A dental ombudsman: A mediator between Dutch dental patients and dental practitioners

Abstract

In September 1980 a pilot study was started in a Dutch sickfund. The aim of this dental health education project was 2-fold: to gain insight into patients' need for information, and to help as quickly as possible those with oral problems. A dentist was appointed as mediator between the insured and the dental service of the sickfund. The study was based on literature of extension education programs and health education principles. In the period September 1980–January 1983 the responses averaged approximately 25 letters and telephone questions a month; from January 1983 till January 1986 ±30 calls per month and ±50 letters per year.

Almost 95% of the questioners were older than 25 years; 70% of them were women and the percentage of persons over 65 years was nearly 40%. For the greater part (89%) the patients declared that their visit was prompted by repeated information about the project in a magazine, published by the sickfund.

Not many questions were asked about preventive matters including nutrition, oral hygiene and fluoride. But most questions focused dental treatment and the delivery of dental care: in the period September 1980–January 1982 37.7%, in 1984 75.9% and in 1985 73.6%. Particularly striking was the growing number of questions asked by people with serious denture problems and those who wanted a second opinion. It is concluded that a ‘dental ombudsman’ could function effectively as a ‘gate’ for dental patients and as such diminish the barriers to dental utilization, by referring patients, who are not regularly under dental treatment, to dental practitioners and by serving as a mediator between regular patients and their own dentists.