Abstract
Japanese society has recently been facing problems associated with a declining birth rate. In that regard, the demands and needs of children and their parents at pediatric dental clinics of dental college hospitals might have changed. We surveyed patient age, chief complaints, district of residence,and presence/absence of referral letter among new patients. In addition, the results of this survey were compared with those of our previous survey carried out from 1996 to 1998. There were 1,816 children who visited the pediatric dental clinic of Tokyo Dental College of Suidobashi Hospital for the first time between January 2010 and December 2012. The following results were obtained ;1.The number of new patients under the age of 16 years in the present survey was significantly higher as compared with that in our previous survey. Children aged 4 and 7 years old accounted for the largest percentage of new patients (10.1% each).2.Consistent with the results of our previous survey, 72.1% of the new patients lived in the special wards of Tokyo.3.The most common chief complaint of the new patients was dental caries (35.8%), followed by an abnormal number of teeth including supernumerary and congenitally missing teeth (11.0%), malocclusion (10.9%), and dental trauma (10.9%). When new patients were classified according to age and chief complaint, those 3 to 4 years old accounted for the largest percentage treated for dental caries among all age groups. Children aged 1 and 2 years old accounted for a large percentage of the new patients with the complaint of dental trauma, while those aged 6 to 11 years old accounted for the largest percentage of patients who visited for malocclusion and abnormal tooth eruption. These results were consistent with those of our previous survey.4.The percentage of patients referred from other clinics was 52.6%, which was 25% higher as compared to that in our previous survey. The most common reason for referral was dental caries. Furthermore, 58.0% of new patients with dental caries had a referral letter, which was also higher as compared with our previous survey.As compared to the results of our previous survey, both the number of new patients and number of referred patients were significantly higher. These results show that pediatric dental clinics of college hospitals in metropolitan areas must deal with not only the various demands and needs of the guardians of children, but also cooperate in community dentistry.
