Dental Professional Liability Claim Report

CNA and the Dentist’s Advantage program strive to educate our insureds, and the healthcare industry at large, on risks associated with patient care in dental practice. This 3rd Edition of the report provides a prioritized analysis of key claim types, interspersed with case study summaries. Future Spotlights will be produced to delve deeper into selected topics of interest. Our goal is to help dentists enhance their practice and minimize professional liability exposures by identifying loss patterns and trends.

Read the Full Claim Report

Dental Malpractice Risk Spotlights

Protecting You License – Coming soon!
Informed Consent and Refusal – Coming soon!
Patient Termination and Referral – Coming soon!
Procedural Sedation – Coming soon!
Crowns and Bridges – Coming soon!

Key Findings of the Dental Professional Liability Claims Report

Since the prior report, the average total incurred for professional liability closed claims increased 10.5 percent, from $134,497 to $148,655.

Although failure to diagnose is associated with various conditions, the severity primarily results from claims associated with cancer or other tumorous growths of bone or soft tissue. Such claims represented 41.0 percent of failure to diagnose claims, with an average total incurred of $403,614.

Swallowed/aspirated object – a dental never event – now represents a larger proportion of dental claims (7.5 percent) and has increased in severity (24.1 percent) since the 2nd Edition report.

The average total incurred for all claims in which procedural sedation was administered is $248,821. For claims in which the sedation caused an injury or death, the average total incurred is $437,116.

Professional conduct complaints increased by 3.4 percent, and the average defense/expense payment rose substantially by 77.5 percent.