Reasons for Seeking Dental Healthcare Services in a Nigerian Missionary Hospital

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the reasons for seeking dental healthcare services in a missionary hospital in Benin City; Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This 14-month retrospective study was conducted in a Pentecostal missionary hospital in Benin City. Data of interest which included age; gender; occupation; primary presenting complaints; and primary diagnosis were collected from the case notes with self-designed proforma. Cases with incomplete data were excluded from this study. The obtained data were subjected to descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies; cross tabulations; and percentages using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 17.0. Results: A total of 613 cases were retrieved with the complete information. The majority (56.3) of the patients were young adults (18-40 years). About one-fifth (21.2) of the patients were middle-aged adults. Children and elderly constituted 15.8 and 6.7 of the patients; respectively. A total of 332 (54.2) patients were females. There was diversity in the occupation of the patients with about one-third (37.7) of the patients being students. The majority of the patients had toothache as their primary presenting complaint (71.1). Others were tooth deposits (6.0); fractured teeth (3.8); hole in teeth (3.1); missing teeth for replacement (2.3); routine dental check-up (2.3); and mouth odor (2.0). Diagnosis of dental caries and its complications was made in more than half (58.6) of the patients while one-fifth (20.4) of the patients were diagnosed with gingivitis. Conclusion: Data from this study revealed that these enormous diverse patients of a Nigerian missionary hospital had toothache as their main primary presenting complaint and dental caries and its complication as their main primary diagnosis