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We set out to carry out a case-control evaluation of psychological distress and emotional pain among adult attendees of a Nigerian dental clinic. A total of 201 subjects, made up of 101 dental patients (test group) matched with age and sex with 100 normal subjects (controls), was recruited into the study. All participants completed a designed socio-demographic questionnaire. General Health Question naire and Psyche ache Assessment Schedule were also administered to assess psychological distress based on cut-off scores ?3 and emotional pain based on cut-off scores ?28 respectively. The mean ages of study and control group were 33 (±12) and 36 (±13) years respectively, and both study and control groups were not significantly different in all the assessed socio-demographic parameters. Overall, 21.8% (n=22) of the subjects had psychological distress, while only 7% of the control group had psychological distress. This difference was statistically significant (P=0.003). Similarly, there was significant difference in the experience of psyche ache (unbearable psychological pain) as over a third of the dental patients (37.6%, n=38) had emotional pain, while only 13% of the controls experienced psych ache (P<0.001). In this study, the burden of psychological distress and emotional pain was many-fold in dental patients when compared with the controls.

The purpose of this paper is to: determine the prevalence and distribution of patient/family-generated, dentistry-related complaints to Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVIs) and the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira) in Finland from 2000 to 2011, study patient/family safety incident experiences and other reasons for complaints, assess complaint validity and evaluate factors associated with disciplinary processes against dentists.

Data included closed cases handled by AVIs and Valvira (2000-2011) against dental practitioners or dental practice units (n=782). The authors analysed the complaints distribution and examined the antecedent factors and circumstances.

This study demonstrated that patients/families can detect many dental treatment hazards, substandard processes and even serious safety risks rather well. The investigation processes revealed some physical harm or potential patient safety (PS) risks in more than half the alleged cases. Many complaints accumulated against certain individuals and statistically significant positive correlations were found between some patient/family complaints, dentist-specific variables and disciplinary actions.

Patient/family-generated complaints must be taken seriously and seen as relatively good safety risk indicators. However, more knowledge on how patients might cooperate with dental care providers to prevent errors is needed.

This work provides a unique opportunity to learn from several dentistry-related patient complaints. Despite some limitations, patient complaints appear to be useful as a complementary source together with other PS study methods.

Measuring dental clinic service quality is the first and most important factor in improving care. The quality provided plays an important role in patient satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors affecting dental service quality from the patients’ viewpoint.

This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted in a dental clinic in Tehran between January and June 2014. A sample of 385 patients was selected from two work shifts using stratified sampling proportional to size and simple random sampling methods. The data were collected, a self-administered questionnaire designed for the purpose of the study, based on the Parasuraman and Zeithaml’s model of service quality which consisted of two parts: the patients’ demographic characteristics and a 30-item questionnaire to measure the five dimensions of the service quality. The collected data were analysed using SPSS 21.0 and Amos 18.0 through some descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, as well as analytical methods, including confirmatory factor.

Results showed that the correlation coefficients for all dimensions were higher than 0.5. In this model, assurance (regression weight=0.99) and tangibility (regression weight=0.86) had, respectively, the highest and lowest effects on dental service quality.

The Parasuraman and Zeithaml’s model is suitable to measure quality in dental services. The variables related to dental services quality have been made according to the model.

This is a pioneering study that uses Parasuraman and Zeithaml’s model and CFA in a dental setting. This study provides useful insights and guidance for dental service quality assurance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transitions practitioners undergo as they move from dental school to their first job in a dental clinic and their learning in the workplace. The paper aims to investigate their use of ethical principles as they engage in practice, providing a theoretical explanation for the gap practitioners experience when moving from the school to the workplace, and also suggesting some viable alternatives for dental education.

The database for this study consists of videotaped interviews with dentists. To analyze our data we followed the principles of interaction analysis, analyzing the data both individually and collectively, until some hypotheses were generated. Then, discourse analysis was used to analyze the interviews.

From an activity theoretical perspective, the results show that dentists can and do learn ethical principles when working in their dental clinics, interacting with patients, and the findings and suggestions are of especial interest for curriculum planning and development in educational institutions.

This study suggests that theoretical discussions about ethics are not enough to provide practitioners with the skills necessary to work ethically when interacting with patients. From the findings a complementary approach to teach ethics in dental schools is suggested.

Workplace learning has become a preferred topic within many disciplines, such as, for example, sociology, education, and anthropology. However, although there is an established field of medical sociology, little if any attention on workplace learning has been paid to the health sciences in general and dentistry in particular.

The New South Wales International Dental Graduate (N-IDG) programme was an Australian state government workforce initiative to support rural public dental services. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate patient satisfaction following dental treatment provided by an IDG workforce.

This cross-sectional descriptive study used a validated questionnaire survey instrument to measure patient satisfaction (n=813) following treatment provided by IDGs enroled in the N-IDG programme, compared to their mentors. Domains included dentists’ professional competency, personality and the dental surgery organisation. Analysis of closed and open question responses was performed using domain grouping, frequency and χ² analysis.

Patient satisfaction across the IDG and mentor workforce was similar and very positively skewed with differences detected across perceived treatment quality (p=0.03), clinician efficiency (p=0.05) and answering of questions (p=0.05). These results favoured treatment provided by IDGs over mentors. This study demonstrated few differences between IDGs under limited registration and their mentors in terms of perceived patient satisfaction, suggesting patient perceived parity in care.

Patient satisfaction was used innovatively to IDGs as an indicator of dental workforce programme effectiveness.

This study identifies and synthesizes existing literature on the integration of diabetic and dental services and explores a service integration model for optimising diabetic patient health outcomes and improving healthcare systems in low and middle-income countries.

Peer-reviewed literature that analysed the integration of health services regarding dental and medical services were reviewed. The articles were identified using the Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, CINAHL Complete, Google Scholar and MEDLINE databases and screened using the PRISMA guidelines.

A total of 40 full-text articles were examined for eligibility out of which 26 were selected for analysis. Diabetes was shown to contribute significantly to the global disease burden and this is also reflected in most low and middle-income countries. It is found that the integration of medical and dental services could help alleviate this burden. Hence, locally adapted Rainbow-Modified Integrated Care model is proposed to fill this integration gap.

The integration of dental and medical services has been proven to be useful in improving diabetic patient outcomes. Hence, the need to facilitate cross-professional collaboration between dentists and physicians cannot be overemphasised and this can be extended and locally adapted by different health systems across the world.

The integration of dental and diabetic services using models such as the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care is recommended to optimise health outcomes of diabetic patients and enhancing service delivery, especially in resource-poor healthcare systems.

There is inadequate health care for patients with developmental disabilities (DD), due to a number of systemic issues. This case study describes the establishment of a medical-dental clinic in Montréal, Québec for adults with DD. The purpose of this paper is to describe the model of interdisciplinary care based on best practices, as an example to encourage a growing community of trained health professionals to serve this population.

Interviews with all the clinic staff and leadership were conducted on-site at the clinic, followed by document review and discussions with an embedded researcher in the organization.

The clinic was established through a series of events that led to public and government interest to act, the timely emergence of major donors, and bringing together several dedicated individuals and organizations. The core team engaged in consultation with clinics, followed by extensive billing analyses and iterative process mapping as a learning organization. Prior to patient visits, the clinic conducted detailed intake processes to adequately plan for each patient interaction. Desensitization visits were undertaken to improve patient tolerance for examination and treatment. The continual collection of data fed into an evaluation framework to facilitate continuous improvement and articulate a model for replication.

To the best of the authors knowledge, there is not a clinic of this nature serving this population in Canada. This work can serve to inform the efforts of other care providers looking to create a medical – dental home for this population.

The research question developed for this study was: “Which aspects of the delivery of dental care impact most significantly on patients’ perceptions of the service quality of the care received?”. The research methodology used a questionnaire based upon the SERVQUAL instrument. A number of implications are identified that impact significantly upon the service quality perceptions of dental patients. Amongst these are patient fear and anxiety, patients’ appreciation of punctual and convenient service delivery, and the positive advantages of involving patients in the development of treatment plans. Dental practitioners are encouraged to develop strategies within their practices that are designed to build upon the advantages identified within the study.

A survey of dental services for people with learning disabilities was undertaken as part of the Board's ongoing programme of service monitoring. The choice of topic was influenced by changes within dentistry regarding the administration of general anaesthetics, and by proposed changes in the patient population of Muckamore Abbey Hospital (North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust). Information was obtained primarily through questionnaires from people with learning disabilities who were living in the community and from general dental practitioners. Information was also sought from the three trusts providing a dental service in the area. The survey found that both patients with learning disability and dentists treating them would benefit from more specialist information and training.

Dentists may be seen as the most prominent figures within dentistry. Yet, a number of dental care professionals make significant contributions to the profession. The dental health educator (DHE) is one prime example. This teammate is typically a dental nurse who has achieved a post-registration qualification in oral health education (OHE). Through interactions with patients, members of the community and other pertinent stakeholders, the DHE empowers people through promoting the importance of good oral health. The purpose of this paper is to cast light on the unique and invaluable roles that DHEs can play within their organisations.

This paper aims to share some examples of dentist-DHE collaborations, where OHE initiatives were implemented within an ethnically diverse London Borough in England.

It was found that such interprofessional, skill-mix efforts were more productive, when the dentist and DHE worked together, rather than the latter working independently.

There exists great potential for DHEs to act as ambassadors for their dental establishments, network and collaborate with other organisations and build worthwhile relations with other healthcare professionals and stakeholders.