Ethical Problems Related to Dental Implant Technology and Its Management

Abstract

The Japanese Society of Oral Implantology is the largest academic-clinical society in dentistry in Japan with a membership of 12,000 dental surgeons. Activities that are held under the Society's auspices range from academic conferences on the basic dental science of oral implant technology to gatherings that deal with highly clinical aspects thereof. The Society keeps close ties with its partners overseas on levels that range from Society-to-Society, interuniversity or interfaculty, to person-to-person, with active real-time exchanges regarding treatment methods, techniques and materials backed by the most recent theory and insight. The Society considers it obligatory for a dental surgeon to provide patients with the optimum implant treatment based on science, and that is least invasive and safe.
A licensed dentist who is practicing or is about to practice dentistry in Japan must be law-abiding and ethical in performing therapeutic work for patients. Japanese dentists must comply with the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law and the Medical Service Law as well as the Dental Practitioners Law, and must also faithfully observe ethical guidelines that were instituted to protect the rights and health of the patient.
This paper first discusses those ethical aspects of oral implant research that are prerequisite to any level of research into the basic dental science or clinical aspects of this technology. It then reports on the laws and guidelines that dental surgeons in Japan must abide by.