Out-of-office dentistry: an alternative delivery system
Krust, K S; Schuchman, L
Why this matters
Programs weighing mobile against portable dental equipment can see how practitioners divided the two. A survey of dentists practicing outside the office found mobile and portable clinics serving a range of patient groups, with portable setups suited to nursing home patients and significantly correlated with denture service.
Abstract
Access to care continues to be a barrier in meeting the dental needs of a growing elderly population as well as other special patient care groups. One nontraditional delivery system reported and used by some practitioners is the mobile dental clinic. A dual purpose written survey was designed to: collect descriptive information about the operation of mobile and portable dental clinics and examine the attitudes and beliefs of dentists practicing out-of-office dentistry. This survey showed out-of-office dental clinics deliver dental services to a variety of patient populations. Portable dental clinics appear to be suited for care delivery to nursing home patients. There also appears to be a significant correlation between portable clinics and the delivery of denture service (P less than .05).