The dentist may be held vicariously liable for the action of someone working in his or her office such as an employee or even an independent contractor providing dental care and treatment for his patients. Events such as a patient choking on an x-ray film, aspirating or swallowing a temporary crown, sustaining a burn or suffering an Eye Injury or being exposed to an infectious disease can arise due to treatment provided by a dental hygienist. The dentist may be liable for the hygienist’s acts of professional negligence even if he never once saw or treated the patient under the doctrine of “respondeat superior” or let the master respond for the wrong committed by his designated subordinate.
Dental Hygienist Standard of Care
A dental hygienist’s treatment of a patient must never fall below the reasonable, accepted standard of care generally employed by all dental hygienists in that particular State. If his or her care is shown to have fallen below that general standard of care and a patient was injured as a result the hygienist and his or her dentist employer may be liable to that injured patient for dental malpractice.
- Provide a safe, sanitary environment that serves to reduce potential for communicable disease transmission.
- Provide oral healthcare and treatment using high levels of professional knowledge, judgment and skill.
- Maintain a treatment environment that reduces or eliminates risk of patient harm or injury.
- Provide dental clients with all information necessary to make informed decisions about oral health and dental treatments.
- Refer client to other dental health care providers when patient need are beyond the hygienist ability or scope of practice
- Maintain confidentiality of patient health records at all times.
- Provide patients with oral care and treatment employing reasonable care and professional skill at all times.
Preventing Potential Dental Contagious Exposures
The entire dental team is potentially exposed contagious disease while providing treatment in the dental office such as hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV, and the herpes viruses. It is extremely important that all members of a dental team, including the dental hygienists, understand and employ all processes required to prevent patient to patient transmission of communicable disease during any course of dental treatment. Negligent exposure of a patient to a life threatening communicable disease is an act of professional negligence and the dentist may be liable for resultant patient injury.
Patient Dental Health Assessment Process
Hygienists must maintain a level of professionalism with patients at all times. They must maintain their basic instrumentation skills and understand required patient dental health assessment processes utilized by the dentist employer. The hygienist is often responsible to conduct initial patient assessments and medical history interview as well as documenting patient vital signs, making head and neck cancer screening examinations, detection of tooth decay, making an assessment of any dental deposits and an evaluation of the periodontium. The hygienist may be liable for malpractice if he failed to initially recognize dental pathology and report it to his dental team for continued evaluation and treatment.
Conclusion
Dental hygiene processes providing patient care and treatment often include extrinsic stain removal with the air polisher, dental hypersensitivity management, patient anxiety and pain control management, instruments maintenance and the early, nonsurgical periodontal cleaning therapy as well as initial tooth decay evaluation and prevention and initial management of medical and dental emergencies in the clinical setting. The dental hygienist has a great deal of responsibility in the early stages of dental treatment of all dental patients seeking care at that dental office. There is as a result a substantial risk of malpractice liability arising from some professional failure or short coming arising at the hygienist level which may then result in a severe injury to a dental office patient.
