Small ethics

Traditionally, ethics in the professions has focused on big problems that could be found on other peoples' back porches. Small, habitual, frequent, and personal lapses get little attention. In this essay, the literature on opportunism is applied to dentistry with a view toward bringing matters of "near ethics" within reach. Examples of small lapses are discussed under the headings of shirking, free riding, shrinkage, pressing, adverse selection, moral hazard, and risk shifting. The conditions that support opportunism include relationships with small numbers of transactions and uneven access to information. Practical limits on understanding all the consequences of agreements and the costs of supervising others and enforcing corrections of breaches are inescapable aspects of opportunism. Opportunism may not be accepted by all as the subject matter of ethical, but curbing it is a worthy goal and understanding the causes and management of opportunism casts some light on the ethical enterprise. Four suggestions are offered for addressing issue of opportunism.