Dental Professionalism Essay

Over the past several decades, obligations imposed on dentists by our society have been changed dramatically as well as the definition of professionalism. The term ‘professionalism’ first appeared in the Journal of Dental Education in 1968 (Ralph,2016). Since then, there has been a variety of way to define dental professionalism. Trathen and Gallagher recently states professionalism as ‘a moral contract between the profession and society that is underpinned by a set of values, behaviours and relationships’ such as communication skill, skilfulness, leadership, empathy and ethical principle in order to meet expectation and trust from the public community (Smith, 2006). This implies that the role of dental professionals is not merely restricted
Although these organizations may have slightly different purposes of the foundation, their main primary objectives are to promote the improvement of the science, art and ethics of dentistry. Furthermore, their objective also includes the provision of the guideline in order for dental workers to follow and promote appropriate obligations and professionalism which provide safe dental care that is highly expected from our society (Dental board of Australia, 2014).
One of the obligatory professionalism of dental professionals is to consider dental material effects in the field of managing sustainable environment. According to Dr Bhide, as dental professionals, the responsible consumption and production of the dental materials should be conducted. Environmentally harmful waste products including mercury vapour, amalgam sludge and scrap are often produced in the process of the restoration of dental amalgam in dental practice (Hiltz, 2007). It is a legal responsibility for oral health professionals to use disposal services for used amalgam and amalgam separators with ISO 11 143 for