An Ethical Dilemma in a Dental Hygiene Environment

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Group Project - Case Study Development

Ethical Dilemma in a Dental Hygiene Environment

Dental hygiene practice is guided by ethical standards aimed at ensuring quality

services. Ethics guide the approach that dentists and dental hygienists use to interact with

patients by encouraging them to use a systematic decision-making strategy. Ethical issues in

dental hygiene revolve around the principles of patient autonomy, the confidentiality of

patient information, trustworthiness, fairness and justice, and non-maleficence. When faced

with an ethical dilemma, a dental hygienist is morally expected to study it, identify the

consequences, decide on alternative options, ascertain outcomes, and substantiate the selected

course of action.  

In this short story, we will imagine a scenario in which our protagonist, Rose Red, is a

78 years old female who has been our patient for seven consecutive years. Mrs. Red has been

on time for each appointment with us, and she always has been very concerned about her

appearance and personal care. This lady is very talkative and super friendly with all the dental

office personnel. However, once in one of her check-ups, she was late from her appointment

for almost one hour. When we saw her, she looked very disoriented and confused. Also, she

showed poor hygiene care, and her clothes were dirty. She seemed a completely different

person, and we could not imagine we were facing the same talkative patient we had known

for all these years. Until this point and following the ADPIE guidelines, the first step we

should do would be to "assess" the situation. For example, we should be aware of our

patient's drastic changes. First of all, we should ask ourselves, why Mrs. Red is coming late?

what happening with her clothes? Why she seems so sad and confused? At this stage, we will

be playing a detective and strictly gathering data objectively and subjectively.  

Continuing with our story, after driving our patient toward our clinic, we began

reviewing her Medical History. She explained that her husband died three months ago, and

this episode left her in immense sadness. Although Mrs. Rose has a daughter who lives in

Europe, they have a significantly closer relationship, and both are aware of their lives.

However, due to the Covid issues is almost impossible for Rose's daughter to fly to The

United States to take care of her. 

The next step to take into consideration will be "diagnosis." After the patient tells us

about her loss, we can identify she has been dealing with a deep depression, where we

identified as a potential risk to her integrity and overall health. Now, that brings us to "P" in

the ADPIE acronym, which stands for "planning". We should plan based on our patient's last

assessment and previous diagnosis when we apply that to the dental hygienist and patient

care. We would then set SMART goals. This new acronym stands for Specific, Measurable,

Attainable, Realistic, and Timely short-and long-term goals for our dear Rose.

After discussing some ideas among ourselves, we coincide that one plan to help our

patient could notify her dentist about all the situation. That way, the dentist could refer our

patient to her physician to be evaluated and check her overall health. On the other hand, the

physician could also recommend visiting any psychologist to help Rose get over her loss.

Another alternative that we believe could be important to the patient's recovery is to keep in

touch with her and recommend an occupational therapist that helps Mrs. Red with her

situation. We found these alternatives as part of the "implement" for our plan. Then, our final

step will be "evaluation." At this point, we must monitor our patient in future appointments to

evaluate and know how she is going and progressing.