RT - Journal Article T1 - Evaluation of Malpractice in Patients Referred to the Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine Department of Mashhad Dental School JF - gums-dent YR - 2018 JO - gums-dent VO - 7 IS - 2 UR - http://3dj.gums.ac.ir/article-1-313-en.html SP - 69 EP - 76 K1 - Malpractice K1 - Therapy K1 - Oral Medicine K1 - Error AB - Introduction: Medical errors in dentistry refer to mistakes during operation or other dental procedures, negligence during treatment, and delayed treatment despite observing unusual results after examinations or other paraclinical tests. Generally, diagnostic errors often cause delay in or incorrect treatment. This study evaluates the rate of unnecessary or incorrect treatment of oral and maxillofacial lesions in patients referred to the Oral Medicine Department of Mashhad Dental School, Mashhad, Iran. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 372 patients referred to the Oral Medicine Department of Mashhad Dental School in 2010. After collecting their demographics, they were examined by two oral health professionals. Depending on the type of the lesion, the patients underwent a follow-up or pathological examination. In this way, the final diagnosis was made for each patient and they were treated accordingly. In the end, the collected data were analyzed in SPSS and the results were presented using by descriptive statistics in tables and graphs. Results: The Mean±SD of time between the onset of symptoms and confirmation of diagnosis was 22.62±12.2 months (range: 1 day to 15 years). The Mean±SD of time between the first visit to a physician and the referral to the Oral Department was 12.64±4.39 months (range: 0 days to 11 years). At the last referral to the physician and before referring to the department, 200(53.8%) patients did not receive treatment, while 69(18.5%) received correct treatment, 80 (21.5%) incorrect treatment, and 23(6.2%) unnecessary treatment. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, about half of the patients did not receive dental treatment, about 20% received incorrect treatment and about 6% unnecessary treatment. Timely referral to a dental specialist for diagnosis and treatment is better than incorrect and unnecessary treatment (which delays treatment and even cause wrong diagnosis due to the temporary improvement of some lesions). A comprehensive effort should be made to find out the causes of misdiagnoses and resolve them through the promotion of education and development of teamwork between physicians and dentists. LA eng UL http://3dj.gums.ac.ir/article-1-313-en.html M3 10.32598/3dj.7.2.69 ER -