title: A study of the reasons for irregular dental attendance in a private dental college in a rural setup.
abstract: The mouth is regarded as a mirror and the gateway to health. Integration is required between the dental practitioner and the patient, if good dental health is to be attained. Various treatment modalities of late frequently require appointments, which are more than one in number for completion of the entire treatment program. This study was taken up to determine the impact of reported dental attendance patterns of patients on the oral health and treatment quality in teaching hospitals and also on the quality of life in rural areas.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  1. To assess the reasons for irregular dental care in the patients attending the clinics in teaching hospitals. 2. To assess the satisfaction of the patient as regards the treatment rendered in the teaching institutes. 3. To correlate the gender of the patient with the regularity in the recall attendance.
  
  
  METHODS
  A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a systematic random sampling method and every alternate subject was selected from the patients attending the OPD of Department of Periodontics and Community Dentistry. The data was collected using the interview method with the help of a structured, pretested questionnaire.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Out of 288 patients, 94 failed to attend the recall appointments. In these 94 patients, various reasons for not attending recall were assessed and lack of time was found to be the most common reason for non-attendance. Relationship between age and reasons for not reporting was found to be significant (P < 0.01). Patient satisfaction survey showed that 51.54% of the patients were satisfied with the dental treatment rendered. The present study also showed that males are more prompt in attending recall appointments as compared to females. A positive and significant correlation between literacy and patient reporting status was found (P< 0.01).
authors.affiliation: Dental Centre, King Fahd Hospital, Medina Al Munawarra, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Anoj C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: Abhijeet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoshing
authors.forename: Nilesh V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Joshi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003740:Dental Clinics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors