Background: Ethics has become an essential aspect in the provision of quality oral health care in the public sector. Aim: To study knowledge, attitudes and ethical dilemmas experienced by oral health workers in the public sector in three regions of Gauteng; to determine their knowledge of ethics; to identify the most common ethical issues confronting oral health care workers in the public sector. Methods: 270 sealed envelopes with questionnaires were distributed to oral health workers. Results: The response rate was 137 (51%); 116 (86.6%) females; 18 (13.4%) males. 105 (70.1%) respondents rated their knowledge as good whilst only 26 (19.9%) rated it as poor. When asked to agree or disagree to these questions, “Is ethics and moral synonymous?”; “Is ethics and law similar?” “Is autonomy key to informed consent?” Less than 50% responded to each of these questions. Also, 64 (52%) responded that patients were not interested decisions making about their own treatment. Only 78(59.1%) had encountered an ethical dilemma. The main ethical dilemma encountered by 70(53%) of the respondents was turning away of patients because of lack of resources in the facilities.
Conclusion: Although the majority of respondents rated their knowledge of ethics as good, however, the inverse was true in response to questions meant to test their knowledge of ethics. In addition, very few reported encountering ethical dilemmas. However, the latter results should be interpreted with caution as they show a degree of ethics knowledge gap amongst the majority of the respondents, as demonstrated by their inability to respond to fundamental ethics questions.