Here's one change: the disappearance of magazines from many waiting rooms.

In the UK's Press and Journal, author Roddy Phillips bemoans the lack of glossy mags and even pamphlets.

“Someone’s nicked all the magazines and . . . all the leaflets,” I announced.

She smiled and told me they had all been removed for health and safety reasons.

“Even the health and safety leaflets?” I asked, amazed, and the receptionist nodded.

“It’s to stop the spread of infections, particularly swine flu,” she said without sounding the slightest bit convincing.

“So the swine flu leaflets which are made of porous paper were in danger of harbouring a virus for long periods and passing it on to some unsuspecting leaflet reader?” I said.

The receptionist took a very deep weary sigh and nodded again.

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Now get this: a San Diego dentist was denied the H1N1 vaccine on the grounds that "dentists are not eligible health care professionals"?!?!?

The CDC has clearly stated that it recommends health care personnel get the vaccine. However, it's up to each state's Department of Health to decide how to allocate the vaccine.

In practice, it also seems to be up to supervisor on site. The San Diego dentist waited in line for an hour and was turned away, but he was so upset that he later returned, and the supervisor okayed his vaccination.

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Meanwhile, New York dentists can now give patients H1N1 vaccinations. 

But there's an important catch: Governor David Paterson's executive order only allows dentists (and other healthcare professionals) to vaccinate patients at a state health department distribution center, not in their own practices.

Read more about it

So what's going on at your practice? Has anything changed? 

"There is absolutely no shortage of dentists," declared one dentist.

Here are some other comments from doctors:

• “If I were younger I would open up in a rural area. Competition in NYC is tough.” (Urban dentist)
• “We are oversaturated in the suburb of the large city I live and work. Travel about 20 miles away from this suburb into the rural countryside, and those areas are underserved.” (Ohio prosthodontist)
• “Not only overserved, but more new dental practices than patients are moving into the area.” (Suburban Illinois dentist)
• “Over-marketed also.” (Suburban Pennsylvania dentist)
• “Shut down more dental schools!” (Suburban dentist)
• “When I moved into this town, the population was about 26,000 and there were nine dentists. Today, the population is about 55,000 and there are sixty-three dentists in the phone book. So the population has about doubled, but the number of dentists has grown seven-fold!” (Suburban California dentist)

Read more: Dental Shortage? 3 of 4 Dentists Say Their Area Is Overserved

He offers a few points on why you all apparently feel so bad about yourselves:

• "First of all, we need to make dental continuing education more engaging, enlightening, and certainly more fun and interesting… Why do some dental lecturers insist on talking down to dentists, maligning other schools of thought, and having a brusque attitude with their audiences?"
• "Another reason that dentists have low self–esteem is that we don't think of ourselves as 'real doctors.'"

The answer? Getting more involved in both total systemic health and "total facial esthetics." He's excited and invigorated by dental Botox and cosmetic dentistry, and feels it could help boost other dentists' morale.

Read the article

It's even worse for dental hygienists, who get stood up about 12% of the time. (That's one hour of an 8-hour work day!)

When it comes to dealing with these patients, dentists have a lot of different dental management strategies:

• “Fee is optional at staff discretion.” (Florida pediatric dentist)
• “First time they break an appointment, they get a notification of broken appt policy and fee. Second time, we charge $50/hour. Third time, exit patient from practice unless there is a good excuse.” (Georgia periodontist)
• “We have them pre-pay for the next appointment.” (California dentist)
• “Big problem for 20 years. I’ve tried confirming twice… tried sending cards with cute pictures… tried recall cards with their handwriting scheduling the appointment… tried counseling patients… tried charging… I still have many multiple no shows EVERYDAY. It is the biggest headache of my career.” (South Carolina dentist)
• “Try to replace them with better patients. That's not too difficult because the appointment-missers usually don't remember to call back for another appointment.” (California dentist)
• “Call and say we are concerned and hope there is nothing wrong. If misses are ongoing, patient is dismissed from practice. No missed appointment fees are ever charged, creates bad will.” (Colorado pediatric dentist)
• “Kill them. — P.S. Suggested topic for future survey: how to dispose of dead bodies.” (Connecticut dentist)

Read more: Missed Dental Appointments: 1 in 10 Never Make It to the Dentist

The new book Open Wide! A Series of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Caricatures on Dentistry collects old-time dentistry-related cartoons.

Here's what the publisher has to say:

“The caricatures you will find illustrated within reflect life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Brutal, painful and usually short; but leavened with a large dose of that peculiarly Georgian style of humour, which was gloriously grotesque and bawdy. Today dentistry prints are notoriously rare and expensive and are eagerly sought after. As far as we are aware, a volume of cartoons dedicated to the profession of dentistry has never been published before.”

See more pictures or order the book

Click to learn more about enrolling in The Wealthy Dentist University…

In this survey, 85% of all respondents said they used a dental practice website. Next up was the phone book, with 68% of dentists having yellow pages listings.

Some dentists still have a certain distaste for dental practice marketing. “I have no plans whatsoever to market my practice," said one dentist. "I do not solicit new patients and don't take new patients over the phone unless I know them or they have been referred by existing patients. I'm approaching 60, I like my practice size just as it is… I make enough money to have a good life, I don't need 5 houses, 2 motor homes and 3 Porsches. I have peace of mind, something money can't buy."

But lots of doctors feel that marketing can bring them the financial security that will lead to peace of mind. And here's how they're doing it — these are the percentages of dentists who say they've utilized the following marketing vectors in the past year.

• 85% Dental practice website(s)
• 68% Yellow Pages
• 56% Dental practice signage
• 53% Internal patient referral programs
• 35% Newspaper ads
• 32% New Resident direct mail
• 29% Targeted direct mail
• 29% Patient rewards program
• 26% Pay-per-click (PPC) web marketing
• 26% Email dental patient newsletters
• 24% Dental directory listing(s)
• 15% TV ads
• 15% Magazine ads
• 15% Public Relations marketing
• 15% Facebook page
• 12% Radio ads
• 9% Internet video search
• 3% Twitter
• 0% Saturation direct mail

Read more: Dental Marketing Avenues Used by Dentists

Police have identified several persons of interest, but it’s not clear if they’re the culprits.

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On the other hand, 35% felt that any modern toothpaste will clean your teeth perfectly well.

“New formulations clean better and have better anti-inflammatory effects,” said one orthodontist.

Read more: Toothpaste Affects Your Oral Health