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154 Orthodontics KCE Reports 77
7.5 REPRESENTATION OF AGE GROUPS IN THE
QUESTIONNAIRE
Concerning the representation after graduation, a rather good distribution was present
for the orthodontists over the range: 18.42% of them graduated for less than 10 yrs;
34.21% between 10 tot 20yrs and 47.37% graduated over 20yrs ago. In the nonspecialist
group the great majority (74.19%) of the responders graduated over 20 yrs
ago, while only 8.6% graduated less than 10yrs ago.
7.6 TYPE OF PRACTICE IN ORTHODONTICS
Fifty one per cent of all respondents - specialists and non-specialists - are reporting to
work in a solo practice. Forty six percent (45.57%) of the responding specialists work in
a group practice (with one or more colleagues), while this is reported to be the case in
55.79 % of the non-specialists.
7.7 AGREEMENT WITH THE CONVENTION
Concerning the convention, 83% of the specialist respondents did not undersign the
agreement, while 8.11% of the respondents did and another 8.11% did partially. Of the
non-specialist respondents, 40.43% did not undersign the convention while 41.49%
undersigned the agreement partially and 18.09% of the non-specialist respondents fully
agreed with the convention tariffs.
7.8 TYPES OF TREATMENT
The median number of orthodontic treatment starts provided by the responding
specialists in 0-15yr olds is 97.5 vs 50 in comparison with the responding non-specialists.
The median number for all age groups is 101 cases in the specialists and remains 50 in
the non-specialists. There is a contradiction for the non-specialists, as it seems that they
only treat 0-15yr olds, while this does not seem to be the case in the further
percentage of the reported distribution (ranging between 3.13% and 43.75%).
While the median percent of orthopedic treatment is higher for orthodontists relative
to general practitioners (15% vs 10%), the median percent of non-complex treatments
provided non-specialists is much higher than for orthodontic specialists (59.5% vs
32.5%). Some bias can be included as no definition of the different types of treatment is
given.
7.9 DURATION OF TREATMENT
On the one hand this item will be answered by means of the responses to the
questionnaire; on the other hand some data were provided by the CM/MC sickness
fund and by DKV, a private health insurance company and finally by the Common
Sickness Funds Agency (IMA/AIM).
7.9.1 Questionnaire
Taking the limitations and the poor response rate into consideration, there are some
indications of differences between the specialist and non-specialist practitioners.
The results of the questionnaire on the duration of an orthodontic treatment show that
for the duration of the different treatment types the specialist on average needs fewer
consultations than a non-specialist.
For an interceptive treatment performed by an orthodontic specialist the mean duration
is 6.5 months in which the patient has on average 6 consultations (305616 RIZIV/INAMI
acts or treatment visits). The median duration for the same treatment by a nonspecialist
is 12 months with a median of 8 consultations (305616 RIZIV/INAMI-acts).
For an orthopaedic treatment the answers of both groups are similar and the duration
of this type of treatment has a median of 12 months (12 consultations).