AN INTEGRATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW ON DENTAL ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE – AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Resumen

Dental ethics implies dentists’ moral duties and obligations towards their patients, colleagues, and society. An increased risk of litigations might transpire with subpar implementation of ethical values in practice. This study aimed to investigate the types of dental malpractice in several departments considering the pre-, intra- and post-operative phases. A Narrative Literature Review of publications between 2009 and 2023 was carried out using a Boolean strategy comprising terms related to Dentistry and malpractice. The articles were screened on Rayyan QCRI software, and the categories of selected articles were quantitatively analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2019 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA). The 97 selected papers were categorized into case reports (n=16, 16.49%), analyses of case reports (n=45, 46.39%), surveys (n=6, 6.19 %) and recommendations (n=30, 30.93%). Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (n=25; 27.47%) and Endodontics (n=14; 15.38%) were the specialities with the highest malpractice reports and the Intra-operative treatment phase presented most of the liabilities. In dentistry, the technique-sensitive and invasive nature of the specialities contributed to the highest liabilities (Oral Surgery and Endodontics) indicating the need for improved training and adherence to protocols. Most of the lawsuits were due to mishaps during the treatment and their consequences post-operatively. A list of recommendations for dentists has been created aiming to help the relationship between them and patients.