Professional Ethics and Law Flashcards

Which ethical principle requires the dental hygienist to tell the truth and provide accurate information to patients?

Answer: Veracity

Veracity is the ethical principle of truthfulness — dental hygienists have a duty to provide accurate, complete, and honest information to patients regarding diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment options.

Informed consent in dental hygiene practice requires all of the following EXCEPT:

Answer: The patient must be guaranteed a specific treatment outcome

Informed consent requires disclosure of diagnosis, proposed treatment, risks/benefits, alternatives, and consequences of no treatment — but cannot guarantee specific outcomes, as individual variation exists.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule requires dental practices to:

Answer: Provide patients with a Notice of Privacy Practices and protect individually identifiable health information from unauthorized disclosure

HIPAA requires covered entities (including dental practices) to provide patients a Notice of Privacy Practices and to implement safeguards protecting Protected Health Information (PHI) from unauthorized use or disclosure.

A dental hygienist who performs a procedure that they are not legally authorized to perform in their state may be charged with:

Answer: Practicing dentistry without a license (unauthorized practice of dentistry)

Performing procedures beyond the dental hygienist's legal scope of practice — regardless of dentist authorization — constitutes unauthorized practice of dentistry, which is a criminal offense in all states.

Which action represents proper documentation in the event of a patient refusing recommended treatment?

Answer: Document the refusal in the patient's chart, including the risks and alternatives explained, and have the patient sign a refusal of care form

Informed refusal must be fully documented: what was recommended, what risks were explained, what alternatives were offered, the patient's decision, and ideally a signed informed refusal form to protect both patient and provider.

The concept of 'standard of care' in dental hygiene malpractice cases is defined as:

Answer: The level of care a reasonably prudent dental hygienist with similar training and experience would provide under the same or similar circumstances

Standard of care is the objective legal standard — what a reasonably prudent dental hygienist with comparable training would do in the same circumstances — not the best care possible or minimum statutory requirements.