ETHICAL ISSUES SURROUNDING DENTIST-PATIENT RELATIONSHIPS

All conflicts arising in dental practice can be divided into two groups: conflicts which arise due to lack of confidence in a dentist and conflicts which result from medical errors. Resolution of such conflicts through litigation is related to the general underestimating not only ethical and psychological, but also ethical and legal status of patients as consumers of dental services by dentists. Usually, dentists critically evaluate the patients' past clinical experience. Failure to follow the treatment plan as well as non-compliance with the prescribed medical treatment or dentist's advice are considered as negative aspects of the patient's past clinical experience. One of the main causes of failure to follow the treatment plan and non-compliance with the prescribed treatment is low level of medical awareness of patients. Prevention in dental practice has become one of the current self-initiatives of the dentist. Dentists perceive the status of the dental patient as an integral phenomenon and do not divide it into dental, ethical and psychological, aesthetic, ethical and legal constituents. The main barriers to the professional practice of the dentist include non-compliance and hygienic ignorance of dental patients.

ethical and psychological status of patient, level of medical awareness, compliance, conflict, phobia, doctor-dentist relationship, consumers of medical services