Patient safety: reducing the risk of wrong tooth extraction

Area of Science:

• Dental medicine
• Patient safety
• Medical error reduction

Background:

• Patient safety is paramount in medicine, with a specific focus on preventing wrong tooth extraction in dentistry.
• Wrong tooth extraction is an avoidable harm and a common cause of dental litigation, though its exact incidence is unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the significance of wrong tooth extraction as a patient safety issue in dentistry.
• To review interventions and risk factors associated with wrong tooth extraction.
• To emphasize the importance of reporting and analysis for risk minimization.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature and identified risk factors for wrong tooth extraction.
• Discussion of interventions aimed at reducing wrong tooth extraction incidents.
• Emphasis on the role of reporting, analysis, and improved practices.

Main Results:

• Several interventions can reduce wrong tooth extraction, including human factor training, patient identification aids, checklists, surgical site marking, and safety guidelines.
• Key risk factors include inadequate information checks, unclear diagnoses or documentation, ambiguous notation of molars, and complex extraction scenarios (orthodontic, multiple carious teeth, mixed dentition).

Conclusions:

• Accurate reporting and analysis of wrong tooth extraction incidents are crucial.
• Implementing improved practices based on findings can minimize the risks of wrong tooth extraction and enhance patient safety.