What does the NZ Dental Council say about water fluoridation? Are oral health practitioners allow to say misinformation about water fluoridation?
“Dental Council is aware that various oral health practitioners have been requested to make submissions or provide advice to the councils on this matter.
Recent survey results published by the New Zealand Dental Association indicate that the majority of oral health professionals support community water fluoridation.
However, a small number of practitioners take a dissenting view. The difficult question for practitioners holding a dissenting view is how to reconcile their beliefs against a majority opinion, and what advice they offer to patients, local councils and other stakeholders involved.
A significant body of research exists about water fluoridation. The published research is peer-reviewed, presented in journals to a broad audience and is therefore exposed to wide critique. From this wide critique, the consensus of opinion across the oral health profession is that the benefit of water fluoridation outweighs the potential side effects.
Practitioners advising stakeholders and decision-making bodies have a professional and ethical responsibility to critically analyse available research, and to ensure the breadth and depth of the evidence they use to formulate their position is appropriate. The information presented should be impartial, not selected or edited to support one particular view. If your personal belief differs from the majority view, then there is an onus on you to inform your audience on the extent to which your view has, or does not have, the support of the majority of oral health practitioners.
Oral health promotion is a key competency of all oral health professionals, and practitioners are encouraged to embrace the opportunity to participate in this very important debate, but simultaneously must act in a responsible and professional manner as the outcome of these decisions impact on our communities.”
http://www.dcnz.org.nz/assets/Uploads/Publications/Newsletters-pre-2014/AUG2013.pdf
So if an oral health practitioner continued to give out misinformation on fluoridated water, they could be pulled in front of a Professional Conduct Committee if someone complained to the Dental Council.
http://www.dcnz.org.nz/i-practise-in-new-zealand/competence-reviews/
http://www.dcnz.org.nz/i-practise-in-new-zealand/dentists-and-dental-specialists/codes-of-practice-for-dentists-and-dental-specialists/
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