Lawyer Monthly Magazine August 2020 Edition

and skill ordinarily possessed by a skilled and prudent clinician working in the same field been applied correctly to achieve the desired outcome?”. It is also important to establish correct techniques that have been used for clinical interpretation, decision making for treatment planning and delivery of surgical and restorative dental procedures. The process of risk assessment during an informed consent process with adequate patient information, education and disclosure are for also crucial in allowing an autonomous consent process by individual patients. Causation and negligence can arise when correct treatment is applied incorrectly or conversely, incorrect treatment could result in unwanted or unplanned outcome even if applied correctly as a result of negligence. Identifying causation is the most important factor in a case and is often overlooked by some experts. Why is it so important? The doctrine of the clinical standard of care (SOC) is a highly relevant concept to risk management. In this respect, reviewing the standards in healthcare is an essential prerequisite when assessing the quality of the standard of patient care. Standards or “good practice guidelines” help clinicians achieve better outcomes by benchmarking their clinical activities and how they practice. This reduces variations in the quality of healthcare and establishes national norms by helping to increase the ability of practitioners to predict, recognise, and complications arising from treatment they provide. On the other hand, SOC does not mean that a clinician should possess a minimum standard of extraordinary knowledge or skills or provide treatment that never fails. SOC is the manner in which a clinician must practise to achieve a good result. In this context, it should be noted that if the treatment fails to achieve a satisfactory outcome, that alone will not be a successful cause for medico-legal action as long as the clinician can successfully demonstrate that he/she has applied reasonable care, knowledge and skills correctly in a prudent way. About Professor Cemal Ucer Cemal’s current clinical and research interests include immediate implant placement, reconstructive bone surgery, Zygomatic Implants for the rehabilitation of the severely atrophic jaws, nerve damage and the effect of bone density on the success of implant treatment. Academically, he has gained European recognition for his work on the development of a new framework for teaching and assessment of clinical competence in implantology. He is a co-author of the consensus paper produced by the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) following the first pan- European collaboration between EU universities to establish common training and assessment standards in dental implantology. He is an invited member of the working group convened by the FGDP (UK) and the General Dental Council (GDC) to update the Training Standards in Implant Dentistry (TSID) guidelines in 2012 and 2016. Cemal is a Fellow of the Dental Trainers Faculty of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd), Fellow of the British Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, a Fellow of the International Team for Implantology (ITI) and a member of Megagen’s MINTEC UK & I Board for education and clinical research. He is a member of the editorial board of JOMR (Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Research) and the chair of the editorial advisory board of Implant Dentistry Today. Cemal is Professor and Academic Lead of the MSc programme in Dental Implantology at the University of Salford, and a member of the Faculty of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s Diploma in Implant Dentistry. He is a past president and Honorary life member of the Association of Dental Implantology (ADI) (2011-2013). Cemal has been appointed by FGDP (UK) to develop the “national standards in implant dentistry” which will be published later in 2020. Cemal runs an accredited PG Cert in Implant Dentistry (Level 7) programme (in its 25th year). His private practice UCER Clinics and the Centre of Oral & Maxillofacial and Dental Implant Reconstruction are based at ICE Hospital, click here. Cemal also leads the Manchester branch of the international ZAGA Centre for zygomatic implant treatment and education. EXPERT WITNESS 67 AUG 2020 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM Contact Details Professor Cemal Ucer BDS, MSc, PhD, FDTF Ed, Specialist Oral Surgeon Professor of Dental Implantology, University of Salford Fellow of the British Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons Fellow of the ITI Director of I.C.E Postgraduate Dental Institute E: mel@mdic.co | T: 0161 237 1842 | E: ucer@oral-implants.com