Dr. Daniel
Well-known member
Verified dentist
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2010
- Messages
- 2,022
- Location
- The Hague , Holland
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to open a discussion about the future. Nobody knows how things will tern out, but I have some thoughts to share. Spoiler alert: I am pessimistic.
* Some dental practices will go bankrupt because of the low cash flow and financial obligations. The practices that will survive will be under lots of financial pressure and that might lead to poor dentistry and less time for dentists to interact with patients.
* Patients will have less money to spend on dental care, which will limit the dentist' ability to provide most adequate treatment. The emphasis on low costs might interfere in the patient-care provider relationship.
* Prior to this crisis, extreme measures of protection (such as special protective gear, etc.) were saved only for surgical treatments. I believe that, as a consequence of this crisis, also day-to-day treatments like teeth-cleaning and a semiannual check-up might require special protection. Safety is importnat, no doubt, but it also has a down-side to it: less direct contact between the patient and the care-provider, less flexibility in performing easy daily procedures (towards patients' needs and comfort), etc.
Are there any optimists out there? would be great to hearing your views.
Just wanted to open a discussion about the future. Nobody knows how things will tern out, but I have some thoughts to share. Spoiler alert: I am pessimistic.
* Some dental practices will go bankrupt because of the low cash flow and financial obligations. The practices that will survive will be under lots of financial pressure and that might lead to poor dentistry and less time for dentists to interact with patients.
* Patients will have less money to spend on dental care, which will limit the dentist' ability to provide most adequate treatment. The emphasis on low costs might interfere in the patient-care provider relationship.
* Prior to this crisis, extreme measures of protection (such as special protective gear, etc.) were saved only for surgical treatments. I believe that, as a consequence of this crisis, also day-to-day treatments like teeth-cleaning and a semiannual check-up might require special protection. Safety is importnat, no doubt, but it also has a down-side to it: less direct contact between the patient and the care-provider, less flexibility in performing easy daily procedures (towards patients' needs and comfort), etc.
Are there any optimists out there? would be great to hearing your views.