Much more knowledge is gained from examining mistakes and when things go wrong rather than just looking at successes.  Clinical failures are common and may arise from unexpected events, surprises and unpredicabilities, inadequate investigation or plainly: an incorrect diagnosis. Materials and techniques are often stretched past the limits of their design.  When treating children, behaviour management may often be the one determinant of success of a particular procedure and the clinician needs to be pragmatic and astute enough to predict when failures will occur and be able to manage them appropriately. 

This workshop will give an insight into the common causes of failures in paediatric dentistry and highlight some unexpected events and possible clinical catastrophes.  It will involve group-work in solving clinical problems and trying to predict when and where failures may occur.

2. Treatment planning in paediatric dentistry

Are all treatment plans based on sound scientific data? The Paediatric dentist often has to consider a number of factors such as distance the child has to travel to get to the clinic, is a third party paying  for the treatment, demanding parents fueled by know of dentistry from the internet, the desire for the mother to have all teeth saved and constrains on public sector treatment options. These factors need to be balanced against the ability of the child to cope with the treatment and how long do the teeth have to last. These and many other issues will be considered.