Assessment Of Preferred Day For Dental Visits Among Pediatric Dental Patients

The practice of modern pediatric dentistry requires delivery of quality care. The appointment scheduling lies at the intersection of efficiency and timely access to health services. Timely access is important for realizing good medical outcomes. The aim of the study is to evaluate the preferred day chosen for dental care among pediatric dental patients. It is a university setting study, case sheets of paediatric patients reported were reviewed. Information about the patient's Name, age, Day of reporting to the college were collected. The obtained data was entered in MS excel based on day wise i.e Sunday,Saturday and weekday in a methodical manner and imported in SPSS software. Chi square test was applied and level of significance set at p<0.05. The results have proved that 2 to 6yrs old preferred visiting a dentist on sunday, 7-11 yrs preferred saturday and 12 to 17yrs old preferred visiting on all three days saturday, sunday and weekdays. There was a statistically significant association between age group and day preferred (P<0.05). While comparing gender and day preferred it was found that Male patient flow was higher during Saturdays (26.5%). Female patient flow was higher during Sundays (16.5%). There was a significant association between gender and day preference for dental visits among the pediatric population. As weekends are more preferred for dental visits among children, the real challenge would be to provide maximum possible levels of satisfaction to the patients in relation to all aspects of the health care delivery system so that the needs of the patients can be met on time which will avoid the delay in dental treatment.