To determine the practice of informed consent prior to dental treatment at a public and a teaching hospital in Lagos, Nigeria.
METHODS:
A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection in an exit survey of dental patients who had been treated by a dentist in either of the two hospitals.
RESULTS:
100 patients whose ages were 18 – 73 years (mean = 29.4, SD 10.7) participated in the study. 78.0% had given verbal consent while 22.0% gave no form of consent. The patients who received treatment from the teaching hospital (92.0%) were significantly more likely to have consent sought from them than those from the public hospital (64.0%) (p < 0.01). Patients from the teaching hospital were also given more information about the procedures, alternative treatment, risks involved, benefits of treatment, and were allowed to ask questions.
CONCLUSION:
The results demonstrated that the patients who obtained dental treatment at the teaching hospital were better informed about the procedures and significantly higher numbers had informed consent obtained from them than those who received treatment from the public hospital.