Dentistry – it ain’t what it used to be - Michael Sultan

There has been a lot of discussion of late surrounding a new event billed as a ‘Wealth creation day for dentists’. While opinion would seem split on whether there is really any need for this event, a number of colleagues have suggested that it gives dentists a bad name and that it doesn’t paint us in a positive light.

But then, why should we care? Why does it matter what anyone else thinks? Supposing opticians had a wealth creation day – or chiropodists, or osteopaths – would we all really be so up in arms about it then? Probably not.

As a profession, we seem to be suffering from a form of collective insecurity. We’ve been knocked one too many times in the press, and so our instinctive response is to reject anything that might make us seem greedy or rich as being completely out of hand. Which is strange really, when you come to think about it; surely it’s not unreasonable for anyone to want to sure up his or her financial future.

Bursting the bubble

At the heart of the issue here is the matter of business. As dentists, we’re all very good at dentistry, but not very good at business. Indeed some colleagues could be described as being financially very naïve. Unfortunately get rich schemes play on this naivety, as well as our innate human desire to want to make a secure future for ourselves and for our families.

The problem occurs when you consider how most of these schemes work. In this particular case we see that the idea is to try and gain maximum leverage from property; you simply get as much out of the bank as you can, put it on a house that goes up in value, sell it quickly, and take the profit. Yet experience tells us that all this does is fuel the housing bubble! Enough people have got their fingers burnt by this in the past for it to be completely financially reckless.

Chasing the fast buck

Generally speaking, as dentists we’re not very entrepreneurial, and we’re not inventing anything so we’ll never be ‘rich’ by most modern day standards. Of course I don’t for one moment want to sound disingenuous – as a profession dentists do very well – but not well enough that ‘get rich’ schemes don’t hold some sort of appeal. This is because traditionally the way a dentist earns money is to keep overheads down and work a marathon, slowly and steadily building up over time.

Needless to say this wasn’t always the case. Traditionally, when property prices were cheap and the NHS was lucrative, many people went into dentistry as it was an extremely financially rewarding career. But in recent times this has reached something of a lull. While there are certainly a number of ‘super dentists’ who are doing very well in the cosmetic market, most people are struggling, and with the ever-present burden of regulation, most dentists are seeing their standard of living decrease. We shouldn’t be surprised then that some people are attracted to the promise of a ‘get rich’ scheme, even if the concept is for the most part, fundamentally flawed.

The changing profession

In many respects what this debate highlights more than anything is just how much the dental profession has changed. Obviously there have been many positives in terms of new materials, technologies and treatments, but the very nature of the job is not the same as it once was. We are now business people as much as we are healthcare professionals, and though the concept doesn’t sit well with some people, there can be no escaping this undeniable fact.

So should we be embarrassed about wanting to make money? I really don’t think we should. After all, what we do with our money outside of work is our own business, and would you really deny anyone the chance to build a sound financial future?

If you want to go out and earn more money then I say good luck to you. However, I do urge caution. If the recession has taught us anything it’s that great financial rewards only come with great risk. When I look at many of these ‘get rich’ schemes, I fear the only people who will really make any money from them are the people running the courses themselves.

Naturally, I don’t really blame anyone for wanting to make money, but I do think we need to recognise that we are dental professionals first and foremost, and business people a distant second. While the profession may have changed a great deal over the years, patient care is still the thing we’re best at. In this sense at least, dentistry hasn’t changed very much at all!

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Dr Michael Sultan BDS MSc DFO FICD is a Specialist in Endodontics and the Clinical Director of EndoCare. Michael qualified at Bristol University in 1986. He worked as a general dental practitioner for 5 years before commencing specialist studies at Guy’s hospital, London. He completed his MSc in Endodontics in 1993 and worked as an in-house Endodontist in various practices before setting up in Harley St, London in 2000. He was admitted onto the specialist register in Endodontics in 1999 and has lectured extensively to postgraduate dental groups as well as lecturing on Endodontic courses at Eastman CPD, University of London. He has been involved with numerous dental groups and has been chairman of the Alpha Omega dental fraternity. In 2008 he became clinical director of EndoCare, a group of specialist practices.