Former ADA president encourages students to “do well while doing good”
Dr. Ron Tankersley (MCV DDS, ’68; OMFS, ’71), the immediate past president of the American Dental Association (ADA), visited his alma mater as the keynote speaker for the Dr. Cyril R. and Evelyn F. Mirmelstein Ethics Lecture. Although Dr. Tankersley graduated more than 25 years after Dr. Mirmelstein, the lecture’s namesake, he remembered his fellow alumnus for his dry wit and humor and his consummate professionalism, noting “He was the essence of who we are as a profession.”
The presentation to students and faculty focused on how dental students play a pivotal role in the ethics of dentistry, describing students as the “new guardians of the profession.” Dental students with their whole careers ahead of them have the most at stake if ethical standards are not held high because public trust and public confidence in dentists will decline. “Public trust is hard to achieve, easy to lose and difficult to restore,” cautioned Dr. Tankersley.
Dr. Tankersley further advocated for dentistry to be a self-regulating profession and encouraged students to set their ethical standards much higher than simply what is permissible by law. Dentists, who perform irreversible procedures, have very daunting responsibilities, and Dr. Tankersley reminded the audience to be proud of those responsibilities and to be proud for insisting on a higher standard of behavior.
The behavior of a small, but growing, number of dental students and dentists has endangered the credibility of the entire profession. Dr. Tankersley noted that dentists must advocate for the patient – “What’s good for the patient is good for the profession.”
Throughout his discussion, Dr. Tankersley mentioned the problem that arises when patient care becomes second to money. He noted, “Income should be the by-product of good patient care and good ethical conduct – patient care should not be simply a means to an income.” On the bright side, Dr. Tankersley reassured the audience that the vast majority of dentists “do well while doing good.”
The late Dr. Cyril Mirmelstein earned his DDS from the MCV School of Dentistry in 1942 followed by a brief stint as a faculty member. He then served in World War II and returned home to enter private practice. Dr. Mirmelstein retired in 1990 after many years of dedicated service to his patients. In 1998, Dr. Mirmelstein and his wife Evelyn Mirmelstein established their namesake lectureship to promote discussion of professional ethics in dentistry. Through the generosity of the Mirmelsteins and other donors, the lectureship has grown to nurture and support new generations of students and has become an integral part of the school’s curriculum. To find out how you can support this important lectureship, please contact the VCU School of Dentistry Development Office at (804) 828-4516.
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