ABSTRACT
Introduction: Dental malpractice is the failure of a professional person to render appropriate services through reprehensible ignorance or negligence or through criminal intent, especially when injury or loss follows. Since dental implants have gained a special place in modern dentistry and this new treatment is a costly one, paying more attention to the prevention of malpractice is more important. In this study, we decided to survey the proportion of complaints of dental implant treatments and compare them to the total rate of dental claims in a period of 5 years. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. Data was collected in Medical Council of Iran during 2006 to 2011 by the means of a checklist inquiring about the date of complaints, main complaint field, gender of doctor and complainant, degree [specialist/general] of the therapist, and the court decision. In regard to ethical issues, the name of dentist and complainants were not mentioned in any document. Data was analyzed using chi-squared test by SPSS. Result: From the total 44 dental claims, 93% were for general practitioners and 86.5% of the accused dentists were male. Moreover, 33 complainants were female. In 57% of cases the court found the dentist guilty. The complaints of male dentist in the field of surgery had the greatest percentage [50%]. The second field according to complainant frequency was implants and prosthodontics accounting for 27% of all dental claims. There was only 1 implant complaint submitted about a specialist, and all the others were from general dentists. There was no gender difference regarding dental implant complainants. Conclusion: According to study findings, implants and prosthodontics complaints are in the second rank of dental claims. Therefore, paying greater attention to the training process in universities and continuing training programs is necessary
ABSTRACT
The aim of the present study was to investigate self-perceived need to learn practice management and self reported knowledge in this regard among dentists. A group of five academic staff members of Community Oral Health Department [Tehran Dental School] and four dentists formed an expert panel to develop the content of the course. This group developed a list of topics related to principles of successful dental practice. To investigate the necessity of educating the topics and self-assessed knowledge of the topics, a questionnaire was designed and administered to 55 volunteer dentists. Forty six dentists completed the questionnaire. T-test and Chi-square test were used for statistical analyses. Totally more than two-third of the dentists believed that a huge need exists for education of all the topics The corresponded figure for such topics as ergonomics and medical emergencies was about 90%. About 80% of the dentists felt that they had a vast knowledge of safety and infection control. On the other hand, 54.3% of them reported weak knowledge regarding professional rules and regulations. Self-reported educational need and knowledge of the dentists did not show significant association with their age, gender, and work experience [P>0.05]. The dentists believed in the necessity of educating such topics and evaluated their knowledge as deficient in these areas. This shows the necessity of developing courses on these topics
ABSTRACT
Evaluation of the training is a principle for successful education. This study evaluated the effect of the theoretical course of community oral health on knowledge, attitude and self-reported practice of preventive dentistry in dental students at Tehran University of Medical Sciences and assessed the students' satisfaction from the course. The intervention group comprised the forth-year students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Dental School and the controls were the forth year students of Shahid Beheshti Medical University. The questionnaire included questions on backgrounds, knowledge, attitude and practice of students towards preventive dentistry, and students' satisfaction from the course. The intervention was 17 weekly sessions [hours] of the community oral health course. The sum of scores for questions on backgrounds, knowledge, attitude and practice were calculated and changes were analyzed by General Linear Model. The mean baseline knowledge score in the intervention group was 16.9 [SD=4.0] and for the control group 16.3 [SD=3.5]. Corresponding figures were 23.7 [SD=3.4] and 17 [SD=3.3] after intervention. General linear model showed the intervention to be successful in increasing the students' knowledge scores on preventive dentistry [P<0.0001]. Most students [92%] were satisfied with learning several new items during the course. The students' knowledge was successfully increased by passing the theoretical course of community oral health delivered by teacher-centered method of lecture. Student-centered methods may help in changing the students' attitude and practice of preventive dentistry