Dr. Grant Stucki: How to Avoid Taking Out the Wrong Tooth

In this solo episode with your host Dr. Grant Stucki, listeners will hear all about avoiding the mistake of taking out the wrong tooth. While this is not a glamorous topic, it is still an important one since too many patients have left their dentist’s office with the wrong tooth missing. Very little is said and taught on this issue because it seems like such a simple thing to get right. In general surgery, doctors initial the area of the body that will be operated on to ensure that everyone is on the same page and the right part of the body is identified. Even so, there have been instances where a patient who needed a hip replacement left with a tendon repair they didn’t need, so removing the wrong tooth is not so far fetched. Just the idea of making this mistake puts some oral surgeons in a low-grade seizure state, especially if they’ve come close to this experience. Today Dr. Stucki shares examples of some of the cases where you might be more likely to make a mistake or be distracted and discusses some of his trusted procedures to ensure that he gets the right tooth every time. 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Dr. Stucki shares his experience of taking out the wrong tooth during his residency training. 
• How difficult it was for him to get over the mistake and how affected his confidence level. 
• The identifiers he looks for on the referral notes to ensure that he works on the right tooth. 
• Checking the financial agreement to see which procedures have been signed and paid for. 
• The procedure he walks through with every patient to identify and verify the right tooth.  
• What Dr. Stucki does right before he begins working on the tooth.
• The importance of the surgeon, patient, and assistant being on the same page. 
• Awareness of scenarios and cases in which you are more likely to remove the wrong tooth. 
• What plowing down cactuses in Tucson, Arizona, and today’s topic have in common. 
• Examples of high-risk cases for taking out the wrong tooth, including two impacted molars. 
• What you can do to ensure that you have identified the correct supernumerary tooth.  
• How time constraints can contribute to you confusing patients and cases.
• Internal and external distractions that can give way to mistakes during surgery.