Dental negligence: Root cause analysis of an oral surgery expert Witness's experience

AbstractAimClinical negligence claims are relatively common within dentistry and have added to the apprehension felt by dentists, particularly during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Previous negligence claims provide an important source of learning for other dentists through identifying contributors to claims and ways in which these may be prevented in future. This paper looks at the key contributing factors to cases using root cause analysis (RCA) and suggests measures that might be put in place to help mitigate these factors in future.Materials and MethodAn RCA was undertaken of 30 negligence cases formally reported on by a single Oral Surgeon expert witness in Northern Ireland. Common contributing factors identified were stratified into groups and each factor was individually reviewed to identify potential changes to practice that may prevent similar cases in future.ResultsFive key themes were identified as contributing to complaints, and included, task, patient, communication, organisational, and dentist‐related factors. All cases demonstrated contributing factors from multiple themes highlighting the complexity of the work environment and that there are many areas where learning and sa