[The state of the recall visit at the pediatric dentistry clinic of Nagasaki University Dental Hospital].
The purpose of this study is to discover the actual condition and the state of the recall visit of the patients who appeared at the Pediatric Dentistry Clinic of Nagasaki University Dental Hospital, and to compare the results of 1987 and 1985. Concerning the making of appointments for the recall visit, we sent cards to patients in 1987 though, in 1985 we did not send cards to the patients so the patients themselves had to make a telephone call to arrange an appointment. The results were as follows: 1) The rate of the patients who were making their first time recall visit increased by means of sending cards to patients. 2) Of the total number of 493 patients who appeared at our clinic in 1985, 127 (25.8%) did not finish their dental treatment and stopped visiting our clinic for treatment. 3) The rate of the patients who finished their dental treatment and were making the first time recall visit was 69.9% in 1987. 4) The average ages of the patients were 6 years 5 months in 1987 and 5 years 6 months in 1985. The lower the age of patients, the higher the rate of the recall visits, while the rate of pre-school children was higher than that of school children. 5) The rate of the patients who finished their dental treatment and made recall visits was higher in cases in which the chief complaints of the first visit were caries prevention (86.2%) and caries treatment (71.3%) than the cases of tooth extraction (50%), tooth shape anomalies (50%) and tooth pain (50.5%). 6) There was no significant difference in the number of caries decayed teeth at the first oral examination between the group of patients making their first recall visit and the group of patients rejecting a recall visit. 7) In the case of the patients to whom space retainers and orthodontic appliances were applied, the rate of making recall visits decreased more in 1987 than that of 1985. 8) There was no difference in the rate of those making their first time recall visit between the two categories of diseased children and nondiseased children.
Hosoya
Y
Y
Aritomi
K
K
Jodai
I
I
Ogata
N
N
Shinagawa
H
H
Goto
G
G
D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002648:Child; D003796:Dental Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011215:Practice Management, Dental