Appraisal of a standardised periodontal referral proforma.

AIM: The primary objective was to assess the standard of new-patient referral communications to the Periodontology Department of a teaching hospital and evaluate any differences in referral quality between referrals that used a standardised proforma and conventional letters. Secondary objectives were to evaluate the potential influence on referral performance of age, postgraduate qualifications and country of qualification of the referring practitioners. DESIGN: A retrospective analysis of a randomised sample of all referral letters and proformae received during a nine-month period. SETTING: Letters and referral proformae received by the Periodontal Department of the teaching hospital between 1 January and 30 September 1995 were surveyed. METHODS: An objective Categorisation System for Periodontal Referral Quality (CSPRQ) was devised and tested for inter- and intra-examiner reproducibility. The referral communications in the random sample were then categorised for quality. The year, country of qualification (UK or non-UK) and possession or otherwise of postgraduate qualifications for each of the referring dentists was ascertained from the Dentists' Register. A Standard Normal Deviants (SND), or Z-test was applied to the resulting data. OUTCOME MEASURES: Acceptability or unacceptability of referral letters and proformae, related to the age (assessed by year of qualification), country of qualification and possession or otherwise of postgraduate qualifications. RESULTS: A random sample of 378 referral communications (from a total of 2663) was analysed. Sixty-three of the random sample were referral proformae. The use of the referral proforma was associated with a highly significantly better (P < 0.01) referral performance, than the use of referral letters. There was a trend for referrals from the small numbers of practitioners who were Fellows in Dental Surgery or Masters of Science to be better than those from other practitioners. There was also a trend for use of the referral proforma to enhance the referral performance of practitioners who had been qualified for more than 20 years. Use of the referral proforma highly significantly (P < 0.01) improved the quality of referrals from non-UK qualified practitioners. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the quality of periodontal referrals was associated for the better with the use of a referral proforma.

Relationship between clinical periodontal condition and the radiological appearance at 1st molar sites in adolescents. A 3-year study.

There has been considerable controversy about the incidence of periodontal disease in adolescents. It is noteworthy that there is disagreement between workers as to be radiological features that should be used to detect the earliest signs of periodontitis, and variation in the choice of criteria may have influenced the results of previous studies. The present project represents a 3-year longitudinal assessment into the periodontal condition, assessed clinically and radiologically, of a group of adolescents. The radiographic investigations were carried out using vertical bitewing radiographs and, to reduce potential error caused by variation in film placement and tube alignment, individual impressions were used so that the film could be positioned accurately at repeat assessments. It was found that several of the radiographic features, such as the width of the periodontal ligament space and the angle of the interproximal bone crest relative to the tooth, similar to those previously attributed to the commencement of destructive periodontal changes, were found to be correlated with the maturation changes associated with the eruption of the adjoining permanent teeth. In spite of the use of impressions, some of the series of radiographs showed variation in tube alignment, and several of the above radiological features were also found to correlate with errors in radiographic technique. It was concluded that the various eruptive and maturation changes taking place during this stage in the adolescent dentition must be allowed for when looking for the earliest signs of periodontal destruction.