Rights of a Dental Patient

Your rights as a dental patient:
As a dental patient, you have certain rights. It is the duty of the dental clinic to make sure you are aware of your rights. Most dental clinics and associations will post these rights on a bulletin board in the reception area, or in their brochure, website or any other media they use for making their presence known. If read carefully you will find that these patient rights are a mission statement of the values and services that the dental association or clinic offers.

What should you expect as your patient rights?

Every dental association, clinic or organization will have their own set of rights they offer, so it is important for you to know what you can or cannot demand from them. Given here is a basic Checklist of Patient Rights. These are the minimum you can expect.

You are entitled to:

• Total confidentiality concerning your diagnosis and treatment. Information about this will be disclosed to selected people only with your permission, for example your insurance company. This is in keeping with HIPAA regulations. HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1996.
• Be treated with a high standard of care and equality without discrimination on basis of sex, religion, nationality, age, gender, ethnicity, or disability.
• Be treated with respect, courtesy. You can demand to be treated with highest ethical and moral conduct by your dentist and his or her staff.
• Complete access to any and all your records regarding your dental health and treatment options. This should include the right to know all the pros and cons of each treatment method selected and how your dental health will be affected if you decide on taking no treatment at all.
• Request your dentist’s opinion on what your best treatment plan should be.
• Receive a cost estimate for all the treatment you are advised to undergo, and also to ask whether and how your treatment plan can be adjusted down to fit your time needs or if the payment plan can be reduced to fit your financial ability. You can also demand an itemised bill of all treatments delivered to you.
• Know the timeline required for the treatment to be completed, and ensure that the same is efficiently completed in the given time.
• Refuse any treatment at any point in time, this includes stopping a treatment that is already underway.
• Rapid and immediate aid in event of a dental emergency.
• Expect all protocols regarding infection and sterilization to be followed to the maximum extent so that you are not exposed to any other health risks.

What you can do if you are not satisfied with the advice or treatment:

If at any point in time you are dissatisfied with your treatment, or you feel you have been wrongly advised or you have any grievance about the cost or clinic or dentist , here is what you can do:

• If your complaint is about the cost or about your bill, you can register the same with the Better Business Bureau.
• You can notify your state dental regulator or your local dental society or board. The local dental society or board has committees these are actually peer review committees that can help you resolve any differences of opinion relating to the quality and appropriateness of treatment provided by its member dentists. This means that your dentist or his /her organization needs to be registered with this society.
• If no other means of help are available to you, you can always seek legal assistance.

How did ‘Patient Rights’ come into existence?

During the mid-to late-1990s there was a significant rise in the number of health maintenance organizations or HMOs. It was thought that this rise was due to poor health care. There was a need to ensure that people had confidence in the health system. To fulfill this need, many dental associations and practices came forward and put forth documents and bills of patient rights, educating people and making them aware of their rights as dental patients.

This proved to be an important act, as ten years down the line, patient rights issues continue to be important and relevant, especially regarding information about the different types of treatment available to them regarding tooth restorations such as dental bridges, crowns, implants, extraction of teeth etc.

Though the dentist is the person who diagnoses the problem and proposes a treatment plan, it is up to the patient to make the final decision.This is very important because cosmetic and restorative dentistry is very expensive. Thus if the patient is going to spend his or her money, it is equally important that he /she is totally satisfied with the treatment they receive.