…under Washington Administrative Code 246-16-100, they [health professionals] “shall not engage, or attempt to engage, in sexual misconduct with a current patient.” Sexual misconduct “includes but is not limited to” sex, kissing, “hugging . . . of a romantic . . . nature,” “suggesting or discussing the possibility of a dating, sexual or romantic relationship after the professional relationship ends,” “terminating a professional relationship for the purpose of dating or pursuing a romantic or sexual relationship,” or “making statements regarding the patient['s] . . . body, appearance, sexual history, or sexual orientation other than for legitimate health care purposes,” among many other things.

OK, you say, no problem; you should just switch to a different dental hygienist or optician, and then start dating. Perhaps banning optician-client relationships is going a bit far, but it’s hardly a big burden on people’s romantic, sexual, or marital choices.

No dice! Subsection (3) of the provision states that “a health care provider shall not engage, or attempt to engage” in any of these activities “with a former patient, client or key party within two years after the provider-patient/client relationship ends.” Two years is not a short time. If you do want to date your former dental hygienist or optician, you can’t even kiss her until two years after you leave her practice. Or, to be precise, you can kiss her, and she can kiss you back–if she is willing to risk professional discipline and possibly loss of her livelihood, a pretty serious burden….

….Of course medical relationships offer room for various kinds of abuses. In some situations, it may be proper to interfere with people’s right to marry, and their sexual and romantic autonomy, in order to prevent those abuses….

..…But the trouble here is that the rules go vastly further than these special situations, and vastly undervalue the countervailing reasons to limit regulation–people’s right to choose whom to date, have sex with and marry, even including their dental hygienists, opticians, and the like. So much for the right to marry; so much for sexual autonomy; so much for consenting adults deciding whom to love, without the fear of losing their livelihood.

The Lonely Optician
by EUGENE VOLOKH
Source: WSJ Opinion Journal

After reading this article, I did a quick google of the Australian Dental Code of Conduct. The best document I found was from the Dental Practice Board of Victoria, and it didn’t have all those extra subsections *phew* Not that I’ve got anything to worry about, but you really never know what people will sue you for nowadays!

What I don’t like about the Code of Conduct is how it really strips the power from the practitioner or health care worker. I’ve had a number of patients who have made me feel uncomfortable with their innuendos, and all I can really do is tell the patient to stop…. and they would then just claim innocence.

The main problem comes with trying to distinguish between those patients who are just naturally flirtatious and don’t mean any harm, and the sleaze of the world…