My field is in Dentistry. I studied Dentistry in the Philippines and almost graduated. I got to experience the clinical aspects, meaning managing and treating real patients. A while ago at work, we had a patient who is Filipino who said he just lost his faith in the dentists in the Philippines. My boss was quick to say “Philippines has bad dentists.” I was quicker to defend, “Don’t generalize.” However I really felt bad for the patient because I’d seen how bad the work was done on him.

I studied from a premier university and I believed we were trained differently and had the same principles as that of with international schools. My schoolmates always joked that there were only 2 schools: UP and the others. I believed it was a dentist from “the other schools” who worked on this Filipino patient. But I just couldn’t imagine if it was lack of training or just plain laziness that that dentist was able to do what he did.

So our patient had his tooth filled. And the filling was so high and out of occlusion, and without anatomy, and there were cavities on the other surfaces of the tooth. A filling case is really simple. Take out the decay, put a filling into the tooth, and restore anatomy and occlusion. I just couldn’t imagine how one can graduate from a 6-year training/course and wouldn’t be able to do a proper filling. Look at me: I haven’t graduated but I know how to do it right. And this dentist did the same erroneous fillings on 2 different teeth!

What really angered me was the dentist violated the code “Do no harm.” The patient expected to be treated right. If the healthcare provider/professional couldn’t do it, then don’t do any more harm. I believe that there are many bad dentists in the Philippines; but there are also good ones, who are hard to find and very expensive. However when I would finally graduate, I would like to become a good one.

Disclaimer: I didn’t say Philippines has bad dentistry. As my boss later restated, there are bad dentists in all countries. I know there are bad dentists in the US too. I’ve seen some of their work. This blog is about a personal commitment to become a good dentist.

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