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Of late the blog’s been a bit of a rant and I appreciate that… it’s sometimes how it goes.

If it is what I say it is and it is a stream of consciousness then that would be where I am at the minute.

In the middle of my despair and confusion I just clicked open a blog by Seth from Saturday night (here) The start of it was about dentistry and he spoke to me again!!

I speak about Seth Godin like he’s a God but I don’t believe in God, he just is able to be relevant to me and that’s why I connect with his material.

Of course, dentistry is a million times better in general than it was 50 years ago and that’s as a result of all the progress we’ve made and the progressions we’ve taken along the way.

It’s tough though, in this day and age, to ‘sacrifice’ people’s treatment for progress but healthcare has always done that and it’s always been there.

I don’t mind that and I’m cool with that along the way, just as long as we’re honest about what we’ve doing and we tell our patients and ourselves that the thing we’re doing is not proven but we’re trying to prove it.

The Jay Freireich story in Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘David and Goliath’ epitomises this whole story.

Effectively he changed the world in cancer treatment for children and has subsequently saved thousands of lives, but to get there he killed people and there is no question about that based on the facts presented by Gladwell.

I’m not sure that in dentistry I’m cool with people being harmed for the betterment of society, but if it is for the betterment of society then I guess that’s a sacrifice we might have to accept.

At the end of the rant though… I guess it’s clear in my mind what I’m trying to say. 

Progress is good and improvement is good. We should strive for this all the time.

At times, in ethical dilemmas, it’s necessary to sacrifice the few for the great and that’s the school of ethics. I guess most of us subscribe to that notion and understand it.

It’s not good though to research for your own benefit and your own gain and to test or use new things because it brings you reward and money above the benefit to society.

More and more I feel like I am becoming the cynical old ba****d at the back of the room limiting children’s fun at the front as they dabble and experiment.

I’ve just seen too much damage at the expense of patient’s health and wellbeing. I have seen too many people dabble for the benefit of their egos, or more commonly the benefit of their wallet.

It’s a good job that I’m committed to be here for 40 years because it will take at least that time to even make a tiny dent in this.

Blog Post Number: 1850