Trickle-down deceit

It's one thing for presidents to lie, but when the culture of deceit starts filtering down to dentists, we need to start being worried:

Indiana University is the third dentistry school to weather a recent cheating incident.

Last year, University of Nevada-Las Vegas students obtained a faculty member's electronic password and used it to illegally approve patient care. Students at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey illicitly exchanged credits for clinical experiences required as part of their education.

Academic integrity experts say dental students, who spend four years in school, are no different from others when it comes to honesty.

"I see this as being a widespread problem, not just in dentistry," said Dr. Anne Koerber, an associate professor of dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has written about the ethics of dental education.

"When you have persons in high places who clearly lie about what's happening with weapons of mass destruction, or CEOs who lie about where the money is going, I think the general public gets the idea that anything that makes money is what's right."