THE DEATH OF ORTHODONTIC TRUTH AND THE GUARDIAN DISCOMBOBULATION.

I once challenged a colleague of a different specialty of his intentions regarding an advertisement soliciting people to come to his office to learn how to practice his specialty. My criticism was on the fact that societal greed has clouded his professional etiquette as there are many qualified people already practicing the art and many more in the pipeline in so many schools.

The concept is not new and has being the bane of human existence, at our core we have cherished values and on our periphery, we have reserved emotions. The posterity of any society both in micro and macro forms lies on how these two are balanced. The problem sometimes is what i call the intellectual quagmire, this is where a few abandon the truth of the core values in other to embrace the emotions of the periphery. We can change our emotions with different stimuli, but we cannot change our core values without first changing who we are.

The specialty of orthodontics is at such a time where a few intellectuals are determined to affirm the emotional periphery to the detriment of the truth in our specialty. Truth by definition is exclusive and absolute, and such must be logically consistent, empirically adequate and have experiential relevance. It must correspond and cohere to reality.

When applied to our specialty as was intended one can easily see how perfect a fit it is but when applied to the sporadic sprouting of different treatment quackery like monthly smiles, weekly seminars, fast treatment, plastics for all, at home treatment, colleagues teaching in-office courses and many more it breaks down and dies the death of a thousand qualifications. While all these may have value in themselves at best they constitute the emotional periphery and cannot replace the truth of our profession.

It is quite embarrassing that the “praetorian guards” acted like the rider of a lion who was chasing her prey without regard and upon finally having consumed all the preys the lion turned his gaze on the rider. All of our intellect never led us to protect the truth as we all have killed it, are we not now moving forward and backward and in all directions. Are we not now waking up from a self-inflicted demise? Are we not straying to infinite nothing as we ride the lion that is killing all of our own?

Can we now smell of the stench from the mess that we have caused? Orthodontic truth is dead and we all are guilty? Are we not in a professional quandary?

How shall we now comfort ourselves and the generation after us? The light which our fathers placed in our palms has fallen, who will wipe away the tears? Which association and board certification do we need to create to deliver us? Is this not too great for us to cope with as we jostle for relevance in the cacophony of our mental gymnastics. There has never been a greater effect in our profession; and whoever is coming after us for the sake of this effect will look back in disdain. He will question his knowledge, wisdom and himself. The institution that created him, now sepulchers of the truth in the past. Orthodontic truth is dead and we are all guilty.

Dr. Madueke Ekoh

TEEM Orthodontics