The Most Frequency Chief Complaint of 5.5-12.5 Years Old Patients Attending POP Department of Hawler Medical University- College of Dentistry

Abstract

Background and objective: The chief complaints of the patients are important component during taking the history and treatment planning, be useful for several reasons including monitoring of oral health services and measuring the effectiveness of oral health awareness programs. the aim of the study to evaluate and address the most common chief complaints among a patients attending College of Dentistry at Hawler Medical University in Erbil, Iraq.

Methods: A retrospective epidemiological study, the age, gender, and the chief complaints or the main reason for visit were recorded for each consecutive patient of total 324 patients who visited the oral hygiene clinics in the college of dentistry at Hawler Medical University from September 2019 to September 2020. The patients ages were between 5.5-12 years old. A chi-square test was used to test differences in categorical variables T-tests were used to test the significance of differences between numerical values. Statistical association between two variables was performed with the Chi–square test. Significant levels of p ≤0.05 and p ≤0.01 were established.

Result: Dental pain was the most common chief complaint (29.3%), followed by dental check-up (9.9%) referred from the orthodontic department (4.9%) and dental caries (3.1%). Other complaints included follow up (1.9%), food impaction (0.9%), fractured tooth (0.6%) mobile tooth (0.6%), scaling and polishing (0.6%).

Conclusion: Chief complaint is an essential component of the dental history and denotes the demand for care and thus, helps in proper planning of the public dental health care system. The reason for visit varies across different age groups, gender difference was a consideration.