Awareness about medico legal aspects and Consumer Protection Act (CPA) among dental fraternity

Introduction: A dentist is a healthcare professional providing care for the patient, as a physician. There has been increase in the number of patients challenging the dentist's authority over treatment planning and consent issues in the past few years. Thus, while providing the oral healthcare services a dentist has to follow certain set of standards in almost all the activities related to the management of patient. Failure to exercise such practice could invite litigation in the name of malpractice. Therefore, this study was performed to assess the level of knowledge and understanding relevant to CPA and Medico legal aspects that can affect Dentists. Materials and Methods: A self-structured validated questionnaire comprising of 15 questions related to medicolegal aspect and CPA was designed. A total of 150 dental professionals were surveyed. ; 50 were undergraduates, 50 were postgraduates and 50 were dental faculty. Chi-square test was used to compare the awareness of medico-legal issues among dentists. Result: The CPA awareness scores were significantly higher among faculty when compared with those of undergraduates and postgraduates. About 44.0% of BDS students, 84.0% of MDS students and 94.0% of the dental faculty are aware about CPA. Nearly 20.0% of the BDS students, 42.0% of the MDS students and 52.0% of the dental faculty know the legal procedures to tackle COPRA/CPA. Conclusion: Considering the present situation, a better understanding of CPA is essential for dentists in India to be on the safer side and an educational program would be useful to increase the understanding and confidence of dentists in any medical legal jurisprudence to avoid any lawsuit.