Patient presentation at medical practices with dental problems: an analysis of the 1996 General Practice Morbidity Database for Wales

Abstract

Objective: To describe the characteristics of attendances and patients who present to family medical practitioners with oral or dental problems.

Design: Secondary analysis of standard consultation data.

Setting: 30 family medical practices in the General Practice Morbidity Database for Wales.

Subjects: All patients who presented at the practices with an oral or dental complaint during 1996.

Results: Of the 1,650,882 patient attendances at the 30 medical practices in the study year, 4,891 (0.3%) were for oral/dental problems. The frequency of these attendances varied considerably between practices (ranging from 0.02 to 0.67% of all attendances); 44.2% of the attendances included tooth-related problems, and 42.3% were for diseases of soft tissue, salivary glands or the tongue. On average patients with dental problems attended their doctor twice as frequently as other patients. The majority (75%) of oral/dental attendances were related solely to these problems. Patients with tooth-related dental problems were three times more likely to seek treatment at weekends than patients attending for other reasons.

Conclusions: The rate of attendance for oral/dental problems varies substantially between practices, but is generally low. The higher rate of attendance for tooth-related problems at weekends suggests that some of the attendances for oral problems might be related to a perceived or actual lack of dental services at these times.