A welcome to the workshop on "professional promises: Hopes and gaps in access to oral health care".

Starting with the belief held by some of the workshop participants that access to basic oral health care is a natural human right and that the oral health care system in the United States must serve the common good, we conducted a meeting of ethicists, practicing dentists, dental hygienists, dental educators, and others to discuss ethical issues related to access to care. As one of the meeting organizers, the author discusses in these introductory remarks his background and personal perspectives on why the dental profession has a moral obligation to better address the access issue.