Dentists' consulting behavior and associated knowledge levels.
Telephone interviews with stratified random samples of urban and rural dental general practitioners (GPU, n = 120; GPR, n = 97) and oral surgeons (OS, n = 105) in New York State indicated that requests for expertise, additional data, confirmation of patient's medical status, or medico-legal issues were frequent motives for requesting a consult. Those who consulted more frequently had lower mean knowledge scores than those who consulted less frequently, suggesting that the quality of patient care is potentially improved via the consulting process.
D003625:Data Collection; D003815:Dentists; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D009518:New York; D009519:New York City; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012424:Rural Population; D013515:Surgery, Oral; D014505:Urban Population