Summary
Miss C complained that the dental care and treatment she received in relation to the removal of a wisdom tooth was unreasonable. We took independent advice from a dental surgeon. The advice we received was that the procedure was carried out appropriately and in line with relevant guidelines, and that the treatment provided to Miss C was reasonable and appropriate. However, we were concerned that there was no evidence in Miss C's dental records to confirm that she was given sufficient information prior to the extraction to allow her to give informed consent. Although we did not uphold Miss C's complaint, we did make a recommendation to the board with regard to the consent process and providing information to patients prior to surgery.
Recommendations
We recommended that the board: introduce a process for written consent for this type of procedure to be obtained evidencing the discussion of risks; and consider producing an appropriate local patient information leaflet for this type of procedure.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201500315 as a PDF (12.34 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018