Recent Events and Happenings
For many years, the American Society for Dental Ethics has held a summer board meeting open to the entire membership. In 2024, for the first time in many years, we revived our summer continuing education offering with The Truth About Veracity. This year, we extend that conversation with a critical focus on justice and health equity in dental ethics. At this pivotal time, what does an ethically grounded commitment to justice offer the oral health professions? Our 2025 session initiates a year-long exploration of ethical transformation, with particular attention to access to care, elder and disability care, and the impact of ethical frameworks on policy and advocacy. This is the beginning of a necessary and interdisciplinary conversation. Our work continues to be guided by ASDE’s mission and three-fold purpose:
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To uphold high standards of integrity and honor in the dental profession;
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To encourage and assist dentists and dental professionals in improving their competence so that they can better serve their clients and the public;
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To foster thoughtful discussion of, encourage and provide a forum for scholarly reflection on, and stimulate and assist educational programs in the professional and ethical issues that arise in or are related to dental practice, dental education, and dental research.
Summer 2026
Aspirational Professionalism and the Lifelong Work of Professional Self‑Formation: A Dental Ethicist’s Call for a Renewed Vision of Professional Identity
David T. Ozar, PhD
Dental and oral health education must teach students not only what professionalism is, but how to think ethically in practice through the lifelong work of professional self‑formation. Stalwart ethicist and scholar, David Ozar continues to call dentistry and oral health forward by positing aspirational professionalism as not a static ideal but a method of ethical growth, cultivated through daily habits, reflective practice, and the imitation of admirable exemplars. With evolving practice modalities and ever-growing ethical tensions, dentistry and oral health must reclaim professionalism as a lived, developmental identity rather than simply a checklist of behaviors.
Learning Objectives:
● Understand aspirational professionalism as a developmental, lifelong process, as
well as explain why dental and oral health education must explicitly teach the
skills of professional self‑formation.
● Explore how observing and imitating admirable practitioners serves as a
foundational mechanism for sustainable ethical growth and professional identity
formation.
● Apply everyday ethical thinking to routine clinical decisions and choosing actions
that align with dentistry’s aspirational commitments
David T. Ozar, PhD, is emeritus professor of philosophy at Loyola University Chicago, where he taught professional and social ethics from 1972 to 2015 and directed the Center for Ethics and Social Justice from 1993 to 2006. A graduate of Loyola University Chicago (B.A., M.A.) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1974), he has held longstanding roles in clinical ethics, including service as consulting ethicist and member of the Institutional Ethics Committee at North Shore University Health System and participation on the steering committee of the Unrepresented Patients Project for Illinois. Dr. Ozar previously served as Co‑Director of Graduate Studies in Health Care Ethics in Loyola’s Department of Philosophy and as Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities in Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine, where he also acted as Director of Medical Humanities. His professional leadership includes founding and serving as the first president of the American Society for Dental Ethics, formerly the Professional Ethics in Dentistry Network (PEDNET) organized in 1987 and initiated the former
PEDNET newsletter in 1983. He has held offices in the Society for Health and Human Values, the American Philosophical Association, and many other national organizations. A widely published scholar, Dr. Ozar is co‑author of the landmark text Dental Ethics at Chairside, now in its third edition, and co‑editor of Philosophical Issues in Human Rights: Theories and Applications. His contributions to dental ethics have been recognized through honorary fellowship in both the American College of Dentists and the American College of Legal Medicine.
Spring 2026
Key Trends Reshaping Dental Practice
The dental practice environment is changing. The practice model, including size, ownership structure, and DSO affiliation is transitioning, with early career dentists seeing the sharpest changes. The ADA Health Policy Institute tracks the most robust trend in dental practice, including a comprehensive research agenda unpacking key drivers of trends as well as implications for patients and clinicians. Come hear about the latest data and discussion of what this all means for the future of dentistry.
Kamyar Nasseh is a health economist at the American Dental Association and has been with the organization since May 2012. Dr. Nasseh has published recent articles in Health Affairs, Health Services Research, Health Economics, Medical Care, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), JAMA Health Forum, The American Journal of Public Health and the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA). His research focuses on healthcare economics and dental economics. Dr. Nasseh received his PhD in Economics in 2007 from Michigan State University, where his area of specialization was in cross-section and panel data econometrics.
Marko Vujicic currently serves as Chief Economist and Vice President of the Health Policy Institute as well as Chief of International Relations at the American Dental Association. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals such as Health Affairs, The New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA his team’s work has been cited by CNN, The New York Times, Fox News, and The Washington Post. Dr. Vujicic holds academic appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto and Tufts University.
Learning Objectives
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Examine current national data on how dental practice models are shifting, including changes in practice size, ownership structures, and the growth of DSO affiliation.
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Analyze key economic, workforce, and policy drivers identified by the ADA Health Policy Institute that are reshaping the dental practice environment.
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Evaluate the implications of these emerging trends for patient access, clinician decision‑making, and the future organization of dental practice.
Summer 2025
Unpacking and Re-imagining Dental Ethics With Anti-Oppressive and Interdisciplinary Praxis
Eleanor Fleming, PhD, DDS, MPH, FICD is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health. She earned her dental degree from Meharry Medical College, completed her dental public health residency at Boston University, and earned her PhD from Vanderbilt University. She completed additional post-graduate training as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer where she investigated disease outbreaks and conducted studies to promote health equity.
This course invited participants to critically reflect on and reimagine dental ethics through the lens of anti-oppressive and interdisciplinary praxis. Drawing on two recent publications, the presentation explored how traditional ethical frameworks in dentistry may no longer meet the complex demands of the 21st century, and, in some cases, may contribute to rather than reduce existing health inequities. Conventional dental ethics, often grounded in a liberal social contract and shaped by assumptions centered on whiteness, risk reinforcing structural hierarchies and barriers to care. To build a more equitable and effective oral health system, a reexamination of these foundational ideas is both timely and necessary. This course proposed an alternative ethical vision: one that is anti-oppressive, person- and community-centered, and rooted in a conception of oral health as a human right beyond the limits of traditional liberal frameworks. The goal is both conceptual and practical, to support an examination within the discipline while making clear that the critique is directed at systemic structures, not individual ethicists or practitioners. Ultimately, this course offered an opportunity for scholarly and professional inquiry, encouraging participants to engage in meaningful reflection and dialogue as part of a collective effort to advance health justice in the oral health professions. Learning objectives included:
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Think critically about how traditional dental ethics may be too narrow or outdated for today’s challenges.
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Examine why older ideas about the social contract may not fully support ethical care in today’s diverse and complex oral health landscape.
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Reflect on how white, Eurocentric ideas have shaped dental ethics, and consider what it means to move beyond them.
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Explore how using anti-oppressive and interdisciplinary approaches can help reshape dental ethics to better support health equity and justice.
Fleming, E., Smith, C. S., & Quiñonez, C. R. (2023). Centering anti‐oppressive justice: Re‐envisioning dentistry's social contract. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 51(4), 609-614. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdoe.12854
Fleming, E., & Neville, P. (2025). Critical retelling of dental ethics told through ‘George Washington’s Complete Denture’. Medical Humanities. https://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2025/03/20/medhum-2024-013151.abstract
Spring 2025
Ethics and Dental Public Health with Dr. Scott Tomar
Dr. Scott Tomar is Professor and Associate Dean for Prevention and Public Sciences at the College of Dentistry. He has served as President of the American Board of Dental Public Health, the Oral Health Section of the American Public Health Association, the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, and the Behavioral, Epidemiologic and Health Services Research Group of the International Association for Dental Research. Dr. Tomar is a former editor of Journal of Public Health Dentistry and Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice. He served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health.
Dr. Tomar offered attendees valuable insights into the intersection of ethics and community dental practice. The presentation described the specialty of Dental Public Health and introduced the Public Health Code of Ethics. It applied the Code to the public health program of community water fluoridation. Learning objectives included:
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Describe the recognized speciality of Dental Public Health and compare and contrast to the clinical practice of dentistry.
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Identify the core values of public health practice, as articulated in the APHA Public Health Code of Ethics.
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Apply the Public Health Code of Ethics to the practice of community water fluoridation.
Fall 2025
Special Ethics Session with Profs Pam Zarkowski, Catherine Sarkis and Dr. Carlos Smith
In today’s world, the concept of truth is increasingly challenged. While many view truth-telling as a core personal value, they must also navigate a landscape filled with disinformation and mistrust. Even those whose professions depend on truth—such as practitioners, educators, and researchers— are sometimes accused of being untruthful. This course explores veracity as a foundational ethical principle in dentistry. Truthfulness influences relationships with patients, colleagues, students, staff, family, and friends. Through interactive discussions and case-based analysis, participants will examine the meaning and importance of veracity in both professional and personal contexts, with a focus on the responsibilities of healthcare professionals.
Course Objectives:
• Understand the impact of veracity in professional and personal contexts.
• Identify ethical dilemmas and challenges related to truth-telling in dental practice
• Apply the principle of veracity in everyday interactions with patients, colleagues, and others.
• Develop effective strategies for maintaining truthfulness in difficult conversations.
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