Measuring Patient Satisfaction in a Dental Faculty: A Pilot Study

Objectives: The aim of this study was to measure satisfaction of dental patients by a 32 item satisfaction questionare with a 5 point rating scale. Methods: Study group consisted of 129 (89 women and 40 men, mean age 39.01 years, standard deviation of 12.80) dental patients who were referred to department of Oral Diagnosis and Radiology. The individuals who participated in the study received the questionnaires at their first visit. For the statistical analysis, 8 of 32 items were scored in the opposite direction because of its negative content. A total score was aquired by summing the scores of 32 items. Linear transformation was applied to the total scores, and then evaluated in the range of 0: dissatisfaction-100: satisfaction. Student-t test was used to examine differences between satisfaction and gender, age, status of employment. One –way ANOVA was used to explore the relationship between satisfaction and levels of education. Results: The internal consistency of questionare was determined as 0.72 by using Cronbach’s alpha. No statistically significant diffrences were found between satisfaction and gender, levels of education, status of employment ( p>0.05). Dental satisfaction was higher among older patients (p<0.01). Conclusions: The levels of patient satisfaction were high in all groups. Statistical analyses indicate that the questionnare needs arrangement and we decide to exclude six items for the further study.