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What? For the common citizen, the presence of the virus has meant a before and after in his life and in his way of acting, it is obvious. This has been a year of losses, human, economic, social relations and confidence in the future. Although it is true that life goes on and we have to adapt to it, it is no less true that the burden that the situation has imposed on us will not be able to remove it easily.

When it comes to our work, I am of course concerned about the impact of the pandemic on the operation of our clinics. We have suffered from the problem in the front line, exposed as the most to contagion. We have delivered our epis and maintained assistance to our patients within the permitted guidelines and we have done it without anyone applauding us at sunset.

However, a more or less subliminal message has spread, in my opinion, among the population: We need a more well-equipped public health system. Without disagreeing with this at all, in many cases, however, the common citizen has received, encouraged by spurious interests, the Manichaean and simplifying idea of ??the confrontation between public and private. Interests often determined to seek fronts rather than synergies. Interests encouraged by “toxic people“ What would Stamateas say, people who need to devalue what they feel is alien to value what they experience as their own.

Public care is good, disinterested, it seeks the good for all and private care is crooked, it seeks to fill its pocket and looks more for business than for health. what? Privatization is bad! How many scoundrels there are who do business at the expense of the health of others! Some prominent political or opinion leaders have lacked time to caricature the private activity of healthcare. A few days ago, a graphic strip was published in La Vanguardia in which a health worker asked a patient to open his mouth (in the public health system) in opposition to another who asked him to open his mouth. opened the portfolio (in private health). Elegant (or not) sarcasm protected by the freedom of expression of an award-winning cartoonist, who puts us dentists and private health workers at the feet of horses and gives fuel to some to wrap themselves in a patina of legitimacy when they promote programs aimed at improving the oral health of poor citizens with the idea of ??lowering the expectations of “business” from common clinics to increase expectations of “attendance” of some Municipal or “social” what, yes They only feed the structure and the politically sympathetic people who promote it. They do not yield profits that go into the pocket of a “wealthy businessman”. Apparently reprehensible act in itself. same for some. On the contrary, they are intended to increase services and new centers, perpetuating the loop that feeds managers, administrators and professionals aligned with their ideological environment or providing services that break the universality of provision and that are not dictated by legitimate legislators. by the citizens but by the decision of the politicized manager on duty.

We need, apparently, a powerful and universal public health, equitable within the guidelines of the competent authorities. Not “good guy” but realistic. Not stingy but
ambitious. A public dentistry that, above all, prevents disease and cures that of those who, being respectful of the effort we all make in paying for it, and complying with the care and prevention guidelines required of them, have problems that surpass them. And while those who can make decisions to invest in the first thing think about it and find an orchestra conductor who knows what he is talking about, we also need quality private dentistry, affordable to the average citizen and respected by all, too. n for the ideologues of the public, that allows its professionals to live from their work with dignity without anyone accusing them of being nickel-and-dimed or lacking in social sensitivity.

The profession has given more than ample signs of involvement with society and with our patients, in their interest so that everyone can enjoy decent oral health.

Professional colleges, professional associations and dental clinics in general have worked for it. There are lots of solidarity initiatives that are born from within the profession for the disadvantaged. The coronavirus pandemic has in no way prevented both public and private dentists from continuing to provide solutions to our patients' dental problems.

From the perspective of having worked in both, public and private, and defended, for 40 years, the coexistence and mutual respect between the two, with the conviction that neither is good “per se” but rather because of the kindness, good intention and effort of those of us who dedicate ourselves to any of them and now that we are reaching the end of our working life, I honestly believe that the road is still long and that transmitting ideas sowing doubts about the goodness of others is not acceptable. It is not as a person, nor as a manager, nor as a politician. Much less as a professional. As it is not to make of all this an argument, bearer of a substantial bias, to justify ideological approaches in one direction or another. We will always have the hope that the new generations stop the bonhomie of changing the impulses of their elders.

**Translated with Google Translate