Patient safety in dentistry: dental care risk management plan.

OBJECTIVES: Although the safety of patients has been one of the inherent concerns of dental practice, but because the proposals made in the field of dentistry are few and improperly structured, this paper constitutes an attempt to present a proposal titled "Plan for Dental Health Care Risk Management, " promoted by the General Council of Dentists of Spain, including a description of the proposed work methodology. DESIGN: The "risk management plan " proposed in this paper is based on applying the basic concepts dealt with in patient safety to the field of dentistry, due to the fact that the available bibliography contains no specific "health care risk management plan " for dentistry specifically. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In order to implement health care risk management in the field of dental care provided at any level throughout Spain, a seven-step plan which covers the main objectives in Patient Safety is provided.

Access to oral & maxillofacial surgery in Sub-Saharan African countries.

In many regions of Africa, and especially in rural areas, basic health services are scarce, access to general surgery very difficult and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery non-existent. In these regions, patients with pathologies in the maxillofacial area, whether malformations, tumours, infections, trauma, etc., do not have the possibility of receiving any treatment, and the mortality rate from any of these pathologies is very high. Patients who survive with these maxillofacial pathologies will have to face all their lives, in addition to the limitations of their disease, the stigma of social marginalization linked to the obvious visibility of any facial deformity. Achieving universal access to surgery (including oral and craniomaxillofacial surgery) for all human beings is part of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN for 2030. Achieving these goals requires the cooperation of all: public and private sectors, academic institutions, professional associations, NGOs, international agencies, medical industry and the entire global Oral and Craniomaxillofacial surgery community.