Dental Ethics and Legal Considerations

DA Professional Skills

This module provides knowledge on how to practice professional ethics as a dental assistant.

Ethical standards play an important role in the responsibilities of a dental assistant. A dental assistant must understand and adhere to the ethics and principles set forth in dentistry. In this module, students will learn about ethical and legal issues that they may encounter in their workplace and how to apply the basic principles of ethics to patient care, as well as to solving ethical dilemmas in unique situations.

You’ll learn

the code of ethics
patient rights
the various laws that affect a dental office
the difference between morals, ethics, and laws
much more (see Content Details for more specific information)

Introduction

Step 1 - Ethics

Step 1.1 - Code of ethics

Step 1.2 - Morals, ethics, and laws

Step 2 - Integrity

Step 3 - Confidentiality

Step 4 - Respect

Step 4.1 - Treating the whole person

Step 4.2 - Creating a safe and comfortable environment

Step 4.3 - Treating co-workers with dignity

Step 5 - Ethical decision-making

Step 5.1 - Beneficence

Step 5.2 - Non-maleficence

Step 5.3 - Autonomy

Step 5.4 - Justice

Step 5.5 - Veracity

Step 6 - Values

Step 7 - Professional behavior

Step 8 - Laws affecting the dental office

Step 8.1 - Scope-of-practice laws

Determine actions that are within your scope of practice to actively participate in delivery of a quality dental care experience.
Differentiate between legal, ethical, and moral issues affecting dental care.
Recognize the impact personal morals have on the delivery of ethical dental care.
Demonstrate keeping patient information private and confidential, as required by law.
Honor dignity of patients and co-workers through treatment of the person as a whole.
Demonstrate acceptance of differences in patients and co-workers through just treatment of all.
Advocate for growth in professional skills by providing health and well-being services to the community and by joining professional associations.
Apply ethical principles and appropriate steps for solving an ethical dilemma.
Describe basic laws that pertain to dentistry, including the role of state practice acts, to determine and guide the dental assistant's roles and responsibilities in the presence or absence of the dentist.

The SIMTICS modules are all easy to use and web-based. This means they are available at any time as long as the learner has an internet connection. No special hardware or other equipment is required, other than a computer mouse for use in the simulations. Each of the SIMTICS modules covers one specific procedure or topic in detail. Each module contains:

an online simulation (available in Learn and Test modes)
descriptive text, which explains exactly how to perform that particular procedure including key terms and hyperlinks to references
2D images and a 3D model of applied anatomy for that particular topic
a step by step video demonstration by an expert
a quiz
a personal logbook that keeps track of all the modules the learner has studied and how long