Investigation of Dental Implant Referral Patterns Among General Dentists and Dental Specialists: A Survey Approach.

A historical area of referral involves the placement of dental implants. Because there is a high demand for dental implant therapy and relatively few general dentists participating in the surgical aspect, it is important to investigate referral characteristics to specialists. The authors conducted a study in which 6,769 general dentists and specialists were emailed an anonymous online survey. Study participants were given a series of eight questions and asked to rank the importance levels of each when dealing with dental implant referrals. General dentists found that office location and insurance were important factors when making a dental implant referral. Specialists did not find any particular attribute to be significantly important. When the two groups were evaluated, communication, quality of work, and, to a lesser extent, accepted insurance were found to be important attributes to both general dentists and specialists. The results of this research suggest there is a positive correlation among general dentists and specialists in regard to communication, quality of work, and, to a lesser extent, accepted insurance.