Ethical dilemmas among dental professionals in Davangere city– a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

To determine the ethical problems faced by dental practitioners, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in Bapuji Dental College and Hospital, College of Dental Sciences and private dental clinics in the city of Davangere. A questionnaire with close-ended questions on eight scenarios was administered to the 135 study participants. In the case of scenario 1, 81.4% of the participants said that the doctor had violated the principle of truthfulness. As for scenario 2, less than 50% of the participants replied that the doctor had breached ethical principles. In case scenario 3, 93% felt that the doctor should have taken the physician's opinion before extracting a tooth. Most dental practitioners faced ethical dilemmas because of the lack of awareness, and there is a need to introduce certain programmes to promote knowledge of ethics.

Ethical Issues Concerning Orthodontic Treatment Among Orthodontists in A Sample from Saudi Arabia: A Pilot Study

“…The economic capacity of the patient for the recommended treatment is another factor for dilemma among the practitioners. Some of the participants in this study (12) would like to withhold the phase I treatment and wait for the single-phase xed orthodontic treatment. As there is a wide controversy regarding early treatment in the orthodontic community, it is not surprising to have a such response among the study participants [15].…”

“…The response rate exploring ethical dilemma among dental practitioners were 39% in a study by Porter et al in Australia [7], and 96.5% by Dhanappa et al in India [11]. A few similar studies did not mention the response rate in their manuscript [8,12]. The in-person interview would probably receive responses but we selected the online mode of data collecting citing its convenience and economy [13].…”