Survey on practice of informed consent for implant treatment in Hong Kong

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To describe the practice of informed consent for dental implant treatment by dentists in Hong Kong. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire including 12 questions on demographic background of respondents and 22 questions on informed consent in relation to dental implant treatment was sent to 518 systematically selected dentists registered with the Dental Council of Hong Kong. The returned questionnaires were detached by an independent person. Differences in the background characteristics between dentists who practiced implant dentistry and those who did not were assessed by Chi-square tests. Differences in mean number of missed items in the informed consent among dentists of different background characteristics were assessed by 1-way ANOVA. The level of significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 224 completed questionnaires were received with a response rate of 48.8%. Seventeen out of 21 items of the informed consent were covered verbally by the majority of the respondents (>70%). Obtaining a signed informed consent was uncommon among the respondents (<10%) for most of the items. Over one-third of the respondents (38.4%) did not include the choice of implants or bone graft materials in the informed consent. Dentists with <5 years’ experience, working in a group practice or practicing only surgical/prosthetic phase showed significant higher mean number of missed items in the informed consent (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Most Hong Kong dentists obtained only verbal informed consent before implant treatment. The coverage in the informed consent was related to the dentist’s experience, type of practice and implant practice profile.