Toledo’s Top Docs share major issues in their respective fields, give insight on what they are doing to help and explain the community importance.
Frankel Dentistry
Pamela Weitzel
5012 Talmadge Road
419-474-9611
If you could fix a major issue/trend in your field, what would it be?
Fear, time, budget, no sense of urgency and lack of trust are the consistent issues for dental patients.
What are you personally and your company as a whole doing to work on this issue?
We ask each new patient which of these has prevented them from seeking dental care in the past. Then we customize treatment to their concerns.
What’s the impact? Why should the general public care?
Dental health correlates to overall health. A healthy mouth promotes a healthy body.
HLS Orthodontics
Dr. Andre Haerian
4413 Keystone Dr
419-882-1017
If you could fix a major issue/trend in your field, what would it be?
This new trend where companies market their services directly to the consumer, where you don’t have professional supervision, nor do you have the proper equipment to carry out the treatment. These are aligners that are self-directed or sent over the mail. We’ve had to re-treat or correct them here.
What are you personally and your company as a whole doing to work on this issue?
We provide help for people who have been victims of the misperception that these treatments can work. We work with them and help them throughout the process, but we also try to educate people as to the role of a professional in delivering these kinds of services.
What’s the impact? Why should the general public care?
Every orthodontist has his or her own way of doing it, but we are trained to do that. What we see often with do it yourself kits is superficial, initial alignment of sorts, which doesn’t take into account how the teeth come together or how occlusion works. The only thing us professionals can do is educate our patients and our consumers.
Ada Aesthetics
Dr. Sarah Stierman
12780 Roachton Road
419-873-6961
If you could fix a major issue/trend in your field, what would it be?
Access to medication. There are some days where I feel like I should have been a lawyer due to how much I have to argue to get my patients the medication they need. Gone are the days where I can write a prescription and my patient picks it up at the pharmacy.
What are you personally and your company as a whole doing to work on this issue?
We have two and a half full time staff members to combat the red tape. They do our prior authorizations, peer to peers over the phone, write letters to insurance companies about why patients need access to these medications, etc. Sometimes we have to fight really hard to get them what they need, but it’s super important.
What’s the impact? Why should the general public care?
Everyone is going to age. So impact on our senior citizens is so important. As the baby boomer generation grows older, we need more access to care. Can you imagine not being able to treat your grandmother or take your great aunt to an ER visit? These are issues that impact us all. It may not impact you today, but it will someday. From a community standpoint, what you can do is you can actually reach out to your congress people and representatives and senators and let them know that the decrease in funding for CMS, for Medicare and Medicaid is a lose-lose for everyone involved if we’re going to continue having good, independent, comprehensive medical care.
Bloom Women’s Counseling, Consulting, and Wellness LLC
Ashley Bush
112 E. Dudley St.
419-326-5732
If you could fix a major issue/trend in your field, what would it be?
I think one of the biggest issues in our field is the shortage of trained mental health providers, and also the rate at which the trained ones we do have are leaving the profession.
What are you personally and your company as a whole doing to work on this issue?
One of the big things we focus on in our office is the culture of our business, by making sure that it is a healthy work environment for the providers that do choose to come and work for us.
What’s the impact? Why should the general public care?
Whether it be mental health professionals, social workers, teachers or other “helping” professionals; as a society we need to focus on the value those professionals bring to our lives and to our communities. Then we need to work to compensate those professionals accordingly. Not just financial compensation, but by also ensuring they can work in safe environments where they feel they are valued.
