Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

I spend way too much time on YouTube, I confess. And you know how watching a video leads to watching another, and before you know it, you’ve gone down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what led you there?

I started out watching a video about building an electric guitar, and after exhausting all the videos on that, I noticed a related link to a Japanese luthier building violins. In Japanese. And I watched it. Oh, there’s a video of a guy forging knives from automobile springs! In Russian! I must watch!

So, after reaching a low point, I resorted to watching dental videos. Crown preps, Class II restorations, crown-lengthening surgeries, endo techniques, blah, blah, blah. I’m always fascinated by the myriad ways common tasks can be accomplished. Everybody has their own way for their own reasons. I can respect what works for each individual.

But not everyone is so understanding. And the anonymity of the Web allows for people to be complete jerks when they disagree with something.

I was watching a video of a dentist restoring a carious lesion on the mesiolingual of a maxillary lateral incisor with composite. He was narrating this procedure in layman’s terms so that the general public could understand what he was doing and why. I thought he explained it well for the audience for which it was intended.

But, as usual, the comment section was where the trouble was. Someone, a dentist I assume, asked: “Why are you using a <expletive> drill? I use a microetcher instead of <expletive> drilling everything out.”

Well, that escalated quickly!

So this is what modern discourse has come to? One dentist is so wedded to a technique that works well in his or her hands that someone who dares to accomplish the same task using a different method is worthy of such scorn? I’m not such a prude that I’m offended by the language, but why can’t the question be posed in a more civilized way?

I promise not to pile on the negativity if you want to use Copalite under a composite. Whatever works for you.

Bruce M. Scarborough, DMD, FAGD