Letters to the Editor

I read with interest your recent editorial article 50 lashes by the GDC. As someone who has experience of being referred to the GDC, I can empathize with the author, but I am unsure if the solution lies solely with the Regulator. While concurring with the well-considered argument about the GDC approach, I would like to ask if we, the dental profession, are also exacerbating the problem by adopting a blame culture? I believe that the fault does not entirely lie with the GDC, but with a failure to educate dentists about the different perspectives we can use to acquire knowledge, specifically in terms of diagnosis and treatment planning. If we wish to safeguard ourselves, as dentists, it is important that we fully review the background to our own learning.

The acquiring of knowledge, which is needed to inform a diagnosis and gain consent, involves using established theoretical perspectives, but if these are used in isolation the knowledge acquired will have at least one fundamental flaw.¹ To complicate things further, most practitioners probably have a preferred perspective, which could easily conflict with a patient's perspective. This is the fundamental background to many litigation cases.