Palm Seashore dentist Dr. Mitchell Josephs has a number of public personas.
Creator.
Philanthropist.
Aspiring standup comic.
However within the three a long time he’s been in South Florida, what the Lengthy Island native is most identified for is being a dental innovator and educator.
And at 11:30 a.m. Friday on the DoubleTree by Hilton Resort (4431 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens), after greater than a 12 months and half of a pandemic-caused hiatus, he’ll resume internet hosting his common free dental seminars.
The multitude of matters that might be coated on the occasion — the place, Josephs guarantees, “some scrumptious sizzling pretzels might be served” — contains suggestions for selecting a dental workplace that has the most up to date “high-tech dental tools” in addition to how to make sure that you get the most effective outcomes with implants, beauty porcelain veneers and different concerned but obligatory dental procedures.
A pure entertainer, he’s additionally positive to offer loads of laughs as he solutions any and all questions attendees have.
Impressed by a sitcom character
Josephs, 57, says he grew to become excited about dentistry as a teenager as a result of of a supporting character he loved watching on the Nineteen Seventies sitcom “The Bob Newhart Present.”
The character — orthodontist Dr. Jerry Robinson (performed by actor Peter Bonerz) — was, within the view of a pre-teen Josephs, “this cool bachelor physician who wore plaid bell-bottom pants and a blue dental smock, and lived in a ‘groovy’ apartment with avocado inexperienced home equipment and orange shag carpet.”
(Apparently, although, Josephs’ solely baby, 27-year-old Jonathan, discovered his skilled inspiration in actual life. Final month he accomplished a three-year dental residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York Metropolis and plans to achieve expertise in non-public follow in Chicago, the place his girlfriend is doing her dental residency. Finally, Jonathan plans to return to South Florida and be part of his father’s thriving follow.)
Whereas those that know Josephs, or learn his weekly recommendation columns in The Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News, or have seen his reside comedian stylings (his classes at The Improv at Rosemary Sq. can be found on YouTube) know that the nice physician has fairly the humorousness, one factor he takes critically is his sufferers’ dental well being.
“Severe dental issues not often trigger any preliminary ache,” he explains. “However that’s why it’s so vital to catch them early throughout common routine exams — whereas they’re nonetheless manageable.”
For practitioners like Josephs, the pandemic created particular challenges as a result of so many people delay their common dental checkups.
“As a occupation, we actually discovered about how damaging the results of delaying dental remedy and prevention providers may very well be,” he says. “All workplaces have been closed in March and April, and even after we reopened, many sufferers have been hesitant about returning.”
In mid-2020, Josephs was among the many first dentists nationwide to put money into costly extraoral suction techniques that will be certain that potential COVID-19 droplets didn’t get sprayed whereas sufferers have been present process drilling or ultrasonic cleansing.
Regardless of many dental workplaces going above and past CDC suggestions for COVID-19 security, Josephs laments that far too many sufferers eschewed their dental checkups for too lengthy.
As he explains, “A cavity in early 2020 not handled till the autumn or till 2021 typically escalated right into a extra concerned and invasive process that necessitated a pricey extraction, bone graft, implant and crown.”
Giving again to the neighborhood
Josephs has many passions — automotive gathering, automotive racing, understanding, working, swimming, weightlifting — however what he cherishes most is his potential to provide again to the neighborhood he loves a lot.
As an illustration, a few years in the past, after listening to a Holocaust survivor communicate at an area synagogue and describe how so lots of his fellow survivors have been residing at or under the poverty line, he determined to take speedy motion.
“I’ve been donating my time and providers to impoverished Holocaust survivors in Palm Seashore County for the previous few years,” he says. “So far, we now have helped about 12 survivors, performing some sophisticated therapies and procedures. These embody, however should not restricted to, implants, extractions, dentures, veneers, crowns, and bone grafts as wanted.”
Josephs came upon that whereas the dental (and typically medical) wants of financially struggling Holocaust survivors are typically in depth, “they normally don’t ask for assist due to satisfaction, worry and the unaffordable expense.”
Alpert Jewish Household Providers, which works with about 300 financially struggling Holocaust survivors, helps determine the individuals who want his providers essentially the most —and Josephs says he has offered them with some $60,000 in professional bono dental care to date.
For Friday’s free seminar — the place socially distanced attendees will obtain a complimentary copy of his new ebook “Extra Tooth Speak! What Educated Sufferers Must Know About twenty first Century Dental Therapy” — Josephs has created a charitable part.
He’s donating $50 per attendee — of their title — to the pediatric oncology middle in Palm Seashore Youngsters’s Hospital at St. Mary’s Medical Middle.
A handful of seats nonetheless stay, however pre-registration is required.
IF You Go
What: Free dental seminar hosted by Dr. Mitchell Josephs. Attendees obtain a complementary copy of Josephs’ new ebook “Extra Tooth Speak! What Educated Sufferers Must Know About twenty first Century Dental Therapy.”
When: 11:30 a.m. Friday
The place: DoubleTree by Hilton Resort, 4431 PGA Blvd., Palm Seashore Gardens
To register: Name 561-832-2917 or e-mail drjosephs@ palmbeachdentist.com.
