Legal liability of the dentist

Dental interventions have an important place in the establishment and protection of oral, dental and maxillofacial health, which cannot be considered aside from health of individuals and public health. This importance increases even more when it is considered that dental interventions are applied without being subject to an age or a gender and that this type of medical interventions are the ones that everyone demands at least once in their lives. Today, dental interventions are held before courts as matters of legal disputes more than ever due to the impact they have on both people's physical health and the way people present themselves to the outside world. As Turkish health law legislations are insufficiently regulated, the solution of these disputes is almost left to doctrinal opinions, judicial decisions and legal precedents. Legal characterization of dental interventions constitutes one of the most common and important disputes to be solved. Dental interventions, legal compliance of which is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions, acquire legal characteristics according to the nature of legal relations between the dentist and the patient. The legal rules to be applied in the obligations and liabilities of the dentist towards the patient are determined with the distinction depending on whether the dentist performs his/her profession independently or as a public agent. These obligations of the dentist arise not only from the legal characterization of the relationship between the dentist and the patient, but also from the ethical principles of the dental profession and the essence of the relationship between the dentist and the patient which are positioned above all kinds of legal characterizations. Violation of these obligations results in the legal liability of the dentist in different ways depending on the nature of the norms and values violated. Keywords: Dentist, legal liability of the dentist, dental interventions, legal liability