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I qualified in 1981 and am now working in my own private practice in Sussex and I wish to congratulate you on the superb Editorial in the July/August issue of Dental Update. This was right on the money on so many levels.
You have distilled into this piece all the thoughts that I have had about the direction in which Dentistry is being taken. The Sat Nav is wrong; it has been programmed by the marketeers and the paper-pushers, and we should be looking at what it is we provide and choosing the route for ourselves instead.
We specialize in Care; a major part of that is the provision of advice that will be of benefit to our patients now and in the future. The planning for the eventual failure of the treatment is as important as the treatment plan itself, along with the provision of guidance on the cost of future maintenance. This was an absolute that was promoted by the Specialist Advisors during my early professional years while serving in the RAF Dental branch and is brought back into focus by Martin Kelleher's papers. Tooth surface preservation should always be in fashion.
Currently, we are required to collect data on all the things we do for ‘analysis’ by ‘experts’ and this data is extrapolated to evaluate a practice's ability to provide Dental Care. But Care is not numerically quantifiable, nor is it easy to assess during a visit by an inspector and superb organizational and paperwork skills do not necessarily make for the best Care, so this guesstimate of Dental Care provision is, at best, a guesstimate.
Your beliefs, that ‘old fashioned’ Care is the best advertising tool and that profitability will look after itself if you have a reputation for providing good Care, are correct. The business of Dentistry and the provision of Care can be harmoniously grown if given the right medium.
You are right about the change of content of Dental Exhibitions, I attended two of the Cologne IDS Exhibitions about 12 and 14 years ago and found them to be full of clinical trade stands; some with new and inspiring products and some showing improvements on established and proven techniques and materials. Very few were to do with direct money generation, although some were exhibiting computers and software that promised time-saving on administration and the removal of the paperwork.
To see these views expressed in writing by a respected dental professional in a learned journal provides hope that a change of tack may be possible.