The Broken Appointment of Patients in the Dental Clinic of khon Kaen Dental School

Abstract

Background : The  broken  appointment  of  the  patients  was  one  of  the  major  factors  affecting  the  dental  student’s  clinical  practice. It  affects  not  only  the students’  learning  achievement  but  also  other  patients’ treatment  period.
Objective : To  determine  the  factors  related  to  the  broken  appointment  of  dental  utilizes.

Design : A  descriptive  study.

Setting : The  dental  school  clinic  of  Khon  Kaen  University.

Subjects : 400 dental  patients  who  had  history  of  broken  appointment  during  May-September 1994.

Measurements : Self-administered  mail  questionnaires

Results : The  response  rate  was  44.5%.  Of  the  respondents,  47.2%  were  students  and  government  officers. 52.5%  had  income  less  than  5,000 Baht/month.  The  findings  indicated  that  the  major  reasons  for  the  broken  appointment  were  having  other  business  appointment  (48.9%),  time-consuming  of  each  treatment  (42.1%),  frequency  of  appointment  (41.6%) , traveling  problem (33.1%),  sickness (30.3%),  having  examinations  or  lectures  (25.8%)  and  the  interval  between  appointments  (20.7%)

Conclusions : The  results  implied  that  the  reduction  of  working  and  checking  steps  should  be  considered.  The  psychological  management of  the  patients  should  be  emphasized.  The  instructors  also  had  to pay  more  attention and  give  more  instructions  to the  students.