ViewPoint Professional responsibility starts with you

I’ve always thought that about three years after graduation from dental school, the school should send you the essay that you wrote to get into school. I would imagine that most of us wrote about how our interest in science led us into health care, and how we thought dentistry would be a great way to contribute to being of service in our community and society.

In the interview at the school when applying, we probably mentioned how we want to help people, our interest in health care, and I’m sure most of us emphasized that we wanted to excel in our profession by providing the best possible care to our patients.

No time during that interview, and certainly not mentioned in our application essay, did we talk about only wanting to provide care to indemnity-plan-insured patients. We didn’t talk about cosmetic practices, cash-only practices or full-mouth reconstruction. We wanted to make sure that the school knew we were going into dentistry “for all the right reasons.”

The question is, where in the education process and in our careers do we lose some of this empathy? When we graduated from school we took some form of the Hippocratic Oath, part of which reads, “I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.”

How do I interpret that? Professional Responsibility.

We have a responsibility as health care providers to help those who are unable to receive adequate treatment for whatever reason. It is a common theme when talking to dentists I know that do volunteer work. When speaking with friends, when speaking with volunteers in other health care fields, the answer was always the same, sometimes verbatim鈥?we have a professional responsibility” to help those in need.

The dental school education process is rigorous, long and expensive. We graduate with a degree that is well-earned and respected. With that respect comes a commitment to striving to help our “fellow human beings.” It is what we alluded to in our dental school admittance essays and interviews.

This is not a plea to change your business model for your practice but rather a reminder that we should all find some way to take a moment to help those in need. In Oregon there are so many ways to help. Medical Teams International, The Dental Foundation’s Tooth Taxi, Give Kids A Smile, etc. In a previous issue of our newsletter, we mentioned the many tripartite components that have nonprofit dental clinics and programs. Now more than ever, as a profession we need to demonstrate the effort that we are making to charitable care. We aren’t defining the access to care problem, but we are forced to deal with it.

I have seen various pie charts that tell the same story: the major determinants of health status are 50 percent personal behavior, 20 percent environment, 20 percent genetic, and 10 percent access to care. No matter how accessible health care is, some people are not going to take advantage of it. We can talk at length about the economics, politics and fairness of access to care. The bottom line, however, is that we need to contribute in some manner鈥攅ven if this means turning a blind eye to those issues. To quote the Hippocratic Oath again, “with special obligations to all my fellow human beings,” we should all contribute in some manner to help those in need.

Dr. Taylor is the editor of Membership Matters, the newsletter of the Oregon Dental Association. His comments, reprinted here with permission, appeared in the April issue of that publication.