What I See

I belong to the ACE dental forum which is a group of better than average dentists. What I see is that there is very little will to pursue excellence in the field of clinical dentistry but a significant move towards increasing the kind of treatment that they offer. For instance, the dentists don't want to get better at what they know but they want to learn about new treatments so that they can make more money providing such services as sleep therapy, 6 Month Smiles or Botox.

Why not learn how to become EXCELLENT at what you know before learning how to provide more services for their patients? The answer is simple: insurance companies and patients expect and are willing to pay for mediocrity. Patients have become reluctant to pay for excellence and as many people have recently pointed out...It is becoming harder and harder to find quality.

Most things are self fulfilling prophecies. If people don't want or won't pay for excellence then physicians, lawyers and dentists will no longer make the effort to become excellent.

And sooner or later, folks will wonder, "What ever happened to excellence?"