چالش‌های دندان‌پزشکان در درمان بیماران مبتلا به ایدز

In the past generations and throughout the history of dentistry, horrific and deadly epidemics of the diseases transmitted through blood have not been a concern for those in the dental care profession. This has been due to the success of this profession in maintaining the oral health of patients. Questions such as whether dental treatments can potentially spread HIV and AIDS have therefore not been discussed extensively, and there seems to be a shortage of reference for dentists to find comprehensive and accurate answers to these questions. As a matter of fact, several generations of dentists, and health care providers in general, have continued to perform their duties despite the possibility that they could be exposing their patients to a deadly infection, and have not even apprehended a fatal pandemic. Consequently, it is not surprising that the professional norms that today’s dentists were educated on during their training years should fail to give clear answers to their questions regarding AIDS and HIV nowadays. The present paper will cover this issue in connection to HIV positive patients from the ethical and professional point of view.