[The dentist between medicine and cosmetology. Ethical shortcomings of the esthetics boom in dentistry].

Dentistry has evolved from a genuine medical practice to a mere business. From an ethical point of view it is asked whether this evolution creates more problems than it solves. The paper elaborates four arguments against this evolution and shows that aesthetics in dentistry which works only according to market categories runs the risk of loosing the view for the real need of patients. Dentistry which comprehends itself as part of a market will be nothing else than a part of a beauty industry which has the only aim to sell something, but not the aim to help people. Such a dentistry makes profit from the ideology of a society which serves only vanity, youthfulness and personal success and which is losing the sight for real values. The real value of man cannot be reduced to his appearance and medicine as an art should feel the obligation to resist these modern ideologies and should help people to get a more authentic attitude to themselves. If modern dentistry fails to think about these implications it will lose its identity as medicine, which would be too great a loss.