LCDs Bring the Passion
to Close the Sale Sale Closed
By Paul Werner, DDS
I’m just about retired, but I’ve made the decision to remain active in organized dentistry, including its relationship with the political process that impacts us all. I used to be a legislative contact dentist (LCD) for five or six legislators; as they’ve termed out, I’m now down to two: a congressman and a state representative. In my 30-something years of involvement, I’ve seen and perhaps done a lot. Politics has become a lot more divided and angrier over time, but I still believe that if we set aside the hot-button,
red-meat, partisan issues, most politicians often want to do the right thing. The problem is they usually don’t know what the right thing is. Sometimes it’s preventing the wrong thing. Sometimes it’s a good thing for something unrelated to dentistry that has an unintended negative impact on our profession. One of the jobs of our Governmental Affairs Office (GAO), with our assistance, is to help politicians distinguish between the good, the bad and the ugly. Politicians know little about what we, as dentists, do and how we do it. They often have no idea how their impact on us impacts the oral health of the public.
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