Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

April 15-21, 201322 Opinion United Kingdom Edition • Fill with up to 4 mm bulk increments due to lvocerin, the patented light initiator • Sculpt and contour with ease as a result of the material’s smooth consistency • Then light-cure for ten seconds using the short, 10-mm Bluephase Style light probe … • … and the esthetic restoration is done! Watch the Tetric EvoCeram Bulk Fill & Bluephase Style animation at: www.ivoclarvivadent.com/bulkfill_en For even more efficient posterior restorations Tetric EvoCeram ® Bulk Fill & Bluephase ® StyleThe bulk-fill composite The curing light www.ivoclarvivadent.co.uk Ivoclar Vivadent Limited Ground Floor Compass Building | Feldspar Close | Warrens Business Park | Enderby | Leicester LE19 4SE | United Kingdom | Tel. +44 116 284 78 80 | Fax +44 116 284 78 81 TEC_BulkFill_BluephaseStyle_e_A4.indd 1 23.11.12 12:49 T here’s been a lot of talk of late regarding the title ‘Dr’, and whether as dentists, we should be al- lowed to use the title before our names, and even if we should encourage our patients to refer to us as doctors at all. Some colleagues find themselves incensed by this issue. If patients and staff members don’t refer to them as doctor, they take great of- fence – they feel that somehow their position is undermined. After all, they’ve done five or more years training in a medi- cal discipline and expect their hard work to be recognised! You know, I really do have to wonder why some members of our profession find them- selves getting so wound up by this. To me this whole debate is completely anachronistic. If a patient comes to me and calls me ‘Dr Sultan’ I don’t feel flattered or delighted that they’ve called me doctor – if anything I feel disappointed. As dentists, aren’t we sup- posed to be a bit warmer than that? Attitude In years gone by as society we’d always insist people call us ‘Dr’ or ‘Mr’ – any sort of ti- tle really. But now our attitude to people has shifted. Our at- titude to healthcare has also shifted. It’s no longer a ‘you do as I say’ approach, but more a ‘let’s discuss together what we think is best’. Ultimately our aim is to build relationships with patients – to show them that we care. In this context I do think that insisting that we are called doctor acts as a barrier with our patients. As a profession we shouldn’t be so arrogant to think that unless someone calls us doctor they don’t respect us. Instead we should have enough self-con- fidence as a profession to say well, it doesn’t matter what they call me. Of course, a lot of this de- bate goes back to the very ear- ly days of what we would now refer to as the medical profes- sion. Back in the day, medical doctors were highly qualified, studied at prestigious uni- versities and were awarded a title at the end of it. This was in contrast to surgeons, who weren’t seen as being anywhere near so prestigious. Back in those days you were part-barber, part-butcher, part-surgeon and rampant elitism meant that as a sur- geon (a predominantly male occupation) you were always Just call me Michael Michael Sultan tackles the contentious issue of the title ‘Dr’ ‘I do think that insisting that we are called doctor acts as a barrier with our patients. As a profession we shouldn’t be so arrogant to think that unless someone calls us doctor they don’t respect us’