Good morning gang! Happy to be here. I'm sorry if I took this thread to another place, but I felt compelled to say what needed to be said. All of you here have helped me tremendously technically, and most assuredly in the arena of why I do what I do in the lab.
Some have asked what my PhD is in, but let's digress a little before I tell you anything.
We all have different journeys in life which began long before your arrival here. I loved basketball, and I wanted to play for Coach Dean Smith At UNC, but that didn't happen, so, coming from a divorced family I had to figure out how to get college paid for, for I was certainly tired of my parents arguing and telling me I wasn't nothing, wasn't ever going to amount to anything, and all sorts of stupid sh(t like that. Truth was, I was in a private school, with a class of 40 and graduated near the top of my class and never once cracked a book. Couldn't! Played too much basketball and worked.
So six months before graduation I joined the Navy on a delayed entry program guaranteed dental technician school. I wanted to be a dentist. So, at 16, I devised a plan. Four years active duty, then college was paid for, and hopefully dental school. Sounded good to me. I was married the entire time I was in college. See, I wanted to ensure college would be covered first, then to see if I liked dentistry, and progress from there. When I was first interviewed for dental school, I honestly felt like I had more experience than some of the senior dental students interviewing me. I had no degree completed at the time of application, yet all of my minimum requirements were met with a 3.65 GPA. My major was Chemistry at ODU. So, I made the alternate list, moved to Richmond, Va., and waited............. No dental school, so I went to dental tech school instead. I finished up my other degrees in Chemistry and Education, and then got the AAS in dental technology.
This is where my eyes were opened. I had 3 degrees, 4 years of dental experience in the mouth, and I made $4/hr. I thought are you kidding me? My wife had a 2 yr degree in computers and was pulling 60K/yr in the early 80's. She kept encouraging me to get out of it. Yes, even back then, the docs wanted it cheap, fast, and good, and she saw how I struggled. Long days, weekends, nights. Seven years of struggling before I got a vacation. I hung in there for I hated feeling like I had wasted all that time studying dentistry. I could always apply again, but the ex wife wanted kids, so I stuck it out. Four bucks an hour, but in 18 months I went from that to running the lab's small crown and bridge department. Sad thing is, when the son who took over that lab his father had left him, not one person stopped what they were doing to attend the funeral. Hardly a soul knew he had died. Thus the life of "the lab guy." Many of your clients call you that don't they? How does that make you feel?
Nothing was handed to me. Never borrowed a dime from the parents, nothing. Here's what I had, and still have to this day....... Passion!
I got tired of making the same shapes, the same colors, the same old grind, so as I discussed in my previous rant, I used dental technology as a means to do other things that brought me joy.
I studied martial arts back in college, so when I was 35, skinny as a rail, I began lifting weights. Dedicated myself to that for five years, and yet when I went to work at the sweatshop, it was frowned upon, it seemed, to work from 5 AM to 5 PM, and then go to the gym. The "old guard" came in at 8 and worked until whenever, but because I had my own brain, and didn't follow the pack, the old guard had the bosses ear...... Oh Well!
But I continued my education, and went back to school online then, which was totally new, and got a B. Div., an M.Div., and my PhD is in Metaphysical Sciences, and now working on my 2nd PhD in Divinity, at Liberty University. Why? Simple. I can... and it jazzes me!
I've also sold real estate, been a Private Investigator, a clinical hypnotherapist, and studied different types of Oriental medicine, and I'm a pilot! So let me ask you guys something...... Does any of that amount to a hill of beans? No!!!! It's what pleases me! It's made me a better person, not just how many colors of porcelain I can stack, certainly not a fat bank account! I have made financial deposits into my joy! Now, don't get me wrong, there are days when I wish I had more in the bank account, but that flight along the coast of Maine in the Fall at 1000AGL was priceless! Getting on the Harley and destressing is another pleasure of mine, like restoring my old 81 Corvette.
So, back to this thread............ I'm more proud of my PhD than I ever would be of the CDT that I had, and that's why I use it instead of all the other crap I could put at the end of my name. And the guy that wouldn't hire me if he knew I WASN'T a CDT, well hey, He can kiss my a$$. Have I lost anything over that? Nope, not a wink of sleep. He has his own issues, trust me.
I want you, all of you, to hold your head up and be damn proud of what you do. I'm not talking just about a CDT, DTG kind of proud. The pride of doing your best every day at something that apparently jazzes YOU! 5000 dentists graduate every year, and they need your help. Have they got egos? Oh yeah, but I use the term EGO as an acronym for Edging God Out. Think about that one. I commend all of you for sharing the knowledge you have on this craft, this skill, this PASSION you have for being dental technicians. You have added to my life, and countless others. Some lurk in the dark and won't say anything out of fear, but screw that! Speak your Truth! I recall a time when no one shared anything about how they did this or that. Why? FEAR! EGO! I love this FORUM! I know others have branched off. Let them! If I could make a suggestion..... go visit them, be nice, and maybe your eyes will be opened to new possibilities. What could it hurt?
Dentists put their pants on the same way, and have some of the same problems you have. Don't let them talk down their nose to you, or let anyone else for that matter. Life is short and you better find out what gives you the "juice" before your time is up.
Stop bickering over this and that, and ask yourselves if in a year is it really going to matter to YOU!
I'll get off my soapbox now, and I humbly apologize for rambling.
Be Blessed,
Randy Hill, PhD..................or some of you will say Piled High and Deep! LOL
Just gotta figure out how to sell (ice to an Eskimo...LOL),then maintain them clients on their terms... We're not on any social media, nor boost a fancy web site either...but keeping a very personal relationship with everybody...thus getting referrals by word of mouth all the time... 
