STUDY: RESTORATIONS,
AESTHETIC WORK MOST
COMMON PROCEDURES
BY GENERAL DENTISTS
By Donna Domino, DrBicuspid.com features editor
Reprinted with permission from DrBicuspid.com
"As long as they are capable of providing the service to the
standard of care, GDs substitute for a specialist's care, instead
of complementing it, which has economic and delivery system
implications," they wrote.
The authors hypothesized that when the general dentists were
in a practice setting without a specialist onsite, then they would
be more likely to provide a wider range of services. They also
hypothesized that the reverse would be true if a specialist were
available onsite. Both hypotheses were borne out.
Non-implant restorative work, aesthetic procedures, and
extractions are the most commonly done procedures by general
dentists (GDs), according to the findings of a survey published
in BMC Oral Health. Also, more than 80% of dentists in private
practice reported working more than 32 hours a week, while
only 52.3% of those in non-private practice did so.
In this study, researchers investigated whether and how often
general dentists provide specific dental procedures, such as
endodontic therapies, periodontal therapies, implants, among
others. They wanted to test the hypothesis that the kind of
procedure provided is significantly associated with various
characteristics regarding the dentist, practice, and patient
population. The large survey included 2,367 general dentists
who had enrolled in the U.S. National Dental Practice-Based
Research Network as of October 31, 2013.
In the survey, 954 practitioners reported as being in private
practice and 135 reported as being in nonprivate practice. The
data included are self-reported and may not reflect the dentists'
actual behavior, the researchers noted. The large number of those
in private practice compared with those who self-reported as
being in nonprivate practice should also be recognized as a
component of the data. The questionnaires did not ask how often
procedures are referred to specialists, the researchers noted.
OUTCOMES
Whether general dentists perform procedures themselves or
refer patients to specialists may be related to changing economic
demand and the needs of their patients, according to the study
authors.
Los Angeles Dental Society Explorer
The outcomes were how commonly (classified as not at all,
occasionally, or routinely) each of 10 dental procedures was
provided by a general dentist. The results are shown in the
table below.
Percentage of procedures provided by GDs
Procedure
Not Occasionally Routinel
done
done
done
Nonimplant
restorative (amalgams,
composites, crowns, veneers,
bridges, posts, foundations,
etc.) 2% 2% 96%
Aesthetic procedures
(done for aesthetic reasons only:
composites, crowns, veneers,
etc.) 5% 36% 59%
Extractions
(surgical & nonsurgical) 5% 31% 64%
Removable prosthetics
(full & partial) 6% 38% 57%
Endodontic therapy,
anteriors/premolars 16% 26% 58%
Endodontic therapy, molars 38% 26% 36%
Implants (prosthetic & surgical
39%
procedures) 39% 22%
Periodontal therapy,
nonsurgical (includes
scaling/root planing) 40% 37% 23%
Orthodontic treatment 68% 23% 9%
Periodontal therapy, surgical 69% 26% 6%