I wanted to alert readers that several pages on this site have been updated lately regarding dental malpractice as it relates to wisdom teeth removal. I updated the inflation adjusted calculations and figures on the dental malpractice page http://www.teethremoval.com/dental_malpractice.html.The calculations using up to the latest CPI-U from September 2013 have been updated. Interestingly I have calculated an annual return of around 4.25% needed to keep up with inflation since 1970. This is higher than any risk-free investment vehicle (bond, CD, savings) currently being offered.
In addition, to this page I have added a few comments (reworded) recently provided by Lewis N. Estabrooks who is chairman of the board of OMSNIC. He has recently said the following (OMSNIC. Lewis N. Estabrooks, DMD, MS. Board Message. Monitor, vol. 24, no. 5, October 2013.)
“Our statistics show approximately 78% of the claims are denied because there is no negligence. About 12% are settled with the doctor’s consent, usually after the cases are reviewed by a claims committee of six OMS peers. The remaining 10% represent liability cases taken to trial, where OMSNIC and the doctor have a favorable outcome 94% of the time.”
A few weeks ago I updated the figures and the statistics on the wisdom teeth death page. In addition, due to new information provided by OMSNIC (see https://blog.teethremoval.com/updates-on-anesthesia-provided-by-oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeons/) I have updated the mortality rates in dentistry page.
As eluded to by Dr. Estabrooks in his recent speech, since OMSNIC has a monopoly on insuring oral and maxillofacial surgeons, they have access to a wealth of information on the success (or failure) of their practices. Since they are running a business, they keep a lot of this information closed but do share it with AAOMS. Thankfully, they have released anesthesia data from over a decade in the 2000s. This release seems to have been done though to help oral and maxillofacial surgeons’ state societies fight off challenges about the safety of office anesthesia. Hence, why the white paper titled “Office-Based Anesthesia Provided by the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon,” in 2013, located over at http://www.aaoms.org/docs/papers/advocacy_office_based_anesthesia.pdf was likely made.