Dental health status of recipients of community dental health services.

A new information system was used routinely to monitor clinical dental services. Data on 20,729 courses of treatment support the validity and usefulness of continuously collected information about dental health status. Patients who had not attended a community clinic within the year before examination did not need courses of treatment that differed appreciably from those for patients who had attended within the previous year. Patients who attended without scheduled appointments had a lower prevalence of caries free primary dentitions than those with such appointments. Dentists with patients having more caries free permanent dentitions provided a higher number of courses of treatment a year.