Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual status of medically compromised pediatric patients who visited Arai Dental and Pedodontic Clinic in Sapporo, and to review the collaboration of their treatment with facilities providing advanced dental or medical care though 8 clinical cases.
A clinico-statistical survey was performed on 196 medically compromised pediatric outpa tients who underwent dental treatment in the clinic during the past ten years.
The results were as follows.
1) The age of the patients were distributed predominantly between 3 ∼ 5 years of age, representing 50.5% of the 196 cases. The ratio of the medically compromised patients among the total number of pediatric patients 15 years or under was 7.2%.
2) About 70% of the patients were referred by schools, other clinics or other institutions and 39.3%were referred by their acquaintances.
3) Among 196 cases,81.6% lived in the same ward of Arai Dental Clinic. However,61.3% visited the clinic from an area taking 15 minutes or longer on foot.
4) Respiratory disease, especially asthma were found to occur most frequent at all ages, and patients suffering from respiratory disease represented 37.7% of the 196 cases.
5) The majority of the patients older than 2 years visited the clinic for caries treatment. Most of the parents of the children 2 years or under wanted them to have preventive dental care.
6) General medication had been administered to 82.1% of the patients. However, sometimes the history was not indicated in the inquiry sheets and medication of 24.4% of the patients was not confirmed at the initial dental examination.
7) Based on the 8 cases that showed some abnormality in physical condition or behavior during dental examination or treatment, we recognized the importance of collaboration by a primary dental clinic with facilities providing advanced medical or dental care.
