Undergraduate and postgraduate orthodontics in Australia. (1/185)

Undergraduate orthodontic education in Australian university dental schools reflects a strong British influence. The Australian Dental Council is now responsible for undergraduate course accreditation and the development of a more distinctly Australian model might be expected, although not in isolation from the traditional British and American influences. Postgraduate specialty training has been more directly influenced by the North American dental schools, and specialist registers in the states and territories reflect that influence. The Australian Dental Council will commence accreditation of postgraduate specialty courses in 1999.  (+info)

The effects of fee bundling on dental utilization. (2/185)

OBJECTIVE: To examine dental utilization following an adjustment to the provincial fee schedule in which preventive maintenance (recall) services were bundled at lower fees. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Blue Cross dental insurance claims for claimants associated with four major Ontario employers using a common insurance plan over the period 1987-1990. STUDY DESIGN: This before-and-after design analyzes the dental claims experience over a four-year period for 4,455 individuals 18 years of age and older one year prior to the bundling of services, one year concurrent with the change, and two years after the introduction of bundling. The dependent variable is the annual adjusted payment per user. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: The analysis was based on all claims submitted by adult users for services received at recall visits and who reported at least one visit of this type between 1987 and 1990. In these data, 26,177 services were provided by 1,214 dentists and represent 41 percent of all adult service claims submitted over the four years of observation. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Real per capita payment for adult recall services decreased by 0.3 percent in the year bundling was implemented (1988), but by the end of the study period such payments had increased 4.8 percent relative to pre-bundling levels. Multiple regression analysis assessed the role of patient and provider variables in the upward trend of per capita payments. The following variables were significant in explaining 37 percent of the variation in utilization over the period of observation: subscriber employment location; ever having received periodontal scaling or ever having received restorative services; regular user; dentist's school of graduation; and interactions involving year, service type, and regular user status. CONCLUSIONS: The volume and intensity of services received by adult patients increased when fee constraints were imposed on dentists. Future efforts to contain dental expenditures through fee schedule design will need to take this into consideration. Issues for future dental services research include provider billing practices, utilization among frequent attenders, and outcomes evaluation particularly with regard to periodontal care and replacement of restorations.  (+info)

Using Medicaid claims to construct dental service market areas. (3/185)

OBJECTIVE: To use Medicaid claims data to construct patient origin-based market areas for dental services and compare constructed market areas with those based on the practice county. DATA SOURCES: North Carolina Medicaid claims, eligibility, and provider files, the Cooperative Health Information Systems' dentist licensure files, and the Log Into North Carolina data. STUDY DESIGN: A visit-level file was created from the Medicaid claims data and aggregated by provider practice county and patient county of residence. Using the aggregated file and an algorithm based on the Elzinga-Hogarty approach, patient travel patterns were used to construct mutually exclusive patient origin market areas. DATA ANALYSIS: Market area characteristics were compared across definitions using Pearson correlation coefficients. In addition, estimations of provider participation were performed using market area characteristics as control variables. The beta coefficients associated with market area characteristics were compared across market area definitions. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Medicaid claims data, when combined with provider licensure files, can be used to construct market areas based on patient origin data. However, measures of market area characteristics are correlated highly between the two types of market areas studied. Furthermore, beta coefficients on market area variables in models of provider participation are similar in sign, significance, and magnitude across market definitions. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with market areas constructed using patient origin data, county-based market areas adequately proxy for dental markets. Using the county as the market area also avoids the time and computational costs associated with using a patient origin-based approach and facilitates the use of widely available data.  (+info)

The bedfordshire PDS orthodontic pilot. (4/185)

Throughout the 50-year history of the NHS, the Government has sought to cash limit the GDS. PDS (Personal Dental Services) pilots represent another attempt at cash limiting and a new system for delivering dental services in NHS practice. The development of the Bedfordshire Orthodontic PDS pilot is described. The basis is the prioritization of orthodontic services to child patients with the greatest oral health need through a cost and volume contract with the local Health Authority. A brief outline of the Bedfordshire PDS contract is given. The experiences of the first 9 months of the PDS pilot are related.  (+info)

Comparing characteristics of Canadians who visited dentists and physicians during 1993/94: a secondary analysis. (5/185)

Unlike medical care, dental services are not included in Canada's universal system of health care. Using the data from the 1994 National Population Health Survey, we estimate the proportion of the population aged 12 and older visiting dentists and physicians in 1993/94 and compare the factors that influence the use of dentists' and physicians' services. Overall, 52.4% of Canadians made one or more visits to a dentist and 78.4% visited a physician. Logistic regression analysis indicates that whereas visiting a family physician is more likely to occur for people who are ill (generally, on medications or needing help with daily living) or pregnant, visiting a dentist is more likely to occur for young, healthy, wealthy and highly educated people. Future dental health policy needs better information on health status linked to use of services.  (+info)

Perceived unmet need for oral treatment among a national population of HIV-positive medical patients: social and clinical correlates. (6/185)

OBJECTIVES: This study examines social, behavioral, and clinical correlates of perceived unmet need for oral health care for people with HIV infection. METHODS: Baseline in-person interviews with 2864 individuals were conducted with the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study cohort, a nationally representative probability sample of HIV-infected persons in medical care. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted, with unmet need in the last 6 months as the dependent variable and demographic, social, behavioral, and disease characteristics as independent variables. RESULTS: We estimate that 19.3% of HIV-infected medical patients (n = 44,550) had a perceived unmet need for dental care in the last 6 months. The odds of having unmet dental needs were highest for those on Medicaid in states without dental benefits (odds ratio [OR] = 2.21), for others with no dental insurance (OR = 2.26), for those with incomes under $5000 (OR = 2.20), and for those with less than a high school education (OR = 1.83). Low CD4 count was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived unmet need was related more to social and economic factors than to stage of infection. An expansion of dental benefits for those on Medicaid might reduce unmet need for dental care.  (+info)

Controlling the cost of dental care. (7/185)

Methods for controlling dental care expenditures are taking on greater importance with the rapid increase in prepaid dental plans. The use of regulatory systems to monitor provider performance are necessary to prevent gross over-utilization but are unlikely to result in net savings of more than five per cent of total gross premiums. Theoretically, prepaid group dental practice (PGDP) may reduce expenditures by changing the mix of services patients receive. The modest estimated savings and the small number of PGDPs presently in operation limit the importance of this alternative for the next five to ten years. If substantial reductions in dental expenditures are to be obtained, it will be necessary to limit dental insurance plans to cover only those services which have demonstrated cost-effectiveness in improving health for the majority of people. The concept that richer benefit plans may have small marginal effects on improving oral health may not be easy for the public to accept but, until they do, expenditures for dental care will be difficult to control.  (+info)

Dental and other health care visits among U.S. adults with diabetes. (8/185)

OBJECTIVE: This study compared yearly dental visits of diabetic adults with those of nondiabetic adults. For adults with diabetes, we compared the frequency of past-year dental visits with past-year visits for diabetes care, dilated eye examinations, and foot examinations. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study using a sample of 105,718 dentate individuals aged > or =25 years, including 4,605 individuals with diabetes who participated in the 1995-1998 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 38 states. RESULTS: Dentate adults (i.e., those with at least some natural teeth) with diabetes were less likely than those without diabetes to have seen a dentist within the preceding 12 months (65.8 vs. 73.1%, P = 0.0000). Adults with diabetes were less likely to have seen a dentist than to have seen a health care provider for diabetes care (86.3%); the percentage who saw a dentist was comparable with the percentage who had their feet examined (67.7%) or had a dilated eye examination (62.3%). The disparity in dental visits among racial or ethnic groups and among socioeconomic groups was greater than that for any other type of health care visit for subjects with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: Promotion of oral health among diabetic patients may be necessary, particularly in Hispanic and African-American communities. Information on oral health complications should be included in clinical training programs. Oral and diabetes control programs in state health departments should collaborate to promote preventive dental services, and the oral examination should be listed as a component of continuous care in the American Diabetes Association's standards of medical care for diabetic patients.  (+info)