Deceit

Man: I have a terrible tooth ache.

Woman: Me too.

Man: Have you been to this dentist before?

Woman: No. He was the first one in the phone book who agreed to see me.

Man: My dentist was at a funeral, he could not see me, but he recommended this one.

Woman: I do not have a family dentist, I always go to a different one.

Man: Why is that?

Woman: Well, I had this rather unpleasant experience...

Man: Do you mind sharing it with me?

Woman: When I was little, my mother used to take me to our family dentist. He was always nice to me. He smiled and always gave me a candy to go. When I came back from college I decided to continue going to him.

Man: I would never do that.

Woman: Well, for a while, it actually worked out really well. But then one day, I accidentally saw my chart. I was absolutely astonished. I mean there was a clear pattern there. He was systematically destroying my teeth.

Man: No way!

Woman: I could not believe it, but I stared at the chart and there was no mistake. The pattern was perfectly clear.

Man: I can't believe it!

Woman: Now you see why I go to a different dentist every time?

Man: I am surprised that I did not hear about this sort of thing before.

Woman: Why is that?

Man: I am a director of marketing of dental products for a major pharmaceutical company.

Woman: Maybe this is a well kept secret.

Man: Well I guess what our company does is not so clean either.

Woman: How is that?

Man: We conduct clinical trials for a drug and then interpret the data in a different way to get additional indications.

Woman: I am not sure I understand?

Man: During a trial we collect information about patients experiences. We then make statistical interpretation of this data to make a case for safety and efficacy of the drug. A lot of times we can look at the data differently and release the same drug to treat different things.

Woman: So this means that people can be buying drugs that do not really treat their problems?

Man: Thats basically right.

Woman: Thats crazy.

Man: Yeah.

Woman: You know in my line of work things are not that clean either.

Man: What do you do?

Woman: I work for a major software company.

Man: What is so bad about what the company does?

Woman: It creates markets for useless technologies. It invents new terminology and new concepts just to keep their market share. The solutions it creates do not make customer life simpler. In fact these tools make things more complicated and lead to more sales of technical services.

Man: I see. So the company creates solutions to make things more complex?

Woman: Thats right.

Man: I understand that. In the end of the day, your company is there to make money.

Woman: Sure. From this perspective, your pharmaceutical company is also just a businesses. You can't blame the company, it needs to to make money.

Man: I guess dentists are also running a business, so we can't blame them either.

Dentist: Sorry, I heard your conversation.

Woman: So is this true?

Dentist: What?

Man: That you are systematically destroying our teeth?

Dentist: I will answer you by telling you a story.

Woman: Ok, go ahead.

Dentist: I am single and use Match.com to meet women in my area. Exactly one week ago I met a women. We met at Starbucks during lunch and talked for 2 hours. I asked her for dinner and she agreed.

Man: This story is kind of long, maybe you should start working on my teeth?

Dentist: I am almost done. I show up at her house at 8 o'clock. I ring the bell, but no one answers. I realize that the door is opened. I walk in and see her. She is standing completely naked near an open window. She smiles and says: I waited for you all my life. I am so happy you are finally here. Then she turns to the window and jumps down from the 14th floor.

Woman: This is insane!

Man: My teeth hurt so bad!

Woman: This is so terrible, just terrible.

Man: Please, I think my tooth is going to need a root canal!

Dentist: Oh, no, I think it would have to be pulled out.