Mayumi
Mayumi
Mayumi
Mayumi
Mayumi

"Mayumi" - A Story About Pediatric Dentistry

Feb. 17, 2014
Greg Psaltis, DDS, shares the story of one of his most memorable patients, Mayumi, along with lessons he's learned over his 39 years as a "kids dentist."

Of all the things that could be said about pediatric dentistry, the one that is least-often mentioned is the incredible satisfaction that can be gained from it.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of my 39-year career as a “kids dentist” has been how I have been filled with both fun and gratitude beyond my imagining. Space limits my ability to enumerate the many funny and sweet stories I could relate about experiences in my specialty, but if pictures can convey what words cannot, I submit here a series of photographs of a particularly engaging 5-year-old girl who I treated on a volunteer project in Mexico.

Her name is Mayumi. Like the overwhelming majority of my patients, she was full of fear at the outset of her care. As I treated her, she continually reached up toward my face, but with the rubber dam in place I couldn’t converse with her. I had to wait until the end of the treatment to discover what she had been trying to tell me -- she wanted one of the masks that we were wearing. I gave it to her at once and she then boldly looked at me and asked for gloves as well.

The picture here shows her gloved and masked, and with that image before my eyes, I told that she was “almost a dentist” and that maybe someday she might be a dentist.

Because my career has taught me to see things in a positive light, it might have been that fact that allowed me to believe I saw a spark of possibility in her eyes. I would imagine that nobody ever mentioned the possibility before, but even behind her mask, I could tell she had lit up. One of my fellow volunteers, Kelly, told me she would be happy to be a “patient” for Mayumi, which led to the final endearing shot in this sequence.

It was hard to tell who had given whom the more meaningful experience…and so it is in pediatric dentistry. I have often said that we in the specialty treat teeth and care for children, which are two separate activities occurring simultaneously. Since (in reality) the majority of teeth we treat ultimately fall out, it became clear to me where I should place my energy and emphasis. As a result, my legacy will be to graduate my patients into “adult” practices without fear of the dentist and with a sense that regular care and checkups is a normal part of life. I believe that is the best preventive lesson I can give them.

In return, I have received far more than I have given. In my private practice career I routinely receive valentines and pictures from my young patients, senior pictures and graduation invitations from my older patients, and no fewer than four wedding invitations. It is never lost on me that as their dentist, I have apparently had sufficient impact on the lives of these young people to result in being a part of their personal lives.

In my entire career I have yet to have a child come to me with a hug or a smile and tell me it was because of the glassy margin on the DO I placed. So much of pediatric dentistry is about a mindset and without it, it can be challenging.

Henry Ford once said, “Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It always comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.” If I have ever read a formula for pediatric care, that would be it. Give the child a good experience and your practice will flourish and you will be blessed with both fiscal and emotional wealth.

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Dr. Greg Psaltis received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1970, his D.D.S. from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry, in 1975, and his specialty certification in Pediatric Dentistry from UCSF in 1977. He has been in private practice in Olympia since 1981 and served three years as a pediatric dentist in the Navy from 1977 to 1980. Find Dr. Psaltis's practice page at http://smalltotall.info/Home.aspx and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-to-Tall-Pediatric-Dentistry/162737447091319.

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This article is a part of the Dental Economics "Spotlight on Pediatric Dentistry," with exclusive content posted on Dental Economics Facebook Page and archived at http://www.dentaleconomics.com/pediatric-dentistry-spotlight.html. The spotlight runs February 1st - 28th, 2014, in recognition of National Children's Dental Health Month, and is sponsored by Dentsply Professional and Nupro White Varnish.