A study of letters between general dental practitioners and consultant orthodontists

A survey was undertaken involving 268 general dental practitioners and 13 orthodontic consultants to determine the content of letters passed between them. There was good agreement between the two sets of respondents as to the appropriate contents of a letter. The feature of a letter least valued by both dentists and consultants was a detailed description of the case, although 54% of consultants described cases at some length when replying to referrers. The information that GDPs valued most highly was a treatment plan, the date on which the patient was seen and the name of the clinician involved, a short case description and the length of time before treatment would being if the patient was accepted for specialist treatment.