A guide to help prevent extraction of the wrong tooth on referral from an orthodontist by Dr Steven Burlinson

Children can often be the foundation stone of a successful dental practice as how you treat and look after someone’s child will often influence the attendance patterns of the parents and other family members.

I don’t think that I was taught orthodontics very well at an undergraduate level. That is to say, I think our lecturers scared us off it, telling us that it was best left to ‘the experts’ and so I didn't leave dental school feeling in any way confident to treat orthodontic patients.

Patients cannot be relied upon to second-guess your treatment plans. Making sure they understand what is reasonably expected of them along with any consequences of non-compliance is essential...

As a dentist you always aim to do the best you can, but if you don’t effectively manage your patient’s expectations, they might have good grounds for a claim...

Mistakes can be made when writing referral letters, double checking the details can only help avoid anything like this happening...

As this case illustrates, referring a patient doesn’t end your supervision of their progress...

In those rare cases where tragedy strikes, the support of Dental Protection is invaluable in several ways, as this case demonstrates...