Evaluation of the Most Common Dental Procedural Errors Leading to Lawsuits and the Relevant Reasons in Three Dental Clinics in Tehran

Abstract

One of the most important occupational stresses that dentists encounter in their profession is patients’ lawsuits. The present study aimed to evaluate common procedural errors that lead to lawsuits in dentistry. In the present cross-sectional study, all the patient files of three large dental clinics in Tehran were evaluated from 2014 to 2019, in which a dentist’s negligence had been confirmed by the specialty dental committee. Files with incomplete clinical data, without the dentist’s name, and the type of the lawsuit were excludeda and Finally, 107 lawsuit files were confirmed and entered the study.  After extraction of the data from the existing files and completing the relevant checklist, data were analyzed with SPSS 23. Most lawsuits were of the therapeutic type (88 cases, 82%), with 34 cases (31.9%) , 26 cases (24.2%)  and 19 cases (17.6%) related to prosthodontics, endodontics, and surgery, respectively. Most plaintiffs were 30–49 years of age (56 cases ,52%), and most were women (70 cases, 65%). Over half of the lawsuits had been filed against dentists with a job experience of <10 years and against general dental practitioners (81 cases, 76%). One of the most important ways to prevent errors leading to lawsuits is to increase dentists’ knowledge about previous lawsuits. Knowledge about the most common lawsuits and the provision of organizational guidelines will help manage and decrease such lawsuits.