Clinical governance in general dental practice

Abstract

Clinical governance as a vital strategy is important for quality improvement in health-care services while protecting staff, patients, and the public. Similarly, such strategies are widely applicable to dental health care and services. In general, clinical governance is a structure in which establishments are responsible for continues improvement of their services using the best standards of care available. The main objective of this study was to conduct an extensive review of literature to identify the efficacy status of clinical governance implementations in general dentistry. A comprehensive review of literature in English language was conducted using PubMed and Emerald databases from 1997 to 2017. Clinical governance, dental services, quality assurance, dental practice, and dental care were used as principal selected keywords. All identified papers were fully assessed and critically evaluated. Evidently, data were very scarce. Eleven relevant articles were selected for data extraction and summary production. Some studies reported a lack of understanding and awareness about how clinical governance can be implemented and how it can influence the dental practice. In response to such concern, others emphasized the importance of professional development through mentorship for successful learning method by dental practitioners. This method has a great potential for improving the quality of dental care and is crucial for the enhancement of dental practice. Excellence in dental clinical practice is best possible by continually improving standards of care through clinical governance. However, supports of dental health educators are immensely required to use mentoring strategies. This would enhance knowledge and confidence in the implementation of clinical governance while dental providers are in clinical practice.