Dental law in the United States of America

Abstract

Dental records have become more and more important with the introduction of more procedures and techniques available to the dentist and the increase legal scrutiny of alleged dental malpractice cases. Dentists no longer simply fill or extract teeth. Today’s dentist, with proper training, is able to provide patients with advanced endodontic, periodontics, restorative, and other general and specialist patient care. As techniques and treatments have expanded, so has the risk involved in providing such advancements. With the increase in risk, the chance of a bad result also increases, such that the patient may become dissatisfied and seek legal recourse. In the early 1970s, it was relatively uncommon that a dentist would be sued. With the increase in legal pursuit to remedy an acceptable or bad result, dental records were found to be lacking of basic information needed to defend the dentist. By the 1980s, there was a large movement within the dental community to improve the records kept by dentists regarding their patient treatment. Hence, greater importance has been placed on the information placed in the dental records as well as proper maintenance of dental patient records.