Abstract
BackgroundThe objectives were to: (1) quantify patient satisfaction with treatment for early dental caries overall, and according to whether or not (2a) the patient received invasive treatment; (2b) was high-risk for dental caries, and had dental insurance; and (3) encourage practitioners to begin using non-invasive approaches to early caries management.MethodsTen practitioners recorded patient, lesion, and treatment information about non-cavitated early caries lesions. Information on 276 consecutive patients with complete data was included, who received either non-invasive (no dental restoration) or invasive (dental restoration) treatment. Patients completed a patient satisfaction questionnaire and were classified as dissatisfied if they did not “agree” or “strongly agree” with any of 14 satisfaction items.ResultsPatients had a mean (± SD) age of 41.8 (±15.8) years, 64% were female and 88% were white. Twenty-five percent (n = 68) were dissatisfied in at least one of the 14 satisfaction items. Satisfaction levels did not significantly vary by patient’s gender, race, caries risk category, or affected tooth surface location. Overall, 11% (28 of 276) received invasive treatment; satisfaction did not differ between patients who had invasive or non-invasive treatment. Seven patients received invasive treatment at their request even though that was not what their practitioner recommended; 5 out of 6 were satisfied with their treatment nonetheless.ConclusionsAbout one-fourth of patients treated for non-cavitated early caries were dissatisfied with at least some aspect of their dental care experience. Satisfaction of patients who received invasive treatment did not differ from those who received non-invasive treatment.
Highlights
The objectives were to: (1) quantify patient satisfaction with treatment for early dental caries overall, and according to whether or not (2a) the patient received invasive treatment; (2b) was high-risk for dental caries, and had dental insurance; and (3) encourage practitioners to begin using non-invasive approaches to early caries management
Literature supports the notion that a healthy dentist-patient relationship contributes to higher patient satisfaction, and a recent review concluded that patients were more positive about a dental practice when they felt that the dental team listened to their concerns [9]
Phase 1 involved semi-structured interviews with these 10 practitioners. These practitioners expressed several barriers to providing noninvasive treatment. These were: (1) patients need help understanding why non-invasive treatment is advantageous; (2) some practitioners fear that if non-invasive treatment leads to an outcome that patients perceive as very negative, the patient will harbor negative attitudes toward the practitioner; (3) practitioners did not want to be seen as outliers, and would like to be able to provide a brochure to help legitimize and validate the non-invasive treatment approach
Summary
The objectives were to: (1) quantify patient satisfaction with treatment for early dental caries overall, and according to whether or not (2a) the patient received invasive treatment; (2b) was high-risk for dental caries, and had dental insurance; and (3) encourage practitioners to begin using non-invasive approaches to early caries management. The current study developed patient education materials specific to early caries management, provided them to participating dentists, and advised them regarding their use with patients. With the exception of prosthetic [19, 20] and orthodontic [21] procedures, there is little information about dental patient satisfaction with specific types of dental procedures. The placement of dental restorations is one of the most commonly performed procedures by general dentists [22, 23], yet little is known about patient satisfaction with visits having to do with caries management and dental restorations [5, 12, 24]
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