Extended liability

Membership grants the right to request indemnity in relation to your own clinical practice. However, as an owner or partner in a practice you may be responsible for liability arising from other elements of the business, for example:

• vicarious liability for the acts and omissions of other healthcare professionals or staff at your practice;
• liability for products that are sold at your practice;
• liability in relation to the safety of the practice environment; and
• liability for non-clinical matters such as taxes and the performance of contracts entered into by or on behalf of your practice.

In addition, for practices structured as unlimited liability partnerships, partners are jointly and severally liable for actions brought against the partnership, so you may be liable for the actions or omissions of a fellow partner.

It is important to understand that the subscription for an individual Dental Protection member is calculated on the basis of the risk represented by that member alone. In the interests of fairness across the membership as a whole, where you are exposed to additional liabilities (such as those listed above), you do not have the right request indemnity for matters beyond your own clinical practice, unless your membership grade is expressly extended to cover these. There are various additional packages that Dental Protection offers, to help you manage some of the wider risk that you might face in the course of your practice:

Dental Protection Xtra membership

A Dental Protection Xtra group scheme means our world-class advice, support and protection can benefit your entire practice team, giving you added peace of mind.

When you, as a practice principal or practice partner, are a Dental Protection member, then your practice is eligible to be part of Dental Protection Xtra.

No, not at present. The main benefits of engaging with our educational programs are:

• Enhanced risk management and prevention skills
• Improved patient outcomes
• Reduced likelihood of involvement with claims or complaints and the associated stress, worry and inconvenience they bring.

Members who retire, take a career break or who otherwise stop practising dentistry voluntarily - either temporarily or permanently (excluding holidays), can request to retain their Dental Protection membership in the retired/deferred category.
As a retired or deferred member with occurrence-based protection, you pay no subscription and can still apply for assistance with any dentolegal problems arising from a “Good Samaritan act”.
However, if you decide to leave Dental Protection membership, then you will not be entitled to any assistance in relation to a Good Samaritan act if the incident occurs after your membership has ended. You must also inform us before you resume practice, so that we can ensure you are placed in the correct category of membership.
Members with claims-made protection should contact us to find out how a break will affect their membership.

Dental Protection defines cosmetic/aesthetic procedures as those which have as their primary purpose the alteration of the non-pathological external appearance of a patient.

If you are not an accredited plastic surgeon and you are considering undertaking any cosmetic/aesthetic procedures, whether surgical or non-surgical, you must contact a membership adviser to discuss your plans in advance.

Good neighbour acts generally refer to the professional provision of dental care on a community basis – such as helping out at local sporting or similar planned events.

We do not provide the right to request indemnity for this type of care, unless it is something that we have previously been made aware of, and have therefore included in your membership subscription.

Regardless of whether the dental care you provide is on a paid for or voluntary basis, you are still at risk of a claim or complaint being made against you, and as such, you need to ensure that you have arrangements in place to protect against the possibility of this.

In the first instance, check with the club or organisers of the event to determine if they are providing a medical indemnity or insurance arrangement for you. If they are not, then please call our membership team on 0800 561 9000 to discuss your requirements with us.

Please note that ‘good neighbour acts’ are different to ‘Samaritan Acts’.

Yes. In the unlikely event that you are sued as a result of a Good Samaritan act, you can apply for assistance from Dental Protection, no matter where in the world the action is brought.

Dental Protection may offer professional protection for volunteer clinicians working for a recognised charity or humanitarian organisation. Please contact us as soon as possible on 0800 561 9000 or email [email protected] if you intend to work in this capacity.

No. Give us a call on 0800 561 9000 and we will send you a replacement. Calls to Membership Services may be recorded for monitoring and training purposes.

Alternatively you can download a PDF version from the "MyMPS" section of our website.

If you are concerned about any issue or incident which has occurred in your capacity as a dentist or dental care professional, we would encourage you to get in touch immediately to ask our advice. There is no stigma attached to seeking guidance or support, and we would rather you asked for help in time to avoid a problem instead of waiting and hoping for the best, only to find yourself in greater difficulties later.

We actively encourage members to contact us for advice to provide peace of mind and to help prevent a concern or problem escalating.

Dental Protection does not use the number of requests for advice as part of its risk assessment of a member. This includes determining their membership subscription.

In exceptional cases, where a request for advice involves facts or circumstances of a highly unusual or unique nature it might trigger a general review of an individual’s risk profile. However, we stress that this would be very unusual.

So, if you want to discuss a dentolegal issue or need advice on how to prevent a concern or problem escalating, please do let us know - we are only a phone call away.

Where you are eligible for Dental Protection’s occurrence-based protection you can seek assistance for any complaint or claim arising from an adverse incident that took place during membership of Dental Protection – even if it is brought years later, or if you have long since left membership. Occurrence-based protection means you do not need to make any further arrangements for long-term protection after your membership ends.