Efficacy of Different Reminders to Reduce Missed Orthodontic Appointments

Since forgetfulness is the major cause of missed appointments, reminder systems can be used prior to appointments. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of different reminders [e-mails, social networks, telephone, and short message service (SMS)] in order to reduce missed appointments by orthodontic patients.
Of a total of 751 active orthodontic patients, 379 were assigned to the reminder group and 372 to the control group. The former group was randomly divided into four subgroups who received a reminder 2 days before their appointments either by telephone, e-mail, SMS, or a message on Facebook. Patients allocated to the control group received no reminder. The percentage of missed appointments and the demographic characteristics of patients in each group were analyzed with the chi-squared test.
The percentage of missed appointments was significantly higher in the control group (41.39%) than the reminder group (11.08%) (P The study results indicated that sending reminders is an effective strategy to reduce missed appointments. E-mails and social networks can be employed to send reminders easily and cost-effectively and prevent missed appointments.