Abstract

OLIVA TE-KLOOT, Jorge. BIOETHICS AND PAIN IN DENTISTRY: A HUMANISTIC APPROACH. rev.latinoam.bioet. [online]. 2015, vol.15, n.1, pp.38-53. ISSN 1657-4702.

In dental clinical practice, moral aspects cannot be forgotten; leaving values aside can turn to be a dangerous and senseless exercise. Understanding and becoming part of the goals involved in health care marks a dedication that goes beyond the sickness and its treatment. Understanding what the patient is going through, his/her fragility and vulnerability will allow us to place every effort into the search of what is best for him/her, with full respect for his/her interests and quality of life, without looking away from his/her interiority, which is, as I can understand, the final purpose of our work. The patient's pain, so very frequent in dentistry, as a symptom as much as fear or experience, makes a moral and value-searching approach a necessity. Pain represents much more than disease, it actually involves a break in integrality. (that will not be avoided just by prescribing drugs,) (Integrality will not be achieved just by prescribing drugs,) but also with the intimate will of the professional to restore vitality in the widest sense of the word. We want a reflection into a matter that we consider of maximum transcendence, but which has been at the same time forgotten by the great technological advancement of our profession.

Keywords : Pain; suffering; bioethics; medical anthropology.

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