Key Points
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The use of postal reminders for orthodontic consultation appointments appears to result in a useful increase of appointments that are kept or cancelled in advance
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If a patient receives a reminder and does not return the confirmation slip, there is a 33% chance that they will not attend.
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The use of a reminder does not counteract the effect of social deprivation on non-attendance at the clinic.
Abstract
Objectives
To evaluate the effect of issuing a patient reminder plus a confirmation slip on the attendance of orthodontic new patients.
Setting
Department of Orthodontics, University Dental Hospital of Manchester.
Design
A randomised controlled trial.
Method
New patients were randomly allocated to:
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1
receive a reminder letter and return a confirmation slip or
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2
not receive a reminder.
Outcome measures
Patient attendance at the clinic.
Results
A total of 232 patients were entered into the study between June 18, 2001 and August 29, 2001. These were randomly allocated to 115 (49.8%) in the reminder group and 116 (50.2%) in the no reminder group. If the patient received a reminder and returned the confirmation they were less likely to fail the appointment than if they did not receive a reminder (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.96) There was an effect of social deprivation, if the patients lived in an area of high social deprivation they were 2.7 (95% CI 1.1 to 6.5) times more likely to fail to attend an appointment than people who were more affluent.
Conclusions
The use of postal reminders for orthodontic consultation appointments appears to result in a useful increase of appointments that are kept or cancelled in advance.
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References
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the help Jackie Kitchen of Central Manchester Health Care Trust.
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Can, S., Macfarlane, T. & O'Brien, K. The use of postal reminders to reduce non-attendance at an orthodontic clinic: A randomised controlled trial. Br Dent J 195, 199–201 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4810443
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4810443
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