🚀 go-pugleaf

jamie@cs.sfu.ca (Jamie Andrews) writes:

> non-dentist, relative of dentist etc.) in your response.
 
While there are problems in any profession, how do you expect a lay 
person to know what I am doing is correct (I am a dentist) ... I have 4 
years of school training plus 10 years of clinical experience.  Like any 
profession, I expect to be judged by peers, not by some consumer council 
that hasn't the foggiest idea what is entailed in completing a procedure.
 
How do you know you aren't being ripped off?  Suggestions:
 
(1) Does your dentist show you the problem, and spend time with you
    explaining why a procedure needs to be done?
 
(2) Do they give you options on treatment, or explain why only one option
     is the only real possibility?
 
(3) If you don't feel confident in the dentist's explanation, and tell
    them you wish a second opinion, what is the reaction?  (ie when
     my patient's ask for a second opinion, I tell them that is fine with
     me, let them pick someone indepedent of my recommendations and then
     offer to send radiographs and records)
 
(4) There is a certain amount of trust when you go to any professional, 
be it physician, dentist, lawyer, computer programmer, etc.  If the 
relationship is not there, it never will be, and you should find someone 
who you feel more comfortable with.
 
david

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