Oral surgery — a study of referral by GDPs

Key Points

• This study reports the wide variation in the number of patients referred for specialist care by general dental practitioners.

• Practitioners who had undergone some postgraduate training in oral surgery were more likely to undertake more surgery in their practice but were also more likely to refer more patients for specialist care.

• While female practitioners rated their own surgical confidence less highly than male practitioners and younger practitioners less than their older colleagues, there was no significant difference in the number of referrals made.

Abstract

Objective To investigate current GDP oral surgery referral patterns given the anticipated change since the introduction by the General Dental Council of the specialty of surgical dentistry.

Design Postal questionnaire.

Setting 400 GDPs in Greater Manchester.

Results 84% participation rate. 69% of dentists made a referral because of anticipated difficulty of surgery and 49% because of the complex nature of the patients' medical history. Practitioners who had undergone some oral surgery postgraduate training were more likely to undertake more surgery in their practices (P < 0.01) and to refer more patients for specialist care (P < 0.05). While female practitioners rated their own surgical confidence less highly than male practitioners (P < 0.001), and younger practitioners less than their older colleagues (P < 0.05), there was no significant difference in the number of referrals made.

Conclusion The most common reasons for referral were the anticipated difficulty of surgery and patient medical compromise. There was a wide variation between practitioners in the number of patients referred for specialist care. Postgraduate oral surgery training was identified as a factor contributing to this variation. Other practitioner variables, such as sex, experience and type of practice were not found to contribute.

Log in or create a free account to read this content

Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com

Access through your institution

or

Sign in or create an account

Continue with Google

Continue with ORCiD