The new business ethics.

, CBC's Marketplace 1 aired the results of an undercover survey of 50 dental offices. The story revealed a wide disparity in treatment estimates as the reporter received quotes ranging from nothing to $9,000. The implication was that many dentists were in business without an ethical rudder. The Marketplace scenario was predictable. The very proposition that dentists are blatantly in business makes for a squeamish market and a nervous profession. The private practitioner surviving on elective services is torn between the patient-first ethos of the healer and the survival-of-the-fittest demands of private enterprise. It is time for a national dialogue that will lead to the universally accepted definition and teaching of business ethics for private practice dentistry. The best ally and mentor in this process is " real " business, which is experiencing its own ethical revival. 2 At first blush, the suggestion that the dental profession turn to merchants for ethical direction is discomfiting. Yet progressive business has embraced applied ethics. 3 In the last two decades there has been an explosion of business ethics textbooks, journals and courses. Newspapers have business ethics reporters. Departments of ethics flourish in business schools. 4 Ethics consultants are busy. 5 Max Stackhouse calls responsive business leaders the " new professionals. " 6 This new approach is not driven exclusively by altruistic motives. Businesses have their own " Marketplaces. " 7 Those that respond immediately to market tidal waves survive. Business is the delivery vehicle of most Canadian dentistry. Charles Handy says that although profit may not be the point of an enterprise, it is its " means of life. " 8 Integral to generating profit is business rationalization. Employees must achieve a minimum reward/maximum production ratio. The number of clients must be increased with maximum fee and service acceptance. Supply costs must be minimized. This formula produces profit, the lifeblood of the private practice. If not strained through a moral filter, however, it is also its toxin. It is within this formula that actual and perceived ethical breaches most commonly occur. It is here that Marketplace finds its fodder. The process of moral decision making in which profit is given legitimate consideration is the realm of business ethics. And it is exactly here that the dental profession offers minimal guidance. Most day-today decisions made by private practitioners are business decisions. They hire and fire, lease and purchase, market and bill. They compete …