When letters of referrals were sent to me with other dental/medical professionals copied, I always made sure to respond, not only to the referring dentist, but to all those copied. I did this to ensure commu-nication was transparent and shared to all those involved in the patient’s care. This also enabled me to get my name out in the dental/medical community, network and build a reputation. As my experience grew, I asked the dental specialist if he would introduce me to others in his field. I also reached out to those I had corresponded with and told them they could refer those who they believed had pain that was non-odontogenic, but mechanical in nature, directly to the clinic. I would track results and findings to make sure when I met or spoke with those who referred, or those I was trying to convince to refer, that I would have empirical evidence to make sure I could prove my results. I also carried some patient testimonials with me as well to further support my treatment success. Slowly, the health profession-als that I copied on my letters and communicated with started to refer and further tell their peers about what I was doing. There was very much a parallel tra-jectory in my research, knowledge and reputation. As I had established a good reputation, I subsequently reached out to more hospitals, clinics and special-ists. I quickly learned that no one was specializing/focusing in the “conserva-tive, mechanical rehabilitation of jaw and facial pain,” and that the void for this type of care was enormous. Most health professionals I spoke with would say they had no place to send these patients. Our clinic became a place to send them and they were thankful. There were some bumps along the way, but as I had defined, developed and further refined treatment protocols and guidelines for the treatment of these patients, I knew I could continue to recreate the patient successes in a safe and conservative manner. As the patient referrals grew, so did my experience. I learned to apply safe, conservative mechanical treatment to a wide range of conditions and pre-define successful outcome measures. I set new standards for care and criteria for 14 Canadian Chiropractor April 2020 Picking up speed success where manual/mechanical ther-apy had not been previously used as the standard for care. With all the research and time invested I would share the knowledge I had gained with those who referred in the forms of scholarly arti-cles, provide working group sessions and give back in an informative manner to educate those around me in the health profession. This stimulated more research, collaboration and commit-ment to patient success among those practitioners I worked with and the team expanded and evolved. Instead of attending chiropractic courses, I would attend dental and TMJ/TMD courses so I could collab-orate with others interested. Being the only chiropractor at an otolaryngology or dental lecture was often questioned, but well received and sparked interest as to why I was there. It became an effective networking tool to grow my jaw and facial pain practice and a place to hone my knowledge. “How as a chiropractor do you differentiate yourself...?” With all the patient success, research, protocols and knowledge, Dr. Chris Oswald and I decided to open a specific centre in 2016 (the Jaw and Facial Pain Centre), which solely focused on the conservative, mechanical treatment of jaw and facial pain. It is an allied health clinic targeted solely towards the treat-ment and rehabilitation of jaw and fa-cial pain. After the success for the clinic, we are now opening our first satellite clinic and will be adding more allied health professionals to our main centre in Toronto. Even after all this, one of the things I work very hard on is staying connected to the network. To this day I continue to drop in randomly with coffee and snacks to say thank you for the kind referrals and ask for feedback and pick their brains for in-formation to apply to my treatment. I partake in sponsor talks and symposiums on the topic so we can all share knowl-edge. For example, just this past week I stopped in to see a referral source and I ended up with a dental specialist spending time with me to discuss the consequences of super eruption of teeth and jaw pain, which I’m now avidly researching. I believe this story brings us to ask the question, “How as a chiropractor do you differentiate yourself so that other health professionals will want you to be part of their patient care team?” The simple answer is hard work, but the more com-plicated answer is multifactorial: • Do your research. The more the better. I learn something new every day. Make sure when it comes to the special interest practice you are in-terested in and the type of health professional you approach, that you are the most well-read and re-searched person in the room. • Don’t be afraid to network or worry what others might think of you. It is not so easy to be rejected, but if you put yourself out there with the right preparation, people will want to work with you. Just make sure what you are saying is well-researched, ethical and puts the patient’s interest first! • Don’t be afraid to challenge the con-ventions and apply the amazing func-tional, structural, anatomical, and physiological education you have re-ceived and apply it to the rehabilita-tion and treatment of any part of the body. We are finding more and more that CONSERVATIVE is the right care. There is nothing more conserv-ative than manual therapy, exercise therapy or active rehabilitation. We as chiropractors have the tools to be leaders in conservative care for the musculoskeletal system. • Lastly, be brave. Step outside your comfort zone. Don’t forget with re-jection comes acceptance, with fail-ure comes success and most impor-tantly with innovation and research comes better patient care. www.canadianchiropractor.ca Staying connected
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