Journal article
General dentists' referrals of 3- to 5-year-old children to pediatric dentists
The Journal of the American Dental Association, Vol.137(5), pp.653-660
05/2006
DOI: 10.14219/jada.archive.2006.0262
PMID: 16739546
Abstract
Little is known about general dentists' referral patterns. The authors explored the practice, dentist and patient characteristics associated with general dentists' likelihood of referring children aged 3 to 5 years to pediatric dentists. The authors sent all Iowa general dentists (N = 1,089) a 25-item questionnaire regarding the referral of children in their practices. The authors merged the resulting information with an existing database (Iowa Dentist Tracking System) to create the dataset. A total of 65.4 percent of the dentists (712) participated. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that an increase in the percentage of children in the practice decreased the likelihood of the dentist's referring the children (odds ratio [OR] = 0.93, 95 percent confidence interval [CI] = 0.90 to 0.96). Practices with more than 5 percent of patients with public insurance were more likely to refer children (OR = 1.96, 95 percent CI = 1.26 to 3.06), as were dentists with additional training beyond dental school (OR = 1.69, 95 percent CI = 1.06 to 2.69). These data indicate that both practice and dentist characteristics are associated with the likelihood of making referals; however, there needs to be further study on general dentists' referral decisions. As the characteristics of the dental work force evolve, there is a need to study referral patterns and the influence they have on work force policy, patient accessibility and educational curriculum.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- General dentists' referrals of 3- to 5-year-old children to pediatric dentists
- Creators
- Michelle R McQuistanRaymond A KuthyPeter C DaminanoMarcia M Ward
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Journal of the American Dental Association, Vol.137(5), pp.653-660
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.14219/jada.archive.2006.0262
- PMID
- 16739546
- ISSN
- 0002-8177
- eISSN
- 1943-4723
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2006
- Academic Unit
- Preventive and Community Dentistry; Health Management and Policy; Public Policy Center (Archive); Oral Health Policy Research
- Record Identifier
- 9983917786502771
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