I guess you can call your original response above "the last straw". Multiple days in a row I read comments that were heavily biased and negative towards GPs... and all came from you. I asked for explanations before and got no response so I did call you out, and I feel like it was deserved. I wanted an explanation. I bust my ass to maintain my reputation and I strive to work honestly and with integrity. I sleep well at night knowing that I am doing good dentistry, and what is right for my patients. It is extremely discouraging to read comments like yours. I also most certainly downvoted you here because your comment was not helpful. I am not the only downvote you received, though, and I think you know that.

There is no reason why you should not post here; in fact, I encourage it because we can all learn from each other.

Your line about me needing to "Go to dental school, learn to diagnose and treat" is exactly what a specialist could say about you placing dental implants and doing root canals. It also undermines the excellent RDHs and Dental Assistants who also contribute to this community and haven't gone to dental school.

Please re-read the entirety of my line as you are quoting only half of the sentence and taking it totally out of context. I am referring to your (or anyone's, even a dentist's) ability to comment on the quality of OPs dentist. We do not know the whole story... how could we even begin to say whether OPs dentist was being honest? There is an unbelievably huge gray area in dentistry. There is also a degree of comraderie in this field that perhaps you cannot appreciate as you are in the field, but not really in the field. We stick up for each other because we are the professionals. I will assume the patient is wrong/misinformed/uninformed/ignorant before ever assuming the dentist did something wrong, just as I did in this case here. I give my colleague the benefit of the doubt.

But ultimately, I have no problem with GPs placing implants and doing endo as long as they have training, experience and the right tools to be successful. And I have no problem saying that there are many excellent general dentists out there practicing comprehensive dentistry who are absolutely qualified to place implants and do root canals.

I think we can all agree on this. Implant placement is not difficult if you are trained appropriately and understand the importance of case selection. I placed a dozen or so implants during my residency, under the guidance of two of the best periodontists in my city. I also did endos with a microscope and moderate/deep/GA anesthesia with dental anesthesiologists and medical anesthesiologists. I also took trauma call and went to the OR for cases beyond your wildest imagination. I am telling you this because I, unfortunately, feel like I need to justify myself. The field of dentistry is changing in a lot of ways and the fact is that hospital residencies are becoming very common (and very competitive) and they are pumping out graduates with a lot of surgical experience who want to do more than bread and butter restorative. Thankfully our license allows us to do so.

The question is, how do we find and identify excellent dentists like you u/prophywife? Because the only way that I know how to point patients toward getting the highest quality care for specialty procedures is to point them to specialists.

I tell patients that the most important thing is that they trust their dentist. They trust that I will make appropriate decisions about their treatment and they trust that I will refer them to the person that will deliver the best care.

A good reputation goes a long way in this field. My success as a practitioner depends on my reputation. To build a reputation I need the respect of those that I interact with on a daily basis, including each of my employees, my bosses, the specialists I refer to, and most of all, my patients. I am sure you can appreciate this as your reputation is also vital to your success. I can say, without a doubt, that if I knew that any rep whose services I use (and whose livlihood I partially support) had opinions like yours I would no longer be using their services and every colleague in my area would know why. I think you need to spend some time with some GPs who do care about the treatment they are providing so that you can understand that we do have a place in this field and we deserve some respect.