Terminating dentist-patient relationships: balancing ethics and practical considerations

Abstract

In South Africa, the right to healthcare is not explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution. However, the Constitution does protect the right to life, which has been interpreted by the Constitutional Court to include a right to access healthcare services. A dentist’s duty to a patient is to provide complete and competent dental care. Practitioners often wonder whether they are required to accept everyone who presents themselves to their office for treatment as a patient. No, you’re not! Dentists are not “innkeepers” and need not open their doors to all who seek their services. Dentists also have the autonomy to decide which persons to accept as patients or
to terminate an existing dentist-patient relationship subject to what is stated below.