A retrospective study on factors affecting the dropout rate among temporomandibular joint internal disc derangement patients in India - A single-institution experience

INTRODUCTION: Patients suffering temporomandibular joint internal disc derangement (IDD) ignore appointments after the first examination or after the first or second sessions of initial treatment. The dropout rate for these patients varies from 36% to 78% as per literature. Unfortunately, very few studies have investigated the dropout rate of these patients. Hence, the present study was undertaken to find out the dropout rate among these kinds of patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study was done from June 2008 to December 2017 by collecting the records of the patients who were diagnosed to have IDD. Outcome variables included were age, sex, distance traveled, occupation, and education. RESULTS: Out of 1021 patients 766 patients were included in the study after fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data were analyzed using Chi-square test. The level of significance was set at <0.05. In this study, there is slight male predominance (52.8%) and 63.1% (21–40 years) were among young adults and the patients in the age group of 21–30 years had shown good compliance, Postgraduate has shown the highest follow-up rate when compared with graduates and school level and the difference was found to be statistically significant. People in the job had shown good compliance when compared with business class and retired people and the patients within 50 km had shown the maximum follow-up with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: This study has shown that the dropout rate of treatment in temporomandibular joint disorder is affected by age, sex, distance traveled, occupation, and education.