Staff recruitment, development and global mobility.

This paper considers issues that relate to staff recruitment, staff development and global mobility of dental academics. Published literature, which has a North American bias, is reviewed. Recommendations, which may be applicable world-wide, are made to address evident and pertinent areas of concern in terms of the availability of quality dental teaching staff in dental teaching institutions so as to sustain the global dental academic enterprise at appropriately high levels of achievement.

Doctor-patient relationships in global society. Informed consent in dentistry.

The concept for initiation of treatment only after the explicit consent of the patient, based on preliminary information, is the most important element determining the relationship between patient and doctor nowadays. The application of this concept in dentistry and its inclusion in the professional documents regulating these relationships needs more comprehensive and modern conditions-relevant analysis of ethical, legal and professional aspects of the problem. The purpose of the study was to define the modern view of informed consent and its application in dentistry in different social environment. The general and specific features of the evolution of the problem and the social practice in Bulgaria, The European Community and Northern America are discussed in the context of the global tendency for free movement of patients and mutual recognition of professional qualification. The results suggest that despite the different degree of social and economical development in different countries the interest in the problem grows significantly and harmonization of legislation for health protection is based on the new social decree in the construction of doctor-patient relationships. It is expected that the comparative studies in this field will promote the improvement of dentists' training and improvement of scientific and expert exchange in solving problems of patents' rights and professional ethics.