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Forgiveness for success will free you to untie the bindings of those who have wronged you.
Forgiving others will free energy to pursue your most vital priorities in life.
Acquire the peace that surpasses all understanding granted by the Creator of heaven and earth.
The Creator’s model of forgiveness can be followed for success in your personal and business endeavors.
Forgive others as he forgives you and receive universal blessings.
I render emergency dental care in Kansas City.
The dental office is an interesting place to learn lessons in life.
On a day to day basis, patient by patient, with good chair side manner,
FORGIVENESS FOR SUCCESS
we on many days perform miraculous transformations of the smile. With dental implants we can restore a patient’s ability to chew and
function from a dental health point of view. But what about the difficult case scenario. Every case that we have the
opportunity to treat, has problems within that case that must be overcome when neglect has gone on for many years. The bite relationship may have collapsed requiring additional procedures to get it opened and re-balanced.
Funding may be limited which causes additional concerns. Your treatment plan A, the best plan for the diagnosis you
spend so much time creating is out of reach financially. Your treatment plans B and C are functional but a distant
second and third to what you really want to provide for your patients. Do you let your patient’s insurance carrier dictate
your level of care?
Mrs. X came into my office one day carrying a shopping bag, clutched as though all her best jewelry was inside the bag.
I greeted Mrs. X with my best chair side manner. She says, “I came to see you because I understand, you are good at what
you do. I need new dentures.” After a comprehensive dental examination and radiography, I explain due to attrition of the
mandible, implants will be required to help secure her lower denture. An all on 4 technique is suggested. (4 implants as support for the lower prosthesis). It’s been five years since her last set of dentures were made. Because of poor bone support,
pain at the area of the mental foramen, mental nerve compression, must also be considered as an intervening variable.
The teeth are worn on the denture bases and at minimum, new dentures were needed. The patient comes back from the finance officer and says, “There’s no way I’m paying that kind of money for teeth, I’m eighty years old.”
She is willing to proceed with a new set of dentures. Three weeks later the patient leaves with her new dentures. She comes
back the next day for a twenty-four hour adjustment session to keep the dentures comfortable. After a friendly greeting,
I asked how she was getting along with the new set of dentures. The patient gripping her shopping bag, opened it to show me
several sets of teeth, including the most recent set. After multiple adjustment appointments and soft liners to keep her
comfortable, I am still waiting for permission to upgrade her case with implants.
The case created a sense of false guilt that I could have done more for the patient under the circumstances. Any form of
guilt can place you in a state of bondage where you feel beholden to the patient. As caregivers we have to remember to
firmly hold that post so that the best possible care can be rendered to our patients. Even under the most ideal circumstances
we may not be able to accomplish one hundred percent of the projected end product for the patient.
I once heard dentistry, psychiatry, and police work were the three highest professions for suicide. Working within
the mental health field while employed at a mental health center, these comments were passed on through our staff.
When I went on line to research this, I could only find a website that reported the following; The Straight Dope, a quote from
Steven Stack that says, “Dentists odds of suicide ” are 6.64 times greater than the rest of the working population…..
The website also indicates that male physicians and dentists both are well above average for suicide rates among American
workers. From content written by Jennifer Salerno 2004, suicide took the lives of 30,622 people. In 2001 55% of all
suicides that were committed involved the use of firearms. In 2002 132,353 people were hospitalized following suicide attempts. Of the 132,353 people hospitalized, 116,639 were treated in emergency departments and released.
The problems stated were related to stress, confusion, and depression.
People trying to handle everything on their own become at risk. Those of us who confine our time to very small spaces,
the oral cavity, in the case of the dentist, must be very careful to get away from this environment to re-energize.
Working within confined spaces may create an introvert within you. Because the dentist enjoys helping others, he may not
feel that the stress is coming from his willingness to help others as he dives into difficult case after case, losing a part of himself along the way. Over time the introversion is allowed to layer, accumulating like a snowball gaining momentum.
Do not cut yourself off from the stimulation and consultation feedback of other like health care professionals.
Some treatment plans for our patients, require multiple consultations from specialist in our field and other health care disciplines.
Your goal should be for fulfillment in your chosen profession in life, to stay healthy mentally and remain grounded.
If you don’t stay grounded, circumstances that come like a thief in the night, will rob you of your fulfillment and joy.
You may find an impending divorce on the court docket. Or you just quit your job because you ran into a few difficult treatment plans that did not work out for the patient. We must stop beating ourselves up when we have done our very best. Stay involved in civic endeavors to avoid the withdrawal that is possible here. The introvert may not be in a healthy
mental state.
At whatever level in life you are, you must continue to confront life. Even a skid row bum has to confront life at that level to survive.
In the Universal Law of Forgiveness, you do not allow the past to influence you. As Eckart Tolle states we must live in the moment. Learn from past mistakes and move on. If you were emotionally scarred, don’t allow the scars to continue to make you live as though you are still being scarred in the present. Forgive others that have wronged you and don’t forget to forgive yourself.
If your fulfillment does not hinge on life’s circumstances, then you are free to grow to reach your maximum potential.
Focus on helping others in areas away from your work environment. Many doctors in our profession are accused of being introverts.
We stay in our work places with minimal contact regarding our community. Sow seeds to benefit others.
Realize that a part of success is knowing your purpose in life.
Having a clear picture of what your success looks like when you get there will help you accomplish this goal.
Obtain the right principles for getting you there.
An important key to a successful journey is sacrifice. Most of us have abundantly sacrificed.
A mistake often made is thinking success is due to genius or some magic formula.
Neither is it wealth, they are two entirely different areas.
As you pursue success, have a clear conscience.
This will make you more powerful, as the Bible says, a light to those around you.
You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
Don’t forget, you are good at what you do!
Forgiving others will free energy to pursue your most vital priorities in life.
Forgiveness for success unties the bindings of those who have wronged you.
From the Diary of my enlightenment,
Artis L. Clark, D.D.S. http://dentist4you.biz
[gfmdonate]
