Health

August 28, 2014  by

When You Stop Learning, You Stop Growing

The following article is a summary of a talk Dr. John Ladd of Ladd Dental Group gave to the Kokomo Business Network on August 27, 2014.

“When you stop learning, you stop growing.” That’s Dr. John Ladd’s philosophy, a philosophy that’s moved him far beyond the typical path of dental practices to foster a culture of professional collaboration.

Fresh out of dental school, Dr. Ladd wanted to be part of a group practice so he could learn from and share experiences with his colleagues. As he recruited others to work with him, he invited them to shape the practice: “Some dentists are too perfectionistic: they know the effort they put into building their practice, and think others won’t appreciate it. But some of the new student graduates have good ideas too. You have to be more laissez faire about it.”

To build a “big, hairy, audacious goal” for his business, Dr. Ladd hired a coach, developed a strategic plan, and held quarterly meetings to teach core values to his staff. At each meeting, they would cover a new core value and recognize staff members who were living out the previous value. Dr. Ladd’s commitment to education continues today through many avenues, including a weekly book club he holds with his staff. Some of the books he recommends are The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma, Good to Great by Jim Collins, Topgrading by Brad Smart, and Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish.

Dr. Ladd’s love for reading has served him well, because building and maintaining a large practice takes much more than a degree in dentistry. He’s learned to use innovative advertising techniques to help his practice stand out. When he and his wife began their dental practice together, it was a novelty to see a married couple doing business together. They took advantage of that fact and ran a newspaper ad that featured their photograph. Radio and billboards have also offered unique marketing opportunities, because they were formats that other dentists hadn’t traditionally considered.

As his practice has grown and changed, Dr. Ladd has never lost sight of his goal of providing consistent, quality care “one patient at a time; one emergency at a time.” He stays on top of developments in dental care, seeking the best ways to cut costs for his patients while providing the best level of care. For example, while root canals used to be a painful process that stretched over three appointments, they can now be completed within 15 minutes. There are even methods for generating a new nerve in a tooth to restore its function. He also digitized his X-ray imaging, to leverage patients’ resources toward treatment.

He and his staff are committed to giving back to the community. While caring for Peruvian patients along the Amazon River, Dr. Ladd realized that he didn’t have to go to another country to find people in need of dental care: there were many in his own community that needed dental attention but lacked the means to pay for it. Thus, ten years ago he began partnering with the ministry Dentistry from the Heart.

In one jam-packed day each year, Dr. Ladd, his staff, Ivy Tech dental assistant students, and other volunteers assemble to donate their time and talent to low-income patients. All told, they typically have 50-60 people working. Some patients line up at 6PM the night before in order to save a good spot.

During the event, each patient first visits one area to receive dental hygiene, and then moves to another area to receive treatment. There’s no waiting: if they need something done, it’s done right then and there. The dentists and hygienists can’t fix everything, but they can do a lot. By the time the sun goes down, over 200 people have received dental care.

Today, Dr. Ladd and his team of ten dentists and orthodontists serve patients at six different locations with Ladd Dental Group, offering services from basic dental care to orthodontics, TMJ treatment, and even dental implants. Dr. Ladd is currently working on new expansions and new collaborations. After all, “there are always new dental students graduating that need to be mentored.”

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July 26, 2012  by

Planned Parenthood’s War on Women

This article was originally published by Illinois Review.

There’s a two-tier system of abortions in the U.S.: those for the haves, and those for the have-nots. President Obama may fundraise for Planned Parenthood, but he’d never send his daughters there. Who would, if they could send them anywhere else?

The Left’s public enthusiasm for Sanger’s brainchild plasters splashy wallpaper on prison walls and plants a smiley face on an urn.

Planned Parenthood is corrupt to the core. Just look at their marketing. The more sexually active the population, the more Planned Parenthood stands to profit. Expecting Planned Parenthood to give abstinence information is like waiting for McDonald’s to hand out dieting advice. It may talk about “safe sex,” but not even “protected sex” halts the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. No matter. This isn’t about health; it’s about sales. If people want birth control, Planned Parenthood can sell it to them. When the birth control fails, they can sell them an abortion. And, while Planned Parenthood promotes equal opportunity sexual activity (females with females, males with males) we can’t neglect females-with-males, because that’s what keeps the abortion stream going.

It gets worse. The standard of care is that if a patient is going to undergo a procedure, they should give informed consent. This implies two things: that the patient has been adequately informed of the risks and benefits of the procedure, and that they are freely choosing to carry out the procedure. Planned Parenthood can market to the desperate mother who feels she must have an abortion at any cost, or the mother who needs convincing.

Former Planned Parenthood staff have confessed the levels of manipulation they have used to convince a woman to abort. Even when this line isn’t crossed, there’s still a highly emotional decision happening, with possible pressure from family, friends, husband, boyfriend, or pimp. But if you have been sexually exploited or emotionally manipulated, don’t expect Planned Parenthood to help you. As Live Action has abundantly demonstrated, implausible deniability even in cases as clear-cut as sex trafficking is alive and well at Planned Parenthood.

Adequate information is another fiction. While claiming “We’re here to give you the medically-accurate information you need to decide what is best for you,” Planned Parenthood misrepresents the inherent risk involved in having an abortion. Their website states, “Abortion is legal in the U.S. and is one of medicine’s safest procedures.”

Given the fact that many medical procedures are no more than skin deep, such as removing a mole, it’s surprising that the organization would make such a bald-faced claim. But then, those kinds are less likely to be suspected. No supporting information is given to support this claim, and the probability of various complications from abortion is not presented. One key risk factor that gets inadequate treatment is late-term abortions. All of the women and girls presented in Planned Parenthood’s featured tutorial video on in-clinic abortions are 14 weeks or less pregnant, and none has even an inkling of a baby bump.

While 88% of abortions are done within the first trimester of a child’s life, Planned Parenthood provides abortions through the third trimester. It makes sense to have one tutorial directed toward women at an earlier stage of pregnancy, but where is the tutorial for women further along? Toward the end of the video, the calm, measured voice of the narrator promises that Planned Parenthood will provide referrals for women who experience complications from their abortion.

Elsewhere, it’s claimed that abortions through 20 weeks are 11 times safer than childbirth, but that after that abortion and natural childbirth have equal risk. Again, no evidence is given to substantiate this claim. Instead of bracing for serious complications, wouldn’t it be better if women were told there are viable options beyond abortion?

The results of a procedure depend not only on the inherent risk, but also on the skill of the individual physician. The average rate of mishap for a certain procedure may be very low, but with a careless physician it will be very high. But a Planned Parenthood patient shouldn’t expect to know anything about their abortionist before they show up. If she was going to a doctor or a dentist for the first time, she could look up their name, specialty, and most likely even their picture online. Not with Planned Parenthood. The Illinois Planned Parenthood website assures potential clients:

“For nearly 90 years Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) has been Illinois’ most trusted provider of reproductive health care. Our skilled health care professionals in the Chicago area and central Illinois work to ensure that each woman receives personal, sensitive and confidential care in a professional setting. All of our physicians are board certified or board eligible in Obstetrics and Gynecology or board certified in Family Medicine.”

It declines to list anything more than this, so it’s impossible for a first-time visitor to research their physician by name. Clients put their lives into the hands of a complete stranger. If abortionists were gifted physicians, wouldn’t they be proud to list their credentials publicly?

Placing clinics in low-income neighborhoods increases Planned Parenthood’s access to minorities, but it also removes accountability and ready access to emergency personnel and resources. Of course, even great physicians sometimes make mistakes, which is why hospitals regularly hold Morbidity & Mortality conferences. It’s here that the medical staff discusses cases that went wrong so that the core issues can be identified and mended.

For abortionists running solo practices, who provides this level of accountability? Are they ever questioned by their medical peers on their techniques, or botches? The ghastly findings in Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s abortion practice in Philadelphia last year spurred nine abortion clinic inspections in Illinois. Some hadn’t been inspected for over 15 years, and two were closed because of what was found. The inspections stopped short of any Planned Parenthood clinics, however, because these clinics are not licensed or inspected due to their similarity to doctor’s offices. This includes the clinic where Tonya Reaves was treated.

Tonya Reaves Planned ParenthoodIf the Planned Parenthood clinics had been adequately monitored, might Tonya Reaves be alive today? How many abortion clinics have emergency plans? Who vets the skill levels of physicians applying for jobs? Is the convenient location of clinics enough justification for their isolation from trauma units?

If Planned Parenthood of Illinois had fully informed Tonya Reaves of the risks she faced in her second-trimester abortion, would she have continued with her decision? It’s a question we will never know. But each woman should be given a fully informed choice. When it comes to abortion, it’s not just a woman’s body that’s at stake: it can be her life.

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August 14, 2011  by

Getting the Gerbil Out of the Wheel

Life doesn’t lend itself to finding balance. You finish one project, and another one’s waiting in the sidelights. You do something poorly, and you deride yourself for not being more conscientious. You do something well, and you find yourself slated for higher loads of work.

If you’re feeling like a gerbil in a metal wheel, take a breather. Here’s three ways to try and find some balance in life:

1) Build some free-time into your day.

Let’s face it: if you let them, work and school will take over your life. One helpful way to approach your day is to map out what your ideal day would look like. A friend of mine made having evenings at home a priority. She decided to get up around 5AM to get to school early, put in a full day, then have time leftover at night to be a homebody. Realize what’s most important to you, and budget time for it. You know what it is that restores your sense of satisfaction in life: a trip to Coldstone, a quick call to a friend, an hour-long run beneath the stars. Make time for those things: they’re the stuff life is made of. Also, be realistic about the time certain tasks take, so you’re not caught by surprise. This will increase the odds of your plans working out. Also, beyond the end-of-the-day activities, think about ways you can couple dull or demanding tasks with fun rewards during your day. As your writing a lab report, reward yourself as you complete each section. You might be surprised at how this turns an otherwise painful process into something enjoyable.

2) Make love of life, not guilt, your primary motivator.

You are more than what you do. Simple fact. There will always be times when you fall short, either because of a lack of understanding, a lack of effort, or even circumstances beyond your control. Learn from these things, but don’t dwell on them beyond their expiration date. Think about it: you don’t continue chewing a piece of gum beyond a certain point. You also shouldn’t continue chewing a circumstance beyond a certain point! I certainly have a tendency to use words like “should have, could have, and would have.” Lately, though, I’ve been trying to rework the way I look at mistakes. When I think of them as experiments, I’m able to think of them more objectively. OK, so things didn’t work out so well in that instance. Well, what were the factors that contributed to the failure? How can I avoid them in the future? What are better alternatives I can pursue? This approach uses the past constructively, with a steady focus on the present. Ultimately, (as my mom has often reminded me) life is too short to dwell on the past. You’ll be happier and everyone around you will be happier if you concentrate on living your life in the present.

3) Map out a rhythm to your life.

Jazz streaming from a nearby car. Rain beating on a window pane. The sun rising on a bright new day. Life is full of rhythms. Take advantage of that by building some rhythm into your day. Sure, all-nighters happen, but they don’t have to happen every night! If you set aside certain times of the day for certain tasks, you’ll see that over time it gets easier to get things done. It’s not your imagination that adopting a regular sleep cycle makes you feel more rested: there’s such a thing as circadian rhythms! In the same way, if you figure out a regular time for meals, laundry, cleaning and exercise, you’ll find that the other things in life will fit in much more naturally. There will always be life crises lying in wait for you, but the less self-induced crises you have, the better! For those things you want to budget time for, but always find yourself running behind on, do you know someone else you can do them with? Can you find an exercise or laundry buddy you can build a weekly schedule with? The accountability and committed time–not to mention the fun time spent together–can help keep you on task. You can even set up Google Calendar to send you reminders, if you like!

As you take on the challenge of a new semester, learn from your past mistakes, and keep looking forward! Put these three strategies to use, and good luck with all your studies!

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March 1, 2010  by

Stop Killing the Dream

Martin Luther King Jr. once described his dream that “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

In direct contrast to this dream, Planned Parenthood has targeted its services to those of particular skin colors, with the result that minorities are disproportionately affected by abortion. What’s the leading cause of death among African-Americans? Heart disease? Stroke? Cancer? Abortion? If you guessed abortion, you’re correct. Abortion accounts for more deaths among African-Americans than the seven next-most common causes of death.

Students on our campus are gathering together to change this grim reality, and help increase the life expectancy of all African-Americans.

Illini Collegians for Life (ICFL), an RSO dedicated to sponsoring a culture of life on campus, recently sponsored a viewing and discussion of the film Maafa 21. This film documents the racist agenda motivating Planned Parenthood to target minorities by, among other things, overwhelmingly locating its clinics in minority neighborhoods and accepting donations earmarked for minorities.

ICFL is also sponsoring the local initiative of 40 Days for Life. Students and other community members, now through April 4th, are gathering at the local Planned Parenthood clinic to pray and fast. Some hold signs with pro-life messages, others pray the rosary, while still others provide sidewalk counseling.

Since this clinic focuses on abortion services and does not offer prenatal counseling or services, sidewalk counselors often tell those entering the clinic about other local organizations such as Living Alternatives and Birthright that provide free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, prenatal counseling, and maternal and infant clothing.

As a result of 40 Days for Life initiatives, and consistent efforts of dedicated sidewalk counselors throughout the year, numerous women have decided against abortion. One woman who several years ago decided not to go through with her abortion recently told a sidewalk counselor that whenever her little boy puts his arms around her and tells her he loves her, she knows she made the right decision.
May other children be given a chance to live out Martin Luther King’s dream.

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