ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN

AESTHETIC DENTISTRY

Name: Maysoon Msheik (only me)

ID: 201700755
Dr: Ahmad Tarabay
 Introduction
What is aesthetic dentistry?

 It is a branch in dentistry that mainly focuses on

improving the physical appearance of a smile and
partially on the function

 Thus this created a dilemma

between providing the patient
with his request against
the best clinical treatment
 Introduction
What are ethics?

 Ethics by definition is the philosophy of human

conduct and standards concerned with
judging wrong from right actions
 Introduction
What are dental ethics?
 it means the obligations and duties of a dentist to the society,
patient and his colleagues.

 It includes acting and choosing best in the light of obligations

 It includes our made choices & actions
with respect to those choices
 It includes choices taken by the dentist
and patient
 Introduction
 Aesthetic dentistry thus raised a question as to why a
specific treatment is being held, the efficacy of the
practitioner and the right information of a patient
 Aesthetic dentistry held an ethical dilemma in each of
the four principles of bioethics
 What are the ethical principles?
1. Autonomy
2. Beneficence
3. Non-maleficence
4. Justice
So what are the ethical challenges
in aesthetic dentistry???
 1. Autonomy
 It is the principle that medical professionals
must respect the right of the patient to take the
decision concerning his treatment plan
 That is through not forcing decisions
on the patient of through paternalism
 1. Autonomy
 The other step of autonomy includes informed
consent
 Where the dentist
1. Presents all needed information
2. Patient fully understands the whole
procedure (risks & benefits etc… )and
either approves or disapproves
3. A statement of approval of procedures
to be done
4. Patient signs the paper plus presence
of a witness
 1. Ethical Challenges in Autonomy
In aesthetic dentistry the informing
phase of autonomy can be un easy due
to the many ways and different
material the treatment can be done
with

Practitioner must be able to

differentiate and also explain
to the patient clearly the
difference between needs and
interest
1. Ethical Challenges in Autonomy
 The act of providing the
patient with limited or biased
information in order to take
his approval concerning a
treatment plan that benefits
the dentist more financially is
ethically questionable?
 This arises a conflict of
interest concerning the dental
double role as a professional
and a health care provider.
1. Ethical Challenges in Autonomy
The dental treatment should be
balanced right between the
functional and aesthetic aspect
of the teeth
The dentist as well has the full right
to either accept or full legal (and
deontological) right to refuse a
treatment procedure if it goes
against what he considers will harm
the patient or harm his future
reputation
 2. Beneficence & Non-maleficence
BENEFICENCE NON-MALEFICENCE
(DO GOOD) (DOING NO HARM)
 The dentist needs to act  Ensure that whatever
and take decisions for procedure is done is poses
the patients best benefit no harm to the patient
 Since the patient lacks  Refuse or stop providing
the sufficient medical any sort of treatment that is
background and is in a harmful or ineffective
position of illness then  The issue here is weather
the dentist must choose burdens outweigh benefits
the best treatment option or not
 2. Ethical challenges in Beneficence & Non-
maleficence
 The explained principles together
impose that physicians in general
and dentist in specific should be
able to balance between the
benefits and risks in order to
provide the best treatment possible.
 To do so the dentist should:
o always stay up to date about all
new advancements
o Accept the fact that thee are
cases where he should refer the
patient to a more professional
practitioner
 2. Ethical challenges in Beneficence &
Non-maleficence
 In aesthetic dentistry the
practitioner must choose the best
procedure which minimizes the
risk and maximizes the benefit

 To do so the dentist should

o Collect all the relevant information
about the patients health
o Adapt the dental procedure to the
gathered information in a was all
benefits are maximized
 2. Ethical challenges in Beneficence &
Non-maleficence
 In cases ,after gathering
the needed information,
that showed that the
aesthetic results with
respect to the medical
health of the patient are
questionable, the
principle of autonomy
will dominate that of
beneficence and non-
maleficence
 Ethical challenges in Beneficence, Non-maleficence & Autonomy
• An article published in London University discussed that
marketing in cosmetic dentistry is unethical where it poses
a challenge for
1. Autonomy: since the previewed pictures of veneers
and Hollywood smiles only shows the positive
aesthetic aspect without giving much importance to
the functional and long term drawbacks, thus
pushing the patient to take medical decisions in the
favor of the dentists own financial benefits.
2. Beneficence and non maleficence: as a dentist, not
explaining or not fully explaining the drawbacks of
such a treatment might cause harm to the patient on
the ling term and do no good, thus it poses a
violation the dental principles of ethics

• The article concluded that any money gained from such

marketing techniques contributes to the loss of dental
professional status and is considered unethical

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230754609_Ethical • Thus aesthetic dentistry posed big questions about

_marketing_in_%27Aesthetic%27_%27Esthetic%27_or_%27Cos
metic_Dentistry%27_part_2 the foundation of dental ethical principles
 3. JUSTICE
 Access to health care is a basic
human right as declared by the
UN
 While it is hard to provide
equal medical care to all it is
still the duty of the practitioner
as a principle of justice
 The principle of justice includes
protecting the weak and ensure
equal right and benefits for the
individuals and groups
 3. Ethical Challenges In Justice
 By theory physicians should ensure
medical treatment while by practice
especially in aesthetic dentistry the
resources are limited due to the
expenses thus not all patients who seek
aesthetic treatment will be able to get it

 Rationally it is based on the level

of need of the treatment since
dentistry is a private sector then
the patients capacity to afford the
treatment becomes an important
criteria
 3. Ethical Challenges In Justice

Since the dentists general duty is to provide dental care

for the patients in need it is unethical and unfair for a
dentist to refuse to provide a treatment for a patient due
to his race, gender, religious beliefs or even pathological
condition ( HIV, hepatitis etc… )
 Conclusion
Aesthetic dentistry is a new field that will
typically raise dilemmas and add to the
classical ethics of dental medicine
Despite the cause of aesthetic dentistry it is the
practitioners duty to balance between the
functional needs and aesthetics needs of every
situation
Thus the principles of ethics should be
the basic if thus field in order to create
the best clinical results concerning
balancing needed function and
patients aesthetic wants , all for a
good patient-physician relationship
 Reference
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315105326_ETHICAL_CHALLENGES_IN_AESTHETIC_DENTISTRY
#:~:text=In%20this%20article%2C%20the%20authors,%2C%20non%2Dmaleficence%20and%20justice
.
 http://www.saaad.co.za/images/Stories/Downloads/Articles/Ethics_1.pdf
 https://www.saaad.co.za/images/Stories/Downloads/Articles/ETHICS_2.pdf