To Our Dear Patient Families,
The holidays can be a full and busy time for us all. It is filled with an abundance of good cheer and celebration, giving and gratitude, reflection and tradition, and a shocking amount of toothaches ;) Just teasing. But in the spirit gratitude, I wanted to connect with each of you to express my wholehearted appreciation for trusting my team and me to care for you and your loved ones. The field of healthcare has only continued to be a more challenging space to navigate, and through research and referrals, or however you showed up in our little, we very much understand and value that last leap of faith that comes with connecting on a human level to care for you however often you might need.
Beyond gratitude, reflection is always a staple in December for both my family and my Central Dentist team. 2018 has proven to be a tremendous blessing, some of which I’ll share with you below:
Training doctors and treating patients in Hong Kong, Canada, Bahamas, Italy, & other international territories. Through the ongoing experience and research I have gained in my practice, I was selected to pioneer a roll out of preliminary training courses across the US and abroad. I traveled near and far to visit children in hospitals, private practices, and dental and medical schools to train close to 2,000 doctors in sleep disordered breathing and early interventional therapy for optimal growth and development. These were countries that previously had no early interventional therapy options, so we were educating and launching a complete new clinical protocol that required an educational and philosophical shift in their clinical care management. While it was initially difficult to commit to time away from my family and my patients, the doctors and patient families I encountered were incredibly enthusiastic. I could not be more thrilled with the outcome in that I am helping increase access to the highest quality therapies for kids all over the world to reach their full potential.
Collaboration with UT Southwestern in Education, Clinical Treatment, & Research. Over the past 6 months, I have kicked off a multi-disciplinary partnership with ENT Drs. Ron Mitchell and Gopi Shah at UT Southwestern to treat the most difficult of pediatric airway cases and to educate and train upcoming resident physicians and medical students in airway development and management. The cases I have helped them treat with our “alternative therapy” include special needs children whose only option up until my involvement was to receive a tracheotomy and to have a severely compromised quality of life. As you can imagine, it has been outrageously rewarding to offer these children and their parents a non-invasive alternative alongside physicians who are eager to collaborate in an effort to optimize outcomes.
Elected Official to the American Dental Association Pediatric Sleep Symposium. This past fall, despite my reluctance to have another work travel trip (and I apologize for any of you who I may have had to reschedule your appointments to accommodate this trip ;) ), I was elected by my peers in the dental field to represent the greater interest of dentists on a 12-person board to debate and decide on industry stand of care and legislation associated with sleep medicine therapy. I have confidence that being on the frontier of this field clinically and legislatively allows me to manage the care of families in my own practice.
Referrals from across the nation for some of the most challenging cases. I sometimes question whether this is in fact a blessing or a curse (kidding), but being on the forefront of anything with the most experience means you also get referrals for the hardest of cases. I’ve had the honor of having a few dozen patients fly from all over the country (sometimes with their primary docs in tow) to help treat and manage their cases. This has most likely provided my greatest opportunity to grow over the past year, as I had many “failing forward” partnering with patient families who were otherwise hopeless in improving their current health circumstances. But as the old adage says, “When you work hard enough, sometimes you get lucky”; through failing forward, we’ve stumbled upon extraordinary collateral outcomes that are very promising in our clinical research. As an example, we are currently managing the cases for 4 different syndromic pediatric patients with deafness and severe tinnitus (constant ringing in the ear), who through treatment with Super Health, have demonstrated a clinically significant improvement in their hearing loss and tinnitus. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t even trying to do that, but BOY am I happy we discovered there might be a correlation. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but these challenging cases inspire me every day to learn more and push to find outcomes for all children.
So, you might think that this Christmas letter is a #humblebrag, but I promise it isn’t. It is in fact a gigantic “THANK YOU” to you; it is only with the experience, relationships, and trust I have with you, my patients and their families here in my Dallas practice, that I’ve garnered this momentum towards having a broader impact on children in great need beyond our community.
As we look forward to a very promising 2019, we are excited to announce that we will be expanding our practice offerings via a roll out of improved therapies tested and proven by the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology. In an effort we find to be synergistic with our already holistic Super Health program, we will be introducing ozone/oxygen therapy and other all-natural dental products to reduce the unnecessary introduction of toxins and to counteract environmental toxins. We have already eliminated amalgam/ “metal” restorations, and we will be phasing out fluoride therapy over the early part of this next year.
We look forward to an opportunity to connect with you and your family and friends this year, whether it’s in our office or in our shared community. May you and your loved ones have a holiday that is filled with love and joy, and 2019 that brings many blessings beyond your wildest dreams!
Warmest Wishes,
Dr. Jill Ombrello
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