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Something I
believe....
| "Is it not high time for the
people of this country explicitly to declare, whether they will be
freemen or slaves? It is an important question which ought to be
decided. It concerns us more than anything in this life. The
salvation of our souls is interested in this event. Immorality
of every kind comes in like a torrent. It is in the interest of
tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot
live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion
and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their
interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and
therefore they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always
observable, that those who are combined to destroy the people's
liberties, practice every art to poison their morals. How greatly
then does it concern us, at all events, to put a stop to the
progress of tyranny. It has advanced already by far
too many strides. We are at this moment upon a precipice. The next
step may be fatal to us."
Samuel Adams, October
5, 1772 |
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| "Remember, democracy never lasts long.
It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was
a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." John Adams, 1814 |
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Marty - 1950
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With Bonnie - 1949
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With Jeremy - 1971
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With Jeremy & Heather - 1980
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Circa 1970 in Washington DC (C&O Canal)
Marty & Diana, Mt. Washington, 1997
(Yes, we really climbed it...but not this
time.)
| I grew up in Swampscott, MA, graduated from high school in 1965 and attended Northeastern
University where I majored in electrical engineering for two years. I was a
co-op student which meant that I would alternate going to college for three
months and then work in a business related to my major for the next three
months. I had no problems with the engineering, but those were the mid 60's, and
when I began to grow a beard, my supervisor became alarmed and told me that if I
didn't shave it off he'd have to fire me. That was when it first
dawned on me that I was not cut out for the corporate world. In
quitting that job, I also had to quit school (those were the rules at
Northeastern at that time) and immediately I became eligible for the draft. |
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The Army was after me, but since I had not yet been called
up, I decided to do a bit of traveling first and set out hitch hiking around the
USA, registering for the draft in each city I came to. Computers
being primitive and unconnected, I was safe from Uncle Sam as long as I
traveled because the Government could never come to grips with a
moving target. When my number was finally up (literally) I successfully
beat the draft by enlisting in the Navy. Actually, I had an ulterior motive for joining up
(beyond the pressure
of the draft board). Diana somehow knew that we were destined to
spend our lives together, and I thought that by joining the Navy, I could avoid
marriage. It didn't work! In less than a year she had me! I've never regretted
it.
The Navy was a turning point in my life. I was
married
and had one child (Jeremy, born in 1971) and the Navy let me keep my beard. I was a Navy corpsman (a medic) and had
received additional schooling in blood bank and hospital laboratory technology.
I became a bacteriologist and a part time pathologist's assistant helping with
autopsies and generally learning my way around hospitals. I could have remained
in laboratory technology after the Navy, but that would have meant ultimately
working for someone else which would eventually lead to grief, and undoubtedly
the loss of my beard. I was, however,
becoming quite adept at the technical skills involved in my job which included
emergency room work, minor emergency surgery, drawing blood, starting IV's and
other patient oriented tasks. I became very good at making rational decisions
under extreme duress.
I had to decide how I was going to apply my skills, earn a
decent living and support my family after I left the military. My
decision to go into dentistry was partly driven by the fierce competition for
placement in medical school and the miserable thought of still being a student
at age 35. Acceptance to dental
school was almost a sure bet if I did well during my last two years of
undergraduate work. And so I chose dentistry where, I have since learned, that
grace under fire is a huge advantage!
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To make a long story short, in 1974, my wife had blessed
us with a new addition to our family, a daughter, Heather. I finished two years of undergraduate work at Boston University
graduating cum laude in 1975. During those two years I
supported myself and my family by working as a part time bacteriologist at
a hospital in Lynn, MA. I applied for and was accepted to Tufts School of
Dental Medicine in Boston and graduated in 1978. That's Jeremy
taking the diploma at the Boston University graduation. He writes software now.
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The little boy is Jeremy. Click on the picture to see what he's
doing today.
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Heather - 1975 click on picture to see what she's
doing now
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It may surprise you to know
that upon graduation from an accredited professional school, most
graduates tend to feel that they are not ready to unleash themselves on an
unsuspecting public. In school, the student is exposed to the rudiments of
their profession. They leave academia with a fair amount of knowledge and
some practice in applying it, but not much in the way of experience.
The
term "dental practice" means just that - Practice!!
| After graduating from dental school I decided to join
the Army for a general practice dental residency. (Unfortunately they DID make
me cut off my beard.) I figured, "What the heck? The military did a great
job of training me for the real world of lab technology, so I might as
well see if they can do the same for me in dentistry". They did NOT
disappoint me. As a result of the training I received from my military
residency, I became proficient in dental specialties that most general dentists
refer out to specialty offices. While I still refer out some of my cases, I am
fully equipped and capable of performing complex extractions, difficult
endodontics, fixed and removable prosthetics, and periodontics (gum
surgery) as well as minor oral surgical procedures. |
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During my residency I
routinely assisted in orthognathic (jaw straightening) surgery, and
became quite good at plastic surgery and repair of faces after severe traumatic
automobile and gunshot injuries. (At Fort Bragg, where I did my residency,
the dental residents were routinely assigned all emergency facial trauma cases,
probably because we had already mastered the fine motor skills necessary for
cosmetic repair of faces.) My fellow residents and I routinely wired
fractured jaws, and sutured facial and oral lacerations during our emergency
room rotations. We diagnosed and treated oral cancer cases and assisted in long,
involved facial reconstructions. I am quite proud of the knowledge that I gained
during my five years in the US Army. As a result of the confidence gained during
that experience, I am a much more versatile and competent dentist.
I spent five years in the Army, three of them in Germany.
During that time I took many of slides which I eventually digitized and printed.
You can see them stapled all over the walls of our
office.
I have been practicing dentistry for 28 years (as of 2006) and have owned my practice in Townsend,
Massachusetts since early 1984. We have treated thousands
of patients, many being seen over the course of several years for
numerous visits. In spite of the very difficult nature of my chosen profession,
most patients seem to be pleased with us, and by and large,
we have been quite pleased with most of our patients. And best of all ...
I got to keep my beard!
The advertisements on this site
Please note that many of the ads that appear on these pages are placed by
robots which inspect my site for advertisements that are appropriate to the
subject matter. The presence of a particular ad on this site does not imply that I endorse the product. I do,
however, have veto power over those I find offensive, so if you see ads that
appeal to you here, you can assume that either I approve of them, or I have left
them up to prove a point. Many of the goods and services advertised have merit in their own
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Time passes on
I'm Not Proud! Lots of people visit this page wanting to know
what I look like now. If you are LUCKY, you too will live long enough to
get old. Aging is a metaphysical part of living. Some do it
gracefully. Some do it with surgical intervention. Some do it with
makeup. I do it by believing in God--and my family.
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Me, Jeremy & Heather 1976 |
Diana & me August '04 |
Click on the images below
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John, serenading his new bride |
Heather basking in the glow (Mar 2005) |
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Heather, Jeremy & John after the wedding |
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Diana & me before the wedding, Mar '05 |
Grampa-to-be 10/7/07 (taken by Diana) |
Our newest addition!
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Floyd at 1 Week old. Born to Heather & John
2/19/08 |
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Madonna and Child (5.5 months) |
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Very proud Gramma |
Grampa trying not to break the new baby |
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Check 0ut John's website!
San Francisco Desktop Guy.
Free BIG desktop images for multiple monitors.
John bicycles all over San Francisco taking pictures so he can share
them with you. |
The nature of
dental practices, how fees are set and dental insurance
My
office
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