NDA Journal 2 Dr. Orr practices Anesthesiology and OMS in Las Vegas, is an Adjunct Professor (Surgery) at UNLV SM and Touro University SM (Jurisprudence), Professor Emeritus at UNLV SDM, and a member of the CA Bar and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Editor’s Message Daniel L. Orr II, DDS, MS (anesth), PhD, JD, MD [email protected] NDAJ Exclusive Dunning-Kruger for Dentists, and Thank You for Reminding Me Luke The published results of the DunningKruger Effect were based on a 1999 study by psychologists Justin Kruger and David Dunning titled: “Unskilled and unaware of it; how difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.”1 The study’s synopsis states: “People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across four studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.” We’ve all diagnosed individuals who suffer from unrealistic, possibly prideful, opinions of themselves, an easy call for everyone but the individual. Dentists are also individuals and, importantly, can this group recognize Dunning-Kruger traits in themselves, in their own opinions and works? After all, patient safety depends on a realistic evaluation of one’s diagnostic abilities and technical skills. One group in which it is relatively easy to see less optimal cerebration is teenagers. Recently my son Luke called me emergently to advise he had blown up, as in violently exploded, a basketball. He saw something on YouTube that stimulated him to confirm the YouTube findings on the limits of basketball and human performance simultaneously. Not only did he succeed in exploding a basketball, he compromised a couple of digits. We buddy splinted them and the next day I drained a hematoma from under a nail. (Figures 1-2) A sister was disgusted by the process, but it was hopefully productive explaining judicious decision making again (with 9 kids that has happened a lot). I shared with Luke that the only reason I never exploded a basketball is that I never thought of it when I was younger. Figure 1 Luke showcasing the exploded basketball. Figure 3 The Editor demonstrating the Dunning-Kruger Effect when younger.
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