“The Golden 10” concept developed by Roger Levin, DDS, states that if you get to know eight to 10 things about the person in front of you, you will change your relationship with them from a professional to a personal one. When this transition occurs with your patients, trust is developed, because people trust people they like. This trust can …

In a recent blog I discussed the Pareto Principle whereby only 20% of our success is based on our clinical skills and knowledge and 80% is from everything else. I also wrote a post about the importance of relationships. Additionally, in a previous blog published five years ago, I discussed assessing personalities of our existing patients so that we can customize our conversations …

This truly is a memorable period of time, but, for most of us, for all the wrong reasons. Most of us had our practices shut down for an extended period and are now back. What do we do now, and how do we get there? Kenneth Wong, MBA, a distinguished professor of marketing at Queens University, was recently quoted while discussing the …

I was born in Toronto, the second youngest of 13 kids. We all lived in the same five-bedroom house for nearly eight years before my second oldest brother, Howard, got married and moved out. Rapidly, it seemed everyone was getting married, going to university, moving out. In five years, there were only three of us left: my youngest sister, my …

I am the second youngest of 13 children, born and raised in Toronto. A member of a liberal, politically left-leaning family of Reform Jews, our household was filled with 13 siblings, all fiercely individual and unique, a zany group of people. It was a happy time for me. At age 18, my father died suddenly. He was only 57. A …

It all started innocently enough. A 6-year-old girl’s baby tooth fell out at school, only to become misplaced before the end of the day. She was sure the tooth fairy could not be real, as a result, or so she thought. Isabel was a grade 1 student, having fun with her friends in the playground at school recess, when she …

Erik and Margaret (not their real names) met and fell in love quite young. They married in the early 1950s under controversial circumstances, as Margaret was a few years older than Erik, but their love endured. Erik worked as a furniture upholsterer. It was hard work, but he enjoyed working with his hands, and the people he met and got …

So here we are early in 2015, and it is one of those times—of many—during the year that causes me to pause and reflect. It is the time when I look at my list of courses that I want to take and subjects that I want to learn more about, and I prioritize it so I can “make it happen.” …

Growing up in Toronto, the seventh son and twelfth child of 13, in a liberal Jewish family, it was hard to get a word in edgewise in a family of strong, individual personalities. Adults may want kids to remain quiet and stay in the background, but kids don’t want to be that way. We wanted attention. We wanted to be …

Dale, the leader of a noted local jazz trio, was in the living room playing live jazz on his bass, while Maria, a noted local personal chef was in the kitchen preparing a very special dinner. Phyllis and Ernie had a good life, but their later years had not been very kind to them at all. Pillars of the community, …