ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a broad overview of the reasons for and impact of missed dental appointments in the academic dental clinic, and how certain approaches might be used to reduce missed dental appointments. The use of information technology and electronic dental record (EDR) systems has produced a sea change in how dentists are trained and how dentistry is practiced in dental schools. Certain features of EDR systems designed for private dental practitioners are also relevant to the dental school, such as capabilities for patient registration, appointment scheduling, a comprehensive dental health history form, and a clinical charting system. Analytics in medicine and healthcare generally falls into three main categories: descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive. Descriptive analytics tools and methods are used to depict an event or outcome in a way that helps document anything that may be known about the underlying data. Dentistry training at the dental school comprises a mix of didactic and clinical training.
