A patient says another dentist told her she has six cavities; you find only one interproximal lesion. She asks why the difference. What is the best response?

Correct answer: D. Explain that diagnostic differences do occur, present your findings, and offer conservative treatment with monitoring

• A. Disparaging a colleague to a patient breaches the ADA Code section on professionalism. You may state your findings; you may not characterize another dentist's work as fraudulent without knowledge.
• B. Dismissing the possibility of a second opinion undermines patient autonomy and is unjustifiably confident.
• C. Restoring sound tooth structure to reconcile a disagreement is supervised neglect in reverse — it violates non-maleficence.
• D. CORRECT. Diagnostic threshold genuinely varies between clinicians, particularly for incipient interproximal lesions where one dentist restores at E2 and another remineralizes and monitors. You explain your own findings objectively, acknowledge that reasonable clinicians differ, and offer the conservative option.

Note: The ADA Code specifically addresses this: a dentist who believes a colleague's treatment was substandard should discuss it with that colleague where possible, and must not make disparaging statements to the patient without a factual basis.