Time to show solidarity with Haiti
By Dr Adolfo Rodríguez, FOLA (Guest commentary)
The earthquake that struck Haiti in January will be remembered for a long time. Its devastating magnitude has spread desolation amongst the population and resulted in the gravest crisis in Haiti’s history, leaving behind a completely destroyed country with little likelihood of recovery without assistance. As the first Latin American nation, Haiti gained independence from France in 1804. Even before disaster struck on 12 January 2010, it had suffered deeply from poverty and political unrest. It is the duty of developed nations to help rebuild this nation so that our Haitian brothers can look forward to a new and improved country.
Many of our colleagues in Haiti have lost everything: family, work, resources and, even worse, hope. The dental profession cannot be oblivious to this reality. The Latin American Dental Federation (FOLA) has launched an international campaign to assist dental colleagues in Haiti by providing resources to rebuild their lives and their professional practices. FOLA, FDI, Dental Tribune and dentists from all over Latin America are making great efforts to collect instruments, materials and equipment to restore oral-health services in Haiti. We hope you also join us in this effort.
We are also planning a dental congress in the Dominican Republic to collect funds for the reconstruction of Haiti.
Dr Samuel Prophet, the President of the Association Dentaire Haitienne, wrote in an e-mail from Port-au-Prince to Dental Tribune Latin America: “Knowing that FOLA, FDI and Dental Tribune will help dentists in Haiti is great news because it gives us hope!”
This is a call to cooperate with us to help those who have been left without work or resources. Now is the time to show solidarity with our Haitian colleagues.
Women - The missing link in dentistry?
By Claudia Salwiczek, DTI (Guest commentary)
I just returned from the Greater New York Dental Meeting where I had the opportunity to conduct a number of interviews with well-known opinion leaders in dentistry.What struck me most about the line-up was that only 1 out of the 30 professionals that I spoke to was a woman.
It is a sad fact that compared to other fields in medicine dentistry is still predominantly a male profession. There are exceptions, of course, such as Dr Catrise Austin, a New York-based dentist, who I recently met to talk about her decision to offer free HIV tests to her patients. Or Dr Bo Chen from Beijing, who I met at the P-I Brånemark symposium in Sweden where she presented a revealing study on patient satisfaction figures with facial and orofacial reconstruction. Unfortunately, though large in impact, these developments and ideas do not usually receive the recognition they deserve.
However, what these examples also demonstrate is that women often tend to develop solutions that are socially applicable and that offer benefits for all members of society; a fact endorsed by a recent World Health Organisation report. In the study on Women and Health, the question was also raised why women generally have to carry much of the health care burden while getting hardly anything back. It may be time for women, especially those working in medical and dental professions, to step up and make their message heard.
It may not happen overnight, but with more and more women overtaking high political and economical positions, it will be difficult for dentistry to hold up to its Boys Club status for much longer. I certainly hope that when I return to New York in 2010, there will be a larger share of female dentists to speak to.
Dentists are having a hard time
How is your practice doing? If the answer to this question is ‘fine’, chances are high that you are living in a part of the world where people still visit their dentist on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for all members of the profession. Latest reports suggest that more and more patients around the world are postponing their dental visits due to recession-related financial problems. In the UK, for example, almost one million less people have had their teeth checked since 2006. More than 60 per cent of 1,000 adults in the US have also cut back on dental visits (see also Americans cut down on dental visits) and similar reports are now coming from Australia. These numbers are of significant proportions. They not only indicate a considerable loss of income for dentists and perhaps even the closing of some dental offices, they are also a setback for those who are constantly fighting to bring the oral health message into the minds and attitudes of people. Whether these reports are drawing a realistic picture or not, they certainly demonstrate that many people do not consider their oral health as something to watch over at the moment. Organisations like the World Dental Federation or the WHO have tried to raise awareness for the need of dental care to be an essential part of primary health care services in the last few years. Unfortunately, their achievements could be in vain since governments are changing their priorities and leaving health behind in order to balance national budgets. Therefore, joint efforts of politicians, health care professionals and, up and foremost, dentists are necessary to convince people to invest in their oral health again. Free dental missions may be a good tool to help a few people but they are like giving lessons to a child that doesn’t want to learn. Out of sight is out of mind.
Michael Jackson and health care reform
When I started writing this editorial, news broke of Michael Jackson’s death. Although I have never been a fan of the ‘King of Pop’, his passing puzzled me deeply. How could a man that was supposed to perform 50 concerts in London over the next six months suddenly die from cardiac arrest?
According to news reports, the possible cause of his death was incorrect administering or use of medications such as with Propofol, a strong anaesthesia used in medical contexts such as intensive care units or surgeries. If a doctor facilitated such a medication for Jackson and it is found to have caused his death, he or she could be prosecuted for manslaughter.
Whatever the outcome of the ongoing investigation may be, this is a clear example of increasing unethical health care practices in the United States. Jackson, who despite being in severe debt, was still wealthy enough to afford any medical service, surgery or medications he desired. Over 50 million Americans still do not have access to health insurance. Therefore, the world should mourn the 800,000 people that die of cardiovascular disease every year in the US; deaths which could often be prevented by the provision of adequate health care such as heart screenings and other preventative measures.
Fortunately, recent signs from the White House indicate that President Obama is taking health care reform seriously and this time there is actually a chance that it could be done (see also Americans support dental coverage in health care reforms). However, what the US system needs more than money is an ethical discussion that leads to only one conclusion—to treat health care not as a market commodity but as a public benefit institution.
