Oral Management System Involving Triage of Oral Health in a Center for Perioperative Medicine

Abstract

  A center for perioperative medicine (POM) was opened to patients in April 2011. The Department of Oral Surgery has provided perioperative oral management as part of the POM center team since November 2011. Of the 5,243 patients who visited the POM center in the first year, the anesthesiologists referred 769 patients (14.6%) to the Department of Oral Surgery as outpatients following oral examination by a dental hygienist at the POM center. Management included treatment for loose teeth (313 patients) and treatment for oral infectious diseases (278 patients). After this management, no patients were treated as a result of accidental tooth damage during general anesthesia.
  This system of triaging patients has reduced the number of unnecessary visits to the Department of Oral Surgery's outpatient clinic. As a result, we effectively managed our outpatients while maintaining our participation as a member of the POM center team.