Every so often I think about the idiot dentist that we wrote about in this post a while back. For some reason he is one of the few things that aggravates the hell out of me. It is probably because when you mix ignorance and arrogance you get a bully, and when you have a bully working on patients, trouble usually isn’t too far behind.

He has some fairly popular ideas about dentistry and the various subspecialties. He believes that endodontics in particular is merely a technical skill that can be improved upon practice. Continuing to improve your endodontic skills over time will put you at the same level of training as an endodontist.

Basically, as a general dentist, you would take a few hours of continuing education courses. These sometimes consist of weekend courses that involve both a didactic and hands-on component. They are usually taught by endodontists, and are often sponsored by an equipment manufacturer (the one whose equipment the specialist will be teaching about). These courses are meant for general dentists who are interested in how to do good root canal work.

Continuing education courses that specialists take are also given by specialists, but the goal of these courses isn’t usually about how to do good root canal work (since we already know that), but about more academic ideas. The controversies and thoughts that these lectures bring about are responsible for ongoing research in our field. The findings from this research evenutally trickles down to GP dentists through their courses as improvements in patient management and technique.

As much as administering the Canadian Endodontic licensing exam is a real pain in the ass (takes up a lot of time, and I don’t get compensated for it) it is rewarding.

My partner during the oral exams last weekend is the new chief examiner. I am confident that with his leadership we will see some very positive and constructive changes to the examination. The examination brings some of the brightest minds in Canadian Endodontics together — both examiners and candidates. I always find this refreshing because I work alone.

Working alone means that I only have myself to critique my work, I only have myself to toss ideas off of, and I only have myself to decide what journals and articles I should read that are most relevant to what I do. When specialists meet as part of a conference or an examination, we bond through the sharing of each other’s ideas.

But what about that asshole that I mentioned earlier? What does all of this have to do with him? Here is a summary of what it takes to be an Endodontist in Canada.

Now think of yourself as a patient in need of a root canal. Even if the procedure is merely a technical skill (which it isn’t) and your family dentist might have done hundreds to this point, would you not feel more comfortable having it done by an endodontist?

The answer is fairly obvious. The less obvious fact is that millions of root canal procedures are done annually by GP dentists and endodontists. GP dentists are trained to be competent at the procedure but annually as well there are thousands of cases that lie outside of a GP’s competency level. It is for those cases that we specialists exist. Any general practitioner dentist who states that he or she never refers patients to an endodontist leaves me wondering about the standard of care in that office.