Presenting complaints of Patients seeking Periodontal treatment

Abstract

Presenting complaints (PCs) by patients are important in the management of any disease including periodontal diseases; and they also assist in the planning of health care programs. Limited data is available In Africa concerning the PCs of patients with periodontal diseases. In view of this, it was found necessary to determine the most common presenting complaints among subjects with various fonms of periodontal disease. A retrospective descriptive study of 123 subjects treated for periodontal disease in 1996 at the University of Nairobi Dental Hospital was carried out using dental records.

Of the 123 subjects, 52% were females while 48% were males. The age range was 15-75yrs. There were a total of 164 pes recorded. The most common PC was that patients had been told they had gum disease (36.6%). Dental emergency-related PCs constituted 11.6% of the complaints. It appeared that patients' motivation to seek periodontal treatment was greatly based on information given to them by a member of the dental health team rather than by a periodontal symptom.