Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine are leading the first in-depth study of daily activities in private dental practices.

Information from the study is expected to help set new standards for dentists and assist dental schools in designing effective teaching programs.

With support of a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Craniofacial Research, Case Professor of Community Dentistry Stephen Wotman will direct a team of researchers from the dental school, the Case School of Medicine and the MetroHealth Medical Center system.

They will implement a four-year study based on a research model designed by Kurt Stange, professor of family medicine at the Case School of Medicine. Stange has undertaken similar practice studies in family medicine.

Unlike medical doctors who have extensive hospital patient records that note practices and procedures, many dentists work in isolated environments. Information about what happens in those offices has primarily come from self-reported surveys conducted by the American Dental Association.

Starting in May 2004, researchers will begin observing 120 randomly selected Northern Ohio dentists who are participants in Case's Practice-Based Research Network. Observational teams expect to see some 6,000 patients interacting with the dentists over a 16-month period of data collection.

Each team will observe the dentist and hygienist over a three-day period to discover what kinds of procedures are conducted, what patient education and preventive treatment takes place, who is visiting the dentist and how the dentist interacts with the patient.

Wotman also said data will be collected from patient and billing records, surveys and a qualitative log.

"This will be one of the most comprehensive databases of dental practices collected in this country," he said.

According to Wotman, this project begins a new research focus in community dentistry in which information from this study will aid the Case dental school in designing new interventions for practicing dentists and later testing the effectiveness of those interventions.

The Case Practice-Based Dental Research Network was established in 1998 to study the private practice. Approximately 10 percent of the 2,500 dentists in Northern Ohio participate in this network.

Other researchers involved in the project are James Lalumandier, Danny Sawyer and Kristen Zakariasen from the dental school; Stange, Stephen Zyzanski and Susan Flocke from the Case family medicine department; Joseph Sudano, a sociologist from the Center for Health Services and Research at MetroHealth Medical Center's department of medicine; and Donna Homenko, professor of dental hygiene from Cuyahoga Community College.

Return to the online edition of the 12-11-03 Campus News.