Dental School Interview --Ethics

[DMDcanada]

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Hello all Students, Residents, and Dentists,

I am aspiring to join you all in the field. However, last year I was waitlisted at my number 1 choice Dental School in Canada. Im not sure if the interview was what put me on there, but there were a bunch of ethical questions that im not sure of how I handled. They are as follow: please let me know how you would handle these situations, and what you think an interviewer would want to hear.

1) A patient does not want to pay you the full price because he or she thinks you are overcharging to pay for your BMW (i swear the interviewer said that).

2) A patient comes to you after having gone to your best friend who is a dentist, and claims that he totally messed up. Now the patient cannot afford to pay you to fix.

3) A fellow student cheats off of you in class. How do u handle the situation.


There were a bunch more, but those were the ones that I would really like to hear ur feedback on. Thanks so much guys.

 

[Biogirl361]

Hello all Students, Residents, and Dentists,

I am aspiring to join you all in the field. However, last year I was waitlisted at my number 1 choice Dental School in Canada. Im not sure if the interview was what put me on there, but there were a bunch of ethical questions that im not sure of how I handled. They are as follow: please let me know how you would handle these situations, and what you think an interviewer would want to hear.

1) A patient does not want to pay you the full price because he or she thinks you are overcharging to pay for your BMW (i swear the interviewer said that).

2) A patient comes to you after having gone to your best friend who is a dentist, and claims that he totally messed up. Now the patient cannot afford to pay you to fix.

3) A fellow student cheats off of you in class. How do u handle the situation.


There were a bunch more, but those were the ones that I would really like to hear ur feedback on. Thanks so much guys.

1. tell him that I set my fees according to what i feel is fair based on the materials i use and other costs associated with the procedure as well as based on my time spent and my experience with the procedure. Then, if he presses the matter further, tell him that I want my patients to be comfortable at my office and if he is truly not confident and comfortable with any aspect of my practice including fees then i urge him to find another office at which he will be happy.

2) after examining patient, consult with the other dentist/your friend to hear what he has to say about the work - since you weren't there when the work was done and don't know the circumstances, you can't ethically make a judgement about the dentist just by looking at the work and listening to the patient's claims. If perchance the work was indeed subpar due to fault of the dentist, ideally you would try to send the patient back to him and get him to fix the work himself free of charge. the main idea of this question is likely that they want you to say that you'll consult with the original dentist about the work before making a judgement and that you will do your best to help him keep the patient rather than "stealing" his patient at first opportunity.

3) -what they probably want to hear, and what is probably the ideal action - you'll notify the faculty of the situation
-what i would probably actually do - be pissed and make sure to cover my paper better next time, but probably not actually say anything, because 4 years is a long time to have enemies in your class

 

[DMDcanada]

1. tell him that I set my fees according to what i feel is fair based on the materials i use and other costs associated with the procedure as well as based on my time spent and my experience with the procedure. Then, if he presses the matter further, tell him that I want my patients to be comfortable at my office and if he is truly not confident and comfortable with any aspect of my practice including fees then i urge him to find another office at which he will be happy.

2) after examining patient, consult with the other dentist/your friend to hear what he has to say about the work - since you weren't there when the work was done and don't know the circumstances, you can't ethically make a judgement about the dentist just by looking at the work and listening to the patient's claims. If perchance the work was indeed subpar due to fault of the dentist, ideally you would try to send the patient back to him and get him to fix the work himself free of charge. the main idea of this question is likely that they want you to say that you'll consult with the original dentist about the work before making a judgement and that you will do your best to help him keep the patient rather than "stealing" his patient at first opportunity.

3) -what they probably want to hear, and what is probably the ideal action - you'll notify the faculty of the situation
-what i would probably actually do - be pissed and make sure to cover my paper better next time, but probably not actually say anything, because 4 years is a long time to have enemies in your class

Thanks BioGirl,,,

Those are nice answers! For the 3rd question tho, I actually was honest and said that I wouldn't notify the faculty until i had spoken with the student who had cheated. I would want to see what the circumstances of him/her cheating were