Legal Aspects of Implant Tomography

[Ehud Freedman]

At 09:44 AM 2/20/97 -0400, you wrote:
>>Barry
>>
>>Not published, but when David hatcher spoke to the AAOMR a few years ago he
>>made mention of a case in the courts in California where the surgeon had
>>not used more than a pantomograph, I believe, had perforated the lingual
>>cortex and severed an artery. I believe that the patient died.
>>
>>Rgds
>>Axel
>>
>>>Is anyone aware of published cases where negligence was attributed for the
>>>failure of, or for the injury resulting from the placement of
>>>osseointegrated implants for tooth replacement without the appropriate
>>>tomograms?
>>>
>>>BPass
>>>
>
>There was an article published in J. Oral Maxillofac. Surg. 48:201-204
>1990 by M. E. Mason et al. titled "Life-threatening hemorrhage from
>plcement of a dental implant." No mention was made of the pre-op imaging,
>but one could guess tomography was not used. As with many surgeons, they
>likely believed that with flaps raised they would have all the information
>on bone morphology needed. The conclusion reached by the article is "Those
>performing endosteal implant placement should be knowledgeable in the
>management of such [hemorrhage, etc.] complications." No mention is made of
>prevention through appropriate imaging during treatment planning.
>
>BP
>
>
>
>             **********************************
>Barry Pass, DDS, PhD
>
>Head, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology
>Director, Radiation Dosimetry Laboratory
>
>Dalhousie University
>
>Halifax, Nova Scotia
>
>Canada  B3H 3J5
>
>Tel: (902)494-1405            E-mail: bpass at ac.dal.ca
>Fax: (902)494-2527            WWW: http://bpass.dentistry.dal.ca
>
>            ************************************
>
>
Hi
I am an Oral Surgeon and have been a member of the Oradlist for some time
now. I have only read the correspondence without taking part but I thought
it may be of interest that we have also had a case here in Israel of
bleeding from the lingual artery during placement of implants. I don't know
if litigation has been started. It did not end in death of the patient.
Additionally, I know of a couple of cases in court at the moment where
there has been damage to the Inferior Dental Nerve and the main argument
against the dentists involved has been that they only had pantomographs
when they should have had tomographs.

Alan
Name: Dr. Alan Freedman
e-mail: bishop at post.tau.ac.il
Tel/fax: 972-3-6470886