Factors affecting the rate of antibiotic prescription in dental practices / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: Resistance to antibiotics is getting worse every day. Antibiotics are commonly prescribed medicines for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections in dental clinics. Nationally, we are attempting to reduce the use of antibiotics, but this cannot be easily achieved. As a precedent study, we investigated factors affecting antibiotic prescription in dental clinics. METHODS: We analyzed electronic patient records of S dental hospital located in a big city. A total of 12,711 medical records were analyzed. The type of prescribed antibiotic, the prescription rate, and the number of prescription days were analyzed by chi-square test and t-test. Factors associated with the rate of antibiotic prescription were analyzed using logistic regression by dividing the independent variables into four groups: patient characteristics, dentist characteristics, treatment characteristics, and time characteristics. RESULTS: The rate of antibiotic prescription was 91.7% for the first implant surgery and 60.0% for minor operations including incision and drainage. The duration of antibiotic prescription differed according to the sex of the dentist and the type of treatment. The logistic regression analysis showed that the rate of antibiotic prescription was higher in male patients, in older patients, and in female dentists, and decreased with increasing age of the dentist. Compared with basic treatment, the odds ratio of first implant surgery was highest at 102.166 times, minor operation at 18.997, and extraction of impacted tooth at 14.429. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to analyze the factors affecting prescription rate of antibiotics in dental clinics. We found that the antibiotic prescription rate was significantly different for each dental treatment. It was necessary to analyze the prescription rate of antibiotics according to the type of treatment. The fact that prescribing antibiotics differed according to dentist characteristics indicated that consistent guidelines need to be established and promoted.

A study on the ecosystem of welfare technology using social economy: a case study of dental clinics in health welfare social cooperative / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: In this study, we strived to determine the possibility of socioeconomic welfare in oral healthcare by analyzing the National Health Insurance (NHI) coverage rate. To date, efforts to realize the “social economy” of healthcare are active. While oral disease is common and chronic among Koreans, the rate of NHI coverage of dental clinics is substantially lower than that of the medical clinics. METHODS: We defined the NHI coverage of dental clinics as a proxy for “social skills” to improve oral health problems. The data were collected through a comparative analysis of the NHI coverage of dental clinics and that of non-dental clinics, in health welfare social cooperatives. RESULTS: The NHI coverage rate of the dental clinics in health welfare social cooperatives ranged from 0.97 to 2.62 times that of the non-dental clinics in health welfare social cooperatives. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, responsible management is recommended for making health welfare social cooperatives meaningful as a social economy.

Factors Associated with Dental Revenue and Income of Self-Employed Dentist by Using a Quantile Regression Method / 보건행정학회지

BACKGROUND: Dentist's income is quite variable. We investigate the factors underlying the distribution of dental revenue and dentist income. METHODS: Financial and structural variables of private dental practices(N=13,967) were examined with 2010 Economic Census microdata which include non-insurance revenue. We conducted quantile regression method(QRM) and ordinary least square(OLS) in treating skewness and heteroskedasticity of distributions. The effective estimation for the upper and lower range of distribution becomes possible by QRM. RESULTS: Mid-career dentists are shown to have higher revenue and income. Male dentists achieve the higher revenue and income than female dentists in all quantiles. Group practices show lower income per owner than solo practices significantly. The revenue and income are increased with increasing size of clinics. The high cost in renting the clinic office is found to have a big positive effect on the revenue but a little positive effect on the income. Interestingly the density of dentists shows negative effect on the lowest quantile of the revenue but positive effect on the highest quantile. The lowest quantile of the revenue in the capital areas have the relatively high revenue. The lowest quantile of the income in metropolitan city show higher income than those in other areas significantly. CONCLUSION: The suggested QRM is shown to have more effective and efficient tool in finding out determinants of dentists' revenue and income of our concern. The results of this study are expected to be employed for dentists preparing for the opening practices in their organizational settings and locational selections. The distributional efficiency of dental human resources could be accomplished if policy makers guide dentists with this knowledge.