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J Dent Educ. 70(11): 1184-1195 2006
© 2006 American Dental Education Association
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Professional Promises: Hopes and Gaps in Access to Oral Health Care

Access, Responsibility, and Funding: A Systems Thinking Approach to Universal Access to Oral Health

Patricia H. Werhane, Ph.D.

Key words: universal access, oral health care, systems thinking, moral imagination

Universal access to oral health care is a justifiable demand for a number of disparate but morally sound reasons. Nevertheless, that conclusion, however reached, has not solved the problem of the lack of access. Market forces, scarcity of funding, and lack of clarity as to who is responsible for ensuring that oral care is available seem to present insurmountable difficulties. I shall argue that these are not irresolvable problems, but the resolution has to take place through the tool of systems thinking and a systemic approach to moral imagination. Taking the lead from Susan Wolf’s and Linda Emanuel’s work on systems thinking, and developing ideas from work on mental models and moral imagination, I shall argue that what is often missing in discussions and demands for universal access to oral health care is a morally imaginative systemic approach that takes into account the multi-perspective dynamics involved in health care today. Moral imagination may encourage sound, broad-based, more inclusive moral thinking and moral judgment without ignoring the critical roles and responsibilities each of us has as professionals, providers, payers, or patients, without which change will not take place at all.




This article has been cited by other articles:


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D. E. Patthoff
The Need for Dental Ethicists and the Promise of Universal Patient Acceptance: Response to Richard Masella's "Renewing Professionalism in Dental Education"
J Dent Educ., February 1, 2007; 71(2): 222 - 226.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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 J Dent EducHome page
D. T. Ozar
Applying Systems Thinking to Oral Health Care: Commentary on Dr. Patricia H. Werhane's Article.
J Dent Educ., November 1, 2006; 70(11): 1196 - 1197.
[Full Text] [PDF]


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