What a busy 2017!

We started 2017 like every other year before, catching up from having time off over the Christmas Holidays by working a solid couple of months. Along came March and our Pacific Dental Conference, of which I’ve been on the Organizing Committee for the last 10 years. Angelique and I are members of the International College of Dentists, so we attended the meeting in Toronto in May, along with the Annual Spring Meeting of the Ontario Dental Association. We were able to sprinkle in a vacation or two (or three) over the year. We most recently were in Atlanta to attend another meeting of the American College of Dentists, of which Angelique has been heavily involved with for many years. While in Atlanta, we also attended the American Dental Association meeting.

While it sounds like a lot of meetings of various organizations, we believe in taking part in, and contributing to our profession by sharing time with our colleagues. Each Organized group has a different history, but they all share a like-mindedness in that they care about the profession, and maintaining the ethical standards and professionalism that have been a mainstay of Dentistry in the past.

And back to the discussion about ‘a busy 2017’: We were without Sandi, one of our long-time CDA’s, for 3 months in the Spring after she fell and broke her arm riding her daughter’s hover board! We had great support from the rest of our staff, and the help of ‘borrowed’ assistants from our dental friends, but it certainly was a challenge for us all.

Dr Dylan Olver

As some of you already know, Angelique and I have added a dentist to our office as of July. Dr Dylan Olver was actually a patient of ours in this practice when he was just 5 years old. Hard to believe that is possible, but I guess we’ve been at it for some time now (about 30 years!). We were not planning on having another associate for probably five more years, but Dr Dylan came along, and we felt that he was just too good a fit, and what a good fit he’s become! He’s been able to help us accommodate the demand for appointment times and alleviate some of the time constraints we’ve had. As a result, we are now open Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm. Dr Dylan fits well because he has an easygoing nature, and like us, he wants to give you all the information, so that you can help to decide what treatment is ideal for you. We’re very happy to have him as part of our team. We’ve also been very fortunate to have Claudia join us as Dr Dylan’s Certified Dental Assistant. She’s been a perfect fit to our clan also.

Having Dr Dylan also re-energized us to work on many projects we’d been putting off. We’ve since upgraded our software to allow for text messaging reminders for communications, on top of the already available email contacts. We did a small renovation of the consultation room to create a second reception desk to help us do all the administrative work to keep things running smoothly up front. You might start to see Sandi up there more often in the future. There are still some renovations that we’d like to do, but logistically it requires a closure of the office for up to a month, so we don’t know when that can occur, if ever.

As you can see, we updated our website! The first website was created in the early stages of the Internet. We did it mostly to have a web presence as a novelty, and for some communication with our patients. Today, this is what your first impression of us could be, as opposed to the previous ‘word of mouth’ that created all our great referrals of the past.

This website also allows us to say thanks to all our wonderful patients that have entrusted us with their dental care of the years. We are blessed to have the opportunity to get to know you and your families and to have a part in your lives. I can’t think of another profession that can provide that ability to meet and get to know thousands of people at that close a level.

– Ray Fong