Samuel Scroggins, DMD, often prepares for climbing a mountain the same way he prepares for performing a surgery.
Dr. Scroggins is an oral surgeon at Southwest Virginia Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Roanoke, Va.
Dr. Scroggins and his wife have been practicing highpointing — climbing to the highest geographical point in a region — for about seven years. They recently highpointed in their 37th state, Ohio, and are headed to ascend Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina and Mt. Hood in Oregon later this year.
What started out as a way to achieve new goals outside of work has led to a new sense of work-life balance, and Dr. Scroggins has learned several lessons he applies to his practice and patient care.
Dr. Scroggins recently spoke with Becker's to discuss how he applies aspects of highpointing to clinical care.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What inspired you to start highpointing?
Dr. Samuel Scroggins: During residency, that's what you're doing. You have your family, but residency is kind of the focus of everything and then your goal is to get done with residency, join a practice and figure out what you're doing with the rest of your life. When we came up with this, it was something to keep pushing and not get into too much of a rut where you don't have anything that you're pushing yourself to do. I think it's good to have goals. There's always more stuff you can do at work. You can always look around and be like, "That practice is more successful." Once you reach a level where you're happy with your practice, you don't want to end up chasing that forever, so having other things to spread out and devote your energy to is a healthy thing to do.
Q: How has highpointing helped you gain a better work-life balance?
SS: I probably work more than I should. I think it's important to be dedicated to what you do professionally without that being who you are. It's important to work hard in your profession and continue to improve yourself, but one day you're going to retire and you're going to move on. And you hope that everything else you've built up is successful, like your family. It's easy to get wrapped up in what your kids are doing, but I think it's good to have something you and your wife do that's a goal you're working on together. That was a big part of this.
Q: What have you learned about highpointing that you've been able to apply to your practice as an oral surgeon?
SS: After we've done a hike, we try to look at it and analyze what we did that was good and what we probably need to do differently next time. [It's] the same thing with cases — looking at them and being like, this worked out, but what would have made things smoother? What would have made a slightly better outcome? Another thing is the idea of using all the resources you have. That's the idea with these hikes, whether you have a guide that leads you or making sure you have the right equipment and that you do the research you need to learn about the trail and what the weather is going to be like. I relate that to preparing for a case — doing research, reading articles, talking to people who maybe have done it before and then using other resources like product reps or implant guides to help make things smoother, especially if it's a procedure you haven't done a lot of.