Variation in clinical time spent by dentist and dental hygienist in child dental care

In a field project in the Public Dental Service in Norway, 4000 children aged 5 to 18 years were examined and given preventive care by dental hygienists. The study describes the clinical time spent providing child dental care when hygienists examined all children and referred to dentists those children who required care hygienists were not qualified to deliver. Of all clinical time spent, 56% was dentist time and 44% was hygienist time. A high proportion of children without dental caries did not consume dentist resources at all. More than 40% of the dentist time was consumed by the 10% of the children with most new decayed teeth. In conclusion, the project showed that in a child population with low caries increment, a substantial proportion of children received all dental care from hygienists, so that dentist resources were saved for other groups. However, although hygienists were used as first-line personnel, a considerable quantity of dentist time was spent on dental care for children.