Introduction: Dentistry has been presenting the changes that involve not only the discipline, but also the decision–making at both the professional–patient relationship and research processes. Given these new challenges, the bioethics foundation (theory and practice) plays a major role and promotes integral formation. Objective: To identify the knowledge possessed by the graduate students of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Cartagena about principles and foundations of bioethics, and ethics of health research. Material and methods: quantitative empirical–analytical study. 46 students from different specializations of dentistry were surveyed. Results: the category “Research ethics in health” had the highest percentage of correct answers (53%) pediatric dentistry students had the highest percentage of correct answers (49%), the performance of female participants was better. Discussion and conclusions: It is important for dental schools to emphasis on the disciplinary area and development of clinical skills, but also in your foundations bioethics. The actuals societies require health professionals who know their discipline, quality and excellence ethics, human and critical thinking.