Irrational requests for extractions

Dental professionals encounter a number of challenging ethical and legal dilemmas on a daily basis that often arise due to conflicts between the ethical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence (do no harm), beneficence (do good), justice, veracity, and fidelity. The application of ethical principles has always been important during any patient encounter, and previously a health professional's obligation was focussed on doing good and avoiding harm rather than giving in to the patient's requests. Today a patientcentred holistic approach and respect for patient autonomy is a more apparent in health care.DHE