Do dentists get money for promoting brands?

welshdent

Free toothpaste is about the only perk of the job!!

GwylimT

brook2jack wrote: »

Toothsmith you should accept the mouthwash samples , the listerine is really good for cleaning out washing machines, run it through on a hot wash, it gets rid of residues etc

Other than that I don’t hand out mouthwash either.

As someone who gets tonsil stones mouthwash is good for a good gargle when you can't bring yourself to gargle salt water.

GlasweJen

My sister is a dental nurse and her employer is constantly sending her home with samples for us to use. I’ve not bought toothpaste in years.

FBaby

Endorsing products
You should only recommend particular products if they are the best way to meet a patient’s needs. If you endorse products, you must ensure that you only provide factual information about the product which can be verified by evidence. You should also be careful not to express or imply that your view is shared by the whole profession.

So they can promote a brand as long as they 'believe' it is a good product and can back it up -by the evidence provided by the manufacturer!

1.7.5 You must refuse any gifts, payment or hospitality if accepting them could affect, or could appear to affect, your professional judgment.

So not that you can't accept gifts or payment, just that you need to make sure if doesn't affect your professional judgement, so again, very subjective.

We all know that it happens widely, not just with dentists, but GPs too!

brook2jack

It does not happen “widely” with dentists. I have never seen or heard of it happening with the exception of the VERY controversial tv adverts.

Samples are mailed to dentists who may or may not chose to hand them out. I , like toothsmith, will not hand out mouthwash samples as they are useless and misleading.

At Dental shows, if you are lucky, you may get one or two samples of toothpaste, brushes etc but you are not paid.

There are no free courses , you have to pay for all courses although manufacturers may have a stand or equipment to demonstrate on.

Very,very occasionally a manufacturer may bring sandwiches to a practice so they can talk about their products over lunch so we can still eat. However a packet of supermarket sandwiches is the most any dentist will have had and can hardly be called being paid to promote a brand.

There are no weekends away, expensive lunches, or pay for handing out toothpaste samples, or using any dental product. The Dental market in the UK is so small and the amount of materials a dentist uses or gives out is so small it would be uneconomic for the manufacturer.