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Clinical Ethics

URMC / Clinical Ethics / The National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry

The National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry

Old dentist poster

The National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry (NCHED) aims to create unique and valuable opportunities for reflection, learning and teaching on ethical issues in dentistry and to stimulate progress nationwide in using arts and humanities to improve dental practice, research, policy and education.

Examination of ethical issues in dentistry tends to revolve around a few commonly-taught scenarios, but an increasingly wide variety of issues are arising at the intersection of dentistry and ethics, business, public health, research and more. This collaborative program aims to fill these gaps by providing thought-provoking and expert-informed enduring content that will be of value as the profession of dentistry evolves to meet the increasingly complex needs of patients and society.

General Goals

  1. Focus on the potential for dental faculty and practitioners to drive positive change as science, business and health care adapt to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
  2. Identify and address emerging ethical issues in dental policy and practice, focusing on areas where arts and humanities interventions may benefit patients and practitioners.
  3. Learn from interdisciplinary connections between dentistry and other professions to generate insights into challenges and opportunities facing dentists today and in the future.
  4. Build a community of stakeholders interested in exploring solutions to deep-seated quandaries related to humanities and ethics in dentistry
  5. Explore connections between the past, present, and future, in recognition that present circumstances were created through historical policy and practice and understanding history can inform current and future strategies for improvement.

Partnering Institutions

Our national collaborative brings together leading dental schools, educators, humanities scholars, and bioethicists with a shared mission: to enrich dental education through the incorporation of health humanities and bioethics. By fostering a holistic understanding of patient care, ethics, and the human condition, we aim to support dental professionals and trainees who are not only clinically proficient but also empathetic, ethically grounded, and culturally competent. We are working to reach these pedagogical goals by providing a diverse set of internationally accessible online educational events.
The University of Colorado’s Center for Bioethics and Humanities (CBH) and School of Dental Medicine (SDM) worked together in 2023 to found the National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry (NCHED) with the aim of creating unique and valuable opportunities for reflection, learning and teaching on ethical issues in dentistry and to stimulate progress nationwide in using arts and humanities to improve dental practice, research, policy and education. The CBH is passionate about building communities to explore solutions to deep-seated quandaries related to humanities and ethics in dentistry, with a focus on the potential for dental faculty, practitioners, and students to drive positive change in the communities they serve. Meanwhile, the CU School of Dental Medicine is a leader in both dental ethics and dental humanities, with an active Student Professionalism & Ethics in Dentistry Association (SPEA) chapter, faculty ethicists, a strong international program, and intentional ethics and humanities curriculum opportunities. The SDM and CBH faculty have previously collaborated to develop a course entitled the Art of Observation and Listening, recognizing that observation, active listening, accurate description and interpretation are essential skills in the clinical diagnosis and management of patients. Art, music and performing arts provide a creative, safe and culturally diverse environment for refining these abilities in learners, and exploration of these skillsets is enhanced through experiential and expert guided activities, self-reflection, and group discussions. The goals are to increase compassion and empathy, encourage tolerance for ambiguity and diversity, recognize biases in interpretation and foster reflection and honest communication using the arts to gain these skillsets. 
Rochester, New York has a rich but complicated history of health education. The Department of Health Humanities & Bioethics and the Eastman Institute for Oral Health have joined together a group of dental professionals, health humanities scholars, and bioethicists to deliver continuing education for dental and medical trainees and professionals – working to lessen the historical divide between medical and dental education. Founded as a Division of Health Humanities in 1984 and expanded in 2021, the Department of Health Humanities & Bioethics produces field-leading scholarship and provides well-rounded education for the University of Rochester’s medical students, furthering the practice of the biopsychosocial model of medicine that is a hallmark of the university. The Eastman Institute for Oral Health, founded as the Rochester Dental Dispensary, has been operating for over one hundred years to provide excellent oral care in Western New York. Funded initially by the Kodak entrepreneur George Eastman, the Institute for Oral Health is linked, through the Eastman International Alliance, to institutions in London, Rome, Brussels, Stockholm, and Paris.

In 2015, the UTHealth School of Dentistry (with support from the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics) launched a dental humanities program, which is the first of its kind in any United States dental school. Since the first class was admitted, about 30 students have graduated from the program. It is a three-year program with learning opportunities that allow students to reflect, share, and work together to enhance their individual and collective capacities to care for patients in humanistic ways. 

The basic requirements of the program include:  

  • attendance at program meetings and at events related to humanities or ethics in the Houston community
  • completion of interprofessional elective courses on topics such art, ethics, literature, and history
  • reflective journaling
  • service learning
  • a final project

Upcoming Events

The Ethical Imperative for Medical/Dental Integration

Nanette Elster, JD, MPH
Professor of Bioethics, Loyola University Chicago
Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the history of medical/dental integration.
  • Identify current challenges to medical/dental integration.
  • Examine ethical underpinning of both medicine and dentistry for better coordination.
     

Spirituality, Religion, and Oral Health

Carlos S. Smith, DDS, MDiv, FACD
Learning Objectives:

  • Recognize how spirituality and religion may inform oral healthcare delivery
  • Recognize how spirituality and wellness impact health and oral health
  • Describe how spiritual and religious communities may serve as key locus for combating misinformation and disinformation about oral healthcare, particularly for historically marginalized populations

Past Events

Bridging the Gaps: Medicaid Dental benefit Expansion
 

What Does It Mean to Care?: A Readers' Theater Performance of Imelda for Medical-Dental Professionals

moderated by Margie Hodges Shaw, JD, PhD, MA, HEC-C. Panelist include Sean W. McLaren, DDS, MBA; Nancy Chin, PhD, and Erik Larsen, PhD. Richard Selzer’s short story raises moral questions at the heart of medicine and dentistry. Following the performance, the interdisciplinary panel will engage participants in a conversation about the moral questions in oral surgery and patient care. Brought to you by the National Collaborative on Humanities & Ethics in Dentistry.

The Dentist in Film: Beneath the Comedy and the Horror

presented by Howie Movshovitz, PhD, Film Critic at KUNC and Film and Television Lecturer at CU Denver.  Dentists have historically been portrayed in film as either farcical or evil.  How did this notion evolve, and what is the impact on public perception?   This April 29, 2024 National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry event was moderated by Catherine Flaitz DDS, MS with additional commentary from Christine Slobogin, PhD, Assistant Assistant Professor of Health Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester.

Everything Comes Alive with Cherry Pie: Stories of Life at the End of Life

presented by Marcia Brennan, PhD, the Carolyn & Fred McManis Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religion and Art History at Rice University on February 13, 2024.  Professor Brennan shared her work as a literary Artist In Residence working with advanced cancer patients at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The talk included case studies that vividly engage themes relating to the mouth and to issues concerning taste, voice, speech, power, and the uniqueness of human identity.