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Sir, I recently saw the film 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing' and was deeply impressed with the depth and complexity of all of the main characters. None of them are flawless but all had human faults and redeeming features. So the characters took time to develop within their three dimensions. All except one, that is:
There was a small but significant cameo role for a 'fat dentist'. The fat dentist was a bigoted, two-dimensional character, not even worthy of a name, who swiftly got his comeuppance. No one was sorry and the plot had no room for redemption for him.
Am I alone in thinking that all on-screen depictions of dentists show us to be either reprehensible or laughable characters? Notable screen dentists appear in film in The Rocky Horror Show, The Hangover and Marathon Man and on the small screen in Butterflies, My Family and Mr Bean. The characters in The Hangover and My Family are merely hapless, and in Mr Bean he is a buffoon. But in Marathon Man, The Rocky Horror Show and Three Billboards the dentists would be found guilty of serious professional misconduct.
I accept that dental experiences can generate true humour but I cannot think of a single screen depiction of a dentist as the upstanding, professional member of a community that I recognise in all of my colleagues. Have I missed something or am I being overly sensitive?
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Woodcock, J. Public perception: Dental imaging?. Br Dent J 225, 3 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2018.552
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2018.552