Consent: The practice of the Nigerian Orthodontist

Abstract

The aim of the study was to survey the knowledge and practices of Nigerian Orthodontists regarding the obtainment of consent before administering procedures capable of modifying the facial profiles of patients. This was a 6-months cross-sectional study design involving Orthodontic practitioners in Nigeria. A 14-item questionnaire was administered to participants via google form, consisting of 2 sections. Section A elicited information on socio-demographic data, professional status, and institution of practice. Section B elicited information on the knowledge and practice of consent taking before Orthodontic procedures. Data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with significance set at P value > 0.05. Ethical approval was duly obtained from the Research and Ethics committee of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. There were 66 participants (Male-46; Female-20) with mean age 43.7 +/- 9.26 years. Those who had knowledge of informed consent (64, 97%), verbal consent (57, 86.4%), and implied consent (49, 74.2%), but in terms of practices, most obtained informed (52, 78.8%), next was expressed consent (27,40.9%) and least was surrogate consent (6,9.1%). Informed consent was obtained more for fixed appliance therapy and aligners (62, 94% ) than removable appliances (49,74%). Most Nigerian Orthodontic practitioners are aware of the importance of obtaining consent from their patients and they do obtain appropriate consent before carrying out Orthodontic procedures.