No Dentists Left Behind

y dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don’t forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I’ve got all my teeth, so when I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he’d heard about the new state program. I knew he’d think it was great.

“Did you hear about the new state program to measure the effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?” I said.

 “No,” he said. He didn’t seem too thrilled. “How will they do that?”

“It’s quite simple,” I said. “They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14 and 18 and average that to determine a dentist’s rating. Dentists will be rated as Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average and Unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. It will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better,” I said. “Poor dentists who don’t improve could lose their licenses to practice in South Carolina.”

 “Cavities are the bottom line, and you can’t argue with the bottom line. It’s an absolute measure.”

 “That’s terrible,” he said.

 “What? That’s not a good attitude,” I said. “Don’t you think we should try to improve children’s dental health in this state?”

 “Sure I do,” he said, “but that’s not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry.”

 “Why not?” I said. “It makes perfect sense to me.”

 “Well, it’s so obvious,” he said. “Don’t you see that dentists don’t all work with the same clientele; so much depends on things we can’t control?

 “For example,” he said, “I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper-middle class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don’t bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem and I don’t get to do much preventive work. (Clink on link for the rest of this article.)

 Does this seem familiar? Some ideas never die. Today we are fighting the same battle in Florida. God willing Charlie Crist will veto this crazy idea which has passed both the Florida Senate and House.