Smile Designing - Musings of a confused dentist

Do you, as a dentist or as a lay-reader, agree with the above statement?

Dentistry is divided currently into two schools of thought - the high end dentistry practised across the globe is want based dentistry while lower down the value chain is need based dentistry.

One school says that it is essential to create an emotional link between the patient's self esteem and his smile. If we feel that we look and feel better when we have the perfect smile, we will be willing to go that extra mile to achieve that smile. We need to WANT to look better. And it is no secret that a good smile is an irreplacable ingredient in a good personality.

The other school (which is a school of one - namely me) doesn't believe in fixing what isn't broken. If you ARE unhappy with your smile, then I believe you SHOULD get it fixed, no matter what the cost. But I am not going to sell fairness creams to dark skinned people to make them believe they are better looking when they are fair. Technically that is an unfair comparison, because hey, smile designing DOES work while fairness creams don't, but I hope you get my point. I am NOT going to create in you a void that I will later fill.

I was confused in this matter for a long while, simply because the first school of thought has both logic and esthetics on its side. But I was building a second clinic currently, and my interior designer was just unwilling to listen to me when I wanted to cut costs and not go for what was her idea of esthetics, because I didn't see the value in it. But she did, and as interior designers so often do, they work with their own ideas of beauty without taking the clients' into consideration. And that is not a philosophy I want to follow in my dental practice. Not all that is gold does glitter, as Tolkien famously said. It is a dentist's job to suggest and explain what can be done to your smile, but not convince or create a need where none existed, especially where invasive, irreversible, expensive dental treatments are advised.

Am I right or wrong? What is your opinion, dear reader? What would you like from your dentist?

Say hi!!!

After resisting for eight years, I have started to start a professional blog. They say that Web Presence or Social Media presence is necessary for businesses to 'attract consumers', 'establish authenticity', etc. I believe the term 'Social Media Expert' is itself a paradox - a field in which everyone is an expert and no one is. 

But we as a clinic arent here to be one-more-pimping-ourselves LOOK-AT-US blog. We arent here to gain consumers or educate with frivolous dime-a-dozen 'brush your teeth everyday' posts, blogging because it is ESSENTIAL for our professional success. We have things to say - I believe there is an intelligent reader class out there who likes knowing things as its own end, who will like correct information. 

There's so much more to a dental clinic than just treating patients. It is a whole ecosystem in itself - from stories of people who work there, to laboratories and dealers we come in contact with, tp quirky incidences with patients who are stories in themselves. Let me see how much of our day-to-day existence is interesting by the one yardstick of interestingness - whether it is readable by a lay reader. There are advances in dentistry that no one talks about, there are things people should look for to judge whether their dentists are good, there are potholes for patients to escape.

So let's see how it goes. The only attention grabbing thing I shall do is put stupid irrelevant tags to attract people to this blog. Rest, if any post feels like marketing, please feel free to call out my bullshit. If you have any dental related question, please comment and we will try our best to answer it.

See ya guys.