Person:

Chandrupatla, Siddardha Gowtam

Objective- To evaluate the efficiency of denture group visits program by delivering dentures in shorter number of days when compared to individual appointments.

Methods- Group denture visits model was developed and implemented at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) dental center. We evaluated the efficiency, i.e., reduced number of days for the overall treatment period, utilizing a retrospective chart review of the patients who received dentures over a three-year period. Descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U test, and GLM regression were performed to analyze the results.

Results- Most of the patients had public insurance (79%), 55% were women, and the mean age of the sample was 63 years. The average number of days taken to deliver a denture was 32% less in the group visits compared to individual visits (p<0.0001). Number of patients who dropped off in the middle of the treatment was reduced from 17% in individual visits to 8% in group visits. The type of visit and type of denture were significant contributing factors relative to the number of days required for treatment.

Conclusion-Group visits are less utilized in dentistry; we have demonstrated their feasibility in dentistry. Denture group visits model was used to decrease the number of days required to treat patients with edentulism by 32% compared to individual visits; thereby, freeing appointment schedules, reduce waiting period for future patients and increase number of patients that can be treated. We demonstrated an innovative way to use group visits in clinical dentistry as an approach to increase access to care.

Objectives: The study was conducted to assess the utilization of medical and dental services by dental patients at two dental school hospitals and to approximate the number of patients having no known previous diagnosis of type 2 diabetes but are at high risk of acquiring it.

Methods- A cross-sectional study was conducted at two dental school hospitals in India. A 20-item questionnaire was administered as interviews among dental patients aged 35 to 55 years. Data was collected on past dental and medical visits, medical history, family history relevant to diabetes, cardiovascular health, BMI, and waist circumference (measured).

Results: A total of 413 adult patients (males 61.26%, females 38.74%) participated in the surveys. The mean age was 43.06 years. Results revealed that nearly 50% did not have a medical or a dental visit in the last 1 year, 33% had Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD). Among those who did not have medical visit in last one year 45% had BMI >25 kg, 55% had waist circumference above the normal range and 38% were at high risk of diabetes.

Conclusion: The high number of patients without a medical visit in the past year or more, as well as the high levels of diabetes risk indicators, affirms the need for dentists to perform chair-side screenings for diabetes. These results suggest the need for additional training among dental students to improve early detection and identification of high-risk patients to minimize potential morbidity due to diabetes.