A Consideration of Professionalism for Dental Professionals

Professionalism is an ubiquitous word in dentistry. Whilst we often feel we have an innate understanding of it, there is no single clear definition as to what professionalism in dentistry really means. Therefore, how can we truly comprehend what is expected of us? This article aims to explore current literature regarding professionalism and provide some clarity as to what this means with regards to dentistry in the United Kingdom. Guidance from the General Dental Council's (GDC) document Preparing for Practice¹ breaks professionalism into four categories: (1) patients and the public, (2) ethical and legal, (3) teamwork, and (4) development of self and others. Investigation into each of these categories alongside the GDC's most recent study Professionalism: A Mixed-Methods Research Study² enables an unambiguous view of professionalism in dentistry from the GDC's perspective. Whilst the GDC's Preparing for Practice and Professionalism: A Mixed-Methods Research Study are good starting points in improving our understanding of professionalism, it is still very much open to interpretation by the individual, owing to lack of a clear-cut definition. Overall, professionalism remains a vague and poorly defined concept in dentistry.