Exploring Factors Associated With Missed Dental Appointments: A Machine Learning Analysis of Electronic Dental Records.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to employ machine learning techniques to explore the factors that could be associated with missed dental appointments. METHODS: This cross-sectional study analyzed a total of 14,066 electronic dental records. Dental appointment adherence was categorized as attended or missed. Descriptive statistics and machine learning techniques, including conditional inference regression trees (CTree) and random forests (RFs), were employed for the analyses. RESULTS: About 31% of dental appointments were missed. Among the study population, appointments scheduled on Monday of the first week in the school year had the highest percentage of missed appointments, reaching up to 60%. Similarly, appointments scheduled on weeks 9, 10, 15-19, on Mondays, and with female dental students had slightly above 40% of missed appointments. The random forest analysis identified the week of the dental appointment, age, clinical day, and dental education level of students as the most influential variables in predicting dental appointment adherence. CONCLUSIONS: The most significant factors associated with a higher proportion of missed dental appointments were scheduled during specific weeks, on Mondays, with younger patients (<50 years), and with female dental students. Therefore, identifying these factors may assist healthcare providers and dental institutions in planning strategies to improve appointment attendance.

Highly educated patients have lower dental compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic: an observational study.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is rapidly changed medical habits, and dental clinics have been forced to adapt. This study explored the pandemic-induced changes in patient utilization of dental services to assist practitioners in responding efficiently to similar public crises as references in the future. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the correlation between patient profiles and dental visits attendance within 2 months before and during the outbreak. RESULTS: A total of 332 patients, 210 women and 122 men (total number of visits: 1068) were enrolled in this study. A significantly lower attendance rate was noted during the COVID-19 period (70.3%) than prior to the pandemic (83.4%). The rate of return visits for patients with a high education level during the COVID-19 period was significantly reduced from 96.5 to 93.1%. In addition, the number of days between two visits significantly increased during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that, during the pandemic period, the attendance rates of return dental appointments decreased, and the rate of missed appointments for patients with a high educational levels was higher than that of patients with a low educational level. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Preventive management of these patients who are easy to miss dental appointments may enable more effective use of medical resources.

Physiologic and behavioural signs during a dental appointment in children and teenagers with Cerebral Palsy: a comparative cross-sectional study.

AIM: To evaluate the heart rate (HR) and behaviour of children and teenagers with Cerebral Palsy (CP) when having a dental appointment. METHODS: A comparative cross-sectional study was carried out with 60 participants with CP, between 2 and 14 years old (study group-SG), and 60 normotypical individuals (CG). The sample was paired according to age, gender and socioeconomic status. Behaviour was evaluated during dental prophylaxis using the Frankl Scale, and HR was measured at five moments: before the appointment, when sitting in the dental chair, during the clinical examination, during prophylaxis and immediately after prophylaxis. Mann-Whitney, Friedman and Chi-square tests were applied at a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: SG presented significantly higher HR (p < 0.001) and more participants with uncooperative behaviour (p < 0.001) than CG in all observational periods. Furthermore, SG participants with uncooperative behaviour presented higher HR values than those in SG who were cooperative in all observational periods (p ≤ 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with CP have a higher HR before and during the clinical session, and are frequently more uncooperative with the procedure than normotypical individuals.

Can oral health-related quality of life be worsened by dental appointments?

BACKGROUND: Constraints in dental access and limitations associated with service delivery necessitate the use of an appointment system in patient care. This research aimed to identify association between treatment appointments and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQOL) in dental patients at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a descriptive study that surveyed 412 individuals. Socio-demographic, clinical history, and OHRQOL data was collected using a structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess inconvenience while the oral health impact profile-14 was used for OHRQOL assessment at baseline and at review. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS while ANOVA and Chi-square tests were used to determined significant association. P < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Most (175; 45.2%) dental appointments were within a month although 59 (15.2%) individuals had to wait for more than 6 months. Using VAS, 87 (22.5%) individuals were moderately inconvenienced while 68 (17.6%) were extremely inconvenienced. At baseline, the most commonly reported oral health quality of life impacts were within the dimensions "physical pain" and "psychological discomfort." At review, there was increase in OHRQOL scores in the subdomains of pain (2.27 ± 1.80), self-consciousness (1.67 ± 1.15), discomfort on chewing (1.61 ± 1.13), and pronouncing words (1.49 ± 2.21). The highest mean impact score (2.27 ± 1.80) was observed in the subdomain of painful aching in the mouth. CONCLUSION: Dental appointments appear to result in worse OHRQOL. Since the appointment systems in public oral health facilities may have a direct bearing on OHRQOL of patients, quality control standards on dental appointments should be established and enforced.