A retrospective study of medically compromised patients referred to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dentistry of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Due to the increased prevalence of medically compromised patients who require dental treatments, it is a crucial task for dentists and dental specialists to prepare themselves for emergent professional situations. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of different medical problems among a population of patients admitted to a dental educational center. In this prospective study, the prevalence of medical problems in patients(n = 968) referred to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the School of Dentistry of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, was investigated for 3 consecutive months. Among all patients, 397 were medically compromised patients. The mean age of the patients was 48 ± 0.15 and 51.4% were men. The results showed that 41% of the patients had at least one medical problem. The two most common diseases were hypertension (13.9%) and diabetes mellitus (6.3%), respectively. The majority of patients with medical problems were referred from private dental offices. The majority of patients (97%) had well-controlled systemic diseases that could be treated in a private office. This investigation showed the necessity of teaching the management of medically compromised patients in dental school curriculum and in continuous dental education programs.