Doing it by the book

With no direct references to dentistry in the MoH’s healthcare advertising guide, the rules are open to interpretation.

The UAE's Ministry of Health, commendably, has stringent rules on healthcare advertising in place to protect patients and deter the claims of would-be snake oil salesmen.

However, the latest 68-page advertising guide issued by the Ministry may be a step too far (or perhaps not far enough) for the country's dentists.

Based on several time-consuming reads, I can confirm that at no point in its lengthy discourse on the perils of promotion, does the new document directly reference dentists or dental professionals.

For the practices that have dutifully submitted their advertising, and been charged handsomely for the privilege, to ensure their marketing efforts fit within the Ministry's guidelines, this may come as a surprise. It certainly did to me.

In the interests of clarity, I visited the MoH's Dubai offices in search of the elusive guidelines governing the dental industry. Surely, I thought, there would be a second document detailing the restrictions, fees and forms for dental clinics and companies.

But apparently not. The Health Advertisements Guide 2008, I was assured, covered everything.

In my opinion, this discovery could go one of two ways. The Ministry is not known for its streamlined practice, and a lack of guidelines - available in black and white - is almost an invitation to personal interpretation on the part of the agency's employees.

This is a particular snub for dentists, because charges are levied by the Ministry for each advertising approval. With no guidance as to what can or cannot be published in an advert, practices should brace themselves for a spate of expensive rewrites.

But equally - and this is a version I prefer - practices could logically argue that their adverts can't be in breach of Ministry rules, because there aren't any. Publish at will, because the Ministry can't berate you for it.

But rather than be seen as an advocate for advertising anarchy, I would suggest the most sensible approach would be to rectify this legislative oversight as soon as possible.

A targeted set of rules for licenced dentists would avoid the needless cost and valuable time wasted arguing the toss over what is and isn't acceptable in a dental advert. It seems strange to say it but, just this once, the MoH really does need to be rolling out the red tape.

James McCarthy is the editor of Middle East Dentist.

RELATED LINK: Doing it the HA-AD way

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