Hello, everyone, and thank you for tuning into
the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
My name is Brian Zimmerman. Today, I'm thrilled
to be joined by doctor William Simon, a
dentist for more than 40 years in the
Chicago area and respected member of the Chicago
Dental Society.
Doctor Simon, thank you so much for joining
us today and taking the time. If you're
if you're ready, if you're game, let's dive
right into the conversation.
Let's roll, Brian. I'm ready. Alright. So can
you get us started by by introducing yourself
a bit more and and sharing a bit
about your involvement in the Chicago Dental Society.
Absolutely. I'm I'm a dentist of of 40
plus years, 41 years now.
And,
I've been involved with Chicago Dental, Society throughout
my entire career,
to
different,
levels of involvement actually.
Early on in my career, I out of
school, I was involved as an early career
dentist quite a bit. And then through the
mid part of my career, stepped back a
bit, wasn't quite as involved, but still a
member.
And then over the last 10 to 15
years, have stepped back in it in pretty
active roles. I I'm,
I was involved some committee work, with the
communications committee. I am the past president of
one of our eight
branches. Chicago Dental Society has 8 branches.
We're the largest component dental society in the
country. And as a result, we are split
into 8 branches. So I'm past president of
1 of the branches, the north side branch.
And at this point, my role is,
heavy involvement in what we call the,
scientific programming subcommittee for the midwinter meeting.
So the the it's a it's a 6
year commitment.
I'm involved with the committee that chooses
the speakers for the midwinter meeting, the program.
And in the 5th year of my tenure
there, I will be the chair of that
committee for the 2026
midwinter meeting.
Excellent. We're we're certainly gonna dive into the
midwinter meeting as well in this conversation, but
I wanna wanna get your take here, sort
of, about the the face of dentistry changing.
You know, more dentists are retiring, new dentists
are coming in. How do you see this
shift playing out, and and what are the
opportunities here for younger dentists and and organized
dentistry as a whole? What role should mentorship
play, I guess, in helping this this younger
generation of dentists really take advantage of the
opportunities,
before them?
Well, certainly, the landscape has changed since I
came out of school back in 83.
It it used to be that you could
get out of school,
hang up your shingle, and own an office,
and
just hit the ground running. It it was
such a a different time. And now as
we've seen things get more complicated with technology
and all the issues surrounding the new grads
with debt, etcetera,
things have changed. And the the introduction of
of, corporate dentistry into our industry and DSOs,
etcetera, has been a a huge, huge shift.
But
I see it as as as opportunity
for really everybody involved.
I think the mentorship, it's important in my
opinion
to,
to think about how mentorship has really changed
in some ways.
It used to be that things didn't change
so rapidly, and an early career doctor would
not be in a a a tremendously different
place toward the end of their career as
far as the provision of care, the technology.
Certainly a lot more wisdom and experience.
However,
now with things changing so quickly,
I think that a lot of late career
doctors
are actually being mentored
by the,
by the early career doctors. There's a lot
of new innovations, things that they learn in
dental school, a lot of new technologies that
that as late career doctors, we don't necessarily
understand as, especially in this digital platform as
well as some of the early career doctors.
Of course, there's no substitute in my opinion
for experience and wisdom that comes with practicing
for all these years. So for me, mentorship,
it goes both ways. It really has now,
in my opinion,
achieved a place where
early career doctors can learn from late career
and vice versa. And and I just think
that it's important we all realize that and
share each other's wisdom,
our experience, and and then our our new
knowledge.
That is fascinating. So there's really sort of
a reciprocity
involved in the mentorship. It got like you
said, it it goes both ways. Do you
think that is
more new, I guess, to dentistry, or is
that has always been the case to some
extent? Or do you think because of the
rise of technology, this has become a more,
reciprocity,
like I said, sort of relationship between these
2, the the older dentists and and the
newer ones? Oh, I think it's it's new.
I think it's it's part of the evolution
of of
not only dentistry, but just our our technology
world, our digital world in general.
So as I said early on in my
career,
there wasn't a whole lot I felt like
I had to offer to the, to the
late career or mid mid and late career
dentist. It was all about me listening to
them, and and now I find myself
talking to early career doctors about many, many
things that are helpful to me,
particularly things like, oh,
the new approaches towards the digital workspace,
digital workflow,
social media. There's just the the change now
has become so quick,
and that things evolve
at I I always say right now that,
you know, for the first time in the
history of humanity, people from different planets are
living on the same planet. That's kinda my
mantra there. So
that to me speaks to how important it
is for us to all learn from each
other and and respect each other's position in
time and and just grab for the things
that all of us have that we can
offer.
Yeah. I I I think I might steal
your mantra there. Because when I when I
start thinking about I have a 2 very
young children. I have a a 5 year
old and a 2 year old. And when
I think about what they're the world they're
gonna be living in when they reach adulthood,
I am going to be an alien to
that for sure. Absolutely. You stay. I can
tell you as a late career doctor and
somebody who actually does some speaking and mentoring,
a lot of mentoring and some speaking
at conferences across the country.
It's it's tough to stay relevant. It really
is. And you have to work really hard
to stay relevant, in in our field and
in any field. But that's just the the
way things are. It's the fact of of
rapid change, and we all have to adapt.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Well, well, let's let's dive in
now to to hear more about the midwinter
meeting.
As I I imagine, this is a place
where you can you can sort of fight
to achieve that relevancy or maintain it. Right?
Can you can you just share some more,
information about the midwinter meeting? Any additional pertinent
details about the about CDS?
What's the benefit of having a dental team,
I guess, really, really come to this meeting
and engage with the Chicago Dental Society in
this way?
Well, I I think the point you made
just now speaks to that very much so,
and it it's a place where you can
come together and see all of these different
changes in in one place. So a little
history. The the Chicago mid midwinter meeting is
about to celebrate its 100 and 60th
anniversary
in the February 2025 meeting. So it's been
around for a long time.
The CDS midwinter meeting also draws a very,
very large
number of attendees.
We are over 20,000
attendees, and I feel like the midwinter meeting
really is one of the,
premier dental meetings, not only in the country,
but really across the world as we've seen
our industry shift in many ways. We've seen
some of the smaller meetings
have some challenges and, in fact,
actually shut down meetings.
We've seen some consolidation
in meetings. We've had
meetings emerge in different fashions outside of organized
dentistry, corporate,
I would say, industry players that are having
their own meetings.
You've got DSOs having their meetings. But I
think the midwinter meeting because of its tenure
and because of the place that it's in,
Chicago,
and the number of people that are there,
it is, in my opinion, one of the
top five meetings in the world.
I appreciate that. Can can you also share
from,
I guess, the industry partner
standpoint exhibitors? Why why should industry leaders attend
this this meeting as well?
Well, I I think that industry leaders can
learn in the same fashion that meeting attendees,
dentists, and their teams can.
Certainly being in a place
where industry,
partners are coming together,
for networking purposes. Number 1, I think everybody
can benefit from the networking component of having
over 20,000
industry people, whether they're doctors, team members,
industry,
leaders,
vendors,
manufacturers, whatever it is. Having everybody come together
in a space, in my opinion, provides a
tremendous,
background for
networking
and
and learning about trends and
seeing things
hands on. I I I see one one
of the speaking of trends, one of the
trends that,
I I think that my generation finds a
little disturbing. Maybe I don't know if that
maybe disturbing is not the word right word.
Maybe just,
a little concerning perhaps is the online
the online presence of of what it seems
to be everything. And so I can tell
you when it just something as simple as
shopping for clothing or shopping for furniture, whatever
it might be.
Doing that online
is is not an easy thing for those
of us who have had been in
in a in a space where,
buying clothes and furniture was always hands on.
You you can understand the,
the benefits of being face to face with
someone when you're talking to them. You can
understand the benefits of having
a product in front of you that you
can touch and feel.
And
also being in a space where
multiple
manufacturers
or or providers of services are providing the
same service, and you can compare one to
another in a very, very efficient
way. So for me,
we see a lot of the in person
meetings just struggling for for,
attendees, and I think a lot of that
is is the result of a lot of
early career,
doctors who are
used to getting their
products and their services and their CE online
with no,
no experience of having seen what it's like
on the other side. So I'm hoping that
as we move forward that
the mentorship from the,
the later career mid career, later career doctors
toward the early career doctors will help them
to understand the value
of coming together in a meeting like the
midwinter meeting.
Yeah. Certainly. I mean, the the the the
the convenience of online offerings is certainly a
bit a a a wonderful thing in many
regards. But to your point, doctor Simon, there's
no no replacing that in person experience in
terms of when you're really, really getting to
know the solutions,
really getting to know the the the people
behind the companies that you're trying to work
with. That all that stuff really does matter,
and I think, like, your point is well
taken in terms of the value of that.
So I appreciate you calling it out, doctor
Simon.
Yes. So I'll I'll just say that, relationships
matter.
Yes.
So beyond the midwinter meeting, can you share
a little bit about how Chicago Dental Society
helps both support individual dentists and and the
business of dentistry more generally?
Sure, Brian.
As I mentioned, the Chicago Dental Society
is the largest component dental society in the
country.
And when I say component dental society, what
that means is that each state has a
state dental
society or association.
And within each state, there
are components,
that represent different areas of each state and
have their own,
component dental
society or or association. So for instance, in
our state of Illinois, we have the Chicago
Dental Society, we have the McKendree
County Dental Society, and and a number of
different component societies.
But CDS,
Chicago Now Society with over 4,000 members is
the largest component
society. And as a result, we have 8
branches, and we are in a position
to offer a lot of wonderful benefits to
our membership. Certainly, the midwinter is at the
probably at the top of the list, but
additionally,
we through our branch meetings, we offer the
opportunity for continuing education,
networking,
just meeting with other doctors, sharing our experiences,
sharing our
our wins and sharing our challenges, and that
provides a tremendous amount of benefit
to our membership. Certainly, there's member benefits that
are available through the Chicago Dental Society in
the form of supply purchasing perhaps or,
credit card processing. All of that's available.
There's also in the case of the Chicago
downside, some some local advocacy I feel that
we can enjoy that protects
at least the, the practice of our the
the our profession
in the Chicago market,
Chicago and surrounding suburbs. So Chicago downside isn't
just Chicago proper. It is Chicago
and
the the surrounding suburbs.
So all of that to me has tremendous
benefit for our membership. As far as the
industry goes,
I think that,
just the fact that we have 8 branches,
each branch has 4 dinner meetings
at a minimum
every every year.
And at those dinner meetings,
industry partners,
are invited to sponsor these meetings, and they
have an opportunity then to present their their
products and services
to our membership
in ways that hopefully can promote their their
business and help them to grow as well.
Yeah. I appreciate the education about all all
all the organization does and how how these
societies sort of work work together and and
bring dentists together.
Doctor Simon, before I let you go, what
what closing thoughts would you like to leave
listeners with?
I think that I'd like to speak to,
what I've seen over the the course of
the last 15, 20 years as as the
emergence of corporate dentistry and and DSOs have
has grown.
And I really wanna send a message
that
in my opinion,
we're we're all in this together. We are
all in the same profession.
I I think that our mission is all
the same, and that is to help our
patients receive the best dental care
possible,
promote their quality of life,
their self esteem,
all of that. And I hope that all
of us are in it together. I know
that as corporate dentistry and DSOs emerge, there
was a quite a bit of animosity
between,
organized dentistry
and DSOs. But I hope that people can
realize that
both independent dental office owners
and,
dental,
organized dentistry
and DSOs and corporate dentistry, we can all
benefit from each other in in so many
ways.
I always say that there's really, really good
DSOs.
There's really, really bad DSOs. There's really, really
good independent practices. There's really, really
bad independent practices potentially.
Well, all of that said, if we all
aren't working toward the same mission,
I I think it's important to understand the
benefits that each each can provide in their
own way. And when I when I talk
about the DSO space, I I'd like to
bring forth that the benefits that dentistry in
general has received from DSOs is number 1,
a place where early career doctors can find
their their stride. They can, with all of
the debt that we see the early career
doctor saddled with, it's a tremendous opportunity
to perhaps, hit a 5 year plan or
or beyond where you can get yourself into
a place where you can practice, you can
learn, you can have your benefits, your health
benefits, you can help to offset some of
your debt. And then hopefully, if you're interested,
hit the ground running for independent ownership. I
think that also
the the DSO corporate space has brought a
lot of
money into
our profession.
And as a result, we've seen a lot
of advancements in technology
for the provision of care
and the betterment of our patients that we
might not have seen otherwise.
I also think that the, DSO,
corporate side has helped independent dentists to understand
more about the value of their practice.
And
when late career or any any doctors transitioning
a practice, the values
of their practice
practices now have become much, much greater defined
than they ever were when I came out
of dental school years ago. It wasn't
evaluated in the same way. And then on
the organized dentistry side, I think that
the the people who aren't engaged at this
point with with organized dentistry should understand the
benefits of things like the midwinter meeting, and
coming together and networking, and,
the wisdom that can be shared from the
the the wisdom and experience from the later
career doctors. And and for me also, one
of the most important things I see for
organized dentistry
as as far as its contribution goes to
our profession is the advocacy.
And there there is strength in numbers, strength
in numbers. And when I see divisive things
like,
organized dentistry not partnering well with with the
corporate dentistry or DSOs or vice versa. I
just see a division that's not gonna help
our profession.
Organized dentistry has done a tremendous job over
the years of doing what's necessary to
advocate,
both on local levels and national levels to
protect and preserve
our profession. And I think if we can
all come together with those benefits from each
side in mind, our profession will be better
served and ultimately
the goal of providing the best dental care
for our patients
will be put into place.
Doctor Simon, I appreciate you closing us out
there with a with a with some nuance
and and some optimism there. So I really
appreciate you taking the time today.
Absolutely, Brian. My pleasure. Thanks for having
me. Of course. Thanks again to doctor Simon
and to Chicago Dental Society for sponsoring today's
content. To our listeners, thank you for joining
us, and please be sure to check out
the other Becker's Healthcare podcasts.
Have a wonderful rest of your day.