Every day, somewhere in the world, a medical mistake happens that causes real, sometimes devastating, consequences for a patient. On a recent podcast episode, I shared the story of a closed-claim case that perfectly illustrates this. A young, healthy teenager — a softball player, excited for her upcoming senior prom — was referred to an […]

In the movie Inception, which explores the concept of dreaming in a world where technology allows people to hack into and alter dreams, Leonardo DiCaprio explains a fascinating concept that is part of our everyday lives. He uses a simple circle diagram formed by two curved arrows to describe the mysterious process of dreaming. In […]

By Grant Stucki DDS, MS   Recently, I came across a patient case that I think is worth recounting—not just because of how it ended, but because of all the lessons hiding in the chaos. Here’s the run-down: A 76-year-old man developed pericoronitis on a partially impacted wisdom tooth (#32). He saw an oral surgeon, […]

Grace Under Pressure Galvanizes By: Grant Stucki, Oral Surgeon So here’s what happened. A dentist referred a patient to me for the extraction of an upper canine tooth. She said, “I tried to take it out yesterday… for like, an hour… but couldn’t get it. I got the crown off, but the root wouldn’t budge.” […]

The other day, I was at church talking with a couple of friends. We were discussing a third friend who was going through something tough. I mentioned I could reach out to him via text or phone call. Without me even asking, both of my friends said they would prefer a phone call. I paused […]