Medical Ethics & Patient Rights Flashcards
7 cards from real CIT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Medical Ethics & Patient Rights flashcards as text
A patient is considering implant treatment but has unrealistic expectations about outcomes. The ethical obligation of the clinician is to:
Answer: Provide honest, complete information about realistic outcomes before treatment
Honest disclosure of realistic treatment outcomes is fundamental to valid informed consent and prevents patient harm from unmet expectations.
A patient declines antibiotic prophylaxis before implant surgery despite medical recommendations. The clinician should:
Answer: Document the refusal thoroughly and respect the patient's decision after ensuring informed refusal
Competent patients have the right to refuse recommended treatment; clinicians must document informed refusal to protect both patient and provider.
Which of the following is NOT a required element of informed consent for implant surgery?
Answer: The clinician's personal financial incentives for recommending the procedure
Informed consent requires risks, benefits, alternatives, and procedure description, but does not typically require disclosure of the clinician's financial incentives under standard consent doctrine.
A dental technician notices a fabrication error that could compromise an implant crown's longevity. Ethically, the technician should:
Answer: Immediately notify the supervising dentist of the defect before delivery
Patient safety requires disclosure of fabrication errors to the supervising dentist before delivery to prevent foreseeable harm.
Which action by an implantology team member constitutes a breach of patient confidentiality?
Answer: Leaving patient radiographs visible on a screen in a public hallway
Leaving patient radiographs visible in public areas exposes protected health information to unauthorized individuals, constituting a HIPAA breach.
A patient who speaks limited English requires implant treatment. To ensure valid informed consent, the practice should:
Answer: Provide a qualified interpreter and written materials in the patient's preferred language
Valid informed consent requires meaningful understanding; a qualified interpreter and translated materials are necessary for patients with limited English proficiency.
The concept of 'therapeutic privilege' in dental ethics refers to:
Answer: Withholding information from a patient if disclosure would harm them
Therapeutic privilege allows clinicians to withhold distressing information if it would directly harm the patient, though it is rarely justified and narrowly applied.