Early in my career a patient started crying in my chair. We sat down to do her first round of IPR. I could have sworn we talked about it before. She didn't remember any of it. So there she was. Scared. Crying. And there I was. Nervous as hell to do the IPR anyway. It was a traumatic appointment for everybody. I still think about it. Here's what I wish someone told me back then. You don't have to do everything in one visit. Attachments. IPR. Trays. All of it stacked on a nervous patient in one...

Last year my family moved from Texas to New York. I wasn't worried. I've moved my whole life. Florida to NYU. NYU to Connecticut. Connecticut to Texas. Moving is my thing. Plus my wife is a machine at planning. I figured we had this. Then reality showed up. The movers arrived at our new house. One problem. We hadn't closed on it yet. The timing we planned for fell apart. So our entire life went into my sister-in-law's garage. Then we hired a second set of movers to get it from her garage into...

I had a case that still bugs me when I look at the photos. We fixed the crowding. We got great intrusion on the lower front teeth. The before and after was a huge win. But one tooth was off. The lower central incisor. It bothered me. Three or four trays and it would be perfect. I could see it. I wanted it. So I brought it up with the patient. He looked at me and said "Doc, I really don't want to wear more trays. Are we good?" Here's where most of us mess up. We push. We say "trust me, it's...