2081 Tooth Repay

Got an interesting solicitation in my email the other day. It was from my dentist. Let me say first of all that I like my dentist. He's very good at what he does. Better yet, he’s a pleasant person with an easygoing chairside manner. Which I believe are really important qualities in someone who is sticking his hands in your mouth.

He also has small fingers.

But his manner may be too easygoing. Because the solicitation I got from him was for a plan that indicates he may have been sold a bill of goods. It's a rewards plan. Like most rewards plans it's a method where you can earn points for purchases of products or services and then redeem those points for prizes.

Which makes a lot of sense if I'm purchasing something with a bankcard or something. Or deciding which grocery store to shop at. But a dentist?

I'm not going to hop around from dentist to dentist based on their reward points program. Have my 23 mesial filling done here and my root canal done there. And those are the sort of things the points are rewarded for. 

Much of dentistry is not really optional. So will I be more encouraged to get my regular teeth-scraping hygiene appointment if I get reward points? 

"Man I get twice as many points for fillings. I'm gonna eat some more candy."

"Screw flossing! I get a bunch of points for gum disease treatment."

"I'm gonna not brush, chaw down just jawbreakers, taffy, and tortilla chips, and win that iPad!" 

Truth is, I picked my dentist for the same quality that probably made him buy this rewards program package from some silver-tongued salesman.

He's a nice guy.

Everything else is incidental.

America, ya gotta love it.