PROMISING INDEED: THE ROLE OF "EXPERTS" AND PRACTITIONERS IN THE INTRODUCTION AND USE OF NEW MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES IN RESTORATIVE DENTISTRY

Contemporary general practitioners are facing enormous challenges. Whether they want to or not, they are forced to manage a complex small business and are often ill equipped educationally and emo- tionally to do so. They also have to manage a substantial number of staff members, often with complex emotional interactions. Young dentists today are frequently forced to service considerable debt as a result of educational costs and high practice overheads. Manufacturers and dental laboratories are aggressively marketing new products and procedures at an unprecedented rate, often with sophisticated marketing techniques. These practitioners also have lives outside of work as wives or husbands, fathers or mothers, scout leaders, and coaches. Although contemporary clinicians are faced with many challenges, they also must accept some responsibilities regarding new products and practices. They must possess critical thinking skills and a basic knowledge of materials science. Whether contemporary dental schools provide their students with an education that stimulates this is a topic for another editorial. Educationally prepared or not, practitioners should filter information through common sense and past experience. New products should be introduced to the practice carefully and used in a conservative manner. These overstressed individuals deserve the best possible information from those of us who are considered experts. We cannot continue to be politically correct when describing new products and materials. We need to call it the way it is. Those who are considered experts have achieved that status through a combination of hard work, talent, luck, and perhaps some sleight of hand. There are legitimate rewards to be reaped as an expert, but with those come responsibilities. Referring to products with no clinical testing or evidence-based foundation as "promising indeed" does not meet those responsibilities.