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Background. Little is known about general dentists’ referral patterns. The authors explored the practice, dentist and patient characteristics associated with general dentists’ likelihood of referring children aged 3 to 5 years to pediatric dentists.

Methods. The authors sent all Iowa general dentists (N = 1,089) a 25-item questionnaire regarding the referral of children in their practices. The authors merged the resulting information with an existing database (Iowa Dentist Tracking System) to create the dataset. A total of 65.4 percent of the dentists (712) participated.

Results. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that an increase in the percentage of children in the practice decreased the likelihood of the dentist’s referring the children (odds ratio [OR] = 0.93, 95 percent confidence interval [CI] = 0.90 to 0.96). Practices with more than 5 percent of patients with public insurance were more likely to refer children (OR = 1.96, 95 percent CI = 1.26 to 3.06), as were dentists with additional training beyond dental school (OR = 1.69, 95 percent CI = 1.06 to 2.69).

Conclusion. These data indicate that both practice and dentist characteristics are associated with the likelihood of making referals; however, there needs to be further study on general dentists’ referral decisions.

Practice Implications. As the characteristics of the dental work force evolve, there is a need to study referral patterns and the influence they have on work force policy, patient accessibility and educational curriculum.

Key Words: Referral; pediatric dentistry; work force; general dentistry

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