698. Supermarkets with oral medicine consultations (2nd part)

Dental dentists against Dr. Wells opening
António de Sousa says he is ashamed

Following the news of the opening of a network of clinics of dental medicine and aesthetic medicine by the giant Sonae, several dentists have shown their dislike in social networks. The dentist António de Sousa was one of them and said to be ashamed because when it embraced the profession it was by love to the same one and not by the clothes Prada or by the cars of range. Here is the opinion of the dentist:

Embarrassed
Mr President and the other leaders of the Order of Dentists (OMD in portuguese language), and you and a large part of your staff have been responsible for the OMD for 16 years, it is my colleagues who are responsible for the shame I feel as a dentist. When I embraced the option for this profession 30 years ago I did it for the same taste; it was not the second or third option, it was even the first.

I did not do it for Prada clothing or high-end cars, but for the taste of dental art, for independence as a worker that I can have in this profession. The cars, the clothes, the houses, the trips are the consequence of the commitment that we can have in our work and this profession until a certain height allowed to ambition a good quality of life.

Even with the dental buzzword it is expensive, it was a profession respected by the population; respect from your medical colleagues is another story. This year marks many levels of reaching the lowest point in dentistry. It is not the excess of professionals that justifies the sorry state to which the art has arrived. The only justification I find is in the social bodies of the OMD. Everything that is happening was predictable, and you and your peers did nothing to prevent it.

When the Competition Authority finished the price list, you did nothing to get around the problem that arose. In due time the guidelines for the various dental treatments should have been created; these guidelines associated with the nomenclature table would allow the manual of good medical practices, with this and with the costs imputed to the accomplishment of each medical act, it would be easy to institute processes for dumping to the agents who notoriously made announcement to clinics near free.

On the other hand, the emergence of dental clinics in commercial spaces should have awakened a glimpse of the future for them and realize that this would be the foreseeable path of some economic groups.

Avoid this situation? Simple, dear sirs. It's called a code of conduct. The existence of a code of conduct for the dental practitioner and the activity of dental medicine would make it possible to regulate the practice of the activity. Furthermore, if they had implemented positive certification of dental clinics in a timely manner, based on the codes of conduct and the law regulating the activity, the fellow clinic owners could apply for this certification to the OMD; this would be a complementary and voluntary process to all the certifications we need. In this certification process, among other things, the conditions given to the colleagues who practice it will be taken into account.

The existence of clinics certified or recommended by OMD would make a difference in the market. It is the role of the Order that you direct regulate the medical-dental activity and is the guarantor of good clinical practices for the population that we serve.
With good service, surely we dentists would also be well, is not it dearer gentlemen?

You are responsible for what have been happening systematically with clinics linked to economic groups, which have had the end that we all know.
You have not fulfilled the role that the State delegates to the Order; regulate and ensure quality medical-dental service to the population.
It's late today. Any action that may be taken will have no effect.

That is why I am ashamed to be a dentist in an order led by you. The announced massive opening of clinics by the country's biggest economic agent embarrasses me, Mr President, and my fellow Members. I do not like to feel compared to a Worten appliance or a travel agency.It embarrasses me that colleagues are joining this and other groups as clinical directors, further reducing the good name that our profession deserves. If you were aware of these situations, today these economic groups would have serious difficulties in hiring clinical directors and it would be impossible to obtain certification from the OMD. You could argue that they could open the clinics, because the general law allows it, but it would not be the same thing.As a dear and illustrious colleague, we are all brothers and sisters, but no dear sirs, I am not the brother of the one who let the profession get there, nor am I the brother of clinical directors who are ultimately responsible for what is happening.It is the market to work, you may argue, but it is a market without any rule entirely your fault. It is this market that will absorb the surplus of dentists, but it only absorbs because you have allowed it; without eggs no omelettes are made, and as many clinics as they can open, if there were regulations these eggs would be very expensive.Lastly, I would like to know whether the more than 100 colleagues on the governing bodies of the OMD, many of whom are in this group, are continuing to review this OMD policy. Do not also have colleagues ashamed of the state we have reached?

Saúde Oral