Patient satisfaction with care by dental therapists.

Sun, N, Burnside, G ORCID: 0000-0001-7398-1346 and Harris, R ORCID: 0000-0002-5891-6826 (2010) Patient satisfaction with care by dental therapists. British dental journal, 208 (5). E9-.

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Abstract

<h4>Introduction</h4>Patient reported outcomes of care are increasingly used as a measure of the quality of care. There has been a recent expansion in the number of dental therapists trained in the UK, and with legislation now permitting therapists to take on a wider role in dental practice, patients' perceptions about quality of care provided by therapists is an important issue.Objectives To investigate whether there were any differences in patient satisfaction after a visit to a therapist, compared to a visit to a dentist.<h4>Method</h4>A ten-item scale of patient satisfaction (Dental Visit Satisfaction Scale), which provides an outcome measure of overall patient satisfaction as well as three sub-scale outcomes (information-communication; understanding-acceptance; and technical competence) was used. A total of 240 questionnaires were given to consecutive patients attending an appointment with a therapist and 400 questionnaires were given to patients attending dentists, in eight different dental practices.<h4>Results</h4>Four hundred and thirty-one (67.3%) questionnaires were returned. Patients attending therapists were found to have a significantly higher level of overall satisfaction (p <0.001) and also in all three sub-scales (p <0.001), than those attending appointments with dentists.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Although a clear distinction in patient satisfaction according to the type of provider was found, the reasons behind this finding are unclear, and so care needs to be taken in interpreting the results, with further work undertaken to explore this phenomenon more fully.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Issue number: 5. Published online: 13 March 2010. 7 pages. Published by Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Humans, Dental Care, Attitude to Health, Communication, Professional-Patient Relations, Dentist-Patient Relations, Social Class, Clinical Competence, Adult, Child, Dental Auxiliaries, Dentists, Vulnerable Populations, State Dentistry, Private Practice, Patient Satisfaction, Delegation, Professional, Quality of Health Care, Female, Male, Patient Education as Topic, Surveys and Questionnaires, United Kingdom, Outcome Assessment, Health Care
Subjects:	?? RK ??
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Life Courses and Medical Sciences > School of Dentistry
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	19 Oct 2010 15:08
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2022 04:33
DOI:	10.1038/sj.bdj.2010.209
Publisher's Statement :	© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. This article was first published in Sun, N.; Burnside, G. and Harris, R. (2010) Patient satisfaction with care by dental therapists. British Dental Journal, 208 . Article Number: E9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2010.209
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/1206