After considerable deliberation, the judge spoke. "Two thousand years ago the greatest Physician of all time looked down on a great temple that had been built by a beautiful concept; to teach the people the error of their ways so that they might have life. He saw money changers who used the concept to enrich themselves, the traders in sacrificial animals who made it a business, the Pharisees who made it a hobby, the Sadducees who did it for their ego, and the very priests who were to teach, prostituted the concept for selfish purposes. As he gazed down on this scene, the gentle Man from Galilee realized that there would be no end to the ways. That man, by slow degrees, would pervert this beautiful concept."

"Today," the judge continued, "we have heard how the beautiful concept of dentistry, which is to teach erring patients how their teeth might attain life, has been perverted in almost the exact manner as two thousand years ago:

When you trade silver for silver, the moneychangers are still in the temple. When a patient’s own teeth are traded for artificial ones, the traders are still in the temple.

When you do things that you like to do because they are difficult, then you are getting your hobbies mixed up with a beautiful concept. When you give silver or gold according to what the traffic will bear, then you are prostituting your chosen profession.

When you lead people to believe this is the way of life, and in the end there is death, you have blasphemed for your own ego."

"Dentists are very sensitive to statements that they are primarily repairmen. But may I remind you that the dentist who terminates his service by repairing or replacing that which has been destroyed by disease, without first going to the trouble of learning himself of what dental research has found in the way of preventive measures, in attempting to prevent future disease and teaching it to the patient whether or not he follows it, is guilty of being a dental repairman. He is not much more than a highly trained and licensed technician. It is only the dentist who educates his patient to prevent future disease who is a physician of the highest order, as well as dental science has prepared him."

"Dentists today are up in arms because of the attempts to socialize dentistry, but they have no cause to worry unless they have created a kingdom of silver and gold for selfish purposes. History clearly shows that this is the inevitable end of those kingdoms, because men were never meant to be enriched by the suffering of humanity, "he stated.

"Babylon was the most famous kingdom of silver and gold," the judge reminded the court. "It is written that they encrusted their buildings with semi-precious stones and reveled in their wealth. One writer said they drank wine and toasted the gods of silver and gold, even worshipped them, until one night at the height of the revelry, when the king, Belshazzar, was having a feast for a thousand guests, a finger appeared upon the wall and wrote: ‘THOU ART WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES, AND ART FOUND WANTING.’ That night Belshazzar was killed and his kingdom was divided and fell, never again to rise to the glory that it had once known. Such is the inevitable way of selfish kingdoms of silver and gold.

"The judge continued, "But these are sins of commission. These are the things that you as a dentist have done. The greatest wrong I see is in the things you haven’t done, the sins of omission, these are the ones you have omitted and that most people commit. You are guilty by reason that you haven’t even tried to prevent the disease. You can use all kinds of excuses such as the patients won’t cooperate, and that they are not interested, but I must remind you that, ‘THE MAN WHO TRIES TO DO SOMETHING AND FAILS, IS ULTIMATELY GREATER THAN THE ONE WHO TRIES TO DO NOTHING AND SUCCEEDS.’ With these thoughts in mind, and if the same finger that appeared on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace appeared in the hall of dentistry, ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD WRITE?’ Court is recessed until tomorrow."

I sat frozen and stunned at the implication. The beautiful, solemn faced children with wisdom in their faces beyond their years, filed out and to my mind came the words - "AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM

The last to leave the courtroom was the judge and as he walked by me I stared into the face of my two-year-old son which carried on it a condemnation greater than the court could pronounce. The disappointment of a son in his father.

I woke with a start, and shuddered with the cold sweat that was on me. Recovering myself, I sank back in my easy chair, realizing that it was only a dream. It couldn’t possibly be true. But it is-sort of a dentist’s bedtime story.

<The End>