USC dental student wins 2022 Student Ethics Video Contest

ADA Council on Ethics, Bylaws and Judicial Affairs selects Tufts team for honorable mention

Losing yourself can actually mean winning.

The ADA Council on Ethics, Bylaws and Judicial Affairs has selected the winners of the 2022 Student Ethics Video Contest, with the grand prize winner being Ellie Fridman of the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California for her video  "'Lose Yourself' Dental Ethics Parody."

The video, set to the music of Eminem's chart-topping hit "Lose Yourself," displays the principles of patient autonomy, veracity, non-maleficence, justice and beneficence as found within the ADA Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct.

As grand prize winner, Ms. Fridman will receive $2,500.

"I entered this contest in the hopes of just challenging myself to see if I could rewrite the original song with a dental ethics twist, and it was a really fun and fantastic way to do something creative," Ms. Fridman said. "I have always really enjoyed writing song parodies. 'Lose Yourself' is such a culturally iconic song."

Ms. Fridman said she remembered that during one of her school's dental ethics seminars, she was told about the contest and shown one of the winning videos of a previous year.

"I thought it was such a great way to get students across the country to get involved and be more knowledgeable on this topic," she said. "The idea of the contest always remained in my mind, and last year when I saw the flyer, I told myself that before I graduated, I really wanted to try and enter the competition. I wasn't able to meet the deadline in 2021, but thankfully this year I submitted my video."

The council also selected the honorable mention-winning video, prepared by Robert Fu, Daniel Won, Anil Ramappa, Emely Vidal and Tareina Rogers of the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. Their video, "Burning Dental," explores the ADA Code of Ethics principles of beneficence, justice, veracity and patient autonomy.

As recipients of the honorable mention, the winners receive a total award of $1,500.

The council initiated the annual contest in 2008 to encourage dental students to engage with and apply the ADA Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct.

"Every year CEBJA receives video entries from dental students around the country," said Bruce A. Burton, D.M.D., council chair. "Each one is very well done, entertaining and thought-provoking. Although the task of selecting the top two videos is challenging, watching the videos each year is one of the highlights of serving on CEBJA. It is gratifying to know that ethics is alive and well in the students' thinking and dental education."