Dental ethics in a larger context: one point of view.

Since the end of World War II, the practice of dentistry has been largely transformed from a "calling" into a cog in the ever-expanding "Healthcare Industry." In the process, the distinction between professional ethics and the ethics of commerce has been attenuated and, to a large extent, lost. Today's dentist is faced with an inherent conflict between the pledge of the health professional to hold the patient's interests primary (and above all, to do no harm), and the self-protective commercial principle of caveat emptor. Pressures towards commercialism come from the government and the insurance industry, the increasingly unfavorable ratio between professional fees and the cost of production, and the high cost of dental education. Viewed simplistically, much of dentistry today has an outward form resembling commodity production. Recognizing the substantial forces tending to attenuate ethical standards in our profession may aid us in resisting their encroachments.