Designing a safety checklist for dental implant placement: a Delphi study.
BACKGROUND
Complications during and after dental implant placement can be a hindrance to successful treatment. Checklists are emerging as useful tools in error reduction in various fields. The authors selected a Delphi panel to explore the appropriate clinical practices involved in implant placement, with the objective of formulating a safety checklist that would aid in reducing errors.


METHODS
The authors administered a Delphi method survey to an expert panel of 24 board-certified periodontists to determine if consensus existed regarding the critical steps involved in implant placement. They defined consensus as 90 percent agreement among participants. Using the Delphi data, the authors designed a safety checklist for implant placement.


RESULTS
The panelists generated 20 consensus statements regarding essential steps in implant placement. The authors divided the statements into preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative phases. To determine the rationale for consensus decisions, the authors conducted a thematic qualitative analysis of responses to all open-ended questionnaire items, asking panel members how or why a particular procedure was performed.


CONCLUSIONS
The panelists reached a consensus regarding the steps they considered critical in implant placement. Further research is needed to assess the acceptance and effectiveness of this type of checklist in a clinical setting. Practical Implications. The authors developed a checklist that may be useful in reducing errors in placement of dental implants. If effective, this checklist ultimately will aid in minimizing risk and increasing implant success rates, especially for inexperienced practitioners, dental students, surgical residents and dental implant trainees (that is, dentists undergoing training to place implants through continuing education courses).
Dr. Christman was a graduate student, Department of Periodontics and Allied Dental Programs, School of Dentistry, Indiana University, Indianapolis, when this study was conducted. He now is in private practice in San Antonio, Texas.
Adam
A
Christman
Stuart
S
Schrader
Vanchit
V
John
Susan
S
Zunt
Gerardo
G
Maupome
Sivaraman
S
Prakasam
D057189:Checklist; D032921:Consensus; D003657:Decision Making; D003697:Delphi Technique; D003758:Dental Implantation, Endosseous / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D061214:Patient Safety; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
Delphi technique; Dental implants; safety checklists; surgical errors