Table 4.
Referral of patients with halitosis by fourth- and fifth-year students from two different dental schools
| Questions | Students | Universities | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fourth Year | Fifth Year | p value | X | Y | p value | |
| 6. Have you ever referred a patient for treatment of halitosis? | ||||||
| Yes | 22 (16.9%)a | 40 (34.2%)b | 0.002 | 45 (32.6%)a | 17 (15.7%)b | 0.002 |
| No | 108 (83.1%)a | 77 (65.8%)b | 93 (67.4%)a | 91 (84.3%)b | ||
| Total | 130 (100.0%) | 117 (100.0%) | 138 (100.0%) | 108 (100.0%) | ||
| 7. What was/were the reason for referral? | ||||||
| Patient had a form of extraoral halitosis | 20 (36.4%) | 18 (36.0%) | 0.901 | 23 (30.3%) | 15 (51.7%) | 0.221 |
| I did not know how to treat the patient | 28 (50.9%) | 26 (52.0%) | 42 (55.3%) | 12 (41.4%) | ||
| My treatment did not succeed | 5 (9.1%) | 3 (6.0%) | 7 (9.2%) | 1 (3.4%) | ||
| Different reason | 2 (3.6%) | 3 (6.0%) | 4 (5.3%) | 1 (3.4%) | ||
| Total | 55 (100.0%) | 50 (100.0%) | 76 (100.0%) | 29 (100.0%) | ||
| 8. To whom do you usually refer? | ||||||
| A specialist outside the dental profession | 9 (8.4%) | 11 (11.3%) | 0.518 | 12 (9.5%)a | 8 (10.4%)a | 0.033 |
| A halitosis office hour within or without the practice | 71 (66.4%) | 57 (58.8%) | 87 (69.0%)a | 40 (51.9%)b | ||
| Different | 27 (25.2%) | 29 (29.9%) | 27 (21.4%)a | 29 (37.7%)b | ||
| Total | 107 (100.0%) | 97 (100.0%) | 126 (100.0%) | 77 (100.0%) | ||
| 9. What is the most important reason for not referring? | ||||||
| I do not treat halitosis patients | 17 (23.3%) | 12 (14.8%) | 0.592 | 17 (18.5%) | 12 (19.4%) | 1.000 |
| I am not acquainted with the possibilities for referral | 46 (63.0%) | 55 (67.9%) | 60 (65.2%) | 41 (66.1%) | ||
| I can treat halitosis patients myself | 9 (12.3%) | 12 (14.8%) | 13 (14.1%) | 8 (12.9%) | ||
| Different reason | 1 (1.4%) | 2 (2.5%) | 2 (2.2%) | 1 (1.6%) | ||
| Total | 73 (100.0%) | 81 (100.0%) | 92 (100.0%) | 62 (100.0%) | ||
Superscripts (a, b) in the tables denote groups that are significantly different from each other based on post hoc tests with Bonferroni correction