A question of ethics

摘要

Dentistry, as a business model, is inherently flawed. In my part of the world, any other business that operated in the same manner would be called 'downright un-American'. Businesses selling products known to be potentially lethal, such as tobacco and alcohol, earn more respect. Heck, so do drug dealers, for that matter. The former spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting their products, the latter give away free samples to drum up new business. What do we dentists do? How many adverts have you seen telling people not to brush or floss? When was the last time you recommended that a patient overindulge in sugary foods. Why aren't dental societies advising the general public to chew ice cubes and get into bar fights? Are we really the only business trying to put ourselves out of business? If this state of affairs isn't bad enough, large corporations, on both sides of the pond, are wiping out independent private practitioners. Soon, we'll be labelled as an endangered species. To survive and, eventually, thrive, we've been told to find our niche. In the area I practice, there's the 'same-day crown' guy, who makes every restoration on his Cerac machine, and there's a dentist who does same-day implants and their restorations (temporaries, I assume).