Dentist patient relationship: a cultural historical theoretical approach
Date
2010-01-29T22:05:02Z
Authors
Ardenghi, Diego Machado
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This thesis is about ethics in the dentist-patient relationships. Using cultural-historical activity theory and discourse analysis as theoretical and methodological frameworks, I investigate (a) how ethics emerges in dentists' discourse when they talk about dental-patient relationships; (b) how dentists deal with conflicts that emerge in their interaction with the patients; and (c) how a dental clinic is organized and works on a daily basis. I also discuss the implications of a theory of unknowability of actions for dentistry practice. My database is composed of dentists' narratives during videotaped interviews, and an ethnographic study in a private dental clinic in Canada. I conclude that ethics is embodied in the dentists' actions; that the development of phronesis helps dentists to solve conflicts in the workplace: and that the trajectory of the dental treatment is conducted in states through a complex division of labor and often in more than one activity system.
Description
Keywords
dentists, patients, ethics, Canada