Everyone's An Expert

Doesn't it just irritate you when people call your work or come into where you work and give you helpful suggestions on how to do your job? Yeah, I know. That just sets the tone for the whole day, doesn't it?

I know, I know everyone is expecting a big rant right now but no, I'm not going there. Let's think about why people feel the need to do this. It comes from a place of not knowing any better. If I make a suggestion on how you should do things in your job, it is because I don't understand something and I don't have another way of expressing my question/concern. If I say to you, "Well why can't you just do it this way?", I probably don't understand that it has already been thought about and there is a perfectly good explanation why it can't be done. In my mind I am not meaning to insinuate that you don't have the slightest clue as to how to do your job. In my mind, I am helping. In your mind, I am irritating.

So when we hear things like "Well the insurance company said...." "Well the dentist said....." "Well my neighbor said...." we will try to remember that you aren't trying to insinuate that we don't know what we're doing, you are just gathering information. Keep this one small thing in mind though...when you ask your dentist for their opinion about braces please remember that they are your DENTIST. Would you ask us about tooth sealants, fillings, root canals or dentures? Maybe you would, but we would tell you that we don't do that so we would give you the best information we had but then direct you to your dentist.

I have said many times, and firmly believe, that knowledge is power. You cannot make any kind of rational decision without the proper knowledge to do so. Orthodontics is a new concept to many people. Everyone has to go through it for the first time once. There is a lot that is unknown. There is a lot that you just have to accept on our word and our experience. Add to that, we are dealing with the human body which can always be unpredictable.  Feel free to ask questions (in fact we encourage it!) but sometimes you just have to believe that we are the specialists, not everyone else and we know what we are talking about and doing when it comes to braces. We are very willing to explain things to the parents and the children. It is the cornerstone of what we do and that will never change.