patient

Lessons from Medical Litigation of Dentists

by

Back in June of 2013, I discussed in the post Lessons from Medical litigation in oral surgery practice several lessons that can be learned upon exploring lawsuits occurring in an oral surgery setting. An interesting post on the same topic but applied to dentists as a whole was just written earlier today in DrBicuspid, titled “When a dentist becomes the defendant,” by Meghan Guthman (October 7, 2013, source: http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=pmt&pag=dis&ItemID=314397&wf=1660“) Apparently this article was already written in the American Student Dental Association in their summer 2013 issue and was just a reprint. The article discusses some data gathered by Medical Protective which is a malpractice insurance company. Their data shows that the average payment to a plaintiff in a dental malpractice lawsuit is $65,000. Around 20% of their dental malpractice cases between 2003 and 2012 involved a tooth extraction with the average … Read more

Upcoming Changes to JOMS and AAOMS in 2014

by

I wanted to update readers on some of the upcoming changes which will be taking place in the world of oral and maxillofacial surgery in 2014. The first change has to deal with JOMS (Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery). These updates are addressed in the editorial in the September 2013, JOMS, by  James Hupp titled, “The Journal’s Performance and Upcoming New Features” (J Oral Maxillofac Surg., vol. 71, pp. 1481-1483, 2013). In brief, JOMS has managed to decrease the time it takes to get accepted in the journal from 12 to 18 months to just 3 to 6 months. This improves the time for new updates to permeate throughout the field. Furthermore, when articles are accepted they are available rapidly for viewing online (although editing still has to occur). Several interesting developments are occurring: A) Soon, AAOMS Press Releases … Read more

Washington Dentist Troubles

by

Recently, a few articles appeared on DrBicuspid talking about Washington dentists. One of the dentists is a Washington state dentist, the other is a Washington D.C. dentist. The first article talks about how a now retired Washington state dentist must pay $35 million to 29 former patients. The reason for this is because the court determined that the former dentist had performed numerous unnecessary root canals over a long period of time.   The article discusses how the retired dentist performed over 2,000 root canals on about 500 patients over a five year span several years ago. The dentist who purchased the retired dentists practice said that a lot of failing root canals and railing crowns were being noticed by the patients coming in. The court in this case found that the dentist was negligent, failed to obtain informed consent from … Read more

Slit Throat During Wisdom Teeth Extraction

by

A recent story has appeared in ABC Action News (Tampa, Florida, U.S.) titled “Patient says dentist accidentally slit throat while pulling wisdom teeth: Patient expected refund after accident” by Jackie Callaway, July 9, 2013. The story described a man who had three wisdom teeth extracted earlier this year. The man had the first two wisdom teeth removed successfully. According to the man, on the third wisdom tooth, the dentist slipped and came down to near his tonsil and cut his throat. The man says the swelling and pain was unbearable and he lost 12 pounds. The man was interested in getting a refund for the $180 he paid for the dental visit; however, the refund was not made. In addition, the man’s wife had an upcoming appointment with the dentist office, which they canceled and were charged a $25 cancellation … Read more

Migraine in Children Can Lead to Reduced Performance in School

by

In an article titled “Migraine and migraine subtypes in preadolescent children Association with school performance,” appearing in Neurology in 2012 by Marco A. Arruda and Marcelo E. Bigal, a discussion is made that children with migraine may have below average school performance than kids who do not have headaches. The study looked at 5,671 children ages 5 to 12 from Brazil and found that those with migraine were 30% more likely to have below average school performance than those children with no headaches. The researchers collected information from the student’s teachers on their performance and also completed a questionnaire screening for emotional and behavioral problems. Further, the researchers interviewed parents of the students from medical history and other potential useful information. Of the 5,671 children around 0.6% had chronic migraine occurring 15 or more days per month and 9% had … Read more