Commercial dental companies and dental professionals: a win-win situation?

Many commercial dental companies offer support to dental professionals in the form of patient education material, leaflets, posters, and booklets. Some will give samples of materials and devices for distribution to patients. Many sponsor and support post-graduate education or professional activities. Indeed many of these activities just would not take place without this valuable commercial sponsorship. And we all know why they do it. It has to be good for sales, turnover and finally the bottom line or it would not happen. That’s business!

It would be a wonderful world where everyone was always working to the greater good of all and no vested interest or self-serving behaviour reared its head. The cynics amongst us, or some may say the realists, may be wary of “getting into bed” with commercial organisations with regard to the management of our patients. It may give the impression that they are tied to that particular company to the exclusion of others or being tempted to use inappropriate products. But if the relationship really does benefit both the professional and the company then it is a Win-Win situation. If this results in the end user, the patient being ultimately much better off, it then becomes Win-Win-Win.

Particularly in the world of the hygienist, there is a real need for teaching aids and patient information on oral hygiene, periodontal disease and caries. The resources of the major companies can produce superb material that an individual practice might be hard-pressed to match without very significant expenditure of time and money. There are countless examples of quite excellent material that my hygienists and I have used to educate and inform patients on a variety of subjects, some for innumerable years. The Sensodyne toothbrush abrasion pyramid, the J&J Reach laminated series on periodontal disease, the Wrigley Oral Healthcare in Action folder are all examples of patient teaching aids that have proved invaluable on a daily basis.

The individual practitioner or hygienist must decide if the company logo (how obtrusively or otherwise it may appear on the material) devalues the independence and credibility of the advice given. Does it imply endorsement of the company or its products? If so, is this a problem if you believe that the company does in fact have more effective products than others or even that by the excellence of their teaching material they really do deserve the credit?

Certainly, it appears from market research that a professional recommending a product means a great deal to Joe Public and is therefore of substantial value to the companies and they will very much hope to get that recommendation. From the same standpoint it is important for us to ensure that our patients do buy the right products that are appropriate for their particular circumstances. So, it is of course essential that any commercially produced material must be relevant, accurate and up to date and suitable for the needs of the practice.

There is absolutely no point giving out material that is inappropriate or wrong just because it is free and indeed it will reflect very badly on the reputation and credibility of the practice and the practitioner.

The content of the material should be valid based on current understanding of the dental literature i.e. evidence-based. Unless the reader has his or her own encyclopaedic knowledge, it is important to know who was consulted in compiling the material.

And here I must profess my own vested interest. I advise Wrigleys on their Oral Healthcare in Action campaign and I do so on the basis of being a hands on, wet fingered general practitioner and member of a long-standing literature review group. One of my roles is to help compile and vet material that Wrigleys offer the dental team to assist in promoting dental health to their patients. We take it very seriously indeed to be absolutely certain that any assertions made and advice given is based entirely on scientific fact and good practice. The BDA, BDHA and other appropriate associations and opinion formers are then asked to vet it again. So, when the material is finally published, the practitioner can be reasonably certain that their patients are going to be well informed. Although I cannot speak for other companies, it is very much hoped that they also make similarly strenuous efforts to get it right!

A huge amount of resources can be expended by some of the companies in producing their efforts and they will want it to promote the output directly or indirectly by reaching the widest possible circulation. The other side of this is that these companies, through their own marketing and advertising efforts can also get OUR message across to a very wide public audience. And why not, in a truly symbiotic relationship between the profession and big business, the win-win philosophy is the only way to go!!