Is advertising ethical for dentists? An insight into the Indian scenario

Abstract

Background

The question of whether Indian dentists should advertise their services is an important issue with significant ethical and professional implications. Individual dentists may feel the need to advertise in order to establish or grow a dental practice, but what effect does this have on the standing of the profession as a whole? As health care professionals are bound by a code of ethics, should dentists be allowed to advertise?

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of Indian dentists to the issue of advertising. It also aims to explore whether advertising could have positive benefits (to increase the community’s awareness of dental health care, encourage better quality dental services, decrease unemployment in the industry, and help consumers choose a dentist), or, on the contrary, whether advertising could have a negative impact by undermining the reputation of the industry, in particular the definition of dentistry as a medical profession.

Methods

Of 1500 eligible participants, 423 dentists (28.2%) participated in the study. The questionnaire, comprising 14 questions, was provided to the respondents. The data was collected and analyzed by applying the “Chi-squared test” of association and the “Z test” of difference between two proportions at 5% and 1% levels of significance (ie, P = 0.05 and P = 0.01).

Results

A majority of 56.02% of the respondents were in favor of dentists advertising their services. The majority of dentists in favor of advertising were in the youngest age group (22–30 years, 75.86%). The older age groups were more likely to agree and comply with the government ban on advertising by dentists.

Conclusion

While Indian culture and law does not regard advertising as ethical, in recent years there has been a change in the attitudes of dental professionals to the issue of advertising.

Keywords:

• marketing
• advertising
• health care
• ethics
• law
• dentistry
• attitudes

Acknowledgments

The authors offer their sincere thanks to all of the dental practitioners across the country who kindly participated in this survey. The authors sincerely thank the institutional authority who granted them permission to conduct this study. The authors are also grateful to the statistician for his advice on statistical methods employed in this study, and to Professor Geetha N for her constructive help in editing this article.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.