Kerman Social Determinants on Oral Health Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Department of Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
BMC Oral Health. 2024 Sep 27;24(1):1130. doi: 10.1186/s12903-024-04899-y.
Many patients consult general practitioners instead of dentists for their oral and dental problems every year. This study aims to find the reasons why patients consult general practitioners when they have dental problems.
The sample consisted of patients visiting dentists and general practitioners in Kerman, Iran. A thematic interview guide, semi-structured questions, and a mind map that allowed for structured and open-ended questions were prepared and used for the interviews. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim by a final-year student. Data collection, transcription, and analysis were conducted simultaneously to allow for new topics to be raised and theoretical saturation to be reached. When researchers determined that sufficient information was available for analysis and understanding of patient opinions and beliefs, the interview process was stopped. As all audio conversations were recorded with the participant's permission, no note-taking was done during the interviews, which allowed for greater focus on the participants' conversation. The obtained data was analyzed using the content analysis.
A total of 52 patients were included in this study. The codes related to patients participating in this research, along with the number of respondent groups related to each code were as follows: patient's perceptions of general practitioner(GP) and dental practitioner's scope of work [21], flawed dental system (34), dental anxiety [28], financial considerations [25], and more accessibility to GPs (31). Dental abscesses and dental pain were reported as the most common reasons for consulting GPs.
Most participants agreed that dental problems are more effectively treated by dentists. Reasons for visiting a general practitioner included lack of a specific dentist, dissatisfaction with dental treatments, lack of a dentist nearby, absence of emergency dental care, and familiarity with a physician. The most common reasons for visits were toothache and dental abscesses. Patients also sought treatment for TMJ pain, referred nerve pain, wisdom tooth pain, numbness and tingling in the jaw, gum inflammation, oral lesions, and ulcers. Furthermore, other factors such as opening hours, appointment systems and waiting time can also affect patient's consult behaviors regarding dental problems.
每年都有许多患者因口腔和牙齿问题咨询全科医生而不是牙医。本研究旨在找出患者在出现牙齿问题时为何咨询全科医生的原因。
该样本包括在伊朗克尔曼看牙医和全科医生的患者。准备了主题访谈指南、半结构化问题和思维导图，允许进行结构化和开放式问题的访谈。所有访谈均由一名应届毕业生进行录音和逐字记录。数据收集、转录和分析同时进行，以提出新的主题并达到理论饱和。当研究人员确定有足够的信息可用于分析和理解患者的意见和信念时，访谈过程就会停止。由于所有音频对话都是在参与者同意的情况下录制的，因此访谈期间没有做笔记，这使得参与者的对话更加集中。使用内容分析法分析获得的数据。
本研究共纳入 52 名患者。与参与本研究的患者相关的代码以及与每个代码相关的受访者组的数量如下：全科医生和牙科医生工作范围的患者看法[21]、有缺陷的牙科系统（34）、牙科焦虑症[28]、经济考虑[25]、以及对全科医生的更多可及性（31）。牙脓肿和牙痛被报告为咨询全科医生的最常见原因。
大多数参与者都认为牙齿问题应由牙医更有效地治疗。咨询全科医生的原因包括没有特定的牙医、对牙科治疗不满意、附近没有牙医、缺乏紧急牙科护理以及对医生的熟悉。就诊的最常见原因是牙痛和牙脓肿。患者还因 TMJ 疼痛、放射性神经痛、智齿疼痛、下巴麻木刺痛、牙龈炎症、口腔病变和溃疡等问题寻求治疗。此外，其他因素，如营业时间、预约系统和等待时间，也会影响患者在口腔问题方面的咨询行为。
