Hygienist employment and the presence of periodontal notations in general dental practice patient records.

Available data suggest that the provision of periodontally related services in general dental practices is low. However, studies indicate that the employment of dental hygienists is associated with increased provision. One method of measuring is by examination of notations in patient treatment records. As part of a project assessing the effectiveness of professional education in changing the provision of periodontal services, 2280 records, comprising 60 randomly selected records of dentate adult patients who had received a dental examination in the previous 6 months were audited in each of 38 practices, 13 of which employed hygienists. Entries of a periodontal nature were classified under 3 categories: diagnostic, preventive and treatment. The presence or absence of each item on each record was recorded. Diagnostic services were notated infrequently overall, but practices employing hygienists had a significantly lower number of records with no diagnostic notations. Preventive items were more frequently notated in practices employing hygienists. Treatment items were most frequently notated in both types of practices. Overall, 13 of the 23 items were recorded significantly more frequently in practices employing hygienists.