Letter From Dear Doctor

Issue 1 of Dear Doctor Magazine

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it." — Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British Politician

Dear Doctor is the realization of a dream to empower you, our patients, with knowledge that will help you become better partners with your health care professionals in making informed health care decisions.

In our combined sixty years of experience treating patients and teaching students in both clinical and university settings, we have sought a way to bring more information to the public in an innovative, informative and engaging way. Over these many years we have found that the best patients are those who are full partners in the clinical decision-making process.

However, the clinical setting, by design, imposes limits on our ability to educate you, our patients, to the best of our ability and to fully answer your many relevant and important questions. Our answer to this dilemma is contained in the pages of the magazine you now hold in your hands. Dear Doctor is designed to bridge that gap by providing a way to facilitate your understanding of current topics in all specialties of dentistry and oral health.

The following pages contain feature articles on current topics, as well as consultations and treatment planning cases illustrated by real patients presented from both the doctor and patient perspectives. All the feature articles are written by experts in their fields using lay terminology that is easy to comprehend.

We have purposely designed our magazine to be interactive. Each article has a selection of anticipated questions along with answers. Your feedback is important and we need to hear from you so that we can answer more of your questions and concerns. As dental health care professionals we hope to use this new vehicle as a forum to continue our efforts to advocate for your health care needs. Please email us.

A final note, as with all new efforts we realize that the culmination of this dream of Dear Doctor does not come from us alone. We dedicate this first issue to our many mentors who have given of their great knowledge, skill, time and understanding in such an unselfish and loving way.

"For those who went before us, we stand on your shoulders."

Sincerely,