Study of Frequency and Reasons of Patients Complaints against Dental Practitioners in Ardebil during 2001-2012y

Abstract: The medical complaints are one of problems of dentists many of which will cause the criminal or legal prosecution of dentists. One of concerns and problems of dentists is side-effects of treatment and, subsequently, the patient complaint which is not an impossible issue. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive- intersectional retrospective study. After correspondence and coordination of faculty and department-general of legal medicine and medical council organization of Ardebil, and providing information forms including 12 questions, we referred to center of these organizations, analyzed all files of complaints of dental practitioners one by one, and the information forms were completed. This study includes all files related to years 2001 to February 2012. The samples, consisting of 51 cases related to dental complaints, were collected from 800 cases filed in legal medicine and medical council organizations. The information was completed in the form of checklists prepared by referring to the files, then the data obtained by SPSS was analyzed by Chai 2 and t-test. Result: 51 cases included 35 male (68.6%) and 16 female (31.4%), and the complained dental practitioners included 43 male (84.3%) and 8 female (15.7%). The frequency distribution of complaints in the field of medicine showed that endodontic is in the first place with 18 cases (35.3%) and dental surgery the second with 15 cases (29.4%). Study of frequency distribution of failures indicated that their highest rate is related to uninformed dentists with 17 cases (33.3%). Almost all judgments issued by medical council organization were acquittance with 15 cases (68.2%). Almost all judgments issued by legal medicine organization were conviction by determining mulct and blood money with 11 cases (36.7%), and the outcomes of endodontics due to incomplete RCT causing infection were highest with 5 cases (21.6%). The highest medical center was related to private dental officer with 72.5%. Total files in 2006 on have increased by 2.1 times than previous years. Average age of complaints was 35.5 years old, and average age of dental practitioners was 44.1. Conclusion: According to the research carried out, one of the most important reasons of patients dissatisfaction and complaint from dental practitioners is communicative problem and bad behavior of dentists to patients. In many cases, their conflicts are verbal and their disagreement. Finally, increase of medical costs would increase the expectations of patients from treatment and, therefore, the increase of complaint