I am pleased that Dr. Curtis has expressed a similar opinion to ours when he writes, "Health professions surely must become more integrated to offer better, more comprehensive, more efficient care." He further acknowledges the position that dentistry has set some good examples as a profession that promotes prevention. Dr. Curtis also entertains the notion that perhaps dentistry should be involved in national health care policy discussions. These are all points on which we are in agreement.
His concern, and that of many other dentists, is how involvement may affect the status of dentistry in the larger picture of health care and the effect on the income of dentists. I also share concern about these two issues. However, I would argue that these are reasons to be involved rather than to remain on the sidelines.
An important point to consider is the strength that resides in the fact that the American Dental Association is regarded as a single voice for our profession. The voices for the medical profession, to the contrary, are dominated by various specialty organizations, and the American Medical Association is not a single representative for medical doctors. I believe the risk of "humiliation" is far less than the potential for dentistry to shine.
Dr. Curtis is correct that it will take courage to join a national health care discussion. However, to do otherwise and not "suppress the self-protective impulse to duck" would not be in the best interest of patients or the profession. Not being involved in a discussion relevant to your profession is entrusting the profession to others. Isolation is not an effective strategy. Change is inevitable, and we will be well-served having a hand in those changes. To quote Gen. Eric Shinseki, 34th Chief of Staff of the United States Army, "If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more."1
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