Abstract
Digital dentistry became a part of everyday practice in the dental profession. Despite of the extensive number of publications on digital dentistry, the ethical and medico-legal challenges, involved with integrating this technology in daily practice, were insufficiently addressed. The aim of the present review was to assess the impact of the digital technologies on dental professionals and patients, with respect to ethical and medico-legal aspects. Challenges arising from the use of telemedicine and the virtual patient were also discussed. Web of Science, Pubmed/Medline, Scopus (Elsevier) and ScienceDirect database were assessed for articles in English language, using the following key words, in different combinations: “digital technology”, “dentistry”, “ethical”, “legal”, and “malpractice”. A hand search in the relevant journals was also performed. Included papers have been pooled in the 5 different topics to be addressed: digital imaging investigations, digital prosthodontics, digital oral and maxillofacial surgery, digital orthodontics and teledentistry. Regardless of the advantages and great predictability offered by the tremendous technological progresses in the last years, the practitioner should firstly use his clinical rational, be aware of the responsibility involved, and be a companion and evaluator of the technical support provided by the digital environment, instead of excessively rely only on digital devices.
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