosthodontics. He was a Charter Fellow of the
American College of Prosthodontists. He served on its first Board of
Directors and was its president in 1972. In addition to the ACP his
professional activities included: founder and president of the
Federation of Prosthodontic Organizations, founder and member of the
Academy of Esthetic Dentistry, president of the Pacific Coast Society
for Prosthodontics, member of the Academy of Prosthodontics, member of
the Academy of Fixed Prosthodontics, and president and editorial
consultant of the Los Angeles Dental Society.
Alex directed the USC Odontic Seminar for forty years. He established
the Advanced Prosthodontic Education program at USC, one of the first
on the West Coast. Along with past USC Dean, Howard Landesman, he
expanded USC’s Department of Continuing Dental Education to include an
international program. In this capacity he lectured and created
participation courses all over the world.
In his personal life Alex was an accomplished pianist, a wine
connoisseur, and avid bicyclist. His sense of humor was unexcelled. He
was known for his honesty and integrity as a husband, father,
prosthodontist, teacher and friend. He was generous with his time, and
his clear insight, wisdom, and knowledge created a great passion for
success in prosthetic dentistry. These positive attributes leave a
legacy which will continue for generations in dentistry and the
specialty of prosthodontics.
Alex Koper will be sorely missed.
Information provided by Roy Yanase with thanks.
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