Page 5 - NCDS May_Aug Bulletin_Neat

Message from Donald Hills, DDS

Editorial

I HAD TO BUY A SUIT

The girls who grew up products are sold everywhere for personal use. Buying
with my daughter are whitening products is similar to buying a new suit. At
beginning to marry. home orthodontics, from a kit purchased in a department
I own a nice tuxedo store or as seen on TV is something absolutely different.
and, since most of I simply cannot fathom do it yourself orthodontics. Mov-
the dress up times in ing teeth is not like coloring hair or buying a suit.
my life call for black
tie, it is easy for me Practicing dentistry without a dental license is illegal.
to dress up. One Mr. Jones cannot perform a whitening procedure, fill-
wedding this summer ing, extraction or orthodontics on Mr. Smith. Mr. Jones
was not black tie and can, however, do whatever he wants to himself. He can
I was compelled to bleach his teeth in any manner he wants, he can pull his
wear a suit. I am not own tooth, and now he can purchase ortho aligners online
a suit and tie guy. and play dentist for a fraction of the cost of care by a
The last suit I pur- licensed professional.
chased was 11 years
ago, styles have changed significantly since then, I look I wonder if Mr. Jones, while placing his just purchased
terrible in my old suit and I was told by my wife to throw orthodontic aligner, slips on the wet bathroom tile he
it out. After visiting eight different stores, I bought a new recently installed and fractures his arm, would he be able
suit. to set and cast the fracture himself? Is there a possible
business model for self-administered orthopedics? For
I change my glasses every few years. I like to shake it up that matter, dermatology seems pretty straight forward. If
now and then with a new look. New glasses are fun but Mr. Jones doesn’t like that rather ugly mole on his chin,
every decade or so, as with the new suit, a more radical could he not simply cut it out and mail it off to a pathol-
change seems right. So, I changed my beard. ogist (perhaps in a foreign country where labor is cheap
and pathologists are waiting for self-administered biop-
Cosmetic dentistry offers our patients a fresh look as sies) for evaluation. I imagine these pathologists work
well. Cosmetic dental procedures, like my new suit and real near a call center, where a return call to Mr. Jones
beard, make us feel good about ourselves. Unlike chang- can conveniently take place.
ing fashionable attire or facial hair architecture, dental
treatment, with few exceptions, is irreversible. It is what We live in a free society with many inalienable rights,
puts us stratospherically above the tailor and barber. A including the right to self-administer one’s healthcare.
patient’s commitment to removal of enamel is a lifetime Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should and the
commitment. As dentists, we must take great care when adage buyer beware certainly seems appropriate here.
our patients request and consent to such treatment. Cos-
metic dentistry is not like buying a new suit. By the way, the contemporary style of a tight, form fitting
short European suit does, in fact, work very well for me
Teeth whitening, after a thorough examination and and for the first time in decades I do like my new suit.
cleaning, is a safe, reversible procedure. Hair coloring
is also safe, effective and reversible. A suit purchase,
although not reversible, is rarely dangerous. The public
has embraced whitening. My wife can color her hair, I
can spend four days shopping for a suit and whitening

Nassau County Dental Society • (516) 227-1112 | 5