The Explorer Winter 2018 Explorer Winter 2018 | Page 4

EDITOR’S CORNER By Sonia Molina, DDS Before I begin, I want to thank Dr. Neil McLeod for his insight as editor for the 2017 publication cycle. I know I love learning from accomplished dentists to improve my own practice. I look forward to sharing my experiences in the hopes that it will help you, too. I was LADS president in 2009, a moment marked by the housing crisis. Thousands of families lost homes, and the news kept calling the crisis the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. At the time, I thought a lot about how we, as dental professionals, were just as vulnerable to financial hardship as anyone else. How we, too, could lose our life’s work overnight. Dentistry is entrepreneurial–anyone who runs their own practice will tell you that. We clean teeth, balance the budget, and market our services with only the help of our employees. And that doesn’t even include our family and community commitments. Talk about keeping busy! But what happens when hardship strikes, and we are prevented from running our practices? What will happen to our employees and patients that depend on us? Californians endured some of the largest and most frightening wildfires in December. To help our dentists whose lives have been affected by the fires, the CDA Foundation created the Disaster Relief Grant Program. The Disaster Relief Grant awards up to $2,500 in immediate and emergency supplies to dentists and dental assistants who have suffered loss. If you have been personally affected by these fires or know a colleague who has, please visit or direct them to the California Dental Association website for detailed information about eligibility requirements. If you can, please consider donating money to the program. Every dollar helps our colleagues rebuild their lives. However, there is no need to wait for natural and manmade disasters to strike to help our colleagues. Hardships come into our lives uninvited, no matter who we are and no matter how much (or little) we plan for them. As entrepreneurs, debilitating hardships can jeopardize our practices. If hardships prevent us from providing services, how will our patients receive care? Our patients will be forced to find new dentists, even if they are in the middle of treatment plans. Now is the time to use the LADS network to its full potential. I hate seeing brilliant practices fade away because of the unexpected. We can call volunteers among ourselves who would adopt shifts for one another when a hardship strikes. The shift can be as short as a day--or even a half day--a week, enough to keep a colleague’s practice afloat and her patients treated. We need to care for our colleagues as much as we care for our patients. I look forward to building a stronger network with you throughout 2018. As always, please reach out to LADS if you have any questions or concerns related to building a strong dental practice. ¡Ánimo! 䡲 Los Angeles Dental Society Explorer