Sir, a 70-year-old gentleman was referred by his dentist for an opinion on a grossly decayed unrestorable, albeit symptomless, lower left wisdom tooth (38). I discussed with the patient the options open to him: either surgical removal of the tooth before any symptoms occurred or leaving it until symptoms occurred and then removing it.
I advised the former and invited the gentleman to choose. He calmly took a coin out of his pocket. 'Tails, I leave it; heads, I have the tooth out,' said he. Lo and behold it was tails! I said to myself this is shared decision-making and autonomy at work – the kind I have not come across in my 32+ years of clinical practice. By the way I did not check the coin for possible bias!
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Appiah-Anane, S. Dental patients: Tossing for it. Br Dent J 217, 660 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2014.1104
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2014.1104