Dental Assisting: Ethics, Responsibilities, and Case Studies

This assignment solution delves into the core principles of dental assisting, exploring the ethical and legal responsibilities inherent in the profession. It begins by defining the code of ethics as outlined by the Dental Assistant Professional Association (DAPA), detailing aspects such as maintaining honesty, patient care, and professional development. The solution differentiates between ethical and legal responsibilities, emphasizing the importance of informed consent and adherence to workplace decorum. It addresses patient anxiety management, offering strategies for providing psychological support and managing dental phobia. The assignment covers wage negotiation under enterprise agreements and explores the concept of conflict of interest, providing examples and ethical considerations. Part 2 offers practical solutions for workplace challenges, including time management, peer assistance, and clarifying workplace instructions to improve efficiency and patient care within a dental clinic setting. The solution provides checklists, prioritization strategies, and delegation techniques to improve workflow.

Running head: DENTAL ASSISTING
DENTAL ASSISTING
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Part 1
1. Definition of the code of ethics as it applies in dental assistant?
As per the dental assistant professional association (DAPA), all the dental assistant should abide
by these minimum codes-
 Fostering the aims and the objectives of the association and maintenance of the
association standards
 Maintaining honesty, loyalty and diplomacy
 Cooperating with the employees and showing initiatives and the capability required to
serve all the patients.
 Working in a collaborative manner with all the health care professionals.
 Addressing the needs of the patients, exercising courtesy, kindness and consideration
irrespective of the religion, origin and the cultural beliefs.
 Maintenance of a safe and effective care environment.
 Enhancing one’s own professional knowledge and competence by indulging in life long
learning.
 Maintenance of confidentiality and privacy of all the patient’s information unless
required by law.
 Not advising any treatment to patients that require professional dental supervision.
2. How many aspect make up the dental assistant codes of ethics?
There are 12 elements making up the dental assistant codes of ethics.
3. Difference between ethical and legal responsibility?

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Legal responsibilities are set forth by the government. Breaching of the legal standards might
cause filing of law suit against the accused and can cause cancellation of the licensure. One
such example, is missing informed consent. Any kind of dental treatment without seeking
consent from the patient might lead to the breaching of the legal standards.
Ethical standards on the other hand does not have any legal basis and are mainly based on the
principles of right or wrong. It is actually the ability to recognize and act upon the ethical values
as per the standard within a given context. Ethical responsibility can be referred to as the
responsibility to follow the codes of ethics of the dental assistants. It the choice of an individual
to follow the ethics or not.
4. At first, I should approach Anne and explain to her about the decorum of the workplace.
If Anne found any objectionable behavior of any dentist, then she might escalate the
matter to her senior or to the higher authority. Anne’s habit of gossiping about
organizational conflict should be stopped immediately as this would demotivate the other
employees and will spoil the work environment.
5. Anxiety is often closely associated to painful stimulus and increased perception of pain.
Treating anxious patients can be quite stressful for the dentists. A substantial population
of people suffer from dental phobia. As per the dental assistant codes of ethics, the dental
assistants are accountable to respond to the needs of the patients. In case, the patient is
anxious, it is necessary to provide him with psychological support and assure him, that he
will be provided with sufficient care. Targeted motivation, self-activation and targeted
coping strategies can be helpful for managing patients suffering from anxiety. It is
necessary to explore the cause the anxiety and would try to address them as soon as

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possible. I would disclose the entire process in a simpler manner in order to eradicate
fear from the patient.
As per my personal experiences, some of the patients’ needs that can be identified are:-
 Pain management due to dental ailments like cavities.
 Psychological support to refrain from Psychological stress, fear and anxiety due to
pain
 Proper dental education
 Maintenance of the privacy and confidentiality of the patient information.
6. Under enterprise agreement, the wages for the dental assistant can be negotiated between
the bargaining representatives or the employers for establishing a fair wage and
employment conditions.
Employment under Health professional and support service award involves
specific payrolls set by some government laws. They are occupation based
minimum employment standards that apply in addition to the National
employment standard (NES). The pay rate of the employee agreement cannot be
less than the modern award.
7. Conflict of interest can be termed as a condition where an individual has some competing
interest or loyalties. Conflict of interest is related to a person, having two relationships
that can compete with each other for the loyalties of a person. The conflict of interest
exists in can exist in different situations. One of the easiest way for explaining the
concept of the conflict of interest is to provide with some examples. Personal relationship
between a consumer and dental assistants might give rise to conflict of interests. A love

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relation between a dental assistant and a client might make the dental assistant biased
providing more facility or care to a particular patient by neglecting the other patient.
This will of course be a breaching of the ethics of dental assistant which states that equal care
should be given to all patients irrespective of cast, creed and race.

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Part 2
The case study reveals that the dental assistant requires help to manage his shift hours. Peer
tutoring or peer assistance is an important way of assisting colleagues to help them achieve their
goals. Individuals who take part in peer assistance uses several methods for promoting
communication between the doctor and the patients. In order to assist my co-workers, I would
prepare a checklist that has to be followed by staffs.
 The dental assistant should be provided with a timeframe, with each of the task that has
to be done within the time frame.
 Assisting the dental assistance to set some achievable and realistic goals.
 Tasks has to be prioritized effectively.
 Breaks should be taken between the tasks.
 The colleague should be assisted to organize himself.
 All the non –essential tasks should be kept aside.
 Proper delegation of tasks are required to remove disseminate the work load among the
workers.
In case electronic systems are not used in the workplace, the time sheet should contain the list of
tasks that has to be done within the limited time frame, used to record the start and end the time
of the tasks or the duration of the tasks. The timesheet should contain a detailed breakdown of
the tasks accomplished by the employee. It is also used for deciding the payroll.
Case scenario 2

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Clarity is required while running a small business. If a staff does not understand the rules and
responsibilities associated with the work, confusion is inevitable. If the practices are vague and
are misinterpreted negatively affects the care services. The rules, practices and all the
expectations needs to be understandable and clear. The regulations, policies and consequences
that can be applied in a workplace. The job descriptions has to be explained to the employee.
Questions should be raised to discuss with the supervisor. It is necessary to be direct but
respectful at the time of discussion. The situation has arrived when I had to clarify the workplace
instruction to dental assistant, who had joined recently. He was facing difficulty is managing the
over-crowding of the dental clinic. The first instruction given to the worker was a time frame that
has to be maintained. Secondly, he was explained how a work has to be delegated as per the
priority. Those that are not important can be taken care of later in. First on all, it is necessary to
attend emergency cases on the priority basis. He was instructed to take care of the
documentations properly and to remain resilient. I made it sure , that the initial work given is not
too stressful for a new joiner.