Rubber dam application in clinical practice: a study on the patient perspective

Abstract

Aims: The present study aimed to elicit the views of patients, applying to our faculty for dental treatment, on rubber dam application. Methods: We recruited 250 patients, who applied to Dicle University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Restorative Dentistry for dental treatment, in this study upon their informed consent. Following routine clinical and radiological examinations, the patients undergoing dental procedures with rubber dams were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their views on the application. Accordingly, while the patients’ characteristics and responses to the questionnaire are shown descriptively, we sought the relationships between the categorical variables using a chi-square test. All statistical analyses were performed on the IBM SPSS 25.0 program. Results: The findings revealed that rubber dams were applied to 85.6% of the patients for the first time. In this sense, the majority of the patients (86.8%) found the treatment with rubber dams more comfortable than their previous treatments. It was discovered that the patients were uncomfortable the most when being unable to communicate with the physician during the treatment. About half of the patients (52.8%) found the most comforting aspect of rubber dam application to be the absence of water accumulation in the mouths. Besides, we found a significant association between gender and the most disturbing aspect of rubber dam application. Accordingly, while 42.6% of the female patients reported having difficulty swallowing or breathing, 40% of the male patients reported being uncomfortable when being unable to rinse their mouth and communicate with the physician during the treatment. Finally, almost all patients (93.2%) stated that they would prefer rubber dam application on their next visit. Conclusion: Despite the advantages of rubber dam application, clinicians hold a belief that patients may be disturbed by the application for various reasons. Yet, our findings showed vice versa; most patients were not disturbed by the application, and even they would prefer it on their future visit. Thus, addressing rubber dam applications in undergraduate and postgraduate education would help improve patient comfort and the quality of dental procedures.