[Therapeutic patient education for children and adolescents: some dentofacial orthopedic reflections]

Non-compliance and, even more, abandonment of treatment raise many questions. From a medical and economic point of view, these occurrences affect the efficiency of the proposed therapy. These failures therefore invite us to question the nature and purpose of health care providers' mission. Adherence of the patient to medical advice is a key factor to the success of the therapy. Therefore, how can we modify the patient's behaviour, particularly when dealing with teenage patients? How can we adopt and make our own a therapeutic strategy encouraging cooperation of patients? Patient education, recently integrated into the French public health code (Code de la santé publique), brings new elements to answer these questions. The purpose of the present work is to question the concept of patient education, notably with regards to medical ethics. What can patient education bring to medical practices that face non compliance or deficiency of adherence to treatment recommendations? What new perspectives does patient education bring, notably regarding medical practices?