PATIENTS? PRIMARY COMPLAINTS FOR SEEKING DENTAL HEALTHCARE SERVICES.

Background: Many patients visit dental hospital every day and the reasons for theirvisit can be varied. While few of them went for regular dental check-up, a majority of the patients visited dental hospital only when they have primary complaints most commonly being pain. Thus, this survey is done to find out the details about patients' dental check-up and primary complaints. Materials and methods: The data was collected within three continuous working days of the Saveethadental hospital in the outpatient hospital department. The study sample consisted of 110 people, from the age group of 18-65 years. A self-administered, anonymous questionnaire was prepared in both local language and English version used to accumulate data regarding demographic details, history of dental visit, patients? primary complaints and reasons for not visiting dental clinic. Results: The study revealed that the patients' primary complaints were toothache which scored the highest about 39%. With the primary complaints, patient would proceed with invasive procedures such as tooth extraction and if possible root canal treatment. If stains were patients' primary complaints, procedures such as scaling can be carried out. Majority of the patients have received scaling as the treatment undergone so far with the least was prosthetic treatment. Patients' primary complaints can proceed with either preventive or corrective treatment. Conclusion: Data from the study revealed that diverse patients of a private dental hospital had toothache as their primary presenting complaints. There is an essential to mobilize community health approach in order to increase awareness of important of dental healthcare to encourage regular dental check-up by more preventive treatment rather than corrective treatment.