Late in the French Revolution, as Napoleon took over his battered nation’s army, he came to the realization that his opponents were merely unorganized bands of angry mercenaries – thugs who were simply paid money to fight. Napoleon felt his opponents didn’t fight with valor, honor or purpose, so he developed an elaborate system to motivate his own army and give them a strong purpose for fighting. He handed out badges, medals and other awards for acts of heroism and valor because his men were taking risks for their country. Napoleon changed his army from a bunch of pay-for-play brutes into an honorable fighting force. He spoke at length about fighting with a purpose and his army dominated. His army consisted of men who were willing and wanting to fight, and if necessary, die for their country, which was unlike any other fighting force in Europe.

All people want to live their lives with purpose. A purpose-driven life has meaning. It has relevance. Nobody wants to take up space, eat, drink and die. Everybody wants to leave something behind and make their mark.

Professionally, I’ve been pretty lucky, because my dental career has always been filled with purpose. Within six months of opening up my dental practice in 1987 in Phoenix, Arizona, I was utterly demoralized. I had come from Kansas City, where the tooth decay rate in children was so much lower than the population of Phoenix. I could not understand what was going on. Every mouth of every child I saw was ridden with rotting cavities. I was so baffled I called the local office of dental health and talked to what turned out to be the smartest dentist I’ve ever met in my life, Dr. Jack Dillenberg. Jack simply said, “It’s because Phoenix’s water supply isn’t fluoridated.” I told him I felt like I’d be wasting 40 years on an assembly line, drilling, filling and billing for no purpose at all. I wasn’t even going to make a dent in this pile. Jack agreed with me and suggested we start the Arizona Citizens for Better Dental Health and get Phoenix fluoridated. I couldn’t say no. We met every Friday for two years until we convinced the city of Phoenix to add fluoride to its drinking water. I lived all week for that meeting every Friday with Jack because it gave me such amazing professional purpose.

During that time, I’d speak at local schools and teach the children the importance of good home dental practices. My goal was to noticeably improve the overall dental health of my community. It still is. It is my purpose!

Doctor, you are a member of Dentaltown. You read Dentaltown Magazine every month. You are a member of our online community. You join in discussions and passionately argue your case. You lurk around the message boards looking for amazing tips you would never have gotten by attending a seminar. You share cases with your colleagues to find a better way to do a root canal or a sinus lift. You take Dentaltown’s online CE courses not only to get the credits you need but to learn about a new material or technique. Why? Because you have a purpose, too! Maybe you want to be the best cosmetic dentist in your city. Maybe when you were young, your life was changed by a friendly dentist, which made you decide to become part of the profession and pay it back. Maybe you don’t outright know what it is, but since you’re a member of Dentaltown, you’re contributing to your purpose of becoming a better dentist to serve your community better than you would have the day before!

You Are A Public Health Dentist
What’s your purpose, doctor? Think about it! Is it just to improve the smiles of everyone who comes in your door? Are you a self-esteem booster? Is it that you want to improve the functionality of someone’s teeth? Is it that you want to ease the pain of patients whose caries have bored down to the nerve? I read the message boards on Dentaltown.com all day long. I know know there are a lot of people who believe everything needs to be done by free enterprise and that the government is “untrustworthy” and doesn’t trust free enterprise. Here’s the thing… right now in your career, you are a public health dentist. It’s your duty to ensure the dentistry you’re doing is being done faster, easier, of higher quality and at a lower price. And it is your duty to ensure dentistry is available and accessible to everyone. If you don’t do this, then you are proving that the government needs to step in; that’s what happens when free enterprise fails.

If you don’t think you have a professional purpose – make this your purpose!

Go do a Google search on emergency room visits caused by dental problems.What you find might astound you. There is a sickeningly high percentage of ER visits by people who really should be taken care of by a dentist. Why the hell aren’t these people coming to see you?! Do you take insurance? Are you unlisted? When you close your practice at 5 p.m., do you flip on the answering machine? Do you call back?

Make Cost a Purpose
Are you too expensive? You know how when one of your staff members approaches you with the following dilemma, “Um, Dr. Soandso, my friend really needs a root canal and she doesn’t have insurance and she really doesn’t have a lot of money to take care of this, so could you maybe do it for half off?” and you say, “Oh sure, since she’s your friend and you’ve been here 20 years, I’ll do it for half off.”

Really, doc?

Shouldn’t your goal be to treat everyone in your community like they’re your best friend? Shouldn’t all of your root canals be half off? Why should your assistant’s friend get the privilege of paying half off when half of America doesn’t have dental insurance and you’re charging all of them full price?! And why do you raise your prices three, four or five percent every time the Earth revolves around the sun? Why don’t you keep a closer eye on cost and keep your overhead down so you can offer your services to your patients at a lower price?

Once you take your eyes off cost your patients don’t have the freedom to afford the faster, easier, higher in quality, lower in cost dentistry that they deserve. They’ll go somewhere else… like the ER. Furthermore, why would you consider doing an occlusal composite on a six-year-old kid’s #3 when you know amalgam is going to last four times as long and costs you (and the patient) half as much? I understand cosmetic needs, but does anyone really care what the occlusal surface of someone’s molar looks like? Remember, price elasticity tells us that price has a lasting effect on demand. If you sell a Mercedes Benz, very few people can afford it and will pay for it, but if you sell a Chevy, at a much lower price point, everyone will want one and everyone will buy one. Lower your price, increase demand.

Say you’re one of the dentists out there who really loves placing implants – I know a lot of dentists who really do! If you love placing implants, but you keep raising the price every year, you’re going to do fewer and fewer cases. If you really love implants, lower your fee 10 percent and you’ll see more people. Cut your fee in half, and your practice will be swarming with patients.

Give Your Staff A Purpose
I’d say in about half of the offices in America, the dysfunction is palpable enough to cut through with a handpiece. It all stems from the top, doc. The word “doctor” comes from the Latin word “docere” which means “to teach.” Doc, you might be the only one in your practice who went to dental school, but you can’t be the only “teacher” in your practice – you maybe have three operatories but there’s only one of you. You can’t teach to everyone all the time! So delegate your teaching responsibilities. Your hygienists, assistants and front desk staff should be teaching your patients as well. Empower your staff! Great teachers take the incredibly complex and make it so simple to understand that they empower all who listen. Your hygienist knows what’s going on in a patient’s mouth. Your hygienist knows what she sees on the X-ray. She can point out some of the trouble spots to the patient. Give your team members purpose in their jobs. Your receptionist is the front line to your practice, and she should be able to share as much information as she knows with patients and potential patients over the phone.

My assistant, Jan, often tells me about how her job has given her so much meaning and purpose. She fights the good fight to take complex dental knowledge that she has mastered and getting patients to listen to her, because they know if they do they’re going to save their teeth. Then with this knowledge, they’ll go home and start brushing like they were powered by rocket sauce! If they do what Jan says, they’re not going to learn things the hard way by waking up in the middle of the night with a toothache or losing all their teeth. Stop hindering your assistants. Let them teach your patients.

When It’s All Said and Done
When you retire – or, when you die – how will you be remembered by your community? Will you have made an impact? Are you going to be the dentist they say “came to this community 40 years ago when the average six-year-old had three cavities, and now the average six-year-old has four”? How are you going to defend that one when you’re dead, huh?

Wouldn’t you rather people in your community say, “When Dr. Soandso came to this town, he started a denture every day, and when he left he was only starting a denture a month. When Dr. Soandso arrived, kids didn’t floss, now everyone flosses.”

People who trade money for time go home at night and escape with science fiction movies or alcohol or drugs or overeating or something else they need to escape from their dull lives. These are the people who constantly grouse and say they can’t wait until retirement. People who work with purpose die at their desks. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, was so driven to be the lowest-cost distributor in the world, he worked until he was found dead at his desk. Doctor, it’s time to remember why you got into dentistry in the first place! It’s time to realize or revive your purpose! The people who live and work with a purpose don’t need a 401(k). Know why? Because they’re not the type of people who want to retire.