Aim: To determine the change in use of a day surgery unit over a 21-year period.
Design: Retrospective analysis.
Setting: The day surgery unit within a central London dental hospital.
Materials: The operating and anaesthetic records of surgical activity in 1973, 1983, 1993 and 1994.
Results: A six-fold increase in the total number of dentoalveolar procedures performed was demonstrated during the period studied. However, these procedures represented only 77.6% of surgical activity in 1994 compared with 98.9% in 1973.
Conclusions: Day case surgery appears to be advantageous to patients, clinicians, hospital managers and purchasing authorities. The development of more specialist day case services and facilities within "dental centres' is proposed as a means of ensuring that the specialty is able to adapt to the changing patterns of health care in the future.