IADR Abstract Archives
The Effectiveness of Clinical Pathways in Complete Denture Adjustment
Objectives: Although clinical pathways for dentistry has been used primarily in surgery and during hospitalization for oral surgery, there have been few reports on the use of clinical pathways in general dentistry. It is considered that the introduction of clinical pathways in general dentistry might improve the quality of dental treatment. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of clinical pathways for complete denture adjustment in our hospital.
Methods: The subjects were 61 patients with maxillary and mandibular complete dentures (31 patients before introduction of clinical pathways, and 30 patients after introduction of clinical pathways). The treatment phases of denture adjustment were video-recorded. Exclusion criteria were tissue conditioning, denture repair and new denture made necessary cases. Treatments were administered by dentists and assistants (dentists). The study was initially conducted before the introduction of clinical pathways. A clinical pathways was developed to make the denture adjustment steps more efficient. In particular, dentists and assistants planned to divide the dental treatment steps, and patients respond to a questionnaire during inactivity time. Chair time and inactivity time before and after introduction of the clinical pathways were compared. Relationship of chair time before and after clinical pathways introduction was evaluated in Levene test. Relationship of inactivity time before and after clinical pathways introduction was evaluated in Mann-Whitney test. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Showa University School of Dentistry (No.2011-004).
Results: There was no significant difference in the average chair time before and after the introduction (before: 28.0 min, after: 27.5 min). The average inactivity time substantially reduced after the introduction of the clinical pathways (patients, 13.2 min to 3.0 min; assistants, 12.6 min to 0.5 min, p<0.01,Fig.).
Conclusions: Introduction of clinical pathways reduced inactivity time without changing chair time, which suggests the effectiveness of clinical pathways.
Methods: The subjects were 61 patients with maxillary and mandibular complete dentures (31 patients before introduction of clinical pathways, and 30 patients after introduction of clinical pathways). The treatment phases of denture adjustment were video-recorded. Exclusion criteria were tissue conditioning, denture repair and new denture made necessary cases. Treatments were administered by dentists and assistants (dentists). The study was initially conducted before the introduction of clinical pathways. A clinical pathways was developed to make the denture adjustment steps more efficient. In particular, dentists and assistants planned to divide the dental treatment steps, and patients respond to a questionnaire during inactivity time. Chair time and inactivity time before and after introduction of the clinical pathways were compared. Relationship of chair time before and after clinical pathways introduction was evaluated in Levene test. Relationship of inactivity time before and after clinical pathways introduction was evaluated in Mann-Whitney test. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Showa University School of Dentistry (No.2011-004).
Results: There was no significant difference in the average chair time before and after the introduction (before: 28.0 min, after: 27.5 min). The average inactivity time substantially reduced after the introduction of the clinical pathways (patients, 13.2 min to 3.0 min; assistants, 12.6 min to 0.5 min, p<0.01,Fig.).
Conclusions: Introduction of clinical pathways reduced inactivity time without changing chair time, which suggests the effectiveness of clinical pathways.
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