because they do not make him comfortable or gain his confidence;
they put a filling in on top of decayed matter or even diseased pulp;
put in plates and bridges that do not fit; charge more than the
examination at first leads one to expect; refuse to correct mistakes;
deny having ever seen the patient before. Yet true and severe as this
arraignment is, many of these parlors, with their liveried "runners
in," are doing an educational service not otherwise provided; it is
conceivable that in many cities they are doing less harm by their
malpractice than well-intentioned men in the profession by neglect of
public needs or by failure to organize facilities for meeting those
needs.

I realize that advertising is "unethical" among dentists as among
physicians. Humbug and imposition are supposed to go inevitably with
self-advertising by the methods used in selling shoes or automobiles.
Therefore such advertising is prohibited. But what seems to be
forgotten in this definition of ethics is that the need and the
opportunity for dental care must be advertised in some way, if we are
ever to control diseases and evils due to bad teeth. The rich that one
dentist can help are able to pay for his good taste, his neat
attendants, his automobile, his club dues, his vacations at fashionable
resorts, his hours without work, his standard of living. All of these
things advertise him, just as hospital appointments and social position
may and do advertise successful physicians. The patients of moderate
means that one dentist can treat cannot afford to pay for rent, time
disengaged, and indirect advertising. Either they must have free
treatment, must go without treatment, or must go to a dental parlor
where dental needs are organized so that a very large number will
contribute to rent and display. It is out of the question to have both
dentists and patients so distributed and prices so adjusted that
dentists can make a good living by charging what the patient can
afford, and at the same time admit of every patient being properly
treated when necessary. Judging from every other branch of work, the
solution of the problem lies partly in free care for those who can pay
nothing or very little, and partly in cooeperative treatment through the
heretofore objectionable dental parlors. If instead of inveighing
against advertisers, honorable and capable dentists worked through
dental and medical societies to secure adequate public supervision of
denta