Advice on risks of swallowed items

The risk of patients ingesting a foreign body during treatment is well known but it is rare for it to happen. The DDU helped dental professionals with 68 cases, including 22 formal negligence claims over a recent ten-year period, according to an article just published in the DDU journal.

The most common procedures leading to this adverse incident were root canal treatment, fillings, scale and polish and implant treatment. Instruments or materials most likely to be ingested included endodontic files, burs and filling materials.

Rupert Hoppenbrouwers, senior dento-legal adviser at the DDU, said:

‘Patients generally trust dental professionals to carry out procedures involving very small instruments and sometimes hazardous materials while they lie back in the dental chair.