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Home > TJO > Vol. 24 (2012) > Iss. 1 (2012)

 

Abstract

Purpose: The prevalence of medical disputes or controversies in orthodontic treatment is getting higher and higher in Taiwan. Nevertheless, the related researches and literatures are few. The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the situation of medical disputes or controversies in clinical orthodontic practice in Taiwan. Materials and methods: The investigation was done by the questionnaire survey among the dentists who perform orthodontic treatment as either part or all of his/her clinical practice. Totally seventy-two valid questionnaires were collected. The outcome of each question was shown as percentage. Results: Twenty-eight percent of all respondents had ever experienced at least one medical dispute or controversy. Among all these disputes or controversies, Class II division 1 and midline problem are the most popular malocclusion type and clinical problem, respectively. Most medical disputes or controversies happened because of "poor communication" the majority, followed by "not entirely informed of the obligation". Majority of the cases achieved settlement through varies ways, while only 4% of them ended up as legal problems. Conclusion: Currently dentists who perform orthodontic treatment in his/her clinical practice have about 30% of chance to encounter medical disputes/controversies. In addition, there is a considerable gap between physician awareness of this issue and the real situation. The outcome of this study would provide clinical physicians the valuable related information.

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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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