This study indicates that four demographic variables have a statistical influence on the number of referrals per month from a GP to a periodontist. These variables are as follows: female gender, practicing with one other dentist, employing two or more hygienists, and being >5 miles away from the nearest periodontist.

Tooth Morphology is a computer-assisted learning program designed to teach the anatomy of the adult dentition. The purpose of this study was to test whether Tooth Morphology could teach dental anatomy to first-year dental students as well as the traditional lecture. A randomized controlled trial was performed with forty-five first-year dental students. The students were randomly assigned to either the Tooth Morphology group (n=23), which used the computer-assisted learning program and did not attend lecture, or the lecture group (n=22), which attended the traditional lecture and did not use Tooth Morphology. The Tooth Morphology group had a final exam average of 90.0 (standard deviation=5.2), and the lecture group had a final exam average of 90.9 (sd=5.3). Analysis showed that the two groups' scores were statistically equivalent (p<0.05), with a priori equivalence bounds around the difference between the groups set at +/-5 points. It was concluded that Tooth Morphology taught the anatomy of the adult dentition as well as traditional lecture, as measured by exams. Based on the results of this study and student feedback, Tooth Morphology, in combination with interactive class meetings, has replaced the traditional dental anatomy lectures.

The purpose of this study is to discern what factors affect the longevity of amalgam and of composite restorations by dentists who perform posterior restorations. Data are obtained from the Washington Dental Service and contain 1.5 million patient encounters representing visits to 23,000 providers from January 1993 through 31 December 1999. Analysis of provider performance is estimated through Data Envelopment Analysis. The principal finding is that the most efficient dentists produce posterior restorations that survive almost 5 months (4.6 months) longer than those by inefficient providers (chi2 = 18.98, p < 0.0001). The findings suggest that there is no difference in restoration longevity between amalgam and composite restorations when the restoration is performed by efficient provider.