A Dental Ethics Blog
Many people claim that when I bring up ethics that my head is “in the clouds.” I take this as a compliment rather than an insult just as Socrates may have viewed the play The Clouds by Aristophanes. Socrates is portrayed as a sophist (someone who argues to confuse but has no substance), literally in the clouds…
What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness is the idea of increasing one’s conscious awareness of perceptions and centering one’s thoughts to present activities. Not only does it relieve stress and reduce anxiety, it is meant to help us order our lives so we live better. Mindfulness is composed of sensual and rational mediative techniques rooted in mainly…
This article will cover the metaethical foundations for kindness. We have to be carful not to confuse helping others or being nice with being moral. People help others do bad things and people are nice just to manipulate. This is being kind but not in any moral sense. A philosophical analysis will give a rational…
A Good Dentist What makes a good dentist? The first thing that comes to mind is how skilled and smart the dentist is. However, a dentist may do very good crown preparations but may lie to patients for financial gain (skill vs virtue). The blog is not concerned about technical dentistry but ethical dentistry. Dentists seem to…
Introduction The inequitable distribution of professional dental care is a major concern facing the field of dentistry. Of course, dental institutions such as the American Dental Association and dental schools are clearly aware of this issue. There is conflict, however, between the private practice model and the oral health needs of the U.S. population. The…
Respect To respect a thing or a person is to hold that object in high regard. We feel disrespected when we are lied to or disregarded. In this article, we will explore the principle of respect for autonomy. I will explain why human dignity is the highest good and why autonomy is worthy of every…
Hippocratic Oath Some version of the Hippocratic Oath is taken by dental students at the start of dental school. The original version made a promise to Apollo never to ever do surgery, so dental schools have adopted updated versions. However, there is no standardized oath. It would be overwhelming to discuss each version individually in…
Dentistry is part medicine and part artistry. A good dentist needs both to bring patients teeth back to health and function. Cosmetics are opposed to health as some situations require sacrificing longterm health for cosmetics and some sacrificing cosmetics for health. This article offers a different philosophical perspective. A healthy simile is to be understood…
Defining health is a metaphysical concern because health is an abstract idea or concept. We explore metaphysical questions such as what is health by using the dialectical method. This post is an initial attempt at defining oral health using the dialectical method. We will first explore some common sense conceptions of health to better our…
What Does Smile Design Have to do with Philosophy? Simle design makes dentistry an artistry but also a philosophy. Questions asking what is beautiful are metaphysical questions (read about metaphysics here). Metaphysical questions are those concerned with the nature of reality when it comes to abstract ideas or concepts. The idea of beauty is not…