1985 Volume 10 Issue 3 Pages 149-160
This is a study of outpatients who visited our dental hospital, School of Dentistry, Iwate Medical University from January 1975 to December 1983. The following results were obtained.
1. Though the first-time outpatients numbered 6750 in 1975, they decreased to 5130 by 1978. From 1978 to 1983, the total number of first-time outpatients remalned constant.
2. There were slightly more females than males and the number of patients of both sexes increased in the 0 to 9 years of age group.
3. In 1983, in the Departments of Operative Dentistry and Endodontics, the patients decreased to one half of those in 1975, though the number of the patients decreased only slightly in the Departments of Prosthodontics and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. They had gradually decreased in the Department of Periodontology and increased in the Department of Orthodontics.
4. An analysis of the addresses of the first-time outpatients, showed that the patients had decreased markedly from the area under the care of the Morioka Health Center. Patients from other districts in Iwate Prefecture gradually increased due to referrals of first-time patients and those in the Departments of Orthodontics and Pedodontics. The number of patients from other prefectures was unchanged.
5. Outpatients, except the referrals and those in the Departments of Orthodontics and Pedodontics, decreased from 73% of all patients in 1975 to 38% of all patients in 1983.
6. 90% of all patients who visited our hospital were from Iwate Prefecture.
