title: The risk management of infections.
abstract: Unfortunately, risk management, that is avoiding lawsuits, is a retro-active pastime instead of being pro-active. What this means is that we often take action only after a problem has manifested itself, rather than identifying potential problems and correcting them. This is, however, only human nature and occurs in most other walks of life. In dental malpractice, what appears to have been happening during the past few years in California is that plaintiff's lawyers have identified a problem and then started to sue dentists for it (and even run courses on how to sue dentists for it!), after which the profession has tried to take steps to identify the cause of the problem, and has then attempted to reduce it or eliminate it altogether. In the past, the dental malpractice companies (the equivalent of the Medical Protection Society and Medical Defense Union) were merely bystanders who paid out on claims and subsequently raised premiums accordingly. Now that most of the malpractice companies in California are actually run by (and often owned by) members of the profession, they are much more interested in getting involved at a very early stage, as soon as a potential problem is identified, in order to take action so that premiums do not rise unnecessarily.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of California.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pogrel
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002140:California; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012308:Risk Management / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents