By: Mitchell Rubinstein D.M.D.
I recently found myself channel surfing late at night, and I got sucked into a remote-drop favorite from the late ‘80s, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.
The movie is both comedic and tragic, as the title alludes to a bit of advice offered to the protagonist early in the film: “Do the right thing.” It seems trivially obvious advice, at first. But as conflicts erupt, personalities clash, and battle lines are drawn, it becomes harder and harder to be sure what the “right thing” even is.
Dentistry can also be like that sometimes.
Doing the Right Thing in Dentistry
Doing the right thing in dentistry isn’t dramatic or cinematic. Frequently, nobody notices it but it’s choosing to remake a less-than-perfect impression, even though it’s 6:00 p.m. and your stomach is already growling thinking about dinner. It’s tactfully disagreeing with a colleague or supervisor about a patient you feel requires a different clinical approach. There are endless variations.
On many days, doing the right thing feels natural. On other days, doing the right thing can sap your strength, your confidence, and make you question why you decided to become a dentist in the first place.
When I’m having one of those days, I remember another seemingly obvious bit of wisdom handed down by my father:
“We’re supposed to solve the patient’s problems, not our problems.”
After you completed your formal education and began practicing Dentistry, you may have noticed a different kind of education kicking in. It’s an education that does not come from your textbooks or professors. I think of it as the “hidden curriculum.” It’s everything else that influences how you behave in your practice but has nothing to do with direct patient care.
There is, of course pressure to produce. To fill your schedule. To please your boss. Maybe you’re working in a corporate practice that’s pushing you to diagnose more aggressively. Perhaps the front desk is overpromising treatment timelines or costs. Maybe your assistant has more experience than you and keeps giving you that look when you run over schedule or choose a treatment plan that’s different from what she’s grown used to.
None of this is necessarily unethical. These are just the soft pressures of real-world practice. Unchecked, over time, they may begin to wear down your better instincts. You may start diagnosing differently or start taking the easier route instead of the better one.
While we’re borrowing ideas from Spike Lee, here’s another truth to chew on: Dentistry is a performance. Every moment you’re with a patient, you’re on stage. They are watching, interpreting, and evaluating everything you do and say.
Our patients do this because have absolutely no idea how to evaluate our clinical skills. They’re not able appreciate your Instagram worthy chamfer margins or your meticulous bonding technique. What they can assess is how they were treated, how you made them feel, how confident you seemed.
And while that might feel frustrating at times, it’s also a reminder that part of doing the right thing is making it feel right to the patient. It’s how we earn their trust, even when they can’t fully judge the technical quality of our work.
This does NOT mean just doing whatever the patient asks for. Yes, dentistry is a service business, but we’re still doctors. Doing the right thing often means saying “no” to a patient, or at least “not yet.” We need to hold the line when they push us for a quick fix, or when they refuse necessary Xrays. It’s our job and our duty to educate, guide, and sometimes push back. That, too, is part of doing the right thing, even though there is no insurance code for it.
Dentistry isn’t just a series of (hopefully correct) clinical decisions. It is offering complete and comprehensive treatment, even when you know their insurance stinks, and will only pay for the bare minimum. It’s slowing down when you need to, even if you’re already running behind schedule. But those are the many small choices which sharpen your judgement. Those are the times when your reputation begins to grow, not just as a skillful dentist, but as a trusted one. Trusted by your patients and trusted by your colleagues.
Whether you’ve been in practice 30 days or 30 years, you will feel unsure sometimes. You will question your decisions. You will replay conversations in our heads on the drive home, wishing you had done something different. Get used to it. That’s normal. That’s growth. If you keep doing your best to get it right, then most of the time you will. This is foundation of a strong, profitable practice, and it is also the foundation on which we build a career we can be proud of.
So, when we’re trying to solve our patient’s problems let’s take Spike’s advice and try our best to; Do the right thing. Every patient. Every time.
Photo by Gustavo Fring
