‘I learnt about dentistry from that’

The concept of an open reporting culture in dentistry was first discussed in Dental Update by Captain Steve Hawkins in a publication in November 2017¹ and followed up in an editorial² in January of this year. In that, readers were invited to give their views on whether they would support a one-page feature in Dental Update in which readers would share near misses in which a disaster affecting a tooth/teeth and patient was narrowly avoided or, when something went wrong, nearly went wrong, or equally valuably, when something went very right. We wrote: It is our view that this initiative will not only help in the provision of care for patients (our primary consideration) but also reduce the number of adverse medicolegal situations in which dentists find themselves, as well as leading to a greater awareness, by bodies like the General Dental Council, of the difficulties which dentists find themselves in on a daily basis while treating patients. The response has been overwhelming, with examples of emails supportive of the concept being: