Dental Legal Cases – Recent Judicial and Extrajudicial Legal Cases Concerning Dental Practice in Switzerland

The objective is to raise awareness of the legal consequences of dental malpractices on the basis of real cases and to make specific suggestions for improvement, which can ultimately contribute to improving the quality of dental practice. Methods: Relevant legal cases in the fields of criminal, liability and administrative law were collected with the help of electronic data bases and cantonal courts. Results: The results consist of nineteen court decisions, which in essence concern the withdrawal of professional licenses, prohibition from practice, bodily injury offenses and forgery of certificates. In fifteen of these nineteen cases, the dentist is found guilty by at least one court, in two of them the concerned is acquitted by all the courts mentioned, and in another two, the dentist is convicted for working without an appropriate license. Discussion: It amounts to the fact that dentists should be fully aware of the legal system and communicate transparently. Moreover, it would be appropriate for patients to stand up for their rights but not to take inappropriate legal action. Furthermore, the Swiss legal system could help to reduce the number of unlawfully issued professional licenses by establishing an intercantonal database. PMID: 31818051 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Schweizer Monatsschrift fur Zahnmedizin - Category: Dentistry Tags: Swiss Dent J Source Type: research