CDA Essentials 2014 • Volume 1• Issue 5

9 / 48

9 Volume 1 Issue 5 |
CDA at Work
A Foundation of Trust
Iam proud to serve as president of the CDA, an
organization that acknowledges our ethical
and professional responsibilities to society.
CDA is making a concerted effort in these areas
and, in doing so, is working to ensure that our
profession continues to earn the public’s trust.
Dentists are here to serve the public—our
patients. Our status as competent, dedicated
and compassionate health care providers is
firmly rooted in professional ethics, which
encompasses a standard of moral principles that
guide our decisions and patient interactions.
Demonstrating these qualities is what
distinguishes a profession from a job.
However, some members of the public may be
questioning our professionalism or doubting the
value of our services. This is troubling as it means
that a portion of Canadians may not believe that
dentists are primarily motivated by a patient’s
best interest.
Some wonder whether this skepticism
is associated with a lack of professional
ethics in dentistry. In a 2001 JADA article,1
Dr. Gordon Christensen proposed
that dentistry’s image has been
tarnished due to behaviours such as
increased commercialism and self-
promotion, planning and carrying out
excessive treatment, or refusing to accept
responsibility if treatment fails prematurely.
It’s a reality that dentists must
balance the dual role of
health care provider and
business owner. A health
professional’s primary
concern however must
be public service, not
profit. If the patient’s
best interests are
always considered first and foremost, dentists
can operate ethically within this model.
From what I’ve observed in my 40 years of
practice, the best form of advertising is a
word-of-mouth recommendation from satisfied
patients. We shouldn’t try to evaluate the
success of a practice by the amount of revenue
it generates. The true measure of success is the
quality of the oral health care we provide to our
patients. Everything else is secondary.
These challenges are not unique to dentistry.
The public has become skeptical towards almost
all professions. Within such an environment, we
must work harder to demonstrate our value and
commitment to the oral health of our patients.
The Trust and Value Working Group is a unique
collaboration of provincial and national dental
leaders. One of its strategic goals is to enhance
the public image of dentists by focussing
on how we interact and communicate with
patients. A key finding from the Group’s research
(p. 14) shows that dentists recognize the
important role of communication in their patient
relationships, and understand that patient
expectations for the care and information they
receive are higher than ever before.
CDA is also developing a new Code of Ethics
for the profession (p. 16). The Code will seek to
unite Canadian dentists around an aspirational
set of shared values, outlining the ethical
commitments that can guide a dentist’s practice
and our professional responsibilities.
As dentistry moves into the future, we must
remember the importance of ethics and
professionalism in our everyday practice and
work collectively to uphold these standards.
Reference
1.ChristensenGJ.Thecredibilityofdentists.JAmDentAssoc. 2001;132(8):1163-5.
GaryMacDonald, dds
Ethics and Professionalism:
From the President