Which scenario constitutes breach of contract?

• A. The hygienist fails to perform the agreed hygiene services.
• B. The patient misses an appointment.
• C. The hygienist provides extra service beyond agreement without consent.
• D. The patient asks for a discount after service.

Answer: (A)

When a contract is in place, each party is expected to perform the duties they agreed to. In a dental hygiene arrangement, the obligation is to provide the hygiene services that were authorized or scheduled. If the hygienist fails to perform those agreed-upon services, that is a failure to meet a contractual duty and constitutes a breach.

The other scenarios involve actions by the other party or situations that don’t reflect the hygienist’s failure to perform the contracted duties: a patient missing an appointment is simply the patient not showing up, which isn’t the hygienist’s breach; providing extras without consent relates to consent and scope and can raise liability or ethics concerns, not a straightforward breach of the agreed service; and a patient asking for a discount after service concerns pricing, not the failure to perform the contracted service.