In the two years following the inception of the department of oral surgery at Saga Medical School in October, 1981, 1, 446 patients were referred to us and 277 patients were hospitalized. The system of recording medical histories which we use in our hospital is the one developed by L.L. Weed in 1968, which he named the problem-oriented system (POS).
1. All the cases have been classified into the following 10 groups according to disease: inflammation (305 cases, 21.1%), disease of teeth (297 cases, 20.5%), malformation (275 cases, 19.0%), cystic disease (133 cases, 9.2%), trauma (113 cases, 7.8%), benign tumor (89 cases, 6.2%), temporomandibular joint disease (66 cases, 4.6%), oral mucosa disease (50 cases, 3.5%), malignant tumor (24 cases, 1.6%), and others (95 cases, 6.5%)
2. In terms of age distribution, patients in their twenties were the most numerous.
3. In terms of geographical distribution, 1, 292 patients (89.3%) were from Saga Prefecture.
