Introduction: Dental extraction is a routine dental intervention, but it carries risks such as mistakenly extracting the incorrect tooth. Although the exact frequency of this error is uncertain, it is widely acknowledged as a preventable event and represents a major cause of legal disputes in dentistry. Aim: To determine the prevalence and causes of wrong tooth extraction among Nigerian dentists. Materials and Methods: “A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 288 Nigerian dentists and dental specialists, utilizing a validated online questionnaire. The survey gathered demographic details such as gender, graduation year, professional rank, workplace, dental specialty, and years of experience in both general and specialist roles. It also explored clinical practices, prior incidents of wrong tooth extraction, responses to such events, and factors that may have contributed to these errors.” Data was collected electronically and analyzed using SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were employed to evaluate associations between demographic variables, clinical practices, and error incidence. Result and Discussion: Among those surveyed, 39% reported having participated in cases of wrong tooth extraction, with higher rates observed among male dentists 42.6%) and those at the junior and senior resident levels 47.5% and 46.2%, respectively). The leading contributing factors were the presence of multiple severely decayed teeth 8.7%) and communication failures 8.3%. Notably, 67.7% of participants were unfamiliar with standardized protocols for preventing wrong-site surgical errors. Conclusion: The findings highlight significant deficiencies in preoperative safety measures and the lack of consistent protocols in Nigerian dental practice.
Adeyemi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.