Frequency of missed and cancelled appointments in King Saud University orthodontic clinic

Why Do Patients Miss Dental Appointments in Eastern Province Military Hospitals, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

“…The most common reasons for missing an appointment were forgetting about it (24.3%) and the inability to get time off either from work or school (15.4%), which is consistent with the findings of most of the previous studies [ 9 - 13 ]. In our research, we found that only 1.5% of patients feared dental treatment, while the unavailability of transport accounted for 0.7% of missed appointments.…”

“…The study purpose was identifying factors that lead to patients missing their dental appointments in Eastern Province Military Hospitals, Dhahran. In our research, the percentage of missed appointments was found to be 58.1%, which is higher than the 24.8% reported in a study conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia [ 9 ] and the 36.8% reported in a study in India [ 4 ]. Our study calculated 54.4% of the participants who canceled dental appointments in the past, which is higher than the 40.5% in Dr. Salwa Alsadhan’s study [ 9 ].…”

“…In our research, the percentage of missed appointments was found to be 58.1%, which is higher than the 24.8% reported in a study conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia [ 9 ] and the 36.8% reported in a study in India [ 4 ]. Our study calculated 54.4% of the participants who canceled dental appointments in the past, which is higher than the 40.5% in Dr. Salwa Alsadhan’s study [ 9 ]. Out of our study population, 36% of patients preferred morning appointments, while 56% preferred afternoon appointments, which means that if these patients (56%) were given a morning appointment, they would most likely miss it, as their preference was an afternoon appointment.…”

“…A total of 150 patients visiting the dental clinics were selected at random. The method for collecting data was through a self-administered questionnaire (Appendix A), which was used by researchers at King Saud University in Riyadh [ 9 ] after obtaining permission from them and was developed according to the questions mentioned in the article. For those patients who preferred answering in Arabic, the questionnaire was translated into Arabic as well.…”

The influence of text messages on the cooperation of Class II patients regarding the use of intermaxillary elastics

“…Patient cooperation regarding attendance at medical appointments has also been investigated in previous studies. 16,[25][26][27][28] They concluded that missed appointments were less likely for patients receiving reminders. These studies support the current results, which also found that patients were more likely to cooperate when professionals kept frequent contact.…”