Reading is how I slow myself down.  Yesterday, I was reading an article from Shape "Just Smile" with amazing information about first impressions.

A book written by Pattie Wood was amazing.  It state that having the ability to smile and not hold back allows the person to feel powerful.  When models started out they never smiles and now that is the one quality they want to capture when taking pictures.

The author and photography can decode a smile when the are taking these pictures.    The use the following playful, shy, or posed.  What does this have to do with what I teach. Medical Billing is just codes.  Well it really is personal.  So let me share!

In the past two years I have had to loose several teeth due systemic issues.  Never in my life have I held back a smile until this happened.  I started treatment to replace these teeth with implants, bone grafting and more without the ability to heal as most patients do.  I was now a medical necessity.  I could not heal and the bone grafts could not heal, which held back all my treatment.  It was frustrating and it really was hard since I go around teaching the coding but never knew how hard it would be when speaking to try to not smile and laugh without feeling that I would be made fun of.  (Crazy) No!  Everyone including your speaker is always a little off when we are not comfortable.  Why are we not talking with all patients about this topic and trying to help them move on with treatment to stop the fear of speaking?

After these last two years I am on the road to completion and cannot wait to be able to chew and swallow without a problem, but my biggest happy thought is being able to smile the same way I did before I started loosing teeth due to my illness and then replacing them with a longer process.  What out world I will have the biggest grin ever!