Ethics in Your Profession

Jeffrey Caso

13 years ago

All of my life I have been intrigued by coins. Yes, that's right; I am a numismatist and an out-of-the-closet one at that. There was a time that I was embarrassed by this fact, but now, who cares? I am what I am. I find it amazing that a coin with a face value of one dollar may very well be worth thousands to a collector. But really, that's another discussion. The reason I felt compelled to write about my interest in coin collecting was to relate an experience this weekend at a coin show.

With gold hitting record highs week after week, an odd thing has happened. A great deal of coins are now more valuable for their gold content in weight than their value as a collectible. These coins are now termed bullion coins and are being bought up in great quantities, melted down and sold for the going rate by weight. So, at this show, I was looking to buy some coins to add to my collection and found the dealers to be scrutinizing the purchase. This was something that I had never experienced in the past. They were asking questions about the type of collection I had, if I had plans to have the coins graded, and how I would be storing them. I found this odd and sought out a gentleman who I had bought coins from in the past and asked him what was going on. What he told me was both intriguing and amazing.

He said that people who were coming to the shows to buy large quantities of gold coins to melt down were ruining the industry. Even in these poor economic times, if someone was suspected of this practice, ethical dealers were denying the sale. They would rather lose the sale and the profit from that sale for the good of the hobby. It wasn't just one dealer on a mission it was all of them. Keep in mind, that these were not wealthy people but hard-working guys trying to make a few extra bucks to help support their families. I felt a great deal of respect for them, knowing that they were doing the right thing even though it was hurting them financially.

As dentists, we are in a similar position every day. We are constantly presented with problems that need to be resolved, and we must treat that patient to a very specific level. We must not over treat and we must not under treat. Sometimes the implications can be that we propose the most expensive treatment for our own benefit. The proper discussion with our patients can avoid this right away. We need to do the right thing for each and every patient to the very best of our abilities. That, I am sure, we can all agree on.

There is a bigger issue to consider however, it is what we collectively need to do for the sake of our profession. Dentistry is constantly under pressure from the media about toxins in our filling materials or the outsourcing of lab work to China, as well as a plethora of other topics. YouTube is ripe with videos bashing just about every aspect of dentistry. We as stewards of our profession need to work to foster a positive public opinion about dentistry. How do we do this? Simply through our actions. We need to act professionally at all times, both at work and in our private lives. In doing so, we will be respected as people and as professionals. This will do wonders to tip public opinion in our favor.

Just like those ethical coin dealers who spoke to every buyer carefully to make sure they were doing the right thing. We, through our actions, will be the ones to safeguard our livelihoods for a long, long time.