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Reflections on the encouragement of altruism in dental education

Dental ethics and professionalism are often relegated to being taught on the coat-tails of other disciplines, if they are taught at all. The assumption that students develop professionalism as a by-product of other learned competencies in dentistry is well documented to be false, and yet, little has been done in many institutions to deal with this. This article seeks to propose that altruism should be championed in dental education and that traditional learning through the preaching of professional codes is not the appropriate way to achieve this. The environment of dental schools needs to be challenged and reformed so that altruism is promoted. If we fail to address declines in altruism in the dental profession, then damage to the professional status of dentistry is inevitable and the ability to fulfil the profession's social contract with society will be inhibited.