Sidney Sweeting, DDS

There was a haunting song back in the 60's "Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing."

This song came to mind when I was thinking about how morals, ethics  and common decency was really just that back in the 50's and 60's when a handshake on a business deal meant something, when a man's word really counted and people meant exactly what they said.

When I started the practice of dentistry in 1963, the days of Drs. Paul Albury, Norman Cove, Cleve Eneas, John Louis, Tony Davis, Hal Leyland, a code of ethics was not necessary because in those days we knew that if we referred a patient to another dentist for treatment during vacation that patient would be treated and returned to our office, they would not try to "steal" that patient. If an employee left to work in another office, we just knew that they would not try to steal patient files to carry to another office. Not so today.

I can recall quoting a patient a fee and the patient left and went to Dr.Leyland who then puposely quoted him a higher fee so he would come back to my office. A fine gesture but in those days it was expected, but ethics seems to have disappeared and the question is why?

Many years ago Dr. Norman Cove had back surgery, so during the several weeks that he had to be away from his practice, Dr. Tony Davis and I gave all our spare time to keep his practice going as much as possible. I related this to a younger dentist and his comment was "I hope some dentist can injure his back so I can run his practice for awhile." When I informed him that Dr. Davis and I never saw any money for the treatment we provided, the young dentist was shocked.

That is not the case just in dentistry. I am sure that anyone in business, lawyers, accountants, etc. can relate tales of business associates and employees who have proved over and over that common decency is just not so common anymore. I have heard of law offices where a partner has made secret plans to move and then helped himself to files from that office and solicited clients for his new office. They can rationalize that they are not stealing anything because they have "helped build that law firm" and they can call it anything they wish but if it has four legs, a tail, barks like a dog and looks like a dog, then it is a dog.

It is sad, but I have heard the saying that it has become such that if a man shakes your hand these days, when you remove your hand make sure all your fingers are still there.