What's special about Dental Ethics

Bismillah..

Compassion, competence and autonomy are not exclusive to dentistry. However, the practice of dentistry requires dentists to exemplify these values to a higher degree than in other occupations, icluding some other professions.

Compassion

defines as understanding and concern for another person's distress, is essential for the practice of dentistry. In order to deal with the patient's problems, the dentist must identify the symptoms that the patient is experiencing and their underlying causes and must want to help the patient achieve relief. Patients respond better to treatment if they perceive that the dentist appreciates their concerns and is treating them rather than just their illness.

Competence

A lack of competence can have serious consequences for patients, Dentist undergo a long training period to ensure competence, but considering the rapid advance of dental knowledge, it is a continual challenge for them to maintain their competence. Moreover, it is not just their scientific knowledge and technical skills that they have develop and maintain but their ethical knowledge, skills and attitudes as well, since new ethical issues arise with changes in dental practice and its social and political environment

Autonomy

Self-determination, is the core value of dentistry that has evolved the most over the years. Individual dentists have traditionally enjoyed a high degree of clinical autonomy in deciding where and how to practice. Dentist collectively (the dental profession) have been free to determine the standards of dental education and dental practice. As do physicians, dentists consider that clinical and professional autonomy benefits not just themselves but patients as well, since it frees dentist from government and corporate restraints on providing optimal treatment for patients. Government and other authorities are increasingly restricting the autonomy of dentist. Nevertheless, dentists still value their autonomy and try to preserve it as much as possible. At the same time, there has been a widespread acceptance by dentists worldwide of patient autonomy, which means that patients should be the ultimate decision makers in matters that affects themselves.

 Beside its adherence to these 3 core values, dental ethics differs from the general ethics applicable for everyone by being publicly proclaimed in a code of ethics or similar document. Codes vary from one country to another and even within countries, but they have many common features, including commitments that dentist will consider the interest of their patients above their own, will not discriminate against patients on the basis of race, religion or other human rights grounds and will protect the confidentiality of patient information. In 1997, the FDI adopted International Principles of Ethics for the Dental Profession for dentists everywhere.