ETHICAL PRACTICES OF DENTISTS IN PUNE CITY: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Introduction: Every professional body has its own code of conduct for its members. Dental profession in India is regulated by the Dental Council of India (DCI) under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. DCI; a statutory body formed by an act of parliament- the Dentists Act, 1948 (XVI of 1948). Crowding of dentists across cities leads to unhealthy competition and commercialization. This leads to violating the code of conduct put forth by the state dental councils and many of the norms are openly flouted and rules randomly bent. The objective of the present study is to access the amount of violation of the code of conduct by the dental clinics with respect to the clinic name board and advertisement, in and around Pune city, by an on-site survey. Materials and methods-Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethics Committee of M.C.E society, Azam Campus, Pune. The study consisted of questions regarding the size of the dental clinic board, attractive symbols or wordings, qualifications other than the academic ones, and advertisements of the clinics through media or sign boards. In all, 123 clinics were observed. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 22.0 (Chicago, U.S.A). Results-There were in all 123 clinics (60- BDS and 63- MDS). More BDS practitioners faulted the regulations with respect to size of the sign board, slogans on the board- like “family dentists”, “tooth designing”; fixing the sign board far away from the place of practice- at the pharmacist. Higher percentage of MDS practitioners advertised through media for promoting their clinics compared to the BDS practitioners. Overall more than half of the dentists mentioned their place of study and the university from where they obtained their degrees. Almost 25% mentioned that they had obtained gold medal in their academics and a few of them also specified the subject in which they won the medals. Conclusion: The current study highlights the violation of codes by dentists in Pune city. It also shows that post graduates are also violating norms. It is up to the DCI, to take appropriate steps including the earliest revision of its norms and its supervision of its strict adherence.