Several dentists in our area offer to purchase candy during Halloween from their young patients for $1 per pound. Presumably they do this to reduce the risk to their patients of developing cavities. Unfortunately, the dentists then give the candy to the local food cupboard. There is little doubt that most (if not all) the clients who use the food cupboard can little afford proper dental care. I believe such behavior is thoughtless, unethical and unprofessional. I am a retired dentist.Unrelated to the question being asked and without claiming that this is actually a good idea, I find myself wondering if people could get candy from the food bank and have the dentist buy it from them from a dollar a pound? Or if someone from the food bank could just take it back to a dentist and get it bought out and use the donation to buy food?
The first Google result tells me that the average kids gets 10 pounds of Halloween candy, which means the food bank may well end up with a few hundred pounds of candy. So if they split it up among several dentists, they could get a few hundred dollars, which would buy a decent amount of food (especially since food banks can apparently buy food wholesale.)
I don't know if this would bring their clients as much happiness as getting some candy for a treat, but that's where my mind went.
1 comment:
I'm amazed that dentists do this. If they believe candy to be so bad, why don't they buy it, then destroy it? The letter writer has an excellent point.
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