Article 33

General Principle

1. Dentists shall defend the health of the population, particularly their oral health, as well as the operation and improvement of all institutions related to public health.

2. Dentists must support and participate in those community initiatives aimed at promoting people¿s health and well-being.

Article 34

Attitude

Dentists shall always keep a dignified attitude towards the profession, avoiding any misrepresentation, distortion or falsehood concerning their training, qualifications and competence.

Article 35

Duty of Cooperation

Regardless of their right to free and independent practice and of all the other deontological rules, dentists shall cooperate with any initiatives developed by the competent authorities in order to promote the population¿s health and well-being, specifically dental health.

Article 36

Duty of Notification

1. Dentists must notify the Portuguese Dental Association, in a rigorous, objective and confidential manner, about any actions in breach of the code of ethics of which they may be aware, and agree to testify in any such breaches of conduct.

2. Under no circumstances shall dentists allow or aid and abet the illegal or unqualified practice of dentistry.

Article 37

The Dentist as Expert

1. When acting as expert, the dentist shall behave with total impartiality, with the sole objective of performing the task requested.

2. Further to the previous paragraph, the dentist has the right to refuse to act as an expert in the examination of any person with whom he or she is personally acquainted, which may affect his or her objectivity, or when the dentist's own interests are at stake.

3. Before proceeding to the expert examination, the dentist shall make certain that the person to be examined is aware of this circumstance and of the dentist¿s capacity as an expert.

4. The dentist must decline to act as an expert when the questions posed are not within his or her specific area of knowledge.

5. When in the capacity of experts, dentists shall be restricted to the task demanded, answering only to the questions posed to them.

6. The dentist expert shall respect the confidentiality of his or her task, whether or not this has been carried out.