How to protect yourself chairside

Chairside assistance is a good differentiator and valuable customer service tool, but it also raises liability concerns. Since most states don’t have regulations regarding the laboratory’s chairside liability, this is a gray area for owners who want to offer services such as consulting on case planning, intraoral verifications or fabricating cases at the dental office.

One source of protection is professional liability insurance. “It provides protection from the potential of crippling defense costs and awards. It covers your laboratory or you individually in the event that a patient/dentist holds you responsible for services rendered or consultations you provided, or failed to provide, that did not have expected or promised results,” explains Scott Ruehle, Manager, Sebrite Agency Inc., which specializes in insurance plans for dental labs. The insurance industry recommends minimum coverage of $1,000,000 per occurrence/$2,000,000 aggregate...