Action | Amendment to restriction on advertising dental specialties |
Stage | NOIRA |
Comment Period | Ended on 9/5/2018 |
As a current second year resident at VCU Orthodontics, I can tell you that we put in countless hours of work to become specialists in our field. I've known I wanted to be an orthodontist since I was a middle school teenager; therefore I did research in the field of orthodontics during my undergraduate education and worked to learn as much as I could about orthodontics throughout my four years of dental school as well. However, I would never have felt ready to practice Orthodontics without attending a post-graduate Orthodontic residency program. I've been exposed to hundreds of patient cases, starting ~130 of my own cases and treating ~100 transfer cases. I've been taught by orthodontists who are experts in the field and have been practicing for many decades. There is a reason we are called specialist. We have worked tirelessly to become the best in our field so that we can serve our patients the way they deserve to be served. It would be a disservice to our community to go through with this regulation. It would be completely misleading and could lead to harm of patients who are putting their trust in their doctor.