Is It Too Late to Save Our Beloved Profession?
The practice of Orthodontics, as we have known it, is being taken over by steady encroachment from corporate America. A frightening development is occurring right before our eyes. We should all rise up and decry this encroachment into such a pure human endeavor.
In private conversation, we hear much objection to this trend, but in the published word we do not hear any voices of protest against such a trend. We should tell the corporate wolves to "bug off"-and go elsewhere to seek their fortunes.
We should tell them, we don't want a beautiful, altruistic, service oriented endeavor, dedicated to human welfare and even to the spiritual welfare of mankind, to become a corporate monstrosity. Isn't anything sacred any more? Orthodontics has been the purest specialty of dentistry. It would be a great pity to see it, as we have known it, go down the drain, a victim of corporate encroachment.
All orthodontists are aware that many extenuating circumstances can and do occur, which cause the extension of treatment. The corporation will tell us to get rid of our deadwood immediately. I wonder how many of the corporation executives would like for their daughters to be subjected to such limitations of treatment?
They will tell us how many patients to start per month. They will tell us how many patients to see per day. They will tell us how much income to generate per month. The day will come when they will tell us which technique to use. They will arrange meetings to teach us the best technique to generate the most income. In other words, they will destroy the personal relationships we have with our patients and their parents. Sure, they will have a convincing argument!! Are we going to take this, lying down??
When the economy of the U.S.A. deteriorates, as it surely will, they will still want a profit for the stockholders. Consequently they will bring unbelievable pressures on the orthodontist, taking away all the pleasures of practice and reducing his income.
I see this as what we can expect, if corporations continue to make inroads into our profession. It is time to wake up!!
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