Barnes, Emma ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Abstract
Introduction Policy changes regarding the role of Dental Hygienist-Therapists (DTs) have been implemented in recent years with a view to promoting delivery of oral health-care through a more preventive-focused, team work approach. Aims To explore i) treatments led by dentists and DTs, and ii) patients' satisfaction with the care they received. Materials and methods Six case-studies of general dental practices in Wales, UK: three with, and three without a DT. For each participant, a patient-satisfaction questionnaire and a staff-member-completed appointment record form were completed. We sought to recruit 150 patients seeing a dentist and 100 patients seeing a DT, per case-study practice. Results 1,224 patients were recruited in total (314 DT and 910 dentist appointments). Preventive work accounted for nearly half of all treatments. Dentists, in practices with a DT, undertook significantly less preventive and restorative work, and significantly more extractions and advanced treatment (p <0.005, χ² = 15.352). Patient satisfaction and confidence in dentists' or DTs' ability was uniformly high (97% and 99% each group respectively). Conclusion Practices with DTs provided a more preventive-focused approach to oral health-care delivery; dentists in these practices performed more complex work. Positive patient satisfaction and confidence in practitioners' ability suggest patient acceptability of a preventive model.
Item Type: | Article |
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Date Type: | Publication |
Status: | Published |
Schools: | Cardiff Unit for Research and Evaluation in Medical and Dental Education (CUREMeDE) Dentistry Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education) |
Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group |
ISSN: | 0007-0610 |
Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 10 April 2019 |
Date of Acceptance: | 22 January 2018 |
Last Modified: | 16 Aug 2024 08:06 |
URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/108403 |
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