Who We Are

The AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR DENTAL ETHICS (ASDE) is an international non-profit organization of dental educators, practicing dentists, dental organization officers, dental hygiene faculty and organization officers, ethicists, and other persons in dental health care.

Originally founded in 1987 as the Professional Ethics in Dentistry Network (PEDNET), the organization is dedicated to enhancing the growing dialogue about ethical issues in dental health care and fostering more effective ethics education in this field.

ASDE conducts three meetings each year in conjunction with other major organizations: the American Dental Education Association, the American College of Dentists, and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.

Purposes

1. To uphold high standards of integrity and honor in the dental profession;
2. To encourage and assist dentists and dental professionals in improving their competence so that they can better serve their clients and the public;
3. To foster thoughtful discussion of, encourage and provide a forum for scholarly reflection on, and stimulate and assist educational programs in the professional and ethical issues that arise in or are related to dental practice, dental education, and dental research.

History

PEDNET came into being in 1983 as the mailing list of an informal newsletter on teaching ethics in dental schools. A group of teachers of dental ethics who had attended a workshop hosted by Muriel Bebeau at the University of Minnesota, together with anyone they could find who had written on the subject or was known to be teaching dental ethics, received that first newsletter. The network was declared to exist when about two dozen recipients indicated an interest in continuing to communicate back and forth.

PEDNET became a formal organization four years later in 1987 when the members were invited to join the Society for Health and Human Values (SHHV), a predecessor organization of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). The Network has conducted three meetings each year since then as well as a biennial Dental Ethics Workshop, and has provided ethics programming assistance to numerous professional dental societies.

PEDNET was converted to the American Society for Dental Ethics in 2005.

Membership

The organization is open to all dental school faculty, dental hygiene faculty, ethicists, practicing dentists and dental hygienists, professional association Officers, social scientists and others who are concerned about professional and ethical issues in dental practice, education and research.

Officers

• PRESIDENT: Marilyn Lantz, DMD, PhD, MSD
  
• PRESIDENT ELECT: Phyllis Beemsterboer Ed.D, MS, RDH
  
• TREASURER: Larry Jenson, DDS, MA
  
• PAST PRESIDENT: Lawrence P. Garetto, PhD
  
• MEMBERS AT LARGE:
  • Toni Roucka, DDS, MA
  • Alvin Rosenblum, DDS
  • Anne Koerber, DDS
  
  
• STRATEGIC PLANNING:
  • Don Pattoff, DDS
  • Laura Bishop, PhD
  • Muriel Bebeau, PhD
  • Pamela Zarkowski, JD, MPH
  
  
• EDITORS for Issues in Dental Ethics:
  • Dave Ozar, PhD
  • Jim Rule, PhD

• EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
• Anika Ball, RDH, MA