This paper examines whether dentistry still qualifies as a profession in the modern era, using Jose Welie's three-part framework as its primary lens. The paper traces Welie's existential definition of a profession — one built on altruistic commitment, public trust, and the prioritization of patient needs — and applies it to contemporary dentistry's shift toward cosmetic services, dental spas, and commercial marketing. The author argues that neither a purely altruistic nor a purely commercial view fully captures dentistry's dual nature, and proposes that new ethical frameworks capable of accommodating both dimensions are needed. Rule's call for reviving early professional enthusiasm is cited as a constructive step in that direction.
There was a time when the profession of dentistry focused solely on treating and alleviating pain originating from oral tissues. Dentists were considered healers, much like medical doctors. In recent years, however, a trend toward broadening the horizons of dentistry has led the field into the realm of cosmetic medicine. Increasing focus has been placed on dentists as smile constructors. Dental clinics have been transformed into dental spas, and a broader movement is steering the profession toward a business model. How much of this shift is beneficial remains to be determined. Whether this new image of dentistry as a "business" is ethical has brought the profession into the spotlight of professional debate.
Ethicists are generating heated arguments and commenting on whether dentistry can still be called a profession. What truly constitutes a profession, what the attributes of the dental profession are, and how those attributes are changing — these are the central questions this paper addresses.
Jose Welie, a renowned professor at the Center for Health Policy and Ethics, has presented a detailed view of dentistry as it relates to professionalism in the modern era. The concepts discussed by Professor Welie span a three-part series that begins with the true essence of a profession — its definition, its constituents, the profession in light of existential theory, and the present state of the professional infrastructure as applied to his existential definition of the dental profession.
Welie defines a profession as "a collective of expert service providers who have jointly and publicly committed to always give priority to the existential needs and interests of the public they serve above their own and who in turn are trusted by the public to do so" (Welie, 2004a). In applying this definition to dentistry, he argues that it is the existential needs of the person seeking professional expertise that render dentistry a profession. In doing so, dentists are also required to adopt an altruistic approach toward patients and to build mutual trust between patient and practitioner for the greater good of the public.
In my view, the existential vulnerability described by Welie — which leads individuals to seek professional help in satisfying needs that may not be strictly life-threatening — has given rise to newer dental sciences such as cosmetic and orthodontic dentistry. Although these procedures are sometimes performed solely to improve appearance and boost self-confidence, the majority of aesthetic procedures do have functional roots. Straightening crooked teeth through orthodontics, for example, not only improves a person's appearance and confidence but also corrects crowding of the dentition, addresses occlusion problems, reduces the risk of periodontal disease, and makes teeth less vulnerable to decay.
"Professional obligations versus commercial dental practices"
"Proposal for hybrid ethical frameworks in dentistry"
Although there is a lack of a proper system for peer reviewing and standardized treatment in dentistry, I believe that it is a misconception to view care providers as egoistic and non-cooperative in this context. Ethics has been continually revised and remodeled within dentistry in an effort to produce a standard approach to professional guidelines that would satisfy both sides of the debate. Outright refusing to call dentistry a profession, or conversely treating it as an entirely non-commercial vocation like traditional medicine, both carry significant drawbacks. A middle path between the two — one that embraces dentistry's dual nature rather than denying it — may be the most constructive answer to this long-standing question.
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