Why should your dental practice invest in patient safety training?

  • Patients are more likely to return and refer others when they feel safe and well cared for. A visible commitment to safety builds lasting confidence in your practice.

  • Implementing proven patient safety protocols significantly reduces the chances of adverse events, communication breakdowns, and costly errors. By prioritizing safety, your dental team not only enhances patient care but also minimizes legal risk, protects your professional reputation, and helps prevent financial loss.

  • Tools like safety huddles and checklists promote collaboration, reduce errors, and ensure everyone is on the same page—especially during high-risk or complex procedures.

  • By participating in patient safety training, your practice becomes one of the early adopters of a growing movement to bring proven patient safety science into dentistry. This positions you as a forward-thinking leader in your community—demonstrating a strong commitment to excellence, innovation, and patient-centered care.

  • Establishing a shared safety mindset empowers staff at all levels to speak up, learn from mistakes, and continuously improve systems—making your practice safer and more resilient.

Why Dentistry Needs a Safety Culture Now

Research shows that dentistry is about 40 years behind medicine when it comes to patient safety systems and culture. Dental errors, adverse events, and near-misses can lead to serious harm and yet many go unreported or unaddressed. Patient safety is essential not only for protecting lives but also for preserving trust, reducing legal risk, and improving team satisfaction. Safe practices are the foundation of excellent care.

Infographic titled '11 Tenets of a Safety Culture' listing safety culture principles, including reporting unsafe conditions, recognizing human errors, leadership behaviors, policies, team recognition, organizational measures, survey results, safety assessments, continuous improvement, and regular evaluations.

Inspired by proven patient safety models in medicine and driven by the urgent need to close dentistry's safety gap, we founded CUSPID Institute™ to transform dental practices into safer environments. Our purpose is to cultivate a culture where safety is paramount, teams are confident, and patients can trust that their care truly protects their well-being above all else.

CUSP succeeds because it blends technical solutions (e.g., checklists, protocols) with adaptive solutions (e.g., cultural change, teamwork). It’s not just about fixing one problem but creating a system where safety is ingrained in daily work.

The CUSP model has been successfully implemented across many healthcare fields, reducing patient safety incidents by up to 40%. This includes a 50% reduction in medication errors and a 40% reduction in central line-associated bloodstream infections across 44 U.S. states (AHRQ, 2012). CUSPID Institute™ is the first to bring this evidence-based approach to dentistry. Our programs are grounded in rigorous research and public health principles, and led by a credentialed expert in dental safety

Hear from Trusted Professionals

"By and large, the practice of dentistry is safe; but being human, there are instances where near misses or adverse events do occur. Hopefully, one can learn from them and move on with little to no lasting harm to patients, staff or providers. In an ideal world, such challenging events would get reported in an anonymous, non-discoverable manner. This information could then be compiled to share with all oral health professionals, allowing them to learn from the experience of others without having to experience the adverse incident themselves. Consider the actions of the Federal Aviation Administration investigating causes and offering probable solutions to near misses and/or adverse incidents in the airline industry. Pilots read such reports as “the fifth gospel,” which contributes to air travel being one of the safest modes of transportation available.

Dentists hesitate to report such incidents for fear of increasing liability and embarrassment to themselves and their practice. How can you move beyond individual safety practices to a more systemic approach to protecting yourself and those you serve? What can you learn from other healthcare disciplines who have been working on their own cultures of safety for over three decades? What steps can you take to ensure that your team is providing the safest dental experience? What is the role of transparency in such a culture of safety? Hopefully, these training materials will ensure that each and every patient visit is the safest dental visit."

Dr. Steve Geiermann, DDS, is a retired U.S. Public Health Service Captain and former Senior Manager at the American Dental Association, where he focused on access to care and oral health infrastructure. He currently serves on the boards of several national organizations—including the Association for Dental Safety (ADS), where he is Immediate Past Chair—and continues to advocate for dental public health, safety, and equity.