As I have stated in several of my previous blogs, it is time that we unified as a profession and stood up together for what we believe is true.
It is time that we stood up for the benefit of patients, it is time that we stood up for the benefit ourselves otherwise we will be squashed and broken under a tide of regulation.
One of the most divisive things that is happening in dentistry at the moment is the repeated creation of new ‘professional bodies’ which purport to be centres of excellence or learning for people to join. Generally these begin with a B but not always and are usually followed by four or five different letters to make them sound like they are particularly credible. For example: B.U.R.P.S (British Unified Restorative and Prosthodontic Society)
Most of these associations and organisations now have between 300 – 500 people associated with them (never enough to be of any clout within a profession of 30,000)
It is time for a unification fight for all the associations in order for them to get together and provide the fewest organisations with the maximum effect.
From my point of view I would have one implant organisation representing dentists in the UK, everybody would join that, the congress would be amazing and we would have elected officers and people at the top of the organisation from both practice and academia in order to split the expertise. One academic officer, one practice based officer, a Leadership Executive Committee and members of an organisation which would then be able to use their strength and financial clout to inform regulators and legislators of what was required in implant dentistry.
While I do not see that this is likely to happen anytime soon I think it is time for the profession to hold to account people who form associations and organisations mainly for their own personal gain.
I have no issue whatsoever with people running courses but I just don’t think they should tag them onto ‘associations’.