Gaining and recording consent: a practical guide for the dental team

Consent is an essential part of any medical or dental treatment. Patients have a well-developed sense of autonomy and society demands that this is respected by those providing treatment. It is within living memory where the consent process was not held to be so important, with patients being happy to submit to medical and dental opinion without question. This has rapidly evolved to the point where today, even the simplest of procedures requires a solid consent process to take place. The consequences of not doing this are the potential for litigation, professional sanction and most importantly, the potential to deprive patients of the right to determination of what treatment they allow to be done to them. This article aims to illustrate the principles behind gaining consent from competent adult patients and how this might be recorded in clinical notes in a way that properly reflects the process's complexity and importance in the provision of dental treatment.