Dental Ethics Review (Part 2) PDF

3 ‫ رفل عبدالعزيز‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ Lec (2) Dental Ethics Professional Ethics Review (Part 2) Dental Practice Acts‫ ׃‬regulate the practice of dentistry with a primary purpose of protecting the public. The dental profession e...

3 ‫ رفل عبدالعزيز‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ Lec (2) Dental Ethics Professional Ethics Review (Part 2) Dental Practice Acts‫ ׃‬regulate the practice of dentistry with a primary purpose of protecting the public. The dental profession exercised the right to have these “Acts” introduced regionally within appropriate legal frameworks. With their adoption the profession has been the privilege to practice, and that privilege should be protected. As long as a high standard of professional conduct and practice is maintained, dentists can expect to retain that privilege. What is a “profession”? A profession has been defined as an occupation involving relatively long and specialized preparation on the level of higher education and directed by a special code of ethics. The constructive aim of a profession is the public good. Dentistry is recognized as a profession. Four key features of a profession have been described: 1. A profession must possess an important and exclusive expertise; 2. A profession must possess an internal and external structure 3. extensive autonomy in practice of the profession, also largely self-regulating; 4. Membership in a profession suggests the acceptance by the member of a set of norms of professional practice or professional obligations. What is a “professional”? A professional is a member of a profession. Four qualities have been attributed to those who practice a profession: 1. A professional has respect for human beings; 2. A professional is competent; 3. A professional has integrity; 4. A professional’s primary concern is service, not prestige or profit What is “professionalism”? Professionalism extends ethics to include the conduct, aims, and qualities that characterize a professional or a profession. Professionalism relates to the behavior expected of one in a learned profession. Professionalism embodies positive habits of conduct, judgment, and perception on the part of both individual professionals and professional organizations. Professionals and professional organizations give priority to the well-being and self-determination of the patients they serve. Eight categories of professional obligations have been described: Chief Client Ideal Relationship Central Values Competence Relative Priority of the Patient’s Well-being Ideal Relationships Between Co-professionals Relationship Between Dentistry and the Larger Community Integrity and Education DENTISTRY AS A PROFESSION Dentists can clearly claim for themselves several of the most common characteristics of professions and professionals: (1) Dentists possess a distinctive expertise that consists of both theoretical knowledge and skills for applying it in Practice (2) dentists' expertise is a source of important benefits for those who seek their assistance, and (3) because of their expertise, dentists are accorded, both individually and collectively, extensive autonomy in matters pertaining to it. (4) Many people, both inside and outside of professions, hold that professions and professionals have special obligations and consider this to be a central feature of their being professions and professionals. DENTISTRY: THE COMMERCIAL PICTURE According to the commercial picture, then, a dentist's expertise and the application of it to the lives of patients is a service that dentists sell and patients buy, to any other commodity bought and sold in the marketplace. DENTISTRY: THE NORMATIVE PICTURE The vast majority of dental professionals and the vast majority of the community at large do not accept the commercial picture of the dental profession, nor do they accept it for any of the health professions. Instead they accept an alternative picture of the dental profession that we call the normative picture. According to the normative picture, the dentist, like every health professional, has joined a group of persons who have made, both individually and collectively, a set of commitments to the community at large, commitments that entail important obligations for each dentist and for the dental profession as a whole. The basis of these obligations lies in relationships among the profession as a whole, the individual professional, and the community at large. The experts will use their knowledge in such a way as to secure the well-being of the people whom they serve rather than placing their own personal well-being ahead of that of their patients. What is “paternalism?” The patient’s values may conflict with the dentist’s recommendations, and these conflicts may lead to paternalistic decisions. For example, the dentist may decide to withhold information from a competent patient in order to unduly influence the patient. Sometimes patients do not understand the consequences of their requests or have unrealistic expectations of outcomes. For patients with compromised capacity, the dentist has an ethical obligation to inform responsible parties about treatment choices, costs, possible complications, and expected outcomes when determining what is in the patient’s best interests.