Dental Screening and Referral of Young Children by Pediatric Primary Care Providers

作者：Georgia G. Dela Cruz, Richard Gary Rozier, Gary Douglas Slade · 发表于：PEDIATRICS · 年份：2004 · DOI：10.1542/peds.2004-1269 · 被引用次数：238 · 研究领域：Dental Health and Care Utilization、Oral microbiology and periodontitis research、Pediatric health and respiratory diseases

OBJECTIVE: Several health care organizations recommend that physicians provide preventive dentistry services, including dental screening and referral. This study is the first to investigate characteristics of medical providers that influence their referral to a dentist of children who are at risk for dental disease. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was undertaken of primary care clinicians in 69 pediatric practices and 49 family medicine practices who were enrolled in a study to evaluate a pediatric preventive dentistry program targeted toward Medicaid-eligible children in North Carolina. A 100-item, self-administered questionnaire with 23 items on some aspect of dental referral elicited providers' knowledge and opinions toward oral health, their provision of dental services, and their confidence in providing these services. We hypothesized that providers' dental knowledge, opinions about the importance of oral health, and confidence in providing oral health services would be associated with their propensity to refer children who are younger than 3 years and are suspected of having risk factors for future dental disease or a few teeth in the beginning stages of decay. We also hypothesized that providers' perceived referral difficulty would affect their referral activities. Patient characteristics (tooth decay status, insurance status, immigrant status, English speaking), practice characteristics (setting, number of providers, patient volume, busyness), practice environment (...