JACD 71-4 - American College of Dentists

2004 ACD Annual Meeting
10
instead under the weight of commercial
cosmetic dentistry marketing to the level
of mere dental spa operators? Yes, it
could happen. It could happen far too
easily, without our even noticing it.
But we cannot let this happen to our
chosen profession. We must not let it
happen, because society will ultimately
suffer if the dental profession is degraded.
So, what must we do to save our
professionalism? First, let me start with
what dental educators are doing,
because I know that you are already
blaming dental education in your minds
for recruiting and graduating such
deplorably business-oriented dentists.
(After all, it must be dental education’s
fault because this unprofessional
commercially focused behavior wasn’t a
hallmark of the profession when you
graduated, was it?)
Well, in this instance, dental educators
are not guilty. In fact, we are recruiting
dental students who have already
demonstrated their volunteerism and
commitment to serving the public and who
want to continue this service as dentists,
ministering to the oral health needs of
their patients and their community. In
We must tell the story
of our profession’s service
to the disadvantaged
members of our society.
the dental education curriculum, we are
already providing case-based, facultymentored
small group discussions of the
ethical issues, such as commercialism
versus professionalism, that challenge
their chosen profession. We are counseling
dental students against falling into the
commercial model of practice in order
to pay off their sizable educational
debt at the expense of their professional
reputation. We are doing all this and
more, and we will continue to help
our students confront the profession’s
tension between commerce and care.
We will help our students to resolve this
tension in their minds and in their
hearts before they enter the profession
after graduation.
But now, what do I want you to do?
As Fellows of the American College of
Dentists, you represent the 2.5% of
American and Canadian dentists who
have received the honor of fellowship as
recognition of your professionalism
and leadership. But this great honor of
fellowship brings with it the weighty
responsibility of leadership. So, I expect
you to do a lot about this danger to
the profession.
First, I expect you to drown out the
noise of cosmetic dentistry advertising
with a powerful counter-message. I want
you to influence your dental organizations
to spend money (yes, I said spend
money) to market the message that
dentists are health care professionals
who are essential to the general health
of the public. I want you to lead your
dental organizations—whether it is your
county dental society, your town dental
study club, the provincial or state dental
association, or the American or Canadian
Dental Association—to mount marketing
campaigns like the ADA’s successful oral
cancer campaign. These marketing
campaigns must emphasize that dentists
do serve the public’s health by addressing
the connection between oral health and
diabetes, early term low birth weight
infants, cardiovascular disease, tobacco
abuse, and obesity. We do relieve pain,
and we do detect oral cancer, and we are
a vital health care profession.
Then I want you to widely publicize
all of the voluntary care that dentists
provide to disadvantaged children and
adults every day in every town and city
in North America. Oh, I know that goes
against the grain of your personal and
professional modesty. I know that you
don’t voluntarily serve the underserved
in order to be recognized for it. But you
need to “take your light out from under
the bushel basket” now, because we have
to obliterate this dangerous message of
commercial dentistry that is poisoning
the public’s opinion about our profession
and demeaning us in their eyes. We
must tell the story of our profession’s
service to the disadvantaged members
of our society.
I also want you to screw up your
courage and personally confront the
dental cosmetologists, face-to-face, and
tell them what you think about the way
they are degrading our profession.
I know that also goes against your
personality grain. Dentists are, by and
large, not confrontational in their
interactions. But you know that you
can do this in a polite, respectful, and
professional way, if you only push
yourself to do it. You can influence your
colleague to at least think about what
they are doing to their profession.
You all have a position of respect
and influence in your professional
community. I implore you to use it to
save our profession. If we don’t assertively
confront the dental cosmetologists,
we run the risk of losing this great
profession to them.
I know that I am asking much of you
today. But if the Fellows of the American
College of Dentists don’t take on this
responsibility, who will? Who will act to
save our profession, if not you? ■
2005 Volume 71, Number 4