Is the customer always right?
What we have to offer as dental professionals cannot be weighed in mere physical balances. While what we do is by definition tangible and physical, what makes the physical valuable is our care, skill, and judgment. If we relegate care and judgment to the observation deck and skill is left to fend for itself, we risk no longer being professionals but rather sales clerks and technicians of treatment for individual teeth. Patients who are looking for a sales clerk or technician rather than a professional unfortunately will find one ... but it should be in another office. Let's be dentists by choice and of choice. Only then can we hold out for what is best for our patients and thereby help them to be people of choice as well.
Nichols
Polly S
PS
Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, USA.
Winslow
Gerald R
GR
D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D004990:Ethics, Dental; D006801:Humans; D008389:Marketing of Health Services; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011215:Practice Management, Dental