The British Dental Association is starting a new election cycle shortly with ballot forms being sent to dentists across the country. The act of ticking the box and returning the form will ensure that dentists from all spheres of the profession are represented during these turbulent times.
Committee representatives are required for GDPs, community dental services and hospital dentists, academics and those dentists working in the Armed Forces.
For as long as I have been involved with the BDA, people have asked me why I work with the association given all the other competing demands on my time both at home and in the practice. My answer to that tends to revolve around my experiences as a vocational trainee: this opened up opportunities to meet reps from various dental organisations, such as the General Dental Council, Dental Protection and the BDA, as well as attending events hosted by them. It was not long after this 'initiation' of sorts that I put my name forwards for election for the first time. A few of us had been grumbling in the back row that the people in these organisations did not represent us well at that relatively junior stage of our career: we wondered how they could, since they were so different to us in age and experience. We also felt we stood apart because we were the first cohort of dental students to go through dental school having to pay tuition fees without the benefit of student grants – instead we were saddled with large student loans that had to be paid back. In hindsight, of course, the fees we paid at that point were a fraction of those that will have to be paid by all students soon, but being the first group to do so we felt especially aggrieved.
After giving it some thought I realised that I could continue whinging from the side-lines about all the things I couldn't influence or change, or I could stand up and be counted. The decision in the end was not that difficult because I did not want to spend my career complaining without trying to do something about it, and, at the very least, I wanted to make sure that my views, and those of others like me, were expressed to those in charge. I therefore decided I would stand for election for a committee and make my views heard. After a few unsuccessful attempts I eventually succeeded in being elected onto the BDA Representative Body in 2006.
Having worked in the profession for a few more years now, I have come across countless numbers of dentists who were like me during my VT year, who complain that the dental world is not how they would like it to be. Some of them are friends, some acquaintances, and others are those with whom I have communicated with via various forums or social media such as Twitter. My view is that they should either put themselves forward for election to represent their peers and to make a stand, or, if they feel they cannot make the time commitment then I urge them to make sure their vote counts when the ballot forms are circulated. To do neither is to waste their vote and, in my opinion, amounts to asking not to be heard.
If we do not form a view, make a stand and put a tick on that ballot paper then what right do we have to complain?