Behavioral Sciences and Ethics
Behavioral sciences and ethics: what is tested
Questions test communication, consent, confidentiality, professional boundaries, and behavioral models applied to dental care. Ethical scenarios require identifying the principle in conflict.
Core rules
- Four principles: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice. Autonomy generally governs competent adult refusals.
- Valid informed consent requires capacity, disclosure, understanding, and voluntariness.
- Confidentiality can be breached only with consent or a legal duty, such as reporting certain communicable diseases or protecting a identifiable third party.
- Minors generally require parental consent; exceptions include emergencies and legally emancipated minors.
- Health belief model: perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and cues to action predict preventive behavior.
- Transtheoretical model stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance.
- Motivational interviewing uses open questions, affirmation, reflection, and summarizing to build change talk.
Worked example
A competent 40-year-old refuses extraction of a severely decayed tooth and asks for antibiotics only. Reasoning: autonomy permits refusal, but nonmaleficence and beneficence require explaining the risks of untreated infection and offering acceptable alternatives. The dentist should document the discussion, provide emergency relief if indicated, and not abandon the patient. Treating against refusal would be battery.
Traps
- Assuming a signed form alone equals informed consent.
- Disclosing a patient condition to a family member without consent.
- Applying the health belief model as if it were a stage model.
- Confusing beneficence with paternalism.