Dental Ethics
Dentists are among the most trusted professionals at this time. In the minds of the large majority of dentistry's patients, dentists are not only skilled and knowledgeable professionals, but they are also committed to use their expertise according to a set of high ethical standards.
The vast majority of dentists also consider professional expertise and professional commitment as principal realities of dental practice, and are concerned, in spite of the challenges of our age, to maintain both of them at the highest possible level. But while the resources for maintaining one's professional expertise are readily available, resources to assist dentists in maintaining the commitment to practice ethically are less easy to find.
The Center for Ethics and Social Justice is one of the foremost resources in the area of Dental Ethics.
The American Society for Dental Ethics (ASDE)
(previously PEDNET)
The American Society for Dental Ethics (ASDE) is an international non-profit organization of dental educators, practicing dentists, dental organization officers, dental hygiene faculty and organization officers, ethicists, and other persons in dental health care. Founded in 1987, the organization is dedicated to enhancing the growing dialogue about ethical issues in dental health care and fostering more effective ethics education in this field. ASDE conducts three meetings per year in conjunction with other major organizations: the American Dental Education Association, the American College of Dentists, and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. The ASDE journal, Issues in Dental Ethics, is published quarterly as the ethics feature of the Journal of the American College of Dentists (JACD).
Loyola's Center for Ethics and Social Justice was the national business office for ASDE between 1997 and 2005. ASDE is currently housed at the Ethics Center at Loma Linda University, California.