Defensive Medical Practice In Dentistry

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to determine the prevalence of defensive medical practice in dentistry. Material and Method: In order to determine how often these practices are performed, if the dentists perform defensive medicine, the ‘’Defensive Medicine Online Survey in Dentistry“ contains a total of 35 questions consisting of sociodemographic data and positive and negative defensive practice questions sent to dentists. Likert scale was used in the arrangement of the questions measuring the attitude. For the questions that measure the attitudes, it was tried to determine the attitude level of the dentists about the defensive medical practices by using the terms which express the groups of 20% each. Results: A total of 120 dentists, 52 (43.3%) males, 68 (56.7%) females, a minimum age of 23 years, a maximum of 50 (mean 28.57 ± 4.22), a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 28 years (mean 4.94 ± 4.32) has participated in the survey by approving the informed consent form. Of the dentists, they participated in the survey, 75 (62.5%) of them were employed in the university hospital, 27 (22.5%) of them were employed in the state hospital and 18 (15%) of them were employed in the private sector; 39 (32.5%) of them were dentists, 57 (47.5%) of them were assistant, 11(9.2%) of them were specialized, 12 (10%) of them were assistant professor and 1 (0.8%) of them was associate professor. Conclusion: In the field of dentistry; it was seen that the tendency towards behaviors such as defensive medical practices increased, physicians frequently applied to these cases to protect themselves from malpractice cases, rejecting high-risk procedures and situations, avoiding invasive procedures and avoiding surgery of high-risk patients