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I have been inspired by your recent Dental Update Editorial, and also by Martin Kelleher's series of articles, to contact you. Your thoughts and comments have struck a chord here in Scotland.
Because of my involvement with the FGDP, I am out and about meeting my peers on a regular basis. We all have been discussing the loss of professionalism within dentistry over the last few years. (I actually was out with a colleague for a curry last week and he had his head in his hands on this very topic.)
We also feel that part of the blame lies with what has become almost a feeding frenzy within the freebie dental press that has gone on unchecked over the last few years.
The rise of the ‘Dentist of the Year’/’Most Influential Dentist’/‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ etc ad nauseam has degraded the profession.
Granted, these poorly conceived awards, with no clear marking criteria or independent verification, are only chased by a minority of the profession (generally those that Martin Kelleher refers to) while the rest of us remain silent and get on with treating patients.
In the past, they could have been disregarded as a bit of fun, but now we have the spectre of these fatuous awards being advertised to patients via billboards and websites as if they are on a par with quality postgraduate qualifications. I now get letters from my colleagues that list all the ‘Dental Awards’ they have won over the last few years. They might as well be including their 25 m swimming badge in the list. In fact that is a more valid qualification.
All this degrades the profession. As you know, the FGDP is the academic home of GDPs, I feel that we should be commenting on this and encouraging dentists to pursue solid postgraduate education and not this nonsense.
It is time for the silent majority to speak, reclaim the middle ground and put these awards in the context they deserve within the profession.
I would be interested to know your thoughts on the matter and hopefully initiate a (long overdue) debate on this issue.