ASSESSING ROMANIAN DENTISTS' ADHERENCE TO LEGAL REGULATIONS: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Background. This retrospective study is the first to examine the legal compliance of 2450 Romanian dentists at a national level, providing a comprehensive overview of dental practices in Romania. The study assesses dentists' adherence to legal regulations and identifies potential educational gaps.Results. The findings indicate that only 47.53% of dentists' practices were found to be compliant with the law, with no significant difference in compliance across regions (p-value = 0.78). However, the study did reveal notable regional disparities in dentists' awareness and knowledge of regulations. The results also indicate that dentists demonstrated high compliance with informing patients about the risks of interventions but showed lower adherence to regulations related to practicing within the limits of their expertise. Furthermore, the study found that 90% of respondents considered malpractice to be a genuine and significant threat, while 10% of dentists faced malpractice accusations at the national level.Conclusions. These findings point to the need for an intervention in the educational curriculum of dentists to improve their adherence to legal regulations and provide high-quality dental care to patients.