CLINICAL ORAL PATHOLOGY CONSULTS IN A US DENTAL SCHOOL: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF UTILIZATION AND EFFICACY
Volume 128, Issue 1, July 2019, Page e87
Introduction
Chairside
clinical oral pathology consultations are frequently provided in most
dental schools; however, the outcome and efficacy of those consults
remains largely unanalyzed. We designed a retrospective study to assess
the utilization of consults by Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology (OMP)
providers at the UF College of Dentistry (UFCOD).
Materials and Methods
With
IRB approval, the clinical record system (AxiUm) at the UFCOD was
searched from January 1, 2011 until July 1, 2017 for oral pathology
consultations. The following information was collected for these
consults: year of consult, requesting clinic, reason/clinical
impression, presumptive diagnosis, recommended plan of action, and
outcome (follow up).
Results
A
total of 418 consults were included in this study, of which 11 were
repeat consults on the same lesion on different occasions. The most
frequent clinics requesting consults were in decreasing order:
undergraduate DMD clinics, followed by faculty practice, graduate
prosthodontics, graduate periodontics clinic, with other clinics
requesting consults infrequently. The most common reasons consults were
requested in descending order were: white lesions, ulcerations, nodules,
pigmented lesions, swellings/enlargements, and erythematous lesions.
Radiographic consults were uncommon in our study as at UFCOD, these are
usually assigned or re-assigned to oral radiology. The disposition of
the consults resulted in the following recommendations: 35% for
observation/re-evaluation (ORE) in original clinic, 24% referred for
biopsy, 19% treatment in original clinic followed by ORE, 12% referral
to specialty clinic for treatment, and 10% multiple
recommendations/lesions. In terms of outcome, biopsy and referral
compliance was relatively reasonable, however ORE remained problematic.
Conclusions
This
study illustrates the scope and difficulties associated with clinical
consults in dental school and identifies areas of potential improvement.
Comments