Dr. Gerry Samson

The following article is provided by Dr. Gerry Samson, who is often described as an educational entertainer (even though there are more letters after his name than in a bowl of alphabet soup). Just because he addresses orthodontists doesn’t make this article irrelevant for general dentists. We can all benefit from this advice. Oh yeah, don’t forget to check out Gerry at Gnathosce.com!

LOOKING AT YOUR FEET
GERRY SAMSON, DDS, ABO, FACD, TE

Ask yourself this question, during a given day how many patients not responding to orthodontic treatment will be required to upset you? The answer for all of us is the same number……..just one. Jettison your imagination to this vision: let’s say your son or daughter called from post-graduate school with the news they had scored 97% on the theoretical physics final examination. Would you respond, “Let me get this straight? You failed 3 questions? Disgraceful. Call back when you score 100%”. Such a scenario is unthinkable. Yet, we do it to ourselves. Practically we understand that a daily, hourly perfect score is unfair and unrealistic. Emotionally, however, when confronted with a lack of orthodontic response or worse, a real “treatment problem” statistical reality is of little consolation. Many years ago, while engaged in intense athletic competition I recall losing a match. It was a loss that should not have happened. Sitting on the bench while looking at my feet, the head coach stood and asked me a question,

“Samson, what is your problem?”

“Really? That guy beat me. I blew it.” I was miserable.

“Right” was his abrupt reply.

Bluntly, he asked, “Did you walk out there intending to lose?”

“What!?”

“Simple question. Did you intend to lose?”

“Never!”

“So, you didn’t wake up this morning intending to lose. You’ve trained hard but today was not your day. It was the other guy’s day. You did, however, give it your best shot. YOUR best. Stand up. Quit looking at your feet.”

Good medicine, I think, is to accept that under the circumstances the best that could be done is what was achieved. Far from an excuse for not raising the bar this appears to be a tried and evidently true road sign to a peaceful life.

In his Dictionnnaire Philosophie (ca. 1764) Voltaire quoted an Italian proverb “Perfect is the enemy of good”. Need a more modern rhythm? “Keep rock’n in the free world”. Neil Young sang that on the album “Freedom”, 1989.