Abstract
With an increase in the elderly population and progress of medical service, the opportunity to treat dental and oral diseases of patients with systemic complications has grown. This study was conducted to analyze the present situation of patients referred to Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.
The subjects enrolled consisted of 1531 patients, including 1208 inpatients and 323 outpatients, who were referred to Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery from other medical departments at Tsukuba University Hospital through the consultation system at the institution from October 1, 2001 to September 30, 2004. The age of the patients ranged from 0 to 92 years of age, with mean age of 50.3 years. The gender of patients was 777 males and 754 females, resulting in male to female ratio of approximately 1: 1. Of all patients, 828 (54%) were referred from the departmartments of internal medicine, 417 (27%) from the surgical departments, and 285 from other departments. The most predominant oral diseases of the patients were periodontal disease in the inpatients, and diseases or disorders requiring oral surgery diseases for the outpatients. Examination of oral diseases before transplant was significantly frequent in the Departments of Clinical and Experimental Hematology, and Gastroenterological Surgery. Periodontal disease was statistically frequent in the Departments of Metabolism and Endocrinology, and Cardiovascular Medicine. As referral from the other departments, diseases or disorders requiring oral surgery disease was significantly frequent from the Department of Otorhinolaryngology. Surgical intervention, including tooth extraction was the most frequent treatment modality, but many emergent, periodontal, restorative and prosthetic therapies were often performed. These results indicated that the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery in a hospital setting is required to treat almost all dental and oral diseases.
