Service Patterns among Dual-qualified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

While the service pattern of oral and maxillofacial surgeons has been dominated by dentoalveolar surgery, the recent trend towards dual dental and medical qualifications may be associated with changes in service patterns. The aims of this study were to describe main areas of service between 1990 and 2000, and to compare main areas of service by type of qualification. All registered oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Australia were surveyed in 1990 (n=79 surgeons, response rate=73.8%) and 2000 (n=116 surgeons, response rate=65.1%) using mailed self-complete questionnaires. Service provision data were collected from a one-week service log. The percentage of dual-qualified surgeons increased from 2.5% in 1990 to 17.1% in 2000. Service distributions were dominated by dentoalveolar surgery in 1990 (66.6%) and 2000 (63.5%). Bivariate analysis of main areas of service in 2000 showed that dual-qualified compared with dental-only qualified surgeons had higher percentages (chi-square; P<0.05) of trauma (7.5% vs 5.0%) and orthognathic surgery (12.4% vs 6.8%), but a lower percentage of dentoalveolar surgery (59.9% vs 64.5%). However multivariate logistic regression controlling for patient age and sex, level of private sector activity, location and type of service, and referral source showed that only orthognathic services were statistically different for dual-qualified (OR=1.91, 1.33-2.75) compared to dental-only qualified surgeons. While the percentage of dual-qualified surgeons has increased over time, the distribution of main areas of service has remained relatively stable. However, despite the continued dominance of dentoalveolar services there has been a shift in the provision of non-dentoalveolar services. Funded by ANZAOMS Research and Education Foundation and Trust.

KA Singh*, DS Brennan, AJ Spencer, D Teusner, AN Goss

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Presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the IADR (ANZ Division), 28 September - 1 October 2003, Melbourne, Australia

Note: * indicates presenter