Quality and Patient Safety in Dental Care Services

Quality in oral healthcare provision is a shared responsibility among healthcare professionals. The concept of quality itself is complex as it comprises various dimensions; as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) these include effective, safe, people-centred, timely, equitable, integrated, and efficient care. Yet, despite great advancements in medicine since the seminal report “To Err if Human”, the quality field in oral healthcare provision remains poorly developed. Although publications related to this topic or any of its dimensions in the scientific literature can be found, these usually are not integrated or have been developed independently. This scenario can confuse the professional community, researchers, and academics on how quality and its dimensions can be understood and, therefore, researched. Moreover, when compared with medicine, most quality improvement initiatives remain an academic activity, which results in insufficient integration with other fields of research and implementation for quality improvement, such as the science of Human Factors and Ergonomics and Dental Informatics.

This Research Topic aims to bring together different approaches employed by clinicians, researchers, and academics to assess and improve the quality and patient safety of oral healthcare services. Manuscripts addressing the overall quality or any of the dimensions of quality of care will be considered. To achieve the integration of the views from various contributors to this research topic, robust and standardized methods will be required. This will include within all submitted manuscripts a brief description of the concepts and terms employed.

We are looking for research manuscripts drawing on theoretical and empirical research studies, such as epidemiological studies and mix-method studies, which aim to contribute to the evidence base on quality and patient safety in oral healthcare, for example:
• How quality and/or any of its dimensions have been assessed?
• How does patient experience impact the quality of oral healthcare services?
• How does overuse, underuse, or misuse of services occur in oral healthcare?
• How does the science of Human Factors and Ergonomics contribute to the overall quality of oral healthcare?
• How does the emerging field of Dental Informatics contribute to the overall quality of oral healthcare?
• How does poor communication impact the overall process of care?

Keywords: Patient Safety, Quality, Dental Care

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.