Methods: A self-administered questionnaire provided data on barriers for seeking dental care among a random sample of adults (n = 101) attending the clinic of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, in 2011. Twenty one statements on a five-point Likert scale from 'fully agree' to 'fully disagree' assessed each individual's perceptions on barriers to dental care-seeking. Responses were scored from 1 to 5, with the higher scores indicating fewer barrier conceptions. Reasons of dental visits were asked to provide data on the one's dental-service utilization. The study sought verbal consent from each person and was based on a voluntary participation. To identify the latent dimensions of the barriers to dental care-seeking and to discover the synergic effect of the statements, factor analysis with a principle component method and varimax rotation was applied. ANOVA was used to explore differences in the factors between different socio-demographic backgrounds.
Results: Factor analysis identified four factors as potential barriers: "Dental care-providers' behaviours" (13% of variance explained), "dental fear" (13%), "acquired negative conceptions" (13%), and "financial barriers" (11%). Dental care-providers' behaviours was experienced more unfavourable among adults with low and middle income than the high incomes (P<0.05). Women felt more acquired negative conceptions as a barrier than did the men (P<0.05). Financial barriers were perceived as more important barriers among older (P = 0.01), less-educated (P<0.01), or low-income (P<0.01) adults than their counterparts. Regarding the reason for dental visit, a very weak association was found between experiencing unfavourable dental care-providers' behaviour and reporting pain as the only reason for dental visit (P = 0.05).
Conclusions: Health policy-makers should consider all potential barriers for dental attendance of the population. Regular dental checkups should also be motivated in the public oral health instructions.