A Cross-sectional Study of Patients' Satisfaction with Dental Care Facilities: A Survey of Adult Treatment at The University of the West Indies, School of Dentistry.

Abstract

To determine the level of satisfaction with adult dental care at The University of the West Indies (UWI), School of Dentistry, using the Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire (DSQ) developed by Davies and Ware (1982) and to inferentially explore the factors associated with various patients' demographics. A cross-sectional study was performed among adult dental patients attending UWI adult dental clinics. Data were collected using a self- administered, structured questionnaire which consisted of 19 questions on three subscales of pain management, quality and access (total). Sixty-nine per cent were female, 40% were between 45 and 64 years old, and 31.3% had excellent self-rated dental health status. A Dental Satisfaction Index (DSI overall) of 76.42% satisfaction was found, with the highest satisfaction subscale for quality (81.17%), while access (72%) was the lowest occurring subscale. The mean DSI was 3.57 for the UWI emergency dental clinic and 3.87 for the polyclinic. The difference between the DSI overall in the emergency clinic compared to the polyclinic was statistically significant (p < 0.05) CONCLUSIONS: There was a high level of overall satisfaction with dental care at the UWI dental school. Self-rated oral health status may be important in patients' satisfaction. Policies and strategies promoting preventive dental advice are likely to improve patients' satisfaction with dental care and may lead to increased satisfaction with dental services.