British dental journal
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British dental journal · Jul 2017
Improving patient safety through a clinical audit spiral: prevention of wrong tooth extraction in orthodontics.
Introduction With an increasing demand to improve patient safety within the NHS, it is important to ensure that measures are undertaken to continually improve patient care. Wrong site surgery has been defined as a 'never event'. This article highlights the importance of preventing wrong tooth extraction within orthodontics through an audit spiral over five years investigating the accuracy and clarity of orthodontic extraction letters at the University Dental Hospital of Manchester. ⋯ However, it is noteworthy that in all cycles the audit standards were still not achieved, with the exception of no incidences of the incorrect tooth being extracted. Conclusion This audit spiral demonstrates the importance of long term re-audit to aim to achieve excellence in clinical care. There has been a gradual increase in standards through each audit.