Women's Health Conference: Knowledge Is Power

Knowledge is Power

So a few years ago, I attended Senator Carol Liu’s Women’s Health Conference; the theme was “Knowledge is Power.” And what else would you expect at a women’s conference?

In a few days, I’m going back with my team; we’ll be sharing information about the oral health-general health connection all day Friday at the Pasadena Convention Center.

Don’t know about you, but I’ve always realized women are smarter, more perceptive, and way better listeners than the likes of me. So when I get the chance to hang out with a bunch of women, I totally expect to be taught a lesson or two of some kind. And it used to be a little intimidating but, big deal, so was that first Little League at-bat.

When I finally understood the concept and actually began applying the team concept for our practice years ago, a trusted mentor coached me to just do my job and just stay out of my team’s way. Oh, and I get to work with seven strong, opinionated, powerful women who’re still concerned that I’ll make it to LAX all by myself and wind up on the right plane. And I wish I could say I don’t understand.

For me, multi-tasking is driving and listening to a football game. For my TCDC crew, doing 3-4 separate tasks concurrently is easier than finding a duck in Seattle or an uninformed Tea Bagger.

So when I do my “gratitude talking-to-myself-right-out-loud” thing every morning I always say thanks for the chance to learn and grow everyday; and it helps when you’re surrounded by women.

Two-thirds of our patients are women and it seems like they more easily understand health concepts like prevention and feel more comfortable communicating effectively with health professionals. Women actually make 85% of family health-related decisions. Makes sense to me to better understand what women need in the way of a dental experience to make a real difference for families.

So we’ll be sharing some important oral health information…but we’ll also be doing some serious listening.

If you’re attending the conference, please come by and say hello; I know we’ll both have a chance to learn something in the process.