Dental negligence in clinical practice

Abstract

‘Negligence’ is derived from the Latin word ‘Neglego’ or ‘Neglect.’ Professional negligence arising from medical/ dental negligence is an absence of a reasonable degree of care and skill or negligence of a dental practitioner in the treatment of a patient, which causes injury or death.3 In dental clinics there may be negligence in making a wrong diagnosis, failure to obtain informed consent, failure to order X-ray in cases where the history suggest impacted tooth, a broken file in tooth, performing more task than the patient consent for unprofessional procedure, mercury poisoning while doing dental filling is also considered as negligence.2 Related articles were searched in PUBMED and Google scholar database and a total of 12 articles were reviewed from 2002 to 2018. Human values and ethical principle guide our profession and prevent the practitioner from any act of dental negligence.