Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to New Dentists on the Block, a podcast featuring new dentists sharing their experiences in the world of dentistry, successes, challenges, and life in between, navigating dentistry together one experience at a time. I am so excited to welcome our first guest, Dr. James E. Lee. Dr. Lee is a general dentist practicing alongside his father, Dr. Ted Lee, in Massachusetts. Dr. Lee leads the ADA New Dentist Committee.
Speaker: A national committee of the ADA Board of Trustees composed of 17 members representing each of the ADA's regional districts. In our conversation, we talk about empowering dental leaders, the vote yes on two when in Massachusetts, getting involved in organized dentistry, and creating a culture of support and dentistry. Let's get to it.
Speaker: James Lee, welcome to New Dentist on the Block. How is your week going? It's going great. Thanks for having me. I am so excited to have you as our first guest for New Dentist on the Block, a new podcast that I'm excited to launch, and how are you feeling about being our first guest? I'm absolutely honored. I've been a big fan of all the amazing work that you do, so I'm honored to be here.
Speaker: Well, so happy that you're here and really excited. I know this recording is going to go out a little bit further out from this, from when we're recording it, but I know that last night was a monumental night. Last night was election night. So big news for pretty much everyone, the entire nation, but yes, on to Massachusetts vote. Can you talk a little bit about that and the excitement behind the dental community supporting that and how much hype there is right now in the state of Massachusetts?
Speaker: I'd be happy to. So we are thrilled that Massachusetts Ballot Question 2, which was about requiring dental insurers to pay at least 83 % of patient premiums to be used for patient care. And this was a really positive result for patients, for consumers, so that more of their money goes towards their actual care and not administrative and other
Speaker: areas of spending. It's really about taking better care of our patients as you know dentists and dental students and also you know folks throughout our profession. We've worked really hard to make sure our patients can afford and have the best care possible and so we're thrilled that this ballot question is really a historic win to really change the landscape perhaps of
Speaker: the third party reimbursement. And I really hope that this signal is kind of a shift and something that we'll see, you know, propagate and move across the country. So really excited about it. It was a huge win and really brought together our entire profession, folks calling and
Speaker: doing grassroots efforts, which is really cool to see. And then the entire ADA family really got together and financially supported. They gave us their time and lots of folks in and out of organization actually got behind this really important effort.
Speaker: Lots of support from across the nation for sure. I know that a lot of states really want to see this happening and their home states and dentists really want this. Let's talk a little bit about the support that the ADA provided and your involvement with the ADA and now coming up as you are now the chair of the new dentist and having a role with the board of trustees and the ADA. And if you're excited, how you're feeling, what you're hoping to accomplish, I know that's a lot, but we'll take it piece by piece.
Speaker: So I'm really excited for those that are just joining us. I'm James Lee. I'm the chair of the ADA's New Dennis Committee. And as part of that role, I actually serve on the ADA Board of Trustees. And I'm thrilled to be working with our fantastic ADA leadership and making sure the voice of New Dennis, the voice of early career Dennis and dental students, the unique challenges and the unique pain points that they're facing
Speaker: that our leadership is bringing resources and intention to bear on things that are important to you and making sure that our profession is better and the rules and the regulations and the policies that
Speaker: new dentists and early career dentists are going to live under for a really long time, making sure that we're part of the conversation in shaping those. So I'm super excited. I actually will be headed out to Chicago throughout the year to meet with the board. And I couldn't be more thrilled and humbled to be in this position to try and make a difference in this area.
Speaker: How important do you feel for the ADA and for other realms of organized dentistry? So individual states, how important do you feel that it is to have a new dentist on individual board of trustees, on board of directors? How do you feel about that? I think it's incredibly important. I think new dentists provide a really important perspective and that can't be, you know, it's something that we really have to
Speaker: make an effort to include, right? We have to be intentional about including new dentists and early career dentists into the conversation because it's easy to come at any decision making from your own perspective and your own biases and blind spots. And I think having new dentists as part of boards, having new dentists part of the conversation, it doesn't detract from the conversation, it makes it better.
Speaker: And there are some great leaders leading our profession into the future. But the new dentist perspective on how we shape that future is critical. And so that's why I am really excited about the opportunity to make sure that not just my voice, it's the voice of all the new dentists across the country, that the awesome stuff that they're doing, the really things that are important to them, the work
Speaker: in the programs and the initiatives that they're passionate about, the ADA leadership is responsive to that.
Speaker: I love that. I think that that's fantastic. And I think that, you know, as young dentists, you and I, we can learn so much from those seasoned leaders and dentists that are out there. But it is exciting as a new dentist to be welcome to the table to be able to share our thoughts, our values, our opinions, and the issues that are affecting us. I would say that in every stage of your career as a dentist,
Speaker: you'll face different kind of issues and being able to share that and find solutions. I think it's really key. So I agree. I think having a voice at the table as a new dentist is really awesome. But pivoting a little bit, tell us a little bit about yourself, about where you practice and how your journey as a dentist has been. I know that you practice with your dad. And so I'm sure that that has been a lot of fun. And I'd like to learn a little bit more about that.
Speaker: Sure. So I'm a general dentist in Malden, Massachusetts. So I practice for outside Boston and I'm a second generation dentist. So my father and I work together and it's really special to be able to take care of the community that you grew up in. I think that even if it's your adopted community, dentists have a special place in society, in our communities. And being a part of a community, really investing in it, it's something that
Speaker: I wouldn't trade anything for the world. I really think that my journey from dental school transitioning into practice right away, I didn't do residency because I had a structured mentorship. I usually tell folks I do encourage folks to do residency because I think it's really valuable in terms of your growth as a clinician. But my situation was a little bit different and it actually gave me a little bit more bandwidth to
Speaker: work on organized dentistry and to pour into leadership with the ADA and with my state dental society, the Massachusetts Dental Society. And from there, a lot of opportunities opened up. I feel that if you're given more, if you've been blessed with opportunities, it's your responsibility to give back more. And my leadership journey really was pushed because I had more bandwidth. I felt it was my responsibility to give back more.
Speaker: I think that's probably why you and I get along so well is that we have this passion of being involved and giving back. And I love that having that structure and being able to work with your father gave you that ability to have that bandwidth. I think that support in dentistry is so crucial and having that from a family side of things is really awesome. As a new dentist, going to start to work with your father, coming in with maybe a vision of how you would want to run a practice.
Speaker: Was that on the same page or similar than how your father was already practicing?
Speaker: I think it was really nice that we have very similar practice philosophies. I think that's a critical part. Now, when I'm on the other side of the table hiring associates, it's one of the most important things. Is this person a good fit for the way that we want to practice dentistry? One of the beautiful things about our profession is there's so many different ways to be a dentist and practice dentistry and whatever way
Speaker: that speaks to you and brings you life. Awesome. I'm all for it.
Speaker: in a close working environment, I think it's really, really important to have that shared practice philosophy. And so I feel very blessed that my father and I, we were kind of trained the same way with a very similar philosophy. And at the end of the day, I think as long as you're doing this standard of care, there's going to be dentists who cater to different segments of the patient population. And that's awesome. That's part of a beautiful diversity of our profession. Absolutely.
Speaker: What challenges did you face as a new dentist going into practice? I think one of the biggest challenges was feeling like I had to master everything all at once. I think that we have a great foundation coming out of dental school and wherever that training was for you, I think it's invaluable. But I think it's really, really important to, on one hand, know what you don't know and remember to
Speaker: grow and invest. And so for me, because I didn't do residency, I had to take a lot of CE and spend a lot of money on shoring up those areas where I needed some more training and understanding my own limitations and be humbled a little bit to know that I can't do everything under the sun yet. And at the same time, recognizing that
Speaker: I am that professional. And when my patient sits in the chair, they look at me as a leader. So it's my responsibility to make sure that I am read up and being a dental professional is not just the clinical piece, but our patients look to us for leadership on healthcare issues, on community issues. And so part of that is understanding what's happening in my community.
Speaker: being able to speak intelligently about the issues. And if I don't know, being honest with them. But it's a really cool and powerful relationship that you have with your patients. And I think it's really special when you can nurture that and be a really positive force for the folks that you take care of.
Speaker: Oh yeah, really key things there. I think that it's okay not to know everything. And I would say, and you'd probably agree that one of the best investments that you can make is an investment in yourself, investment in CE to grow your knowledge and grow your skill within the realm of dentistry. But I also think that we have a commitment to our profession, a commitment to bettering the profession and to protecting it. What do you think about that?
Speaker: I completely agree. I'm here because of the women and men who poured into our profession and built that pathway for me to be able to follow on. I think it's our responsibility to leave the profession better than we found it. That's the way we're going to move forward.
Speaker: One of the things that really drives me is we can do amazing things in our operators, right? We're in the four walls of my tiny adorable office. I can do some really cool stuff, but the large,
Speaker: huge issues that are facing our communities are going to require all of us working together and that's where organized dentistry fits in and that kind of giving back that responsibility of working together with other dental professionals, health professionals, community leaders to really move our communities forward I think is incredibly important and we can't do that by ourselves and
Speaker: I think there's really cool opportunities to work together and I love that Organized Dentistry brings us together and so many of us in a really fantastic network where we support each other, we learn from each other. And I continue to grow and learn every time I interact with folks that throughout the new dentist committee, with my local dental society and everything in between.
Speaker: You know, I think it's through organized industry that I've met so many wonderful people like yourself. And I think about if that weren't there for me, the amount of people who I wouldn't have met in life is tremendous, you know, like a huge amount. And many of these leaders and mentors have made me a better clinician and a better person and have been examples of what leadership should look like.
Speaker: I would say that there are a lot of dentists that I have heard who have said that they are not comfortable being involved in organized dentistry, that they don't find a place for themselves to be leaders and they really don't see value behind being involved. How would you encourage them to maybe take the first step if they were interested in their involvement or to even find a way to maybe open their hearts and their homes to
Speaker: get involved once again in organized dentistry. I would encourage everyone who's listening to take the first step and get plugged in. I think
Speaker: My personal belief is that your involvement with organized dentistry in whatever form that fits your life at this stage, I believe the organized dentistry groups that you're a part of should be your dental home. I think it should be a place that nurtures you.
Speaker: that gives you practical, relevant, timely information, resources that help you be a better professional. I found that to be true in my life. I believe that the ADA should be the home for every dentist. No matter what practice setting you might find yourself in, I believe that
Speaker: the things that bind us together, that common threads that we have, I think that it's really, really powerful when we can all work together and really be a community together. I think that if in the past you didn't find a soft landing space or a warm welcome,
Speaker: I encourage you to come back. I encourage you to try again because I would love to personally invite you to reach out to the new dentist committee, reach out to your local dental society because it is a new day in dentistry. I love that our current president, Dr. George Shepley and our immediate past president, Dr. Cesar Sabatas, they are championing this new day for dentistry where everyone belongs in the ADA. And all of us have a place, all of us have
Speaker: something to contribute and all of us have ways that we can positively impact our profession. And I hope that ADA can be supportive of the awesome stuff that you're gonna do. I hope that ADA and your local dental society can be a place for you to be recharged and to be poured into, right? We pour out ourselves to our patients every day and it can be really draining. So I think that it's important to have a place, a home, a dental home where you can really be lifted up and recharged
Speaker: And I find that in my local dental society, where the dentists in my community, they look out for each other. They share resources. They share best practices. And they make each other better. And that vibrant kind of beating heart of the local dental society, I think it takes all of us being a part of it. So I encourage everyone to be connected and be involved. And if you don't know where to get connected, reach out to the ADNU dentists. We would love to get you connected.
Speaker: I really hope that people find a home with the ADA and find a way to get involved. And it's great to have that common ground. And I feel that if you feel passionate about an issue that maybe is not reflective of how your views are, it's important to have your voice heard. Challenge it. I think that the way that we continue to make our profession better is by bringing these different views together.
Speaker: challenging them, finding ways that we can find that commonality to continue to be better and to push things forward. I think that, you know, you and I probably have read a ton of threads through social media, so much, you know, angst and frustration. And I think that all of that is very, very valid. But if it's not constructive, it's doing nothing. It's just a rant.
Speaker: I completely agree. I got involved because as a new practitioner, I saw things that I didn't love and I wanted to change them. I wanted to make a difference. I felt that I couldn't complain if I didn't try to make it better. And the best way to have a big impact is with organized dentistry, where we work together to make the positive impacts that we want to see.
Speaker: Yeah, some of the best conversations are when they get heated, when people are disagreeing because you know that the solution is just going to be prime. And those disagreements reflect a lot of the opinions that a lot of dentists have across the nation, whether they're involved or not. But we really, we need your voice. We need you to be involved. And it's never, never too early and never too late to get involved, I would say. If you're a student here and you want to get involved, you know, get involved with ASDA, get involved with ADIA, find a way to
Speaker: Learn what organized dentistry is and dip your toes in the water. And if you're more seasoned than you want to get involved and see what's going on with these organized dentistry people, please do it. Your voice is important and we want to be representative of dentists at all levels and stages of their careers.
Speaker: I couldn't agree more. I think your voice wherever you are on your dental journey needs to be heard and you shouldn't deprive our amazing profession of your gifts, your talents, your passions. And I wholeheartedly believe that the ADA should be there and will be there to support you in an appropriate way along your journey. And so I really hope your listeners get connected.
Speaker: I hope so too. And speaking of being connected, one of the things that I have loved and seen you do for the last year or two is put together a community online of featuring dentists and dental students that are making a difference in their own communities. Tell me how you came about doing all of that and where that passion kind of stems from to showcase these students and dentists.
Speaker: I'd love to. One of the coolest parts about serving on the ADA's new dentist committee is the opportunity to meet dentists and dental students from across the country and see the incredible stuff that they're doing, this incredible stuff that you're doing. And it really inspired me to make sure that those voices, those incredible initiatives and programs that folks were championing,
Speaker: were invisible and heard and had a big megaphone that our leaders across the country knew about all this stuff. And so I started featuring folks on, I called it Wisdom Wednesdays, and making a platform for
Speaker: new upcoming rising leaders who didn't already have a platform and making sure that our current leadership and their state and local leaderships knew about these folks who are absolutely incredible, talented individuals that I hope are
Speaker: brought into our dental societies and our organized dentistry organizations where we need their talents and we need their vision and their voice to help us navigate into the future. So I think we're very lucky. I decided to do it because I didn't see it happening and I've been thrilled to see that
Speaker: local dental societies, dental schools, and it started featuring the amazing folks in their communities. And so I feel that my work there is not done, but I feel like I made a good start and I'm thrilled to see that work continue through other folks.
Speaker: I love to see the sense of community that the dental profession has. And I think it's so important. You know, I think that practicing dentistry can feel very, very lonely, especially for a solo practitioner. And so creating that community of support and camaraderie, I think is so big. And I think that it's really, really wonderful what you're doing. And I love to read.
Speaker: and the showcase students and dentists and seeing everything that they're doing. I think that that is really, really huge. What would you say in the next few years are the biggest issues that will tackle or that new dentists will face and the profession will face in the next few years?
Speaker: I think one of the biggest issues continues to be navigating student debt. I think it affects so many new dentists and even dentists that are kind of further along beyond being a new dentist into their dental journey. It's something that we need to come together and find good solutions. We need to find creative, innovative ways to help manage that. And it's something that
Speaker: organized dentistry, that's what it's there for, right, to help us tackle these larger strategic challenges that our profession faces. And I think it's something that it's a big part of
Speaker: the process of becoming a dentist, right, navigating that, but it's something that we can work on together and I'm hopeful that we will find ways to not just survive and make it work, but I really want every new dentist to thrive and to be empowered to practice dentistry in the way that brings them joy and brings them, you know, fulfills their passion.
Speaker: Absolutely. And this is why we need listeners' voices and involvement in organized industry. There is power in numbers. And if you want things to change, you know, the ADA is actively lobbying for a lot of these issues. In fact, you know, there is the combined ADA as a lobby day every year in Washington, D .C. Student debt has been coming up for forever.
Speaker: This isn't an issue that really, really needs to change. We all face it. It's a burden and it can be very, very overwhelming. And so the more voices, the more numbers that we have, the more strength that we have when we go and we lobby to our policymakers to have some of these changes happen in the future. So really, really key. Yes, I completely agree with that. James, I know that we're wrapping up here, but I am so curious to know if you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive,
Speaker: Who would it be and why? That's a tough one. There are so many people that I would want to have dinner with, but I would have to go with G .V. Black. I think that that would be a fascinating conversation. That's a good one. And I would love to pick his brain and see what he would think of where we are in 2022.
Speaker: I would say, and I don't know if you agree, but I think that if G .B. Black were around, I think that he'd be involved in organized industry and likely a member of the ADA. I hope so. I certainly think so as well.
Speaker: Well, James, I really appreciate your time and I hope that we get to connect with a lot of our listeners and I will be sure to include your handle in our show notes. And if anyone is looking to be involved and get involved in their local societies in the ADA, please reach out to us. If you have questions or you want to challenge us on a particular topic, we also welcome it. We welcome ideas and we welcome making new friends and finding ways to continue to make our profession better.
Speaker: James, any last words that you have for our listeners this evening? Thank you so much for following along and thank you for hosting this. I think this is an important part of finding other ways to reach out and connect our amazing community and I couldn't be more thrilled that you're doing this and I'm absolutely honored that I got to participate.
Speaker: Well, thank you so much for your kind words and thank you again for being our first guest on New Dentists on the Block. I'm excited to see where this little project goes and hopefully in the future others who are listening who are also new dentists will join us and share a little bit about their passions and their stories. I think that we all can learn a little bit from each one of our journeys. Until next time. Thank you, James. Thank you.
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to this first episode. Be sure to subscribe and rate this podcast. I hope you will join for future episodes. You can find Dr. Lee on Instagram at JamesLeeDMD. If you know a new dentist that would be a great feature on the podcast, be sure to send a DM and connect on Instagram at newdennisontheblock. And you can connect with me on Instagram at tsmyestas .dds. Tune in next time for another episode.
