The Geospatial Analysis of Patients Seeking Dental Care at a Private Dental Institution in Chennai, India.

Background and aim Assessing the priority of the patient towards dental needs while considering the distance traveled by them is important to improve a dental service. The purpose of this study was to rank the patients' felt needs for dental care in the private dental institution in order of importance. The objective is to count the number of patients with various major complaints and compare how far patients traveled for various treatment plans tailored to their individual needs in a private dental institution. Material and methods The sample consisted of all new patients who sought dental care at Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Chennai, India, between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022. Retrospective data from the dental information archive system was gathered on their primary chief complaint and residential address. Frequency distribution of patients with different chief complaints was found. The mean and standard deviation of distance traveled by patients for different treatment plans was done using descriptive statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22 (Released 2013; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). Results The priority order of the felt need by the patients was dental pain in which n=1299 (15.4%) > missing teeth with n=1224 (14.59%) > deposit/stains/halitosis n=1149 (13.6%) > shaking tooth n=936 (11.15%) > irregularly placed/proclined teeth n=852 (10.15%) > dislodged crown/restoration n=843 (10.05%) > tooth decay/discoloration n=759 (9%) > general checkup n=723 (8.6%) > swelling/ulcer/wound n=246 (2.93%) > painful jaw/facial pain/difficult mouth opening n=198 (2.26%). In 2022, most patients requiring caries preventive measure (0.8%) located at the mean distance of 10.75±2.2 km, while patients requiring scaling (16.9%), dental filling (10.9%), endodontic management (18.6%), extraction (23.7%), prosthetic replacement (13.9%), orthodontic management (10.9%), and facial pain management (2.2%) were located at the mean distance of 14.49±8.2 km, 10.28±6.25 km, 18.43±13.9 km, 14.29±6.6 km, 23.49±11.8 km, 11.76±8.13 km, and 45.32±17.35 km, respectively. Conclusion More number of patients traveled long distances even more than 50 km for painful tooth decay. Also, lots of patients were found to seek replacement of their missing teeth next to pain. Thus, dental pain and missing teeth form a major priority of the patient's felt dental need. Also, the patient had traveled a lot for facial pain management compared to other treatment needs which shows the lack of facial pain management practice by dental care centers near their local residence.