How to Throw Your Colleagues Under the Bus Without Breaking Your Back

By Dr. Jamison Spencer – March 2019 DSM Insider

Have you ever noticed that a lot of dentists don’t seem to “play well with others?’

Is that due to our training? Is it due to the fact that most dentists are in private practice?

Is it due to so many dentists being churned out by ever increasing numbers of dental schools, with ever increasing debt loads?

Or maybe we’re all just a bunch of arrogant jerks?

Clearly our favorite appliance is FAR superior to any appliance that other doofus dentist in town uses.

And what about that opinionated orthodontist in town??!!! I mean he doesn’t even seem to care about the airway!! How’s that even possible???!!!!

Well… did you always “care about the airway?” Was that always the first thing you thought about and checked in your evaluation? Did you fit any flat plane night guards that maybe made some patients’ airways worse (and some better, by the way)? Did you always understand that SOME of your patients might be clenching or grinding their teeth, or just posturing their mandible forward without tooth contact, to try to protect their airway during sleep? Or did you tell your patients that bruxism is usually caused by “stress” (but didn’t consider the stress of suffocating to death)?

Did you always understand that when the patient opened their mouth and their TMJ clicked that their disc was going INTO PLACE? Or did you tell a few patients, “well, if your jaw clicks when you open, just don’t open so wide?”

Did you miss sleep apnea in your own child, LIKE I DID? Even though you had treated thousands of OSA patients by that point?

Maybe we shouldn’t be so full of ourselves. Maybe we shouldn’t be so harsh to our fellow dentists. Maybe we should stop pointing fingers at our colleagues who are more than likely DOING WHAT THEY BELIEVE IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

Is that dentist/specialist in town really “anti-airway?” I highly doubt it. They probably just think that those that have very recently become “focused on the airway” sometimes seem to be doing so in order to charge high fees and do more treatment. Maybe they’ve heard of dentists charging $10,000 for their magic pieces of plastic, and they have a hard time understanding how that’s ethical.

So, maybe we could reach out to our colleagues and open up an honest dialogue. Maybe we could try to see their point of view. Maybe would could try to learn from them and their unique experiences that could richly add to our own clinical experience. Maybe we could contact our orthodontic colleagues and see how they feel about the recent AAO consensus statement. Maybe we could talk to our board of dentistry members and see if they have any questions about the letter regarding HST that the AASM, in conjunction with the AMA, sent to all of the boards.

Maybe we could think about our patients, and the patients of our colleagues, and what is likely to help the most people. Fighting amongst ourselves? Or providing excellent care, working with our medical colleagues for the best possible outcomes, using ethical billing practices, educating our local dental and medical professionals, and learning from them?

So how do you throw your colleagues under the bus without hurting your back?

That’s easy.

You simply don’t throw them under the bus.