>> I love what we do, how we are able to effect patients.
I like to refer the periodontist as the psychiatrist of the mouth.
Being a son of a psychiatrist and never wanting to do medicine, I found that periodontal therapy
with patients is an on-going life process.
So keeping teeth is something that patients need to keep up, and we've been seeing patients
on an every 3 months or every 6 months if we alternate with their dentist.
Some of them have close to 30 years in my practice.
I've gotten to know them.
It's the personal relationships we develop.
I get to know their families, their hobbies, everything about them, and they do as with us.
So, again, the psychiatrist of the mouth.
So dentistry today as it was not years ago, I mean, it's...
I really believe it's much more difficult to get into dental school, the grades you need to have,
also the DAT's, which are the entrance exams, are very difficult.
My friends kid that many of us probably wouldn't get into dental school today,
you know, because of the standards now.
I mean, at Temple, there's over 4,000 applicants for 130, 40 slots.
So it's very, very competitive, and there's a lot of physicians
that are telling their kids not to become physicians, but to become dentists,
which is not really a good reason to become a dentist.