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More and more the industry is having to make a choice about what it would like to be.

I vote for a specialisation of medicine, a sub-speciality that exists underneath the medical banner where we get to bask in the reflected glory of the trust that people have in the medical fraternity in view of the social contract that exists between medicine and society.

I vote to build bridges with the public and to show them they can trust us to look after their health and to make difficult decisions, not only about the choices in what procedures they may undertake or medicines they might use but always what they might spend their money on as they will have to do more and more in the healthcare economy.

Others will choose for the beauty therapy model, much more like the American system.

Dentists are business people and the people that come to see them are clients or customers. Our role is cross-sell and up-sell, sure we have to do things to a minimum standard but that’s only to the letter of the contract and no more than that.

It’s a bit like fitting kitchens and particularly like beauty therapy.

Most dental practices at the moment do a bit of beauty therapy and a bit of healthcare. Some do more of one that the other.

More and more, as time goes by, I think it’s harder to do both and I think that all of us will have to choose between the beauty therapy route with its advantages and disadvantages and the surgical healthcare route with its pros and cons.

I guess this is the battlefield. It will be an interesting one to see how it develops but I know which side of the line I’ll place myself.

Blog Post Number: 1849