1-comfortableto rich to super rich

Sometimes I think that Norway or Sweden would be a better place to live. Of course I don’t know much about either country except the stereotypes, about their people: tall, blond and healthy, about their transportation system, that Volvos-love their rough roads, and the ones I like best, that they are socially conscious and socially just democracies. Maybe I think they just have more dignity than we do. My wife thinks I am being ridiculous when I raise this moving to another country issue and some days I agree with her. But these last few weeks, and longer if I really think about it, I am so utterly frustrated, fed-up, disgusted, puzzled and worse with what is going on in my country and more specifically in my profession that most places seem better than here. I’m only half kidding. I am a dentist and I am happy with my lot. I do not do Botox or Restalin, or tummy tucks or skin resurfacing, or eyes or noses, or boobs or asses or even pecks for that matter. I am a dentist and I like to work on teeth. That is where my license says I should work. I am not old-fashioned and I know that beauty sells and yes I do a lot of cosmetic dentistry. I draw the line at the lips, I do not eradicate wrinkles and furrows outside of the mouth. Call me a fuddy-duddy. I am a dentist and I have decided that I don’t need to be super-rich to be happy. I am not even sure I need to even be rich to be happy but that is another conversation. I find it laughable when my colleagues, physicians and dentists, opportunistically use the prestige of their doctorhood to enter other professions, I’m thinking Wall Street, but it could really be any other field. I could see being unhappy with being a doctor, but I am uncomfortable when the title gets you in the door to that you can sell me something that capitalizes on some very questionable expertise that you claim. I claim to know something about teeth, dental aesthetics, and oral health, that’s it! Dr. Jarvik, a renowned heart surgeon, claimed in the advertisement to be the inventor of the artificial heart, is now cashing in as the Prince of Pfizer as he hawks Lipitor on T.V. and in print. The ads say nothing that we don’t know, “heart disease is the #1 health problem in America and Stroke is #3 and Lipitor reduces the risk of both.” Big deal, so many other drugs of that class can legitimately make the same claim, but they would not have Dr. Jarvik speaking on their behalf. I mean it’s one thing to have Joe Dimagio sell me a coffee machine or direct me the Dimes Saving Bank, but shouldn’t a doctor have more dignity? I guess not. It is probably not fair to single out Jarvik or Pfizer. There are many other doctors of all stripes who do this sort of thing. Businesses all over the world have taken notice. “Let us find ourselves someone with credentials, someone who is not particularly squeamish about using them, and if they are photogenic and articulate we will let them sell our product, device, service, whatever. People will buy from them,” the marketing people claim. This extended rant wouldn’t have been written except for a piece in a dental magazine about the dental needs of autistic and otherwise challenged patients. The writer, a lovely man and a dentist friend of mine, spoke about his brother who was autistic and the article to the anniversary of that passing. I have young autistic patients and I was touched by Dr. Galeone’s piece. But then Rich, his first name, lost me when he suggested that because it requires more time (and patience) to work with these patients that dentists should perhaps be compensated on an hourly basis, rather than the usual fee-for-service method. I responded to Rich and said that perhaps money wasn’t the issue here. But I’m wrong, money is the issue here and here and here and while I personally know the pulls and pushes of our materialistic culture, there are days that I so don’t like that.

Source: http://www.dentalcoachesassociation.org/files/the%20uneasy%20relationship%20between%20money%20and%20happiness.pdf