Unsure as to why this is the case but I have entered into the season in blog writing about things I have found difficult to write about in the past. I am finding it much easier to get my thoughts in line and my words down in relation to these things.
Dental awards has been one of those subjects that I’ve seen (and been, for a short while, involved in) for a long while.
But first, The Velvet Underground. I discovered The Velvet Underground in the mid 1980s and by that time they were effectively well finished apart from a brief spell between 1992 – 93 where they became active again. They were one of the soundtracks of my youth and in fact, I still have their vinyl in my bedroom now. The interesting thing though is that The Velvet Underground almost never sought popularity, recognition or awards, they just created their art the way they wanted to create art. As a result of this approach they have become one of the most influential bands that ever existed and one of the most covered bands in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked the 19 on its list of 100 greatest artists of all time. All four of their albums are listed in Rolling Stones top 500 albums of all time.
If you ever listen to interviews of people who have been influential in music since the 1960s they will almost inevitably sight The Velvet Underground as one of their influences. Lou Reed’s work has become universally popular, not least due to its inclusion in the Trainspotting movies.
In short The Velvet Underground are an example of people who went about their business doing what they thought was best and allowed recognition (if it were ever going to come) to come to them, not to seek it out.
For whatever reason this weekend I found my mind contrasting that to dental awards ceremonies as I drove my son to football past the dental practice at the top of my road. This is a ‘nice dental practice’ it has been extended and well kitted out, in fact in another life I used to work there on some Wednesday afternoons providing oral surgery. It is a classic ‘lifestyle business’ dental practice but when the practice was extended almost 6 years ago the Principal decided to enter the dental awards - both the Dentistry and Private Dentistry awards. The practice got to the final of both and they were therefore ‘finalists’. I pass the practice almost every day for one reason or another and there is still a banner outside with these words ‘Come and see why the dental profession think we’re one of the best practices in the UK’
On each side of these words are the logos for the Private Dentistry Awards and the Dentistry Awards with the words beneath ‘Finalist 2011’
Therein lies my issue with almost all the dental awards. To nominate yourself for an award within your profession and to take your team to an awards evening which you have paid for as a celebration is, I think, a laudable and excellent thing to do. Before the dental awards were the dental awards I attended two with my then-practice but forwards by our then-Principal – one at the Belfry Golf Resort near Birmingham where Chris Akabusi was the guest speaker and one at a hotel on Park Lane in London. I genuinely can’t remember. This was pre-2008 and they were just getting going at that stage.
I thought it was a good night out and we had a lot of fun as a team but at no time did I think that it would ever be utilised to mislead the public with regards to the reputation or expertise of the practices involved.
Which brings this rambling post around to the concept of mandates.
In the referendum for Scottish independence and also the Brexit referendum, it was essential that the winning side had a mandate to go forwards. Many commentators would suggest that 2/3 majority would provide that mandate with an exceptionally high turnout (both referendums had an exceptionally high turnout) It is though easy to argue that if 40% of the population turn out for an election and the winning side wins with 51% of the vote they don’t have a mandate having only 20% of the vote for the whole population. This fundamentally is my issue with the dental awards.
I know the process because in fact the practices I was involved in applied twice – paid for their tables, got to the awards and were listed as finalists for that reason. There was no selection criteria for the finalists as far as I could see.
We didn’t win but we have the opportunity to use the logos for the practices to suggest that we were practices at the highest end of our profession (we were not)
The other side of this coin is that perhaps the only award which has a degree of clinical credibility were the Smile Awards which then became the Aesthetic Dentistry Awards. There were graded and judged by professional peers on clinical outcomes, at least clinical outcomes that were presented for the award. As a practice we hold one of those awards through our associate Neil Poyser, Consultant Restorative Dentist who not only won his category in the Smile Awards but the overall Smile Award in 2008 for a cancer reconstruction with Philip Hollows and the team at Queens Medical Centre. We have never promoted that because we didn’t think it was particularly relevant to the patients who come to our practice.
I think (and of course this is only my opinion) that to promote yourself heavily based upon awards that you received following self nomination for a very limited sphere of the profession, with less that transparent voting and then to suggest that this elevates your professional practice to a level where patients should choose you over someone else, is misleading the public.
I have been to two practices who won ‘practice of the year’ and there is little doubt that both of those are exceptional but it seems that everywhere I look now, on websites and outside practices, they have a badge that says they got to the final but it is not clearly explained to patients what this actually means. Getting to the finals of a dental award does not provide you with a mandate to suggest that you’re better than a practice a mile away which has not got to the final because it didn’t buy a seat.
Let’s not decry the dental awards, not least because they make some suppliers in the industry an awful lot of money, but lets keep them within the profession and not use them without the profession.
By all means tell your friends that you have won an award and celebrate with your team. By all means post it on social media but please be careful how you promote that to the public. The rest of us (and that must be well over 80%) who choose not to become involved in these don’t feel that we are lesser clinicians or professional individuals as a result of that choice and do not feel that we should be made to think that.
Blog Post Number - 1240
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