Dentistry is not all High Tech these days.

High Touch is still the most important technique in caring for patients.

I do a fair amount of public speaking and it was interesting when I realized that I was a rare breed as being a third generation dentist.

I had the priveldege of working with my Dad, Joseph F. Dillon, DDS, after dental school.

In those years I started understanding what some of the realities were in dentistry.

There was a lot that I had to relearn when I graduated Temple Dental School in 1989. This was partially because of the advent of adhesive dentistry.

The phrase “paradigm shift” kept being used. This basically meant ‘forget all that stuff we just taught you, you need to be doing it this way now!’ Bonding, veneers, whitening, Implants, digital X-Rays and other techniques that made dentistry faster, less invasive, more painless and BETTER were all coming around.

I learned quickly the advantage of taking a lot of continued education classes, because it made dentistry easier, more fun and BETTER!

But the other side of things were the tried and true clinical techniques my father had seen work throughout his 40 year career. There were many things that weren’t really in-vogue to teach.

Before companies were trying to figure out a way to make a profit off dentists by teaching them Soft Tissue Management non-surgical treatment of periodontal disease my father had made a successful practice of doing so with inferior tools and adjuncts. Things like Periostat, Atridox and Arestin were not available, yet when a student from Penn came out and screened his patients for perio he found them in top 10% nationally without routinely subjecting them to gum surgery as much as most other dentists.

More importantly I benefited from the things I learned that my grandfather taught to my father.

When I met the old-timers in dental school they’d see my last name and ask if “Joe” was my father.

After, I’d say ‘yes’ they’d all invariably exclaim, “I knew your grandfather, he was a great guy!”

Not that my Dad wasn’t, but they would all tell me how my Grandfather was credited as being one of the first people in the area to teach dentists practice management. I came across things that my grandfather wrote and it’s funny that they are the same things that I hear practice management gurus all put their name to these days. Verbatim!

Things like imagining your patients have a sign on their chest saying, “Make me feel important!” were basic tenants to the practice of dentistry in our office.

I’d like to like to think that if my Dad and his dad were looking down on me they’d be pretty happy with my privilege of carrying on the tradition of caring for our patients.

If you’re looking for a painless dental care, contact Dillon Family Dentistry to experience a range of services such as teeth whitening services, dental implant services, dentures and many more at Rosemont local office.

Dillon Family Dentistry, 1084 East Lancaster Ave Rosemont PA 19010, Phone Number: 610-228-0329