This section of the Love Smile website is specifically for dentists and dental specialists. It offers a window into a type of dental office that many of you may not have realized was a viable practice option. For over 40 years I’ve successfully practiced fee-for-service dentistry, earned respect from my colleagues, and enjoyed many appreciative, long-lasting relationships with my patients. I see a relatively few patients in a day filled with the type of dentistry that fulfills my passion and expresses my creativity.
In the first part of this site, I’ll be sharing my practice philosophy in the hopes that this may spark the passion for dentistry that has been extinguished by the myriad of pressures that dentistry is under. Each month I’ll share personal stories and opinions that will be both informative and interesting.
The second part of the site is a free password protected portal. Once registered, you’ll have access to a monthly presented case study. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to speak with me one on one to ask questions and gain valuable advice on dentist topics of your choosing.
If you’re unhappy with your professional life, feeling that you’re forced to focus on production rather than quality, this site can help you find a more fulfilling path.
Video Credit: Chris Witschy
Digital Smile Design is a unique AI-driven planning tool that assists dentists in creating the best possible treatment plan and outcome for their patients. This process doesn’t replace the knowledge and skill set of dentists, instead it ensures predictability, accuracy, and precision. Digital smile design facilitates communication between dentists and dentist specialists, allowing them to share information and ideas remotely. Once the treatment plan is mutually agreed upon, an accurate timeline of treatment and costs can be determined. DSD replaces imagined results with a visual image of the patient’s planned treatment allowing the patient to see their “new” smile before any work is done. This not only increases their confidence in our capabilities, but it also increases our case acceptance rate. It’s important to note that DSD will not treatment plan your case or perform the dentistry required in actualizing your design. It’s merely an elegant AI driven tool that, in the right hands, can be instrumental in creating spectacular results for your patients.
Video Credit: Chris Witschy
In July 2016, Pete, the manager of the dentistry lab I was working with, called me, and asked, “Doc, have you heard anything about Digital Smile Design?” I replied I hadn’t. Pete told me he had heard it mentioned at several recent lab meetings. I suggested I’d do some research on the subject and get back to him. Later that
week, I discovered Dr. Christian Coachman, the developer of DSD, would be giving an introductory seminar, on November 2nd , at Roe Dental Laboratory in Independence, Ohio. I immediately contacted Roe Lab and signed Pete and myself up to attend.
That fall, as the date of the seminar approached, the Chicago Cubs ended their regular season, winning their division and clinching the National League title on October 22nd . My hopes and those of every other Cubs fan ranged from cautiously optimistic to soaring.
Now the Cubs were going to face Cleveland in the World Series, and Cub fans prayed that the infamous Curse of the Billy Goat would finally end. After five games, Cleveland led 3 games to 2. On November 1st, the teams returned to Cleveland for the deciding games.
That very morning, Pete and I drove to Independence, Ohio; and that night the Cubs beat the Indians 9-3 in game 6, tying the series at 3 games each. The seminar began the next morning, November 2nd, at 8:00am. Pete and I attended, bravely wearing our Cubs jerseys over our shirts. At lunch we met a very nice dentist from Cleveland who happened to have a couple of extra tickets for that night’s deciding game. Without hesitation I purchased his tickets, and that evening Pete and I watched the most historic Cubs game of the past 108 years.
November 2, 2016 turned out to be a doubly fateful day for me. Not only did I get to witness a life-changing moment as a Cubs fan, but I was also introduced to the career-changing concept of Digital Smile Design.
At his presentation, Christian Coachman laid out the DSD diagnostic workflow, the AI driven smile design and sequential treatment planning. As a restorative/prosthodontic dentist, I spent 30 years focusing on diagnosis, collaborative treatment planning and prosthetic design. Dr. Coachman combined
these steps with an elegant AI design process which would not only make the periodontal/prosthodontic process more predictable, accurate and precise, but also accessible to younger dentists who didn’t have my 30 years’ hard-earned experience.
At the conclusion of Dr. Coachman’s seminar, Brian O’Neill, an oral surgeon from Toledo, approached me. Dr. O’Neill was the founder of the Greater Black Swamp Study Club. He told me that the following spring, his group would be bringing over two amazing dentists from Europe to share their knowledge of DSD. By then the DSD torch had been lit and I wasn’t about to let it die! I immediately signed up to attend and subsequently informed my two high school daughters that the family was going to Toledo for Spring Break. Once they realized I wasn’t talking about a vacation in Spain, they rolled their eyes and gave a collective sigh.
The two-day presentation in Toledo brought Dr. An Nguyen from the Netherlands and Dr. Florin Cofar from Timisoara, Romania. Those two days were everything Brian had said they would be, and I was now more convinced than ever that I should change my practice to embrace DSD technology. After his presentation, I
approached Dr. Cofar and asked him about furthering my DSD education. He told me he was offering a course in his Timisoara clinic that summer. In June my family and the family of my office manager traveled to Romania. Dr. Cofar’s course was attended by dentists from Europe and Asia, but I was the only one from the U.S. After 4 days of sessions, I met with Florin to discuss his thoughts about the future of DSD and how he might envision my implementing it in my practice. Once I got home, I began to put my plans into action.
From this, the concept of “Love Smile” was born.
It was conceived from a periodontal/prosthodontic father and a DSD mother.
I believe the dentist gods brought me to this professional turning point so that I could share my enthusiasm and experiences with the career-altering concept of Digital Smile Design. Watching game 7 was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, my introduction to DSD was career altering.
One of the four founding principles of Love Smile Dentist Studio is to become a master of one area of dentistry and utilize dentist specialists to provide expert care in their chosen field. I am firmly opposed to the concept of “Super Generalists” that has garnered popularity in recent corporate dentist settings. In my opinion, an individual practitioner is incapable of performing all aspects of dentistry with a high level of skill and expertise. Throughout my 40 years of practice, I’ve utilized the knowledge, skill, and experience of some of the finest dentist specialists in the Chicagoland area. By collaborating with these specialists, I have been able to completely focus my time and energy in what I’m most passionate and skillful in; restorative/prosthetic dentistry.
I began practicing dentistry with my father, Irving Fishman, at 55 E Washington St in downtown Chicago. As a junior dentist student at Loyola University Dentist School, my father’s alma mater, my two classmates, Mark Shoger and Mark Spector and I would visit my dad’s practice every Saturday afternoon. We soon realized that, despite his graduating from dentist school some 36 years prior, he was more knowledgeable, skilled, and advanced than professors in school. Although my father began his practice as a general dentist performing oral surgery, periodontal surgery and endodontics, he realized that his passion lay in the restorative aspect of dentistry and dentist technology. He soon began working with dentist specialists and focused on the area of dentistry that he loved. He even spent more time with Norm Larson, the dental laboratory technician in his building, learning the latest lab techniques. He became a master of gold and published several articles on waxing and casting gold inlays, onlays and crowns. My father was a wonderful mentor and I believe, when I joined his practice, he was perhaps the finest restorative dentist in Chicago.
From the very onset of my career, I’ve collaborated with legendary Chicago dental specialists: Enodontists – Frank Weine & Chuck Neach, Periodontists – Harry Staffileno & Ken Krebs, Oral Surgeons – Howard Adilman, Bob Katin & Bob Lubar, and orthodontist – Chet Handelman. After five years of mentorship from my father, teaming with these wonderful specialists, and a lot of hard work, I gained the equivalent of 20 years’ experience. Feeling the desire to share my knowledge with dentist students, I returned to Loyola Dental School to teach on the clinic floor of the fixed prosthodontics department. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and am proud to see many of my former students have gone on to become very fine practitioners and highly respected in the dental community. I like to think that my enthusiasm and encouragement helped them on their professional journey.
“Collaborative responsibility” refers to the obligation of each dentist in the treatment team to provide the best care possible and to work together to create a joint treatment plan. This plan will be formed from decisions based on thorough and complete diagnostic information. Our treatment recommendations can vary due to the financial considerations of our patient. It is important to note that these plans are never made strictly for our financial gain. Digital Smile Design is a unique co-treatment planning tool which enhances both design and communication between members of the treatment team as well as the patient. As Christian Coachman, the founder of DSD, states, “It is accurate, predictable and precise”. I firmly believe that DSD, in the hands of committed dentists and specialists, is the bright future of excellent dental care for every patient. I shudder to consider a future that encourages the use of super generalists – and other related decisions – which risk leading us down the path of corporate- driven practices whose sole motivation is financial gain.
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Monday 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Tuesday – Closed
Wednesday 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Thursday 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Friday – Closed
Saturday – Closed
Sunday – Closed
