Evaluation of patients’ compliance to recall visits after tooth extraction at the Dental Centre, University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH): A two-year retrospective study

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the level of patients’ compliance with recall / follow-up visits attending the dental Centre of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). Methods: This study adopted a descriptive retrospective study of case notes retrieved from the medical records department of the dental Centre, University of Benin Teaching Hospital. The period under study covers 2019 to 2021. The data was collected by means of 1232 questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages. Results: The result showed that the participants in the age bracket of 18-40 years of age (277) complied better to recall visit in comparison with the study age distributions which are 41-65 years (218) and age above 65 years (188). As per the influence of gender on compliance of patients with post-extraction recall visits, it was observed that the male participants (288) responded better to the recall visits compared to the female participants (251). The Relationship between distance away from the hospital and compliance of patients with post-extraction recall visits was also evaluated, and it was observed that the patients closer to the hospital within 5km (442) complied better to recall revisit in comparison to the participants who were within 10km (224) from the hospital as well as the participants that were 10km & above (17). Finally, the influence of interval between procedure and recall visit was also evaluated, and the result revealed that the participants that were given 7 days of recall revisit (663) complied better compared with the participants who were given 14days duration for recall revisit (478). Conclusion: The data from this study highlighted the possible need for a paradigm shift in patient-doctor interphase especially as it concerns recall visits. Compliance to recall appointment by the patients depends largely on age, gender, distance from hospital and interval between procedures and is mainly responsible for the noncompliance of patients to recall visit.