Abstract

  Clinical science that deals with the periodontium in health and disease is called Periodontology, the practice of which is known as Periodontics. Dental ethics govern every phase of treatment, including the diagnosis and treatment planning, patient education, quality of work performed, achieving satisfactory outcomes, determining fees, communication with referring dentists and accurate and honest record keeping. Dental Associations while serving as the national “watchdog” on ethics also contribute to protect the rights of organized dentistry through nationwide communication and by supporting local, state and federal legislation. Ethical responsibilities of a general dentist are that they should diagnose and treat periodontal disease properly. Proactive and conservative care along with long-term maintenance is critical. Patients with advanced disease who do not respond to initial treatment should be referred to the periodontist. A periodontist as a specialist should have a thorough knowledge of all non-surgical and surgical procedures (including periodontal plastic surgery and implants), maintenance care, oral physiotherapy, oral medicine (for diagnosing and treating systemic health as it relates to the periodontal disease), temporomandibular joint disorders and myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome. Obstacles in controlling and preventing periodontal disease in an Indian scenario are that it is a painless disease and low socio-economic strata of majority of the population. General dentists practicing Periodontics and Periodontists should take the onus to converge the knowledge of Periodontology and apply it ethically for the benefit of the community at large.

Keywords: Ethics; Periodontology; Periodontics; Periodontist; General Dentists; India

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Citation

Citation: Simran Parwani and Rajkumar Parwani. "Ethical Responsibilities in the Field of Periodontology and Periodontics: Implications in an Indian Scenario”. Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 4.4 (2020): 20-25.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Simran Parwani and Rajkumar Parwani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.