Dentaltown January 2018 - 32

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Can Ethics Be Taught?
Townie "jbrett" opens the nature/nurture discussion as related to ethics

jbrett
Member Since: 03/17/17
Post: 1 of 86

Arizona Administrative Code requires dentists to take three hours of ethics continuing
education every license cycle. Do you think ethics can be taught? I am leading a CE course on
ethics in Phoenix, Arizona, on Nov. 4 and your questions, ideas, and comments will be helpful
to me. ■
9/29/2017

alanrw
Member Since: 05/16/11
Post: 2 of 86

Absolutely not. This is what politicians do to make themselves feel better.
The law mandating ethics courses in California was signed into law by our dear Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who it was discovered had impregnated the maid and had an illegitimate child
with her. What he does in his own time is his private business, but the irony in this case was too
great to ignore. ■
9/29/2017

Cowhorn Prophy
Member Since: 05/19/09
Post: 3 of 86

You can preach ethics all you want, but in the end it comes down to the individual person.
Far too many times have we all seen colleagues who seem to have lost their minds and do
outrageous things that would be considered unethical. Sadly, most of the ones I see revolve
around money.
Several of my past residents have been pushed by corporate dental practices to do things
that went against their core of ethics. One recently reported to me that the office she is in
won't allow her to do Class 2 composites. Instead, the doc wants her and the other associates
to wait and do inlays or onlays so they can use the CEREC unit. I'm sure very few people
would agree with this approach, and many would view it as unethical. But, the bigger question
is this: If our regional boards don't step up and punish unethical behavior on a consistent
basis, what's keeping it from spreading? ■
9/29/2017

tennisdpat
Member Since: 03/27/14
Post: 5 of 86

My ethics professor in dental school flat-out told us that you can't teach ethics and make
someone ethical; you can just make them ethicists. I tend to agree with his statement. Probably
the best exercise he had us do was to write a paper on our moral compass (what is was, why it was
that, etc.) then taking us through different scenarios and having us "pre-decide" what we would
do in tough situations, so we wouldn't be making such decisions in the heat of the moment. ■
9/29/2017

alanrw
Member Since: 05/16/11
Post: 7 of 86

In my experience, people become ethical after they are caught and before they are convicted
and sentenced. ■
9/29/2017

Timmy G
Member Since: 04/14/02
Post: 11 of 86

I've been through a couple of business graduate level ethics courses as requirements for some
other things I was taking. It's really not all that hard or complex. You can sum it up in one
sentence: "What I'm about to do, would it bother me or embarrass me if it was put up on the
flashing board in, say, Times Square, for everyone to read?" That's pretty much it. ■
9/29/2017

JANUARY 2018 // dentaltown.com

http://www.dentaltown.com/messageboard/thread.aspx?a=11&s=2&f=290&t=299954&g=1

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