Westchester Oral Surgery - October 2019

Westchester Oral Surgery - October 2019

2975 Westchester Avenue, Suite G02, Purchase, NY 10577

• www.oralsurgeryofwestchester.com

A Hero for Every Generation WITH GREAT POWER

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Every October, crowds of pop culture icons and comic book fans descend on New York for New York Comic Con. With the biggest celebration of nerdom on the East Coast happening in my own backyard, I couldn’t resist letting my inner geek out this month. Like any good origin story, our tale starts in the ‘60s. In August 1962, Marvel Comics published the final issue of “Amazing Fantasy.” This short-lived anthology series would have likely been forgotten by time had that last issue not introduced the greatest superhero ever: Spider-Man. I wouldn’t discover the famed webslinger until a few decades later, when I was a kid at sleep-away camp. That summer, I spent a lot of time in the infirmary because I wasn’t feeling well. To pass the

“I’d like to think there’s something optimistic in how many people love ‘Spider-Man’ stories.”

time, I started reading Marvel comics. There was a pretty solid selection available, including “X-Men” and “Fantastic Four,” but my favorite by far was “Spider-Man.” Peter Parker was one of the first comic book teenagers who got to be a hero and not someone’s sidekick. As a kid, I identified with him best. He was a teenager who had to deal with school and homework and girl problems — plus he was very smart and a badass. Add in the superhero stuff, and was there any kid who didn’t want to be Spider-Man? Being a lifelong Spider-Man fan means riding with the highs and lows of the character. While the movies can be hit or miss, I love them all. There’s something about seeing your childhood hero brought to life that never gets old. I can’t pick my favorite movie, but I can say that of all the actors, Tom Holland’s performance as Spidey is the best iteration. You really believe he’s just a kid from Queens trying to do the right thing, which is wild when you remember the actor is British!

last two decades. The cynical part of me could say it’s a cash grab and that no one makes anything new anymore, but I’d like to think there’s something optimistic in how many people love “Spider-Man” stories. He was not a superhero who was born with his powers, like Superman, or a billionaire with tons of tech, like Batman. Peter Parker was just a kid who tried to do the right thing. That says something about who Spider- Man is as a character. He could have easily become a supervillain out for his own gain, but he decided to be a hero, no matter how hard things got. That famous line from the last issue of “Amazing Fantasy,” “With great power, there must also come great responsibility,” is a message for every generation. If we have the power to do something, then we have a responsibility to do something. I’m glad there’s a superhero out there to remind us of that fact.

That’s why if I’m ever bitten by a radioactive spider, you can bet the first thing I’ll do is swing through NYC, looking for bad guys.

Hollywood loves making superhero movies, but they keep coming back to Spider-Man. We’ve had three different “Spider-Man” franchises in the

–Dr. Harrison Linsky

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Westchester Office • 914-251-0313

ReigniteYour Passion Lessons in Innovation FromHenry Ford i i

As entrepreneurs scale their businesses, there is a lot to focus on: hiring the right staff, creating the most effective marketing strategies, and setting up efficient operations. With so much to do, it’s easy to lose sight of your initial vision for your company. If you’re stuck in a rut, know that you’re not alone. Plenty of the most successful entrepreneurs have endured the same struggles and, with a little ambition and a lot of creativity, came out on top. Take Henry Ford, for example. Henry Ford made the automobile accessible and appealing for the common citizen. This ignited interest in the market from consumers and manufacturers alike, which led to innovations like air conditioning and other appliances we can’t imagine living without today. There were some key factors that played into his success, and, if In 2010, there were over 2.1 million emergency room visits in the United States that involved dental issues, according to a report from the American Dental Association. Even though this number grows each year, few ERs are prepared to address dental problems. Despite how linked oral health is to the health of the rest of the body, dentists are rarely found on ER staff and most medical practitioners know next to nothing about teeth. How did we get here? There is some overlap, especially when you get into the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery, but for the most part, your family doctor will know as much about teeth as any layperson on the street. This is quite a difference from barber surgeons in the early days of medicine and dentistry. In this terrifying time in medical history, the local barber surgeon could bleed a patient, pull their tooth, and give them a haircut all in one

you apply them to your own journey, you could gain a new perspective and be inspired to create and innovate in your industry. Consumer-Focused Ford realized cars were unreliable and unaffordable to most and set out to change that. After developing the first moving assembly line, Ford lowered the price of cars and made them accessible for people outside the upper class for the first time. As long as you keep the consumer and their needs in mind, you’ll find ways to make their experience better and increase your success. Small Changes, Big Impact Unlike many companies todaywho sacrifice quality for quantity, Ford found ways to focus on

both. He looked at how cars were actually made and found that, if he could build more cars within a certain time frame, he could pay less per car, per worker. Thus, the moving assembly line was born. When looking for ways to innovate in your industry, rethinking even the smallest, simplest details can make a huge difference for your business. You may not be able to reinvent the wheel, but who said you couldn’t reinvent the brake pads? Henry Ford may have changed the automobile industry forever, but you don’t have to go to such lengths to innovate in your own. The next time you find yourself uninspired or stagnant, look to those who made your industrywhat it is today. You might just find the inspiration you’ve been searching for. This became known as the Historic Rebuff. It spurred Harris to petition citizens and dentists across the state of Maryland to start a college of dental surgery at Baltimore. By 1840, Harris founded the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the first dental school in the United States. The American Society of Dental Surgeons was organized, the American Journal of Dental Science was founded, and dentistry cemented itself as a separate entity from the rest of medicine. Today, both the fields of general medicine and oral health continue to grapple with this divide. While oral health physicians and medical practitioners are most effective when they train for specialized skills, in some ways it might be helpful if dentists knew more about medicine and doctors knew more about teeth.

How the Historical Rebuff Created Dentistry FROM BARBER-SURGEONS TO DENTISTS

sitting. Fortunately, the practice of medicine as a whole became more refined with time.

In 1530, the first book on oral health was published in Germany by Artzney Buchlein titled “Little Medicinal Book for All Kinds of Diseases and Infirmities of the Teeth.” Then, in 1728, Pierre Fauchard, the father of modern dentistry, introduced the concept of the surgeon dentists. In the early 1800s, Dr. Chapin Harris of Baltimore, Maryland developed an interest in dentistry thanks to his brother, a dentist himself. Harris realized how linked oral health was to the health of the rest of the body and approached the physicians at the college of medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore to suggest adding a dental program within the medical school. The physicians’ response was simple: “The subject of dentistry is of little consequence.”

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The Centers for Disease Control warns that occupational hearing loss is one of the most common work-related illnesses in the United States. A 2016 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that the mining sector, the construction sector, and the manufacturing sector had the highest prevalence for hearing loss. That same year, a study published in the journal Noise & Health warned of the often-overlooked risk of hearing loss in the field of dentistry. The studywas conducted by first measuring sound pressure levels produced by dental handpieces and dental suction at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) College of Dentistry. Researchers found that sound pressure levels produced by the dental handpieces ranged from 70.4 to 83.6 decibels adjusted (dBA). Meanwhile, two conditions, obstructed suction and unobstructed suction with an operating dental handpiece, were found to reach sound pressure levels of 96.5 dBA and 94.8 dBA respectively. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines dangerous noise levels as sound pressure exceeding 85 dBA. Researchers then distributed a survey to members of the Oklahoma Dental Association (ODA). The surveywas designed to evaluate the range of noise exposures of dental professionals and estimate the

prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and tinnitus. The survey analysis was based on the 144 responses received from the ODA. Of these respondents, the oldest was 76 and the youngest was 35. The mean number of years in practice was 27.2 years. By analyzing the survey >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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