Chief complaints of patients attending college of Dentistry at Mosul University

Baceer Abdullah,Ahmad Al-Tuhafi

doi:10.33899/rden.2007.39756

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the characteristic of patients attending College of Dentistry at Mosul University, the chief complaint which make them seeking dental treatment, and the final diagnosis of their problems .Materials and Methods: 760 patients attended to oral diagnosis were examined .The patients age ,sex & marital state were recorded & the reason for seeking dental treatment. Results: The research revealed that a total of 760 patients presented to the oral diagnosis clinic in a period of about one year. Of them 41.18% were males and the remaining 58.82% were females. The single patient percentage was 55.26%, while percentage of married patients was 44.74%. The predominant age was 20–29 years age group (28.81%). The most common chief complaint was pain (34.73%). The less common complaints were: check up, esthetic, and tooth replacement with percentages of 27.5%, 18.55%, and 6.05% respectively. It was found that the frequency of esthetic and check up were higher in the youngest age groups than in the older age groups. The percentage of esthetic complaint was more in female, while pain and check up were higher in male patients. Pain complaint was higher in married patients, while check up was more frequent in single patients. Esthetic complaint was equal in both groups. Conclusions: It was found that the most common diagnosis was dental caries (31.97%) this followed by pulpitis (21.05%) and periapical lesion (14.07%).

Highlights

The patient’s diseased state should be perceived as a set of problems that must be solved.[1,2] The first step in the development of a logical treatment planning is to define the problems as they exist.[2]
It was found that the most common diagnosis was dental caries (31.97%) this followed by pulpitis (21.05%) and periapical lesion (14.07%)
As the older patients have experience in expressing themselves and past experience with symptoms.[1]. Our results revealed that the percentage of esthetic complaint was significantly more in female than in male patients, while pain and check up were higher in male patients

Summary

Introduction

The patient’s diseased state should be perceived as a set of problems that must be solved.[1,2] The first step in the development of a logical treatment planning is to define the problems as they exist.[2]. The chief complaint is a statement of why the patient consulted the dentist.[2,3,4]. It is usually recorded in patient’s own word to accurately reflect the patient’s perception of the problem[3] Restatement of the chief complaint by the dentist may be necessary to clearly define the problem.[4]. The problem that brought the patient to the dentist is obviously a treatment priority, and the patient’s chief complaint should become the dentist’s chief treatment priority. The purposes of this research were to investigate the characteristic of patients attending College of Dentistry at Mosul University, the chief complaint which make them seeking dental treatment, and the final diagnosis of their problem

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion