Standard of care: the legal view

The standard of care is a legal construct, a line defined by juries, based on expert testimony, marking a point where treatment failed to meet expectations for what a reasonable professional would have done. There is no before-the-fact objective definition of this standard, except for cases of law and regulation, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Admintration (OSHA). Practitioners must use their judgment in determining what would be acceptable should a case come to trial. Professional codes of conduct and acting in the patient's best interests are helpful guides to practicing within the standard of care. Continuing education credit is available for this and the following article together online at www.dentalethics.org for those who wish to complete the quiz and exercises associated with them (see Course 22).