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CC BY 4.0 · Eur J Dent 2025; 19(01): 001-006
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1788320
Review Article

Dealing with Evidence in Dental Professional Liability Lawsuits—General Recommendations for Dental Expert Witness Work Using the Example of Germany: A Narrative Review

Hans Ulrich Brauer 
1   Dental Academy for Continuing Professional Development, Karlsruhe, Germany
,
Andreas Bartols 
1   Dental Academy for Continuing Professional Development, Karlsruhe, Germany
2   Clinic for Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany
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Abstract

Dental treatment can lead to disputes between patients and dentists, which are then brought before the civil courts as medical malpractice cases. The court regularly commissions a dental expert to answer questions of evidence in court. In the majority of cases, the expert is able to answer these questions based on his professional expertise and practical experience. In order to make the assessment comprehensible and credible for the judge and the parties, it can be helpful and reasonable to cite relevant literature references from dental textbooks and specialist journals. In individual cases, it may be necessary to carry out a systematic literature search on specific topics. Based on the situation in Germany, this narrative review makes recommendations of how to perform a literature search and make citations specifically for expert opinions that are generally applicable independent of national jurisdiction.

Keywords

medical liability - standard of care - evidence - research - peer-reviewed dental - guidelines - expert opinion


Publication History

Article published online:
16 July 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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