Dentists Quitting ADA Due to Political Differences
One in Four Dentists Reject ADA Membership
In this survey, we asked dentists if political disagreements or other differences of opinion had caused them to quite the ADA or their local dental association. One quarter of dentists (26%) report that they have quit the ADA or another organization.
General dentists were twice as likely as specialists to have quite the ADA (28% as compared to 14%). However, two thirds of both groups say they are card-carrying members of the ADA.
“I have thought of quitting several times over the past 35 years," wrote one dentist. "The arrogance of ADA leadership is often hard for me to live with. All of the time and money spent on the ADA headquarters building in Chicago, and yet no meaningful results in the area of universal licensure, is beyond outrageous."
What else did dentists have to say? Here's a sampling…
- “The best money you can invest in OUR profession. Non-members get nearly all the benefits without having to pay, I consider part of my dues a hand-out to those poor souls. Hopefully their electric company, phone company and dental suppliers are providing them something for nothing too.” (Tennessee dentist)
- “The ADA is a self-serving, Old School, good-old boys-network that has done NOTHING to educate the public of modern advances in dentistry, which is why I quit many years ago.” (North Carolina dentist)
- “It's a lot of money for just a magazine subscription.” (Virginia dentist)
- “Without ADA advocacy efforts, dentistry would be in the same sad shape as medicine.” (Ohio dentist)
- “In California you are pretty much forced to join to get the insurance benefits. Otherwise I would quit.” (California dentist)
- “Why would anyone not be a member? The ADA is the voice of dentistry in all political arenas. We can do more collectively than we can individually.” (Kentucky dentist)
- “I quit my local society. They wanted to use our dues for booze, and only supported hygiene scholarships in their county, and not mine.” (General dentist)
Post your comments about ADA membership, or read the complete ADA membership survey results.
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September 24th, 2008 at 9:32 am
I have not yet dropped my membership, but am seriously considering it. I, along with the other Alaskan Dentists, are appalled at the ADA’s lack of support and their abandonment of us during the Dental Heath Aid Tech issue in our state. (In this program, individuals with only a High School Diploma, were sent to New Zealand for a two year program for training. When they returned, they were place in Native Corp Clinics and allowed to administer anesthetic, provide restorations, including preps, perform extractions and open endo access, all without supervison!! ). What kind of a major can of worms have they allowed to be opened in our nation by their ( ADA) actions? What a slap in the face to every dentist in our nation, who spent from 4 to 6 years for their dental degree, and now all of a sudden, we find out we could have done in in two years? The ADA has lost touch with reality!
September 25th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
The ADA is worthless. They exist only to protect the ADA. I recently had 2 dentist who were telling people I was not accepting one of the major insurance carriers in my area . The ADA and the state organization washed their hands of it. And why isn’t the ADA doing something about Delta now that they are going to determine what we can charge for non-covered services. Just a total waste of money. We were told 20 years ago that there would be universal licensure but it has not happened. I dropped them last year .
September 30th, 2008 at 8:58 am
I agree. The ADA should be up to their eyeballs in leadership advocation for the best dentistry for the patient and the best association services for their members. They should be infection risk management advocates for their patients and provide quality oversight inspection with their members. Blood banks have a more effective professional organization and a procedures inspection process. Dentistry has none. Protective garb and procedures are for the benefit of the care provider and have nothing to do with the patient. If the water in dental chairs were sampled and tested at 4:00 p.m. every day every office would be closed by the health department unless they were using sterilizable irrigation delivery systems.
The owner of my company describes dentists as trained monkeys. He’s right. Neither dentists or their associates want to be inconvenienced by practicing the best in sterile techniques and infection control. It slows down production.
The only way to get an inspection in a dental office is to get an ex employee to call OSAHA.
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
ADA ENTERS WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS
I find it odd that the ADA now offers SEO services through one of its business enterprises, ADA Intelligent Dental Marketing.
This — IMO — tarnishes the role of being the consumer advocate and establishes the ADA as just another corporation for profit enterprise operating under the cloak of a “non profit” entity.
Does this mean that the ADA’s vast “knowledge and experience” are but carefully veiled advertisements for those interests which stand to benefit financially — at the consumer’s — and possibly the dentist’s — expense?
After seeing the ADA access my website looking for SEO copy writers, I attempted to contact their ADA/SEO company to ask about their services and get some prices.
I received a call from one of the reps at the American Dental Association’s business venture partnership.
It seems that although the partnership (actually a 50/50 ownership buyout alliance) is several years old, the company has yet to optimize any websites and it couldn’t offer me any examples of their work, nor any client testimonials.
The fella I spoke with was keen to point out that they only recently decided to move into SEO and website promotion. They sell other stuff too — like brochures, direct mail, logo design, pay-per-click campaigns, etc.
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS…
I asked about their prices — they have two SEO packages — standard, $350/mo and premium $550/mo. You also have to pay them a $250 setup fee and another $300 for keyword analysis.
The rep also said they offer no guarantee whatsoever — which means if they didn’t deliver as promised, you’d still have to continue paying for the life of your contract — and I assume continue getting nothing in return.
He stated that no company could guarantee positioning results — at all — and that to offer a money back guarantee identified such operations as “fly by nights” and crooks.
I asked a hypothetical question: “if you were to contract me to build a fence, and I didn’t build it, would you feel obligated to pay me anyway for services not rendered?” He didn’t answer.
The guy said he’d send me a book on how to market websites and their company would be interested in me sending them some clients. Oh sure, that sounds like a good idea — I really want to send dentists to an outfit that charges the heck out of ‘em and doesn’t have to accept responsibility for anything they do (not).
SUMMARY
From my viewpoint, I see the ADA’s role (supposedly) as an organization tasked with improving dentistry standards and helping to ensure the public gets quality dental care and to inform them of leading edge treatments, etc.
To partake in the actual ownership of a profit sharing enterprise such as website promotion and search engine optimization (SEO), tells me — “Mr. Dental Patient” — that the ADA lusts for profit and is far from being the unbiased, neutral consumer advocate.
Further — since the ADA would now be directly responsible for building websites, writing website content and deciding who should get ranked in the search engines (and which dentist would not) the ADA would ultimately be in a position of absolute control — to dictate what the public would see and read — on the dentist’s website.
Besides what appears to be the ADA’s wildest dream come true (almost), their SEO and website division leaves much to be desired, in my opinion and experience.
What’s next — Big Pharma’s entry into website development and SEO?
John Barremore
Houston, TX