A STUDY OF LETTERS BETWEEN GENERAL DENTAL PRACTITIONERS AND CONSULTANT ORTHODONTISTS

A survey was undertaken involving 268 general dental practitioners and 13 orthodontic consultants to determine the content of letters passed between them. There was good agreement between the two sets of respon dents as to the appropriate contents of a letter. The feature of a let ter least valued by both dentists and consultants was a detailed descr iption of the case, although 54% of consultants described cases at som e length when replying to referrers. The information that GDPs valued most highly was a treatment plan, the date on which the patient was se en and the name of the clinician involved, a short case description an d the length of time before treatment would begin if the patient was a ccepted for specialist treatment.