Philippe Hujoel: Improving dental implant care through quality control procedures

Demand for quality performance measures is increasing in many professions, including medical and dental procedures. Patients, insurance providers and governments request reliable data for adequate evaluation of treatment procedures, medical device performance, treatment result quality and treatment economics relative to quality. Dr Hujoel gives insight in the governmental, political and regulatory situation, reviews aspects of orthopedic implants, and compares the medical profession with quality monitoring in other fields such as e.g. the aviation industry. Establishment of a quality control chart and a quality data registry allows to compare clinical performance of different products and protocols and to identify more successful procedures and products. In case of doubt of relative performance improvement when changing protocols or products, Dr Hujoel recommends to randomize the first patient, in order to optimize the risk/opportunity ratio. Dr Hujoel concludes, that if we do quality control charts in our practice, we can get reliable information on what is best for our patients.