Legal considerations in sports dentistry

Abstract

The professional duties and responsibilities of a dentist in the examination or treatment of an individual engaged in a program of exercise or organized professional or amateur sports are consistent with the dentist's professional duties and responsibilities to any patient. However, because sports activities present risks not usually encountered by the average patient the dentist's concern for the well being of the patient is to a degree modified and expanded. These new professional duties and responsibilities translate into new legal duties and responsibilities, and the dentist's legal risks in the treatment of these patients increase. Added to the general rules of compliance with the law, duties that flow from the doctor-patient relationship, recordkeeping, history taking, obtaining informed consent, Good Samaritan Laws, and confidentiality are those that apply to the law of sports dentistry. Because most dentists, knowingly or unknowingly, treat patients engaged in some form of sport activity or exercise, all should become familiar with the special legal issues that attach to treating these patients.