I went over the handlebars with my best friend Paul Belsano's bike and landed face-first on the pavement. Two little bloody stumps were left where teeth eight and nine had been, and the teeth were broken off, like dried moss on the pavement. My mother came out, picked me up, and brought me to an oral surgeon, Dr. Aronson, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, who wired my mouth together. Wired my teeth together?

I had an arch bar in there, and I had to drink through a straw using a blender for about six weeks. I was eight years old. I didn’t get my final crowns until I was 18, so for ten years, I went through high school with two little brown stubs. I didn’t think anything of it because I was only eight when the accident happened.

But then I went on to grind my teeth, and at age 48, I needed a full mouth rehabilitation. I saw my friend Steve Rothenberg, and he did 23 crowns for me. Today, I have a full mouth rehabilitation. Four years ago, I went over the handlebars on my bike again, 60 years after the first accident, and I knocked out my front four teeth. Dr. Min Yoon had to do a six-unit bridge from teeth six to eleven.

So I know what it’s like to be a dental patient. Do you know what it’s like to be a dental patient? Some of you may have periodontal disease. Some of you may have had an experience similar to mine. Most of you probably haven’t.

And that’s sometimes a disadvantage in treating patients. So when I see a patient who comes into my practice and says, ‘You know, doctor, this is the worst mouth you’ve ever seen,’ I tell them, ‘No, it’s not.’ They say, ‘You don’t understand.’ I say, ‘Yes, I do, because I’ve had the same thing happen to me.’

And I show them. I say, ‘Oh, you’ve got beautiful teeth.’ I say, ‘Yes, they’re beautiful because at age 71, they’re all fake. It’s the only plastic surgery I have.’

I have 23 crowns in my mouth today. And they say, ‘Really?’ I say, ‘Yes, I show them, and I say, hey, we have four gold crowns back there. Dr. Rothenberg did a beautiful job many years ago, and Dr. Yoon redid the front bridge just a few years ago.

So my rehabilitation is close to 25 years old today, except for the front six teeth. So I know what it’s like to go through that. But if I didn’t know what it was like to go through that because I didn’t have that experience, I would still have to show compassion for my patients. When a patient comes in, they’re full of fear, full of anxiety, and they don’t think anybody else understands what they’re going through. They think they’re the only one in the world.

Most people think they’re unique. So what do I do? I pull out a book. I say, ‘Here, here’s someone who’s worse off than you.’ And I have before and after photographs of my patients.

I have four different books that we’ve created. They’re all available on our website. If you’d like to see them, go to michaelsonick.com. You can download these pictures of before and afters of people with severe periodontal disease, people with very decayed teeth, and what we’ve done to make them better with ortho or implants, periodontal treatment, or gingival grafting, etc. So when I show these pictures to my patients, they say, ‘Really? I’m not the worst?’ I say, ‘No, you’re not the worst. As a matter of fact, I could fill an auditorium with people who have your problems.’ They say, ‘An auditorium?’ I say, ‘Yes.’

I jokingly say, ‘We have a support group that meets every Wednesday night with about 20 or 30 patients who talk about their dental problems.’ Everybody has some problems. The ones we see as dentists are people with dental problems. And they feel they’re unique. So I try to allay their fears and anxieties by telling them, ‘You’re in the right place. We can take good care of you.’ And I can’t really see the future. If you ask me what stocks to buy, I can’t tell you, or what cards to play in a game, I can’t tell you. Or what real estate to buy, I can’t tell you the future. However, I can tell you your dental future. If you go through this treatment this way, this way, this way, I can pretty much guarantee that we can get everything looking good, get you healthy, get you functional, take away all pain, and give you a beautiful smile. And if I develop the proper skill set, as you all have done, you can do that for all of your patients. You take courses, etc. That’s just the how of what we do.

The how of what we do is how we do the dentistry. But the why is a little different. So my why is to improve the quality of my patients’ lives by making them feel better, look better, and have a healthier, happier future. That’s the future I see for my patients, and I share that future with them. Now, of course, none of them believe me because they haven’t seen it.

And I tell them that. I say, ‘This is what I can share with you. These are patients I’ve treated. This is how I can get you there. But I don’t expect you to believe me. But I’ve seen this movie before.’

This is not my first time going through treatment with patients, and I can guarantee you I will do everything possible to get you there. I can’t guarantee the result. None of us can, because it’s biology. But what I can guarantee is my commitment to their care. So by being compassionate and empathetic and seeing a very positive future for my patients, they feel better.

They don’t believe me completely, but you can almost see it—it’s that effect, that change point. When a new patient comes in, I look for it. Sometimes it takes 10 seconds, sometimes it may take me 30 minutes for them to develop trust that I’m giving them a future that is brighter than the one they have right now. So next time you see a patient, look at them. Look at them with compassionate, empathetic eyes, and try to give them that bright future.

It’s a great gift for them. Have a great day, everybody, and thanks for listening.