Missed and cancelled appointments among 12-18-year-olds in the Norwegian Public Dental Service

Abstract

The aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence and distribution of missed and cancelled dental appointments in the Norwegian Public Dental Service during the age period from 12 to 18 yr, and to explore possible relationships with demographics and individual caries experience (DMFT). A total of 968 patients (86.5% of the sample) gave their consent to collect data from their dental records. Forty-seven % of the group had missed and 26% had cancelled one or more dental appointments. A total of 13.6% had missed more than 20% of their appointments. Missed and cancelled appointments were to a great extent related to different individuals. The frequency of individuals with missed and cancelled appointments showed an almost linear increase from age 12 to 18 yr, and the mean individual frequency increased from 1.1 to 11.8% for missed appointments and from 0.7 to 4.8% for cancelled appointments. Subjects with missed appointments had a significantly higher mean DMFT at the age of 18 compared with the rest of the group. Individuals with missed and cancelled appointments may represent a risk group for future dropout from dental care which should be further analyzed.