{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T12:17:35Z","timestamp":1787833055982,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787788800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"\u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timi\u0219oara, Romania","award":["The article processing charge was supported"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["The article processing charge was supported"]}]},{"award":["The article processing charge was supported"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["The article processing charge was supported"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00afdp487","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Dent. J.","Dentistry Journal"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Dental graduates make clinical decisions shaped by ethical principles, legal obligations, patient expectations, and private-practice economics. This study synthesized empirical findings from Romanian healthcare education and practice and proposes an exploratory model for teaching ethical decision-making in entrepreneurial dentistry. Methods: Exploratory conceptual framework development informed by four previously published Romanian healthcare studies examining business-ethics attitudes using the Attitudes Toward Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ), moral reasoning using an adapted Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2; 242 valid cases), scenario-based ethical decision-making (n = 244), and ethical reasoning profiles derived from the joint administration of the ATBEQ and 35-item scenario questionnaire (n = 277). Results: \u201cIt depends\u201d accounted for 47.8% of scenario responses. Students and practitioners differed regarding vaccination of healthcare workers, risk-based insurance contributions, and organ-market policy (chi-square, df = 2, uncorrected). Practitioners endorsed law-oriented arguments more strongly but weighted patient autonomy more heavily at end of life. Idealism\/Legalism showed an isolated exploratory association with fewer conditional responses (B = \u22120.69, 95% CI \u22121.28 to \u22120.11, p = 0.021); however, the overall regression model was not statistically significant and had low explanatory power (R2 = 0.04, adjusted R2 = 0.02, p = 0.08). Four ethical reasoning profiles were identified. Conclusions: The G.D.C. framework is a theory-informed, hypothesis-generating educational framework derived from mixed Romanian healthcare samples. It has not been validated specifically in entrepreneurial dentistry and requires prospective, dental-specific validation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/dj14090537","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T10:58:21Z","timestamp":1787828301000},"page":"537","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Ethical Decision-Making in Entrepreneurial Dentistry: An Exploratory Conceptual Framework Informed by Romanian Healthcare Studies"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2580-2432","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"George Dumitru","family":"Constantin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Clinical Skills, Department I Nursing, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timi\u0219oara, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"},{"name":"Doctoral School, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"},{"name":"Center for Advanced Research in Cardiovascular Pathology and Hemostaseology, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timi\u0219oara, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-3667-2718","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alexandru","family":"Cucui-Cozma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Surgery II, Discipline of Surgery I, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timi\u0219oara, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4837-2693","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ioana","family":"Veja","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dental Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, \u201cVasile Goldi\u0219\u201d Western University of Arad, 310025 Arad, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9017-1046","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Crisanta-Alina","family":"Mazilescu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Teacher Training Department, Politehnica University Timi\u0219oara, 300596 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8438-1976","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roxana","family":"Oancea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Translational and Experimental Clinical Research Centre in Oral Health, Department of Preventive, Community Dentistry and Oral Health, Faculty of Dental Medicine, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timi\u0219oara, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9","DOI":"10.1080\/15265161.2019.1665402","article-title":"Principles of Biomedical Ethics: Marking Its Fortieth Anniversary","volume":"19","author":"Beauchamp","year":"2019","journal-title":"Am. 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