Objective:
To determine which criteria was of higher priority to patients attending a tertiary dental clinic as regarding a good dental practice.
Methods:
A descriptive study was carried out using interviewer administered bi-lingual 16-item semi-structured questionnaire, which had 2 Sections: A.) socio-demographic data; B.) Criteria for a good dental practice. A sample size of 123 patients was used. A Focus group discussion was done, with clinicians and patients-in which they were asked to mention points which they considered as criteria for a good dental practice. 12 Criteria were selected randomly by use of ballots; 6 each from patients and clinicians, these were then administered as questionnaires to patients attending a tertiary health care center in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Each question had a doctor and patient criteria. Patients then picked which criteria they considered as greater priority for each question. Frequencies, charts and percentages of relevant variables were reported. chi square test was used to test associations between categorical variables at 5% level of significance.
Results: The mean age was 36.8+/-17.3 years, females being in the majority 63.4%. The majority of the patients were secondary school certificate holders and above, 67.5%.
The study showed that 80.5% of study subjects ranked clinicians' criteria as the most important Criteria and patients criteria as the least (19.5%).
However in the 5 top ranked criteria for a good dental practice, the patient criteria was second,fourth and fifth. Also there was statistical significance between age group and level of education in determinant of criteria for a good dental practice P<0.05.
Conclusion: This study has shown that in Setting up a dental practice for improved oral health delivery and in determining the Criteria of a good dental practice, the clinicians perspective as well as the patient perspective considered in collaboration is key.