I am live at the Seattle Study Club Symposium 2018. Today, I am joined by six good friends and amazing oral surgeons. Dr. Matt Koepke, Dr. Daron Praetzel, Dr. Robert Naples, Dr. Marty Wade, and Dr. Richard Oakley are here to talk about the present and future state of oral surgery.

There has never been a better time to be a dentist, and this is an amazing time to be an oral surgeon. There are things happening in the future with genetics that will allow us to grow teeth and do amazing things. The impact of how we change people’s lives is also expanding. This is an awesome episode with six oral surgeons who share their unique perspectives.

 

You can find the panel here:

Dr. Matt Koepke

Dr. Daron Praetzel

Dr. Robert Naples

Dr. Marty Wade

Dr. Richard Oakley

 

Show Notes

[01:35] Dr. Matt Koepke is an oral surgeon practicing in Morgantown, West Virginia at his Appalachian Oral Surgery Center.

[01:42] Dr. Daron Praetzel is an oral surgeon in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He does a lot of facial surgery and oral surgery. He also owns a firetruck.

[02:07] Dr. Robert Naples is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Round Rock,Texas.

[02:17] Dr. Marty Wade practices at True North Oral Surgery & Implants in Maplewood, Minnesota. He has been in practice for 32 years.

[02:37] Dr. Richard Oakley is an oral surgeon who practices in Kansas City, Kansas. He has been in practice since 1993. He has also been the director of the Seattle Study Club for 20 years.

[04:09] The importance of the team approach and the value of what everyone can offer.

[05:28] We keep coming back to the Seattle Study Club because of the people and the feel of the place. There are a lot of places where you can take classes, but this place is special.

[06:08] How important it is to build relationships along with hearing world-class speakers.

[06:23] The evolution of the study club and the referring doctors based on the information that we bring back.

[06:43] By working together, there is huge Improvement in the overall dental community.

[07:19] What an honor it is to build true relationships while gaining that important experience.

[08:53] How being an oral surgeon is the best profession in the world. We get to work with great people. It's also amazing the way we change people's lives.

[09:44] In the future we will be able to take a genetic seed and grow a tooth.

[11:11] The future of what we can do is limitless, and we are also fascinated with digital dentistry.

[12:04] How being an oral surgeon allows you to get your medical fix. We are all dentists, but we just have a little more of a whole body type of avenue.

[14:28] All of our practices are unique, and we all have different training.

[16:33] How being a solo practitioner and working fewer days in a year works for some oral surgeons.

[17:49] The different dynamic of practicing solo and practicing in a group.

[19:10] How amazing it is to come to a common agreement and work together. Seeing different techniques and having open minds while working with diverse practioners.

[20:59] Interdisciplinary versus multidisciplinary dentistry. Being a super dentist who does everything is a tremendous amount of pressure. We value the interactions with other specialists.

[22:10] Think what would you do if the person in the chair was your son or your daughter. Seek out the best from the different disciplines to provide the best care.

[22:51] If what we do has value, then it is going to have staying power.

[24:00] Don't be limited by not knowing what you don't know. How it's not okay to just take a course and then become an expert in that.

[26:10] If we are greedy, the person who ultimately suffers is the patient.

[27:07] The best way to practice and learn is to talk to each other and do some simple cases together before we get into the really hard cases.

[29:48] This is America. As a practicing dentist or oral surgeon, you get to choose your procedures, and you get to choose what type of practice you have.

[33:07] If you're considering...