Dental implant checklist and other dental procedural checklists
Dental implant checklists are an important step to help ensure simple mistakes are made less frequently. Many of the small mistakes that can occur in the dental field are far from life threatening, but we need to take our our profession seriously.
Why the need for an implant checklist?
The simple answer is to avoid stupid human errors that we are all prone to making.
What should the list consist of?
Dental implant checklists need to be simple and short for most surgical procedures. The W.H.O. surgical checklist is a great example of this. Al Faraje has a nice surgical implant checklist from Quintessence. Bidra and Christman also have checklists. Remiszewski with Bidra again have a nice generic checklist.
Normalization of deviance to checklists
Normalization of deviance is a major issue with all types of checklists everywhere, not just dental implant checklists. The only way to combat this, is to continually train individuals to rely and trust the checklists and to have others oversee checklist in use from time to time.
Other important resources for the implementation of checklists
The most difficult of any checklist is getting humans to use them. Despite overwhelming evidence to their benefit most are too proud to use one. Unless mistakes lead to the immediate and large loss of life it is challenging to implement checklists. Pilots are success because of the sever repercussions from a simple mistake. We have found reading Checklist Manifesto gets buy in from more employees.
Dental implant checklists that we use
We use several types of checklists for our implant procedures. First off we have the pre appointment checklist. It lists all the kits, materials, and sizes we are likely to need. Next we have the room set up checklist, which is really several photos of the ideal set up with labels. Then we have the step by step checklist that the assistant keeps by her. It has her steps in bright yellow that she is entirely responsible for. She is also responsible to follow along and ensure the doctor is not skipping anything. Finally we have the post op check list. It is esetnially a list of rules for the patient but we review it together.