Responsibilities of Patients to Dentists

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Responsibilities of Patients to Dentists
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Concept of Reciprocity

• Generally stated, reciprocity is the practice of
  making a fitting and proportional return of like
  for like--good for good, and evil for evil.
• Reciprocity is a social norm in all societies.
• Central to exchange theory (anthropology,
  sociology), equity theory (social psychology),
  reciprocal altruism(sociobiology) and rational
  choice (economics)

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Concept of Reciprocity

• In ethics, the concept of reciprocity is most
  often embedded in discussions of justice, as
  fairness.
• The notion is that one owes a cooperative
  beneficial response to the goodwill and
  helpfulness of another (but owes nothing, or at
  least not the same thing) to adversaries or free
  riders.

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Concept of Reciprocity

• John Rawls, the influential Harvard professor of
  philosophy, in his book, A Theory of Justice,
  has seen justice as fundamentally connected to
  the mutual advantage of reciprocal transactions
  and fair play, and the notion of proportionality,
  which is an element of reciprocity.

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Relationships

• The case can be made that all good
  relationships are based on reciprocity, a
  proportionality in giving and receiving
• parent / child
• husband / wife
• teacher / student
• friend / friend
• dentist / patient

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Reciprocity Between Dentist and Patient

• Dentists have extraordinary duties to patients,
  summarized in the three basic principles of
  beneficence, respect for autonomy, and justice.
• These duties are not assumed by the dentist based
  on any native and unique altruism of dentists in
  comparison to the remainder of the population,
  but rather because the dentist receives a benefit
  from the relationship as well..

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• What benefits do dentist receive from patients as
  a result of caring for them?

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Benefits

• Sense of fulfillment/satisfaction
• Sense of meaning/purpose
• Opportunity to exercise abilities
• Artistic joy
• Professional fee from which the dentists living
  is derived.
• Others

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• What are the duties of patients to their
  dentists?

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Duties of Patients

• Fidelity - To the commitments made or implied in
  the covenant/contract relationship
• respect for professional knowledge
• keeping appointments
• confidentiality regarding what may be seen or
  overheard
• compliance treatment procedures, oral self care,
  medication-taking
• payment of professional fees

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Duties of Patients

• Veracity (Truthfulness) - Patients accurate
  disclosure of information required by dentist to
  treat effectively and safely.
• Justice
• Non abuse of the malpractice system, that is,
  taking responsibility for predictable undesirable
  effects of procedures of which they have been
  informed and to which they have consented.
• Duty to step aside in order to benefit someone
  who is in desperate need.

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Duties of Patients

• Autonomy - patient respects the autonomy of the
  dentist, as dentist respects the patients
• Respect the right to withdraw from the
  relationship -dentists should be allowed to sever
  the relationship when they can no longer accept
  the patients goals in the same way patients
  have the right to withdraw from the relationship.

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Summary

• In the reciprocal relationship between dentist
  and patient, when the partners in the
  relationship respect the autonomy of one another
  and are committed to justice (as fairness),
  dentists will have duties and patients will have
  corresponding rights. AND... patients will have
  duties, and dentists corresponding rights.