An attorney shared a case study of a patient who took bisphosphonates and, due to a miscommunication in the practice, an implant was placed … and the patient ended up experiencing implant failure. The patient then turned around and sued the dentist.
According to the article, the patient did not disclose that they were taking bisphosphonates prior to the implant placement and signed off on the medical history. Later the patient said the practice had an untrained staff member taking their medical history and that was why the miscommunication happened. When the implant failed, the patient also lost a significant portion of their jaw.
What can we learn from this? First, never let anyone in your office who isn’t trained take a medical history. Second, always ask your patients these three questions:
- What do you take?
- Why do you take it?
- Did you take it today?
Join us in this episode of Medical History Mysteries as we talk about how to keep this type of situation from happening again.
Thumbnail image credits alex-mit / iStock / Getty Images Plus
More Medical History Mysteries videos …
- Herpes: How to treat it fast
- The patient didn’t premedicate, but you performed a dental procedure. Now what?
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Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Clinical Insights newsletter, a publication of the Endeavor Business Media Dental Group. Read more articles and subscribe.
