Authority and division of responsibility: inventory of pressure points in dental care

For patient safety and public trust in dental care it is essential that the patient can trust the person who is providing him with care. It is increasingly common for dental care to be provided by non-dentists. The regulations governing this practice are contained in the Individual Healthcare Professions Act. A recent evaluation of this legislation revealed that those affected are not generally aware of the conditions under which non-dentists are permitted to carry out tasks in dental care or that they are unsure how these requirements have to be put into practice. It is a matter of concern that this knowledge, by comparison with a previous study, has hardly increased and in some cases has actually decreased.