Should fear of malpractice dissuade dentists from caring for children?
OBJECTIVE
Little information is available on malpractice related to dentistry for children. The purpose of this report was to examine characteristics of malpractice allegations related to dentistry for children from the National Practitioner Databank (NPDB) from February 1, 2004 to November 22, 2006.


METHODS
The public use file of the NPDB was obtained and transformed into a searchable database and allegations involving children were sorted and characterized by payment size, reason, practitioner type, and location.


RESULTS
During the roughly 34-month study period, 571,172 total cases were evaluated. 51,691 (9%) of these involved dentists; 367 reports were identified using age-based variable reporting. The majority of cases (275; 75%) involved 10- to 19-year-old children and 92 (25%) of the cases involved 0- to 9-year-old children. One case was an infant younger than one year old. No cases were found with the provider citation of dental resident. The geographic distribution of cases was consistent with relation to practitioner (dentist) density and mean age.


CONCLUSIONS
The allegation of malpractice related to dentistry for children is a very small portion of both dental and general health malpractice in the United States.
Thikkurissy
Sarat
S
Pediatric Dentistry, The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, Columbus Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA. thikkurissy.1@osu.edu
Casamassimo
Paul S
PS
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008318:Malpractice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016749:National Practitioner Data Bank; D010377:Pediatric Dentistry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011365:Professional Practice Location; D014481:United States