Dr. Caroline Robins:

The contract was formulated in 1994. I graduated in 1995. The dentistry that I do today is vastly different from what I did in 1995, and rightly so. It should be. I do not think any patient sitting in my chair wants to be looked after by a dentist who has not kept up with the science and the evolution of materials. For example, in 2018 we passed the Minamata legislation in the reduction of amalgam waste in the environment. That means I am not legally allowed to place an amalgam filling in a pregnant patient who presents to me, yet my contract only allows me to place amalgam fillings in back teeth. Among the budgetary items removed in 2010 was the A6 dressing or temporary filling. I cannot even place a temporary filling. That means I am stuck and all I can offer that patient is an extraction. That returns to the point we are making that if a tooth is removed, that means the problem is gone and no more money needs to be spent on it. The science has moved on and dentistry has moved on but the scheme has not. My contract tells me I am to treat my medical card patients as I would my private patients, which goes without saying, yet when I sit them in a chair, I am suddenly very limited in what I can offer them. I have no autonomy-----