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Can you trust your dentist?

Posted by robin in Non-Finanical Articles Thursday December 18, 2008 5:52 pm

Time methinks for some consumer activism here…

Do you trust your dentist?

These medical professionals maybe be bright and, after years of studious application, gained the right to wave a drill at our gnashers…but are they honest?

The thought recurs with me every time I visit my dentist, as I did this morning. In the profession, like all others, there are good ‘uns and there are bad ‘uns.

I was introduced early to the dentist as a kid and have been going pretty regularly since. But these days I ask myself why?

A dentist runs a business. The dentist is skilled we trust and often qualis are displayed to reassure us. But what of their more human traits? A business comes with cost pressures and people come with vices such as greed. He/she gets paid for work done. The more work done the more money comes in, the better our dentist lives.

So what? Well, this was my experience…

A South African dentist transplanted to west London once put the view inside my mouth up on a TV monitor - not pretty - and smoothly advised me I needed a stack of root canal work and a whole bunch of crowns.

How much for this comprehensive oral overhaul? £10,000! That’s £10,000..! Yes, ten bloody grand!

A lifetime’s diligent cleaning and flossing had come to this. I was, if you’ll pardon the pun, gobsmacked. 

Fortunately, I received sensible counsel at home and knocked on a neighbour’s door. He’s a dentist. I asked for an appointment and a second opinion.

A few days he gave me a check up. You need one filling he advised me. One filling…one filling. Ha!

I switched to my neighbour dentist. He’s non-invasive and that’s what I want from here on.

It’s not everyone’s calling to peer into the furthest recesses of people’s mouths, but they are decently rewarded for their service. However, were a dentist to be a little cavalier in his practice and prone to drilling first and asking questions later, few patients would be any the wiser as to the quality and necessity of the work. Meanwhile the dentist gets paid and few complain.

So think about it. If you suspect your dentist might put personal need before professional ethic, get yourself a second opinion.

As for the dentist who quoted me £10,000, the scuttlebut is there’s been a bust up at the surgery. Staff have left and gone elsewhere. 

Oh good.

 

Climate change the new McCarthyism?

Posted by robin in Non-Finanical Articles Friday November 7, 2008 2:52 pm

To be honest, I’m about as qualified to comment on climate change as Sarah Palin is on the continents of the world. But when a rip tide is gushing one way it’s the counter eddy that can catch the eye. So it is with a brave and controversial piece in the Express on the subject by a respected commentator.

Remember TV botanist David Bellamy? 

A one time bushy bearded presenter who’s distinct style was a gift for impersonators. Well, he disappeared. In an interview, he reveals what he thinks killed his screen career…

He’s a heretic to the new orthodoxy. A climate change denier! A controversial position running polar opposite to the consensus at the Beeb and beyond.

For this sin, he has been cast out from tellyland. The full article can be found via this link but the meat of the peice can be found in the excerpts below:

“I am a scientist and I have to ­follow the directions of science but when I see that the truth is being covered up I have to voice my ­opinions.

“According to official data, in every year since 1988 world temperatures have been getting colder, and in 2002 Artic ice actually increased. Why then do we not hear about it?

“The sad fact is that since I said I didn’t believe human beings caused global warming I’ve not been allowed to make a TV programme.

“At the beginning of this year there was a BBC show with four experts saying: ‘This is going to be the end of all the ice in the Arctic,’ and hypothesising that it was going to be the hottest summer ever. Was it hell! It was very cold and very wet and now we’ve seen evidence that the glaciers in Alaska have started growing rapidly – and they’ve not grown for a long time.

“I’ve seen evidence, which I believe, that says there has not been a rise in global temperature since 1998, despite the increase in carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere. This makes me think the global warmers are telling lies – carbon dioxide is not the driver.

“Climate change is all about cycles, it’s a natural thing and has always happened. When the Romans lived in Britain they were growing very good red grapes and making wine on the borders of Scotland. It was evidently a lot warmer.

“If you were sitting next to me 10,000 years ago we’d be under ice. So thank God for global warming for ending that ice age; we wouldn’t be here otherwise. 

“To date, the way the so-called Greens and the BBC, the Royal Society and even our political parties have handled this smacks of McCarthyism at its worst.

“Global warming is part of a natural cycle and there’s nothing we can actually do to stop these cycles. The world is now facing spending a vast amount of money in tax to try to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist.”

McCarthyism at it’s worst or an embittered ex-TV presenter getting even? I’m inclined to give David Bellamy at least a fair trial. 

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