Awareness and Attitude of Moroccan Orthodontics Regarding Professionalism

Introduction: To assess orthodontists’ perception of professionalism, identify the constraints encountered, and draw attitudes to improve the professionalism of the dentist profession, we conducted a survey of orthodontists in the private sector of the city of Casablanca, Morocco. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional survey of 200 practitioners using a questionnaire that provided information on socio-demographic characteristics and summarized the perception and attitude of orthodontists towards the main components of the medical professionalism charter. The statistical analysis was carried out according to descriptive and analytical modalities. The chi2, or Fisher’s exact tests were used to compare different qualitative variables. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The response rate was 87.5%. 85.1% of participants did not have education about professionalism. 35.4% defined this concept as clinical competence and know-how. 66.3% are convinced that collaboration with other specialists is essential for improving the quality of care. A total of 76.6% of orthodontists respected the patient’s right to information and thus the use of free and informed consent before starting treatment. 48.6% of orthodontists participated in prevention campaigns and 33.1% had social actions. On the other hand, duration and exclusivity of orthodontic practice were significantly associated with work-life balance, informing the patient in case of medical error, and use of practice organization software. While life-long education and knowledge of the concept of evidence-based practice were influenced by exclusive orthodontic practice (respectively p = 0.039 and p = 0.047). The personal development activity was significantly associated with gender (p = 0.0243). Conclusion: Similar to these results, gaps in the knowledge of dentists in terms of professionalism resulting from a lack of training in this area were noted. Dentists are anxious about promoting their professional image and the quality of the relationship with their patients and society as a whole through a teaching of professionalism that must now be integrated into the pre- and post-university curriculum.