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Failed attendances at hospital dental clinics among young patients with cleft lip and palate
Helen D Rodd1, Emma L Clark, Melanie R Stern
1Department of Oral Health and Development, University of Sheffield, UK. h.d.rodd@sheffield.ac.uk
Objective:
To determine the frequency of missed dental appointments among children with a cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P).
Design:
A prospective study of failed appointments over a 12-month period.
Setting:
Three different CL/P clinics within a British dental hospital.
Patients:
Forty-five CL/P children (mean age of 8.8 years) and 45 age-matched, gender-matched, and postal code-matched noncleft patients.
Main Outcome Measures:
The overall percentage of missed appointments at three different clinics by CL/P patients and the difference in attendance rates at the pediatric dentistry clinic between CL/P and non-CL/P children.
Results:
Pediatric dentistry had the highest rate of missed appointments (22.4%), followed by the multidisciplinary cleft clinic (9.2%) and the orthodontic clinic (8.8%). CL/P patients missed a significantly greater proportion of their pediatric dentistry appointments than noncleft children (22.4% versus 11.9%). Patients with a bilateral CL/P were significantly more likely to miss an appointment than patients with a unilateral CL/P. Age, gender, medical history, and distance traveled had no significant effect on attendance rates.
Conclusions:
Further work is needed to identify risk factors for poor attendance and to develop strategies to reduce the frequency of missed appointments in this vulnerable group.
