[LargeFormat] FW: Found: Nikkor LF website

[rstein]

Dear Nephew JIm,

     Uncle Dick rarely goes in for confessions ( except when they agree to
beat it out of me and I get to wear the "special" underwear....) but I must
tell you that I am not a rich dentist. This is not the result of a planned
campaign - it just seems to have developed over time.

    Practice here in Perth was governed for the last century by what might
be termed a British professional mentality - if that could be said to exist.
We were trained on a curriculum that was governed by the current practise in
the UK at the time and when we went out into the field we were Mr. rather
than Dr. - the small exclusivity of a surgeon rather than a physician. We
were and are governed by an act of parliament and were prohibited many
things - alcohol and drug addiction, adultery, and advertising being the
chief proscriptions. Of course they frowned upon coin clipping and murder
but not with the same interest that was taken when a surgery sign was a
quarter of an inch oversize. I have personally observed a dentist on a
ladder measuring the sign of a business rival to see if he could put in a
complaint to the board.....

    As a result of this my practice has always been conservative in
appearance and conservative in nature. The premises are rented but are
modest. The menu of services I perform is limited to what I can do without
causing disaster - fillings, extractions, false teeth, scaling and cleaning.
I eschew implants, orthodontics, complex periodontics, and an increasing
raft of new ideas that are being foisted upon the profession and the public
by the dental trade and the advertising agencies.

     This latter factor has become more evident - the advertising firms seem
to have held someone to ransome and the restrictions on paid touting seem to
have been lifted. I counted 46 pages of practice advertisements and puffs in
our latest edition of the Yellow Pages and daily there are more appearing in
newspapers. I await the first television advertisement with cynicism.

     Cynicism? Well, the patients ain't getting a whit better treatment from
any of us and all the adverts do is try to rip trade away from one practice
to another. The price for this is extracted from the patient and adds
further to the burden on their pocket - in some cases acting as the deciding
factor that prevents them from seeking adequate treatment until it is too
late.

    I refuse to compromise my principles and put out a load of hooey. As a
result my income stays significantly lower than that of other practitioners.
I make up the difference by looting poor boxes in churches and taking
portraits and wedding pictures. Should my landlord force my rent up past
economic sense or the clientele fall off to the point of complete
stagnation, I am going to look for employment in the photographic trade -
there is far too little real photo knowledge being sold out there and it may
be time for Uncle Dick to put on his cape and tights and come to the rescue.

     Uncle Dick