A qualitative study on patients’ experience of participating in predoctoral treatment center

Abstract

Although the predoctoral treatment center is crucial for the training of dentists, they often face the chronic issue of limited patient supply. To address this problem, various measures have been proposed. This study employs grounded theory to examine qualitative data and aims to activate the predoctoral treatment center by targeting patients who have undergone treatment by predoctoral students. Specifically, the study seeks to identify how patients who received treatment by predoc-toral students initially sought treatment, their positive and negative experiences during treatment, and the factors that either hindered or facilitated the predoctoral treatment center. Based on these findings, the study provides implications for revital-izing the predoctoral treatment center and suggests potential areas for future research.