What is the Hippocratic oath. and does it apply to dentists?


According to Britannica.com :" This oath dictates the obligations of the physician to students of medicine and the duties of pupil to teacher. In the oath, the physician pledges to prescribe only beneficial treatments, according to his abilities and judgment; to refrain from causing harm or hurt; and to live an exemplary personal and professional life."

Since dentists are essentially physicians of the mouth, the Hippocratic oath applies to our profession . That being said, as more and more cooperate entities are getting involved with healthcare, sometimes it seems that this oath is being forgotten. As far as I know MBA's are not sworn to uphold this oath and and in my opinion it seems that their goal is to increase efficiency and  generate  maximum profits.

This can present a conflict to both dentists in training and to licensed dentists as well. Often to improve access to potential patients they feel compelled to treat patients with insurance plans that have much lower reimbursement rates than fee for service dentists . Often they are encouraged  by their cooperate employers to do their procedures in efficient ways that will allow less time to be needed to complete chairside procedures .  

Fee for service dentists are also affected by a decrease in patient flow, since the pool of patients who want a fee for service provider is probably shrinking . It seems to me as time goes by,  more and more , consumers covered by dental insurance have opted to go "In network" to save money.

So what is the take home message of this post? Dentists may have conflicting needs when treating patients, but ultimately their primary responsibility is to do right by their patients. They should not  recommend treatments that may cause harm and are not in the interest of their patients. After all we are fortunate to be dentists and we are licensed by states to do dentistry . Those who do things that are not in their patients best interest are not only violating the Hippocratic oath but may be jeopardizing their license to practice dentistry.



from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2022/09/what-is-hippocratic-oath-and-does-it.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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