Section Highlight: Colorado, Wyoming

GB Savory, DDS MAGD ACD Life Fellow, Section Chair

As many of us older practitioners reflect on our time in dentistry it is difficult to quantify the many blessings the profession has provided for our patients, our families and ourselves. I am now 51 years into a profession that has consumed me, frightened me, annoyed me, provided for me, humbled me, and given me the gifts and joys of purpose and service for most of my adult life. The reflective question that often comes to my mind is “how did I learn to contend with the burdens and the joys of my professional life. How did I discern what is right and truthful in the fulfillment of the Hippocratic Oath which expresses my pledge to “do no harm?”

As an incoming student we can all appreciate how enormous our entry into dental school was when suddenly we are thrust into a tsunami of information, new language, expectations created by others and ourselves, and asked to perform tasks that are highly esoteric. Our instructors are charged with connecting our hands with our brains such that we can render the clinical outcomes that restore health.

As I recall, through no fault of my faculty during my formal education, there was very little time to discuss or embrace the daunting field of ethics. I am not sure I even knew what the subject was in 1972.

After several years in practice, I clearly remember the moment seared into my soul when a nondentist friend sternly posited “if another person invites you into their body to perform something irreversible, you are walking on very sacred ground. Don’t screw it up!”

Thinking back, my classmates and I likely would have benefitted early on in our formal education from hearing that observation multiple times throughout our training. For me the charge fostered an awareness, appreciation, expectations, and challenges towards developing and nurturing my own sense of morality and ethics. This is where in today’s dental institutions, the Students for Professionalism and Ethics (SPEA) provides a formal introduction and conduit into the world of modern ethics for our dental schools which was not available during my training.

At the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine, the Fellows of the Colorado/Wyoming ACD section are very involved with the SPEA group. Currently we are sharing information with Creighton University and the University of Nebraska Schools of Dentistry to assist in establishing SPEA chapters. This association has enjoyed an interaction between practitioners and students that is beyond the scope of the formal scholastic load of dental school. We host several programs throughout the calendar year ranging from Lunch and Learns, which provide thoughtful discussion during the academic day to evening presentations held extramurally to explore more deeply topics that are of interest to the students. Among the titles of our discussions have been “What is the Value of a Human Tooth,” “Encountering Sexual Harassment at School or in Practice,” “How to Interact with a Colleague Who Has Provided a Treatment Plan That You are Conflicted About,” “Recognizing Malpractice and What to Do About It,” “Dealing with Addiction,” and “Responsibilities of the Dentist in Reporting Domestic Violence.” Our group, through faculty members at the CU Dental School, has affiliations with the School of Bioethics and Humanities that provides interaction amongst all the health care colleges on the Denver Anschutz Campus. This gathering hosts extremely interesting lectures online. Some of the past programs have been “When Doctors Became Killers” a treatise of the behavior of medicine during the Holocaust, “Racial and Gender Bias Throughout the History of Medicine,” and “Ethical Dilemmas in the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine,” to name a few.

John Haidt, PhD, in his landmark book, The Righteous Mind, explores the gestation of human morality and ethics with all their complications, dating back to the Ancients. His thesis suggests that our moral and ethical boundaries have arisen through nature, nurture, and rationalism beginning in our infancy and advancing throughout our lives. Given the rapid change in demographics and technology in dentistry, it is incumbent upon those of us wishing to not “screw it up” to continue to display ethical models of dental practice (nature, nurture, rational thinking) to the young people who are currently in training to shoulder the heavy mantle of providing oral health care to the world. I invite all ACD Fellows to reach out, encourage, and become involved with the marvelous work of SPEA groups in your state, and “don’t screw it up!”